Marine Base Cafeteria Chow Line Is Tray Chic

“I wish I had your chow card,” said the young Marine, who whistled in astonishment. I hurried as I filled my four cafeteria trays with one sample of everything.

Had I blown my restaurant reviewer’s anonymity?

My job: follow up a lead about the enlisted mess at Tustin. The story had said Mess Hall 184 “could give some local five-star restaurants reason for concern.” Was I in the right place? This seemed to be some sort of cafeteria. It was rather short in the decor department except for a display of artistically carved vegetables on the counter top by the tray line.

But this was no time for second thoughts. Feeling conspicuous (why was I the only man in the room not wearing camouflage fatigues?), I piled on the roast turkey (white meat, nice and moist), the braised liver with fried onions (classic), the baked fish (basic) and the ground beef with barbecue sauce (interesting). Eating fast, I noticed it was all pretty good for institutional food. Not dry or soggy, not tasteless.

I loaded up on vegetables. No radicchio or baby zucchini with blossoms were available. It was simmered turnip greens (homey), buttered limas (pretty good) or potatoes (mashed OK, parslied a little overdone in the usual steam table style). It was the vegetables that suffered most from the steam table preparation. When I went back at dinner--making my reservation under a fictitious name, of course--the lyonnaise carrots and wax beans were both a little overdone. Curiously, the spaghetti remained pretty close to al dente texture.

But then I had to stop at the snack bar, which had a selection larger than most fast food restaurants: hamburgers, fishburgers, hot dogs, chili, deep brown chicken nuggets, bean burritos, baked beans and nachos. The baked beans came in a particularly attractive sweet tomato sauce and the nachos with hot cheese sauce were seriously hot with jalapenos.

Everyone seemed to be staring at me, possibly because of the public affairs officer who was accompanying me. Was she bringing attention to me? Once again I wondered: Was my cover blown?

Then to the salad bar, which was in fact mostly fixings for burgers, and the baked potato bar with bland but healthful cooked vegetable and dairy toppings: onions, bell peppers, corn, cauliflower, broccoli, mushrooms, cheese, sour cream. Then to a revolving refrigerated display for mayonnaisey macaroni and potato salads and some sweet coleslaw. Then back to the cold-cut sandwich bar for a bologna-ham-cheese sandwich on whole wheat.

And finally to dessert. The chocolate cake with chocolate frosting was very good, as good as you find in most restaurants. The other cakes were so gorgeous with fancy icing it seemed nobody had the heart to cut a piece. The cookies were fresh baked and there was a full-fledged ice cream fountain--splits, sundaes and so on.

The price was certainly right, free if you’re an enlisted Marine who can produce a chow card and ID. If you’re an officer, or under special circumstances, an invited guest, you have to shell out a big $1.10 for breakfast and $2.15 for the other meals.

But now my research was done, and I could relax about this anonymity stuff and the whole need to be inconspicuous. Gratefully, I took off my Groucho glasses and slipped away unnoticed.

ENLISTED MESS HALL 184 U.S. Marine Corps Air Station (Helicopter), Tustin. Open for breakfast, lunch, dinner and for mid rats (midnight rations) Monday through Friday; for brunch and dinner Saturday and Sunday. Definitely no credit cards.