March Restaurant Madness

Whether it was spent partying at the beach or chilling at home, spring break is–sadly–over.

A moment of silence, please.

Now, let’s be honest. Be it from drinking too much, going a little overboard on fast food or just over-doing it on Mom’s cooking, most of us probably lost sight of that New Year’s resolution over break.

We may be past the spring break-bod chase, but summer is coming fast. Swimsuits aside, eating a little better can make a big difference in how you feel. 

Luckily, there are a few affordable places here in Auburn that can help you get back on track in the health department. Take a look at a few of my favorites:

1. Panera Bread

Fresh salads, soups and sandwiches make this place popular. My personal favorite is the Thai chopped chicken salad–the peanut sauce that comes with it is to die for! And for those of us looking to watch the calorie-intake, Panera provides nutritional information next to each item on the menu. (And also on it’s website).

This part is a little bit of a win-lose. You feel great about your salad, but then you know how many calories that bagel you had this morning really contains.

My rule is to save the bakery items for special occasions. Maybe it’s the southern girl in me, but I feel that a good grade, getting that job or finishing a tough week at school merits a quality treat.

2. Pita Pit

This downtown pita shop is basically a Subway with cooler options (sorry Subway, you’re still the sub king). You can choose a meat and sauce to be cooked on the flat top, add any or all of the fresh veggies you like and choose between a whole wheat or white pita.

There’s also the option of making your pita “fork-style,” which puts all of the sandwich fixin’s of your choice onto a bed of lettuce and cuts out the carbs. Voila! The best salad ever.

Go to the Pita Pit website to “Build a Pita” and see the nutrition information for your creation.

3. Taziki’s

This just-opened gem is located in the new strip between CVS and Barbecue House on South College Street. On of the Mediterranean Diet? Well, get your greek-food fix at this fast-casual eatery.

As a chain, the menu at Taziki’s is pretty standard at all locations. It features appetizers, soups, salads, wraps, entrees and more–all ready in a matter of minutes.

The hummus with baked, seasoned pita is an excellent starter to share with a few friends. It tastes incredibly fresh and puts packaged hummus to shame (sorry, Tribe Roasted Red Pepper).

My favorite meal is the mediterranean salad. It’s full of chickpeas, roasted red peppers, feta cheese and other goodies. On top of all that, it comes in at under 400 calories! (Did I mention that Taziki’s provides nutritional information, too?)

These are just three of my personal favorites. A few honorable mentions go to Smoothie King, Earth Fare, Moe’s Southwest Grill (with a few modifications) and good old Subway.

So let’s get back on that healthy-eating bandwagon and fight the post-spring break slump. Are there any good locations that I missed? Comment with your favorites.

Impressive Audio Slideshows

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then an audio slideshow must be worth at least five thousand.

In an audio slideshow, readers get to not only see the images and read the captions, but hear a narrator add life to the story. This could be a reporter narrating or even the subject.

Peter Frank Edwards’ “The Whole Hog” slideshow for the New York Times is a good example of the subject telling the story of the photos. The slideshow depicts Scott’s Bar-B-Q in South Carolina and is narrated by the owner, Rodney Scott, along with raw audio from the restaurant.

Scott tells his story of growing up in this family business, the history of the business and comments on its uniqueness of being out in the country. He describes the difference between how his business cooks its meat–and the skins–compared to other barbecue joints. He sets himself apart.

This slideshow is an excellent example of community journalism, to which I am very partial. It gives people a look at a small, family-owned business that is thriving out in the country. This benefits both the owner who is getting exposure and the barbecue-loving viewer who watches and then thinks, “I’ve got to try that place.”

It really inspires me because this is basically what I’d like to do for a magazine someday. Getting to seek out and featuring small-town gems like this for, say, Southern Living Magazine would be my dream.

You’ll notice that the captions on the pictures are more factual rather than adding to the narration. They simply identify the people in the pictures and clarify what is happening if it is not completely obvious. A few of the photos don’t have captions at all, but those images don’t need further explanation because a viewer can tell what is pictured.

The restaurant featured in this gallery brings to mind many local barbecue joints here in Auburn. Moe’s Bar B Que, Country’s Barbecue, Barbecue House, Byron’s Smokehouse, Mike & Ed’s bar-B-Q…we really love our barbecue around here.

