I confess: I want to become a communications expert of some type, however, before entering Creative Communications at Red River College, the thought of creating a blog seemed useless.
How I’ve learnt since then.
Blogging brings your thoughts to life and shows off your writing skills. I know, it sounds intimidating, what writing skills? But the more you write, the better you get. I find that posting blogs pressures me to think more critically about the way I am writing and to make sure everything is grammatically correct. Think of it as a school assignment where teachers will be grading you work, except that that is only one persons opinion, now you have an audience.
Having an audience then makes me think about entertaining people. Why should people be reading my whole article? Why should they even care about what I am writing? And one of the most important questions I ask myself is what my point is?
Towards the beginning of my classes’ blogging career, a group of well known bloggers came and told us to never write if we didn’t actually have something to say. I found this the best blogging advice I have ever received. It is also the most obvious advice, yet is still something I always need to remind myself.
I feel at this point my blog is still struggling slightly with this and it is something I am trying to solve. For example at the beginning I made a post on a potential dance choreography based on a scene in which a group of servers have a temper tantrum on customers. Why would anyone have cared about my vision? That was a post likely better suited for a journal at home.
So another thing I have learnt is to try and inform people in some way. Make them want to care about what you are writing. Don’t just write because it interests you.
By interesting and helping others you establish an audience –one that hopefully gets hooked on your blog. The bigger your audiences, the more people you have to spread the message that your blog is great, then more people become readers and then the circle repeats.
Who knows maybe an avid reader of your blog will become a future employer of yours. I know I am beginning to wish more and more that my blog may open up the possibility for me to become a restaurant reviewer or PR personnel for a restaurant. I am beginning to see the point of having a blog, which is that it serves as a creative display of your work. It gets your name out there. It hones your skills. And hopefully, it will open up job opportunities for you.
So although my blog may not be perfect yet, I am beginning to have big dreams for it. My plan from here on is to establish a clearer focus and to stick to it. To both entertain and inform. To discover my own style of writing, for example, am I a serious writer? Humorous? Academic? Colloquial? And ultimately, I want to reach a point where I know my blog is successful and why it is successful. At this point that focus is blurred but developing.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
Fake it 'til you make it
I was pretty excited Tuesday night because I was finally going to eat at Sabai Thai Eatery, a restaurant I had been interested in checking out since it opened about a year ago. I'm a huge fan of experimenting with new restaurants and although Winnipeg has a lot of restaurants I take the bus, so my dining parameters are on the smaller side. Sabai is on Corydon Ave., a short walk from my house, so I had pretty big expectations for the place as I was hoping for a new favourite restaurant that would be close to home. However, while the food was good, I couldn't help but notice that it shows Sabai is a new restaurant. In this blog my aim is to provide readers with a review of the restaurant and to offer tips on how to inexpensively better your new restaurant.
Overall Sabai's food and service is quite good. The menu is very affordable with items averaging nine to ten dollars apiece. One of the best parts about Sabai’s cheaper menu is that the mark-up on wine is not high at all. A bottle of wine there averages between $20-30, always a bonus.
Also, the food was nicely presented on the plate; for example one of the dishes we ordered was the Chiang Mai noodles which is a yellow curry noodle dish, it looked like a volcano. The noodles were twirled in the bowl so that there was a peak at the top and then it had bean sprouts shooting out of the peak with long crunchy noodles lying horizontally across the bowl as if they were chopsticks. It was fun and classy but my mouth was still watering.
The décor of the restaurant; however, is still noticeably in the works –when you go to the washroom anyway. The washroom is stuffed with cleaning products and yet it still doesn't look clean. For example, the white tiles’ grout appears to be molding or is at least very old. However, out in the main part of the restaurant it looks quite polished. Sabai has a nice deep red, green, and brown colour scheme. The lights are dimly lit creating a relaxed atmosphere. The music is not too loud and sounds quite natural. It has nice large booth seats that are soft and comfortable making you want to stay longer and enjoy. And finally, the tables are nice and far apart so you can have private conversations without having to worry about what your neighbor’s next to you think about your nasty divorce.
