Feta Omelets at the Agora Restaurant by Ruth Paget
A delicious memory I have of attending the University of Chicago is eating feta omelets at the Agora Restaurant in Hyde Park before going to study at the Regenstein Library.
My college roommate was a Greek-American, so getting her to support the local Greek diner was no problem. We took the University bus to the nearest stop and walked the final few blocks.
We were the steady diners, but three of our friends always tried to make it to breakfast, too. I warned them that if they did not come, we would talk about them. One of our male friends joined us for breakfast once and called us the female mafia.
By the time senior year rolled around, we spent our breakfasts sharing job-hunting information. We were looking for work in different industries, which made it easier to share what we had learned. There was a recession in 1986 with fewer recruiters coming to campus. We were unhappy about this, but industrious about finding work nonetheless.
I had found an international job in downtown Chicago doing informational interviews. I was a salesman at a translation agency that also did public relations work. (I eventually helped two classmates get work with the agency doing foreign-language narration and teaching/cultural consulting.)
Since I was employed, I bought two extra pots of coffee for the table, so my friends could have abundant coffee refills as we talked about Richard N. Bolles’ book What Color is Your Parachute?, which counsels people on how to find dream jobs.
We were all mortified that employment agencies downtown had typing skills tests. I told everyone to bite the bullet and learn to type 50 words per minute without a mistake; it could help with finding a job. Most businesses still used IBM electric typewriters in 1986 and were just beginning to introduce desktop computers to the workplace.
The University of Chicago had “Apple” computers in the study halls, but companies downtown used all kinds of computers with Microsoft software being introduced. Knowing lots of software programs was an asset and hard to obtain.
The tech change happening in 1986 was stressful. I credit the food I ate during this period of competitive and stressful tech change with keeping me strong, able to sleep, and willing to learn new ways of organizing and presenting information. Notably, I loved my weekly calcium-rich feta omelet with sliced, kalamata olives and roasted red peppers preserved in olive oil.
Greek diners offer plenty of nutritious sides to go with omelets like this that I always ate including bacon, whole wheat toast with butter, calcium-added orange juice, and real cream to go with coffee. (In addition to dealing with technological change, I credit this meal with preventing me from having osteoporosis – weak bones – later in life.)
After this robust breakfast, the female mafia would walk to the Regenstein Library like the “Reg Rats” we really were for a day of studying as we thought of dream careers and the reality of entry-level jobs.
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
