A dining hall worker’s day took an unexpected turn when a customer responded to his service with a hand-drawn cartoon, and he told Newsweek how he can never forget the warm feeling the gesture gave him.
Rob (u/CivilizedPsycho) described on Reddit how he worked the early breakfast shifts in his college dining hall at SUNY Oswego college. Every morning, a familiar face appeared in his line—a woman who asked for nothing but a “big plate of egg whites” to start her day.
This particular day, Rob decided to have a bit of fun with her request. He loaded her plate with an enormous helping of egg whites, adding a note to her ticket that read: “Is this enough?”
Then, he was met with an unexpected surprise: a hand-drawn cartoon of the woman herself, gleaming with joy next to a mountain of egg whites. Her response? A caption reading: “It is enough.”
Rob was touched by the gesture and shared the playful drawing in his Reddit post that quickly went viral, racking up 32,000 upvotes in the “Made Me Smile” subreddit.
Ten years on from that interaction, Rob, now living in New York, still smiles when he thinks of that moment.
Reflecting on the experience, Rob told Newsweek: “It made my day. I kept the drawing for a long time, though it’s long gone now. It felt good to have someone appreciate the humor and send back such a fun acknowledgement, especially with a drawing that looked like something out of a classic cartoon.”
His story resonated with Reddit users who fondly reminisced about their own dining hall days, where food and fun memories often went hand in hand.
In one popular comment, user amc7262 recalled their time working in Gracie’s, a buffet-style dining hall. “The food quality wasn’t great, but the variety was,” they explained.
CivilizedPsycho/CivilizedPsycho
He said freshmen couldn’t opt out of the meal plan, so we saw the same faces every day.
One day, he was running low on burger patties and he was determined to find out what would happen if they ran out so decided to give out extra.
One guy asked for six patties, he recalled. Most people were thrilled, but one guy became angry about being offered extra.
“We did end up running out of patties, and since that was all the grill cooked, we shut down the grill for the day and I went on dish duty to finish out my shift,” he said.
The Reddit thread was also filled with lighthearted comments about the egg-white mystery.
“The cartoony style is so charming! It reminds me of a classic newspaper strip,” said one user. Another cheekily asked: “Whatcha do with all them yolks?”
Rob explained that the egg whites were pre-separated.
Though Rob never found out why his regular customer ordered so many egg whites, he speculated she might have been a gym-goer, taking advantage of the protein content.
In fact, egg whites are an excellent low-calorie protein source, providing around 4 grams of protein per egg white with almost no fat.