Nevertheless, Sabair has some obvious flaws. My suspicions led me to believe that most of the flaws are simply to due to how expensive it is to get a business up and running when you still have a pretty small fan base. Therefore I will take some time to offer my advice (I feel I have some credentials since I grew up creating and running a restaurant with my parents) on how a new establishment can fake their lack of funds in order to seem as though they’ve put millions of dollars into their establishment.
One of the first dead give aways that your restaurant is on a budget is the amount of salt that goes into your food. Salt may be an easy and affordable way to add flavor into your food, but people are able to tell. Salt is almost acidic and spicy on the tip of your tongue if there is too much and often there is so much salt that the food becomes over flavored. Avoid resorting to over salting. The case was especially noticeable at Sabai. My assumption is that they struggle with keeping flavor in their food because they are using specialty ingredients. If you’re using specialty ingredients try and cut your expenses somewhere else. Don’t sacrifice your food, buy the top quality ingredients. After all, people are coming to your restaurant for good food. Period.
(Note: The Globe and Mail featured a series of salt reports this summer on how much salt we actually consume. The amount consumed in one dish at a restaurant is appalling. But instead of just reporting the shocking facts of our over-consumption of salt, they showed examples of what some restaurants do to avoid adding salt to their food. I felt their advice was especially helpful and would recommend you check out the link to the article. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/special-reports/hard-to-shake/dont-pass-the-salt/article1194031/
Second, people eat with their eyes before they eat with their mouths. Put some effort into your presentation. Food presentation is inexpensive so be creative with the arrangement of your food.
Third, relaxing décor is critical. People don’t want to come back to a restaurant if it is crowded, uncomfortable, or dirty. Unfortunately, however, nice décor is one of the most expensive things to establish. So it may not always be possible to finish decorating completely before you open. Therefore I suggest doing the following: invest in comfortable dining chairs, don’t cram too many tables into the room, and invest in paint and plants. Fresh paint feels clean and new. And plants breathe life into the place.
Fourth, your staff’s knowledge,servers especially, is important. The servers are the face of the company to the guests, so they need to be experts on the menu. They need to have tried most of the dishes. Remember, your business is new so word of mouth has not spread around yet as to what is good at your restaurant. The server needs to be able to offer advice. At Sabai the server couldn't tell me which dish, out of the two I had questioned, to recommend. I was debating between a Pad Thai and the Chiang Mai Noodles, two different dishes as one was curry and the other not, the only advice the server gave was that they were two totally different dishes so she wasn’t sure which one to recommend. Well no kidding they are different hunny, why would your chef put two of the same dishes on the menu? The correct way to approach my question would have been to more thoroughly describe how each dish tastes, after all taste is what I was ultimately debating about. Her approach, unfortunately made it seem as though she had never tried either dish even though she insisted she had.
Also, if you are going to have wine on your menu, be sure your servers know how to present it properly! Wine presentation is one of the easiest ways to make your restaurant appear classy. A classy restaurant brings in classy guests which in turn creates a classy reputation. Here is a link to a site that offers great wine serving tips. http://www.thatsthespirit.com/en/wine/howto_serve.asp.
So there you have it, some advice on how to better your restaurant on a budget. I hope this will help anyone who is in such a situation. And in terms of my final impressions of Sabai Thai Eatery: I would go back. I could tell the effort was there, some areas just need some tweaking. And like I said, despite the mild saltiness of the food, it was pretty great Thai food. The service was friendly. And it was a very comfortable environment to sit in. I would not give it three out of five stars.
Overall Sabai's food and service is quite good. The menu is very affordable with items averaging nine to ten dollars apiece. One of the best parts about Sabai’s cheaper menu is that the mark-up on wine is not high at all. A bottle of wine there averages between $20-30, always a bonus.
