Food for Thoughts: Putnam Wrap
Welcome to “Food for Thoughts,” a segment in which three Broadside journalists review food from the broke high schooler’s perspective. We’ll go over the price, the taste, and the visuals of certain foods in the Hanover area, popular, or unpopular, and find the best and cheapest cuisine for students. Our opinions are honest, and our stomachs are full.
For the pilot of this new Broadside food section, we decided to try something close to home—close to school, actually—and review a product from the school cafeteria: the Putnam Wrap. Unfortunately, two out of the three of us are vegetarian, so we recruited some students to give us their opinions.
The Putnam Wrap is a sandwich named after the Putnams who have attended and are attending Hanover High School, and according to the chef, has “a little bit of everything the deli has to offer.” It’s a tortilla with cheddar jack cheese, pickles, jalapenos, onions, peppers, buffalo sauce, mustard, ranch dressing, bacon, lettuce, and turkey. Since we wanted to see what the renowned lunch was like, we bought one wrap to share between us at the high school student affordable price of $5.
At first look, it was obvious the wrap wasn’t a light dish. Oddly colored sauces oozed out of the tortilla, and we were reluctant to start eating. “There’s definitely a lot of flavor… Why is it crunching?” one of the students asked, chewing hesitantly. Since Julia and Sophie couldn’t eat it, the volunteers we brought dug in (cautiously). “It’s not revolting,” one said, “It tastes like salt and vinegar chips, but there’s something barbecue-y. It’s a lot of cheese.”
At first bite, the Putnam Wrap seemed to be okay, but as we continued eating, things went slightly downhill. Sophomore Alice Rodi (the only non-vegetarian journalist) wasn’t having a great time, saying “There’s a lot of salt in that bad boy. It’s spicy in a weird way. I’m kinda sweating.”
The texture was alright, but the sheer amount of different ingredients spread throughout the wrap threw us off. “Some bites are good, some aren’t,” a student said, while we watched. She continued to take bites, despite saying, “It could maybe be good? It’s not good, though.”
