rice with mustard and jalapeños

The college cafeteria is the most interesting intersection of bad food and good friends. Open-minded and daring students experiment with combinations to overcome the bad food and, perhaps, impress the good friends. The cafeteria salad bar is a wonderful place to find ingredients for these marvelous mixtures.

My favorite college cafeteria concoction was rice with mustard and jalapeño pepper slices. In fact, this particular dish stopped being an experiment and was a staple through my college career at Harding University. My usual table mate--a young coed from California--was not impressed at all. In spite of this, she did agree to marry me a couple of years later. After 18 years of marriage, I'm still experimenting with food combinations. She's still ignoring it. And we adore each other anyway.

Come to think of it, the strangest combination that was created in that cafeteria is still around today.