Also, the food was nicely presented on the plate; for example one of the dishes we ordered was the Chiang Mai noodles which is a yellow curry noodle dish, it looked like a volcano. The noodles were twirled in the bowl so that there was a peak at the top and then it had bean sprouts shooting out of the peak with long crunchy noodles lying horizontally across the bowl as if they were chopsticks. It was fun and classy but my mouth was still watering.
The décor of the restaurant; however, is still noticeably in the works –when you go to the washroom anyway. The washroom is stuffed with cleaning products and yet it still doesn't look clean. For example, the white tiles’ grout appears to be molding or is at least very old. However, out in the main part of the restaurant it looks quite polished. Sabai has a nice deep red, green, and brown colour scheme. The lights are dimly lit creating a relaxed atmosphere. The music is not too loud and sounds quite natural. It has nice large booth seats that are soft and comfortable making you want to stay longer and enjoy. And finally, the tables are nice and far apart so you can have private conversations without having to worry about what your neighbor’s next to you think about your nasty divorce.
Nevertheless, Sabair has some obvious flaws. My suspicions led me to believe that most of the flaws are simply to due to how expensive it is to get a business up and running when you still have a pretty small fan base. Therefore I will take some time to offer my advice (I feel I have some credentials since I grew up creating and running a restaurant with my parents) on how a new establishment can fake their lack of funds in order to seem as though they’ve put millions of dollars into their establishment.
One of the first dead give aways that your restaurant is on a budget is the amount of salt that goes into your food. Salt may be an easy and affordable way to add flavor into your food, but people are able to tell. Salt is almost acidic and spicy on the tip of your tongue if there is too much and often there is so much salt that the food becomes over flavored. Avoid resorting to over salting. The case was especially noticeable at Sabai. My assumption is that they struggle with keeping flavor in their food because they are using specialty ingredients. If you’re using specialty ingredients try and cut your expenses somewhere else. Don’t sacrifice your food, buy the top quality ingredients. After all, people are coming to your restaurant for good food. Period.
(Note: The Globe and Mail featured a series of salt reports this summer on how much salt we actually consume. The amount consumed in one dish at a restaurant is appalling. But instead of just reporting the shocking facts of our over-consumption of salt, they showed examples of what some restaurants do to avoid adding salt to their food. I felt their advice was especially helpful and would recommend you check out the link to the article. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/special-reports/hard-to-shake/dont-pass-the-salt/article1194031/
Second, people eat with their eyes before they eat with their mouths. Put some effort into your presentation. Food presentation is inexpensive so be creative with the arrangement of your food.
Third, relaxing décor is critical. People don’t want to come back to a restaurant if it is crowded, uncomfortable, or dirty. Unfortunately, however, nice décor is one of the most expensive things to establish. So it may not always be possible to finish decorating completely before you open. Therefore I suggest doing the following: invest in comfortable dining chairs, don’t cram too many tables into the room, and invest in paint and plants. Fresh paint feels clean and new. And plants breathe life into the place.
Fourth, your staff’s knowledge,servers especially, is important. The servers are the face of the company to the guests, so they need to be experts on the menu. They need to have tried most of the dishes. Remember, your business is new so word of mouth has not spread around yet as to what is good at your restaurant. The server needs to be able to offer advice. At Sabai the server couldn't tell me which dish, out of the two I had questioned, to recommend. I was debating between a Pad Thai and the Chiang Mai Noodles, two different dishes as one was curry and the other not, the only advice the server gave was that they were two totally different dishes so she wasn’t sure which one to recommend. Well no kidding they are different hunny, why would your chef put two of the same dishes on the menu? The correct way to approach my question would have been to more thoroughly describe how each dish tastes, after all taste is what I was ultimately debating about. Her approach, unfortunately made it seem as though she had never tried either dish even though she insisted she had.
Also, if you are going to have wine on your menu, be sure your servers know how to present it properly! Wine presentation is one of the easiest ways to make your restaurant appear classy. A classy restaurant brings in classy guests which in turn creates a classy reputation. Here is a link to a site that offers great wine serving tips. http://www.thatsthespirit.com/en/wine/howto_serve.asp.