Which one do you think would give Scott’s Bar-B-Q a run for its money?

Alright, alright, back to the topic. So, audio slideshows.

While using a subject to narrate the slideshow adds a little more of a personal aspect to a story, a reporter-narrated slideshow can still add life.

For example, Eric Asimov’s “Dining in Napa Valley” slideshow, also for the New York Times, adds pizazz to the traditional dining review.

In the slideshow, Asimov gives an overview of dining in Napa, California. (Good thing he’s a wine critic!)

He discusses the restaurants he went to and describes both the atmosphere and the food. After looking at the accompanying article (a tad long for my taste), I appreciated the option to look at pictures and listen rather than read.

Hey, even journalists get tired of reading.

As Asimov narrates the pictures, captions clarify what the viewer is looking at. When he shows dishes, the captions tell you what’s on the plate. The audio and the pictures are loosely joined. By this I mean that the pictures he shows all come from the place he is talking about, rather than being described in the audio.

This is a good example of when the captions are definitely necessary.

This type of journalism is more on the consumer side. Asimov has basically made a go-to restaurant list for anyone wanting to enjoy some great food when they visit Napa.

What I love is that Asimov has paid a lot of attention to detail. He describes not only the dishes, but the ingredients and the atmosphere of each restaurant as well. He specifically sought out the newer restaurants that may not be well-known yet.

He also looked at a variety of restaurants. From upscale to diner-like, he gives an example of a small variety of options for travelers.

I can picture making something like this for great restaurants of Auburn and Opelika. For the upscale I’d probably talk about Maestro 2300 over on Moores Mill Road.

I’d definitely rave over their lobster risotto.

Rather than a diner, I think I’d go with a popular game day option: Niffer’s. Every student should eat there at least once during their time in Auburn. It’s borderline tradition.

Which Auburn or Opelika restaurants do you think deserve a shout-out?

A Fair Take on Coffee

College students love coffee. Yeah, I just dropped some (obvious) knowledge on you.

What college students also love is when they can feel good about their purchases.

Our generation is often happy when we can not only buy our coffee, but know that the people who grew and picked it were treated well and paid fairly.

Enter Wake Up Coffee Company.

Take a look at the gallery below to see what this new South College Street shop brings to downtown Auburn.

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The Auburn branch is just one in the Wake Up Coffee Company tree. Each shop is dedicated to the same fair trade, sustainable and community-centered standards.

I don’t know about you, but I could go for a vanilla latte now.

Galleries I Like

There’s no denying that humans are visual creatures.

With that said, photos are a powerful tool to any journalist or writer. Even for a future journalist like myself–who is interested in reading news–there’s a much greater chance that I will click a story if it’s accompanied by a great picture.

I can tell a story without using words if I have the right pictures.

Pictures pull a reader in. Whether to a place, into a culture or even into an emotional state, photos can transport you somewhere you’ve never been.

For a taste of what I’m talking about, take a look at the links below.

http://www.foodandwine.com/slideshows/fw-photo-tour-brooklyn#!slide=16

As a foodie myself, the “F&W Photo Tour: Brooklyn” by Daniel Krieger for Food & Wine is a great example of how I remember vacations. With his pictures, he takes you through Brooklyn. He uses images of dishes, restaurants, people, and a few non-food places to give the viewer a sense of the city.

When I travel, I associate the places I’ve been to the food I had there and the people I met. You can learn a lot about a city by going out to its restaurants, trying its food, and just taking everything in.

I admire his use of lighting and angle. He doesn’t just take a picture of a plate, he finds the best side and orients his camera to present the most visually appealing shot. He makes the viewer want to go try that food or see that town.

This gallery is actually an excellent example of community journalism in that it serves to interest outsiders in coming to see what Brooklyn is all about without advertising anything. Krieger simply shows what is in the town in a beautiful way.

I appreciate that he adds a link to each photo that takes the viewer to the site of the business that is featured in some way. He’s giving credit to who created the image, since he is only capturing it.

If someone were to photograph a tour of Auburn in this style, can you imagine what it would feature? An artistic shot of Toomer’s lemonade followed by a festive image of the rolling of Toomer’s Corner after a game, perhaps? Or maybe a shot of someone eating conquering the Cheeburger Cheeburger Challenge followed by a shot of downtown Auburn at night?

