I am not exaggerating when I say that Lower Live’s breakfast potatoes are the last thing I think about before I go to bed and the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning. My days are a constant cycle of asking, “Will there be good potatoes for breakfast tomorrow?” The answer to this question sets the tone for my entire morning.
There are three types of days when you live off of Lower Live dining: potato days, tater tot days, and hashbrown days. Potato days are the best. Those golden brown wedges of happiness are cooked to perfection or are sometimes a little crispy (never an unwelcome trait), and they’re wonderful with ketchup. These quite literally reassure me that the day has started off right and will continue to go smoothly. I love these potatoes so much that I am actually only capable of having good mornings when these are served because I am always able to say, “at least I had the good potatoes this morning.” I have a 9 a.m. class every morning of the week, and I will wake up early to get breakfast before class if I know that there will be breakfast potatoes that day.
Contrast this now to the worst type of morning: hashbrown days. I don’t think a Boston College student has ever been excited to eat a Lower Live hashbrown. I have only ever encountered hashbrowns if I miscalculated and thought it was potato or tater tot day. If you’re standing next to me when I see that it’s hashbrown day, you will hear an audible sigh come out of my mouth.
They’re flat, greasy, uninspiring slabs of what can barely be categorized as starch. Their texture varies from rock hard to soggy, and the only way I can salvage my breakfast with hashbrowns is to cut them up into smaller pieces that are more reminiscent of tater tots. I will even go so far as to not eat my usual combo of breakfast starch + meat in the morning if it’s a particularly bad hashbrown day, and on these days I recommend students look to the (usually) serviceable breakfast sandwich options.
There’s not much to say about tater tots. They’re like a hashbrown’s potato: never dense enough to be a breakfast potato, but their small, chunky shape is satisfactory enough to pair well with ketchup and whatever breakfast meat is being served. If BC were ever to amend their breakfast menu, I would not be upset if tater tots remain in the rotation.
I have yet to meet a BC student who is enthusiastic about tater tots, and I have yet to meet one who enjoys a hashbrown. I have, however, encountered many potato lovers and seen mountains of breakfast potatoes on strangers’ plates on potato day. I’m not saying we need to wipe hashbrowns from the Earth, but there is clearly a favorite breakfast starch, and it’s a real shame they only appear in Lower every three days.
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