So there you have it, some advice on how to better your restaurant on a budget. I hope this will help anyone who is in such a situation. And in terms of my final impressions of Sabai Thai Eatery: I would go back. I could tell the effort was there, some areas just need some tweaking. And like I said, despite the mild saltiness of the food, it was pretty great Thai food. The service was friendly. And it was a very comfortable environment to sit in. I would not give it three out of five stars.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Buyer Beware: Students helping students
Dear post-secondary student of Manitoba,
It is my understanding that many of you are concerned about the possible H1N1 pandemic in your institution. I realize many questions have likely crossed your mind such as: What will happen to your tuition money in the event your school shuts down? What happens if you get sick and have to miss a lot of school? What is your school doing to prepare itself? These are all valid questions that deserve answers.
However, while I may not be able to answer your questions specifically, I can tell you this: all five major post-secondary institutions in Manitoba, namely the University of Manitoba (U of M), The University of Winnipeg (UWinnipeg), Red River College (RRC), Brandon University (BU), and Collège universitaire de Saint-Boniface (CUSB), have not only an H1N1 crisis plan, but they also have a crisis plan that aims to prepare for any type of crisis situation.
Recently my fellow team members and I examined the five major institutions’
H1N1 pandemic preparedness plans (H1N1 crisis communication plan) to see just how prepared Manitoba’s colleges and universities are for an H1N1 outbreak and most importantly whether or not they are protecting students from and informing them about H1N1. To accomplish the task we consulted each of the five institutions’ website’s to see what information they released to you regarding H1N1 in your school. We chose websites because they are usually the primary communication tool between students and the educational institution. And then in order to obtain advice on what makes a good crisis plan we spoke with two public relations experts on crisis communications, Melanie Lee Lockhart and Therese Mickelson.
Each institution provided you with information. Although, some had a lot more information posted publicly for you to access.
Before I get into the details regarding what the different institutions’ preparedness plans include, I will first explain what it means to have a crisis communications plan and tell you how the information is usually disseminated. First, the plan is broken into two parts.(Actually there are several; however, two of them are your main concern.) There is a communication plan, which explains how information gets disseminated. And then there is a crisis plan, which explains how to deal with problems. A good plan is prepared for any possible scenario. Each member of the crisis communications team carries the plan on them at all times so they can react immediately.
Now, the reason why you don’t know the entire plan is because, as Melanie Lee Lockhart says, “If people know what could potentially be coming down the pike, it can change their behaviour. They can conduct themselves in a different way than they might if they didn’t have that information. As an institution, you want people to continue behaving as normally as possible until it’s time to not be behaving normally.”
Basically this means that your institution is releasing small bits of their plan at a time. Only the parts that is pertinent at the moment. If they release the whole thing the assumption is that, psychologically whether we mean to do it or not, we could convince ourselves that the worst is going to happen until it does. It is not that your institution does not trust you.
Therefore, new information will be released to you if and when the pandemic escalates.
Now just to illustrate to you how each communication plan can vary I will report to you some of my team’s findings. First, all five institutions provide background information on H1N1. The U of M, UWinnipeg and RRC tell you what you can expect to happen. The U of M is the most thorough in explaining the roles and responsibilities of its employees and students. However, (in order of the most to least amount of coverage) RRC, UWinnipeg and CUSB also discuss roles and responsibilities, just not as extensively. All institutions, except BU, have guidelines available for you on how to cope with missed schoolwork due to possible closures and absences; in other words they predict what might come. And finally, if there is a serious outbreak, U of M and RRC have already publicly announced what they plan on doing to move past a possible crisis. For example, they say how they plan on replacing lost staff members; how they plan on counselling students and staff who need counselling and how they plan on resuming operations. For more detailed information on your institutions preparedness plan please visit its website, all H1N1 plans have a link on the home page.
