Dining Hall Brings the Boar to the Chopping Block

In a menu that is equal parts delicious and devious, the Deerfield dining hall is roasting Choate’s very own mascot: the boar. As much as the Dining Hall loves to serve chicken as the primary protein for most meals, they have decided to take it upon themselves to incorporate different manifestations of pork to bulk up athletes before Choate Day. On Friday November 7, the Dining Hall will serve pork egg roll bowls for lunch and baked ziti with sausage, mu shu pork, and jerk pork loin for dinner. Students are ravenous to quite literally “devour their competition”.

But, the culinary shade doesn’t stop there! On Choate Day, the Dining Hall will be serving barbecue pulled pork on the menu. For dessert, they will be offering blue and yellow frosted cupcakes to welcome Choate with their school colors. While the cupcakes may seem sweet, they are designed to leave a bitter aftertaste for any Choate visitors brave enough to indulge. As a rule of thumb, it is always safer to go for the green and white frosted cupcakes, especially when the very spirited and competitive dining hall crew is making your meals. Whether these blue and yellow frosted cupcakes are a tribute or a taunt is up for debate.

Culinary masters from Deerfield’s very own Meat Club have also been roasting boars by setting up an outdoor barbecue session outside the Hess for the entirety of Tuesday November 4, as students pick up strips of bacon between their classes. For many, the mouth-watering smell of sizzling, greasy, delicious bacon awakens something inexplicably primeval within them; some say it is the desire to BEAT CHOATE.

The Deerfield student body has also participated in the annual crafting of posters with clever slogans and artistic digs that tend to evoke many emotions from Choate students, as they are hung up in every corner of campus. From “Boar-ed of Losing” to “Pulled Pork > Pulled Hamstrings,” the posters are a visual feast of school pride and humor. Lucy Linnenbach ’27, an active participant in Shriv, made a poster with the tagline “Choate Has No River”. For those unfamiliar, the Shriv is a uniquely Deerfield tradition—each Friday morning, the bravest Deerfield students, whose veins flow with blood a slightly darker shade of green, rush into the oft-freezing Deerfield River in a celebration of camaraderie and bravery, while also dunking on Choate for not having a natural, considerable stream of water in close proximity to their campus. “I think the Deerfield River is one of the most defining features of our campus, as it brings everyone together to have a lot of fun. The bond Deerfield students have from their close access to the river is something that Choate can’t compete with,” Linnenbach said.

As the games play out and the cupcakes disappear, one thing’s for sure: Deerfield knows how to cook on and off the field.