The possibilities are endless, really. Like a song, food can trigger the memory of a time or place.

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/slideshow/2013/08/19/fast-food-upclose/#slide=1

“‘Fast Food’ Up Close” by Jon Feinstein for Fox News is not a beautiful gallery, but it is real. Unlike most other pictures of food in the media, these photos are not styled or lit to make them look appealing.

What Feinstein did in this gallery is show what people are really eating when they order fast food. He simply eliminates the top bun from sandwiches or piles the fries, nuggets or onion rings against a black background and snaps the image.

The result is a bit gross. Without the pomp and circumstance of food stylist-aided company photographers, dishes from fast food restaurants look as unappealing as they are unhealthy. Some of them swim with grease or appear to be still frozen.

This is excellent journalism because it is shedding light on something important. Feinstein is showing his viewers what they’re really eating. And with the rampant obesity in our country, it’s a good message to send.

Living in a college town, this is something I think should be more widely publicized. While young adults may be able to eat this kind of food and not blow up like a balloon now, it can seriously harm them down the road.

The simplicity of the pictures yet complexity of the message that I get from them truly inspires me with this gallery.

Do the images in Feinstein’s gallery make you think twice about hitting up a fast food burger joint for dinner?

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2013/12/25/dining/20131225-REST.html#1

This third and final gallery is another one by Daniel Krieger, this time for The New York Times. Though “Top 10 Restaurants of 2013” is a light story, Krieger’s photography is excellent.

He has a variety of shots for each location. There are delectable close-ups of dishes mixed in with beautiful scene-setting shots and character shots of chefs and staff members in action. The gallery celebrates each restaurant.

As for the journalistic aspect, this is definitely a consumer story. No, there is no heart-wrenching tale. No, there is not a breaking news event or national problem that Krieger is depicting.

But for a city like New York that draws thousands of tourists, galleries and stories like this are important. Visitors want to know where to eat and businesses want to be seen as the best of the best.

Personally, I think photojournalism that celebrates an aspect of the community is some of the best kind. It gives members of the community the feeling that the news organization cares or can keep them in the know on social happenings.

That translates to increased readership.

I can see a “Best of the Plains” gallery now. What restaurant in Auburn and Opelika do you think should make the cut?

Ethnic in Auburn

America is known as the melting pot, right?

One great thing about our country is that everyone came from somewhere else–sometimes way back on the family tree and sometimes directly. China, Korea, France…the list goes on and on.

This variety of culture has led to a variety of food. If you ask someone their favorite type of food, I seriously doubt they would say American. Nope. It’s Italian or Chinese or, more popular recently, Thai food.

And lately, Auburn has been embracing this culinary diversity. Along with a new Steak and Shake and the promise of Jim ‘N Nick’s opening in February, two new ethnic additions have also popped up recently: Sakura (Japanese) and Pho Lee (Vietnamese), both located on Glenn.

Both opened in the last few months and both represent the demand for more variety of available cuisine.

Personally, I’ve been trying to get a taste of Auburn’s lesser-known ethnic cuisines. A recent trip to Seoul BBQ on South College Street gave me a glimpse at something I hadn’t tried anywhere else–Korean food.

I tried something called Yukgaejang, which is a spicy beef soup with vegetables (pictured below).

 

On a cold January night, this steaming soup absolutely hit the spot. The waitress recommended I ask for it a little less spicy, or else it would burn my mouth. Thank goodness she did, because it still had quite the kick on the “less spicy” level. But I liked it.

In addition to the vegetables, there were a few strange, twig-like noodles (at least I think they were noodles) that gave a nice textural contrast from the simmered cabbage and shredded beef. It was definitely different from anything I’d ever had before.

And that’s the great thing about trying different cuisines: you get to do something different. You get to see how people from other parts of the world eat. Some dishes may seem odd (read: Korean fish cakes), but hey, you never know what you could like!

 

 

 

Before the Main Course

Hello and War Eagle!

My name is Mary-Kate and I’d like to welcome you to A Taste of the Plains. This blog will be dedicated to all things restaurant in the Auburn and Opelika area. I’ll take a look at new venues, adventurous ethnic cuisines, community favorites and much more! As an amateur foodie myself, I’ll work to keep you up on all the local culinary trends.

So check back often to savor A Taste of the Plains.