What you can do for the time being is remain as calm as possible. Continue your daily activities as normal. Stay up-to-date on any changes regarding H1N1 and your institution. Practice the preventative measures given to you on your institutions website. And please, ask your instructors or health official’s questions if you have any. And finally, trust your institution is handling the H1N1 situation – it is.
You can also ask me any questions you may have below. I will do my best to answer them.
Sincerely,
Yvonne Raymond, student reporter.
It is my understanding that many of you are concerned about the possible H1N1 pandemic in your institution. I realize many questions have likely crossed your mind such as: What will happen to your tuition money in the event your school shuts down? What happens if you get sick and have to miss a lot of school? What is your school doing to prepare itself? These are all valid questions that deserve answers.
However, while I may not be able to answer your questions specifically, I can tell you this: all five major post-secondary institutions in Manitoba, namely the University of Manitoba (U of M), The University of Winnipeg (UWinnipeg), Red River College (RRC), Brandon University (BU), and Collège universitaire de Saint-Boniface (CUSB), have not only an H1N1 crisis plan, but they also have a crisis plan that aims to prepare for any type of crisis situation.
Recently my fellow team members and I examined the five major institutions’
H1N1 pandemic preparedness plans (H1N1 crisis communication plan) to see just how prepared Manitoba’s colleges and universities are for an H1N1 outbreak and most importantly whether or not they are protecting students from and informing them about H1N1. To accomplish the task we consulted each of the five institutions’ website’s to see what information they released to you regarding H1N1 in your school. We chose websites because they are usually the primary communication tool between students and the educational institution. And then in order to obtain advice on what makes a good crisis plan we spoke with two public relations experts on crisis communications, Melanie Lee Lockhart and Therese Mickelson.
Each institution provided you with information. Although, some had a lot more information posted publicly for you to access.
Before I get into the details regarding what the different institutions’ preparedness plans include, I will first explain what it means to have a crisis communications plan and tell you how the information is usually disseminated. First, the plan is broken into two parts.(Actually there are several; however, two of them are your main concern.) There is a communication plan, which explains how information gets disseminated. And then there is a crisis plan, which explains how to deal with problems. A good plan is prepared for any possible scenario. Each member of the crisis communications team carries the plan on them at all times so they can react immediately.
Now, the reason why you don’t know the entire plan is because, as Melanie Lee Lockhart says, “If people know what could potentially be coming down the pike, it can change their behaviour. They can conduct themselves in a different way than they might if they didn’t have that information. As an institution, you want people to continue behaving as normally as possible until it’s time to not be behaving normally.”
Basically this means that your institution is releasing small bits of their plan at a time. Only the parts that is pertinent at the moment. If they release the whole thing the assumption is that, psychologically whether we mean to do it or not, we could convince ourselves that the worst is going to happen until it does. It is not that your institution does not trust you.
Therefore, new information will be released to you if and when the pandemic escalates.
Now just to illustrate to you how each communication plan can vary I will report to you some of my team’s findings. First, all five institutions provide background information on H1N1. The U of M, UWinnipeg and RRC tell you what you can expect to happen. The U of M is the most thorough in explaining the roles and responsibilities of its employees and students. However, (in order of the most to least amount of coverage) RRC, UWinnipeg and CUSB also discuss roles and responsibilities, just not as extensively. All institutions, except BU, have guidelines available for you on how to cope with missed schoolwork due to possible closures and absences; in other words they predict what might come. And finally, if there is a serious outbreak, U of M and RRC have already publicly announced what they plan on doing to move past a possible crisis. For example, they say how they plan on replacing lost staff members; how they plan on counselling students and staff who need counselling and how they plan on resuming operations. For more detailed information on your institutions preparedness plan please visit its website, all H1N1 plans have a link on the home page.
What you can do for the time being is remain as calm as possible. Continue your daily activities as normal. Stay up-to-date on any changes regarding H1N1 and your institution. Practice the preventative measures given to you on your institutions website. And please, ask your instructors or health official’s questions if you have any. And finally, trust your institution is handling the H1N1 situation – it is.
