When I first saw “Yak Wild Rice Hotdish” listed in the TrekNorth school lunch menu, my initial impression was that surely this was some sort of typo or formatting mistake.
A yak-cident if you will.
Yak? Isn’t that like some sort of beast of burden that lives in the Himalayas? After a quick Google search to double check for other meanings, I confirmed that yes, this was indeed a wild rice hotdish made with meat sourced from big, shaggy Tibetan cattle.
Ok! So TrekNorth is upping their lunchtime cred! It sounded exotic, it sounded interesting, neither of which are usually adjectives that are found in the same sentence as “school lunch.” And really, this makes sense. Adolescents are not typically the most epicurious of individuals, and for most school lunch programs, chicken nuggets and canned kernel corn is the safer bet.
This hotdish, however, wasn’t exotic. It was comfortable, it was familiar. The smell of herbs and wild rice filled the commons like my grandmother’s cabin kitchen. Mixed in with impeccably prepared wild rice was big, tender chunks of ground yak, which reminded me of a lean, slightly sweet beef. Mingling in the creamy medley were chopped veggies, carrots and celery that were cooked to the perfect texture and added a delightfully subtle crunch to the otherwise soft and hearty casserole. The cold crunch of the bell peppers and lettuce served with it perfectly complimented the warm, hearty hotdish, and prepped the palate for the next bite.
This dish may have been made with cattle typically found in the Himalayas, but to this food critic, it was a comfortable taste of home.