You can also ask me any questions you may have below. I will do my best to answer them.
Sincerely,
Yvonne Raymond, student reporter.
Friday, October 9, 2009
My 5 Favourite Restaurant Dishes in the City
I confess I am the ultimate hypocrite when I complain about tables being indecisive when choosing what to eat because I am that person. I’m the terrible customer who asks the server at least 10 questions about each dish before ordering and then to make things more annoying I will not even choose the item she clarified or recommended for me to eat.
This blog is for two groups of people: the indecisive and the experimental. When it comes to my top 5 dishes around the city, I never have to think twice about what to order.
5) Thai Peanut Wrap from Saucers Café, on Academy Rd. The wrap contains chicken, peanut sauce, sprouts, carrots, and vermicelli noodles. That’s right, pasta in your wrap and don’t you doubt it!
4) Crab Cakes from Prairie Ink Restaurant and Bakery, preferably from the Grant Park mall location. P.S if you get the crab cakes ask for the spicy sambal dipping sauce – there is no better food group to add sweet and spicy to than seafood.
3) Beet and Goat Cheese Salad from Pizzeria Gusto on Academy. The goat cheese tastes like cream cheese on top of your beets, plus the crushed walnuts add a crunchy surprise.
2) Crispy Chicken Burger with Spicy Mango Salsa from Mise Restaurant on Corydon Ave. Best chicken burger in the city, hands down. Why? The chicken breast is breaded with corn flakes. Try it. You will not be disappointed.
1) Waterloo Pizza from Pizzeria Gusto. Who knew pizza could have roasted potatoes, prosciutto, ricotta cheese, and pistachios and still taste good. The classic pepperoni and mushroom is put to shame with this gourmet pizza.
This blog is for two groups of people: the indecisive and the experimental. When it comes to my top 5 dishes around the city, I never have to think twice about what to order.
5) Thai Peanut Wrap from Saucers Café, on Academy Rd. The wrap contains chicken, peanut sauce, sprouts, carrots, and vermicelli noodles. That’s right, pasta in your wrap and don’t you doubt it!
4) Crab Cakes from Prairie Ink Restaurant and Bakery, preferably from the Grant Park mall location. P.S if you get the crab cakes ask for the spicy sambal dipping sauce – there is no better food group to add sweet and spicy to than seafood.
3) Beet and Goat Cheese Salad from Pizzeria Gusto on Academy. The goat cheese tastes like cream cheese on top of your beets, plus the crushed walnuts add a crunchy surprise.
2) Crispy Chicken Burger with Spicy Mango Salsa from Mise Restaurant on Corydon Ave. Best chicken burger in the city, hands down. Why? The chicken breast is breaded with corn flakes. Try it. You will not be disappointed.
1) Waterloo Pizza from Pizzeria Gusto. Who knew pizza could have roasted potatoes, prosciutto, ricotta cheese, and pistachios and still taste good. The classic pepperoni and mushroom is put to shame with this gourmet pizza.
Friday, October 2, 2009
CreComm punched me in the face
CreComm has punched me straight in the face this week. Bloody tears feel like they are running down my face. My eyes feel bloodshot from the lack of sleep. My head feels like tropical storm Ketsana. I have the chills yet I feel like my sweaty skin is on speed. I am tired yet I am awake. I am in focus; I am out of focus. Coffee is my new best friend.
But there is a light because despite my dramatic symptoms I am happier than ever, proud to be here, and insanely excited for what is to come!
Hang in there fellow CreCommers I know many of you feel the same way as I, we just need to breath, relax, and enjoy the rocky ride.
But there is a light because despite my dramatic symptoms I am happier than ever, proud to be here, and insanely excited for what is to come!
Hang in there fellow CreCommers I know many of you feel the same way as I, we just need to breath, relax, and enjoy the rocky ride.
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