Whether dining in or having a night on the town, there are people in Augusta who make it their business to tell others about great food and beverage, and they use social media or personal websites to connect their favorites with their friends.
Meet three of them here.
Ann Beth Strelec
Ann Beth Strelec isn’t a traditional food blogger.
“Before blogging was a thing, I had great experiences traveling. I would take pictures and tell people about restaurants and say, ‘Go here’ and, ‘Go here,’” said Strelec, who stays closer to home these days and posts on Instagram under the moniker “Naked Epicurean.”
While she loves food and loves to cook, her passion is cocktails.
“Unless you are new to my feed, you are glaringly aware I am having a mad love affair with cocktails,” Strelec wrote on a recent Instagram post.
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She likes to try cocktails at local restaurants, never chains. She often asks her followers for their recommendations for the best types of drinks.
She’s gone on cocktail tours in search of the best bloody Mary and the best old-fashioned in town. And she loves it when restaurants release special menus for holidays.
She snaps a photo and uploads her finds to Instagram for her followers to find.
“I love Augusta,” she said. “I want to shine a light on it.”
Nikki Pace
Nikki Pace has different reasons for starting her Instagram account “Augusta Food Blogger.”
When she moved to Augusta about two years ago, she didn’t have any friends.
“I used it as a way to meet people,” she said.
Pace is a sociable person and getting out in the local restaurants and creating the account helped her connect with her new community.
Plus, she enjoys tasting different types of foods and hopes that people will give her suggestions of new eateries in town.
“I will eat almost anything,” she said.
Elizabeth Canas
Childhood experiences inspired Elizabeth Canas’ love of cooking.
“I was 5 when I started cooking,” said Canas, who draws from her Italian and Salvadoran background in her The Corny Cook blog.
One of her earliest dishes was fettucine alfredo, which can be made in multiple ways, but Canas prefers it simple without the heavy cream sauce.
She enjoys experimenting with recipes as well, tweaking them as she sees fit. She draws from cooking shows such as “The Barefoot Contessa” and “Giada at Home.”
Like all cooks, Canas has had dishes that exceeded her expectations and some that needed to be tossed. Cauliflower seems to be the “in” vegetable these days, so Canas made a recipe with it.
“It ended up looking like it was curdled,” she said. “That’s a great example of a disaster.”
Canas likes to share her love of food with others. Her career isn’t in food right now, but she’s catered events for friends, who love her cheese charcuterie boards.
She said she plans to continue her blog www.thecornycook.com, and one day, she might come out with her own cookbook.
Canas shared one of her favorite recipes Gochujang shrimp with tacos with a creamy kimchi slaw.
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Gochujang Shrimp Tacos with Creamy Kimchi Slaw
(Courtesy of Elizabeth Canas, the Corny Cook)
Shrimp and Gochujang Sauce Ingredients
4 tablespoons gochujang paste
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
Salt/pepper, to taste
Toasted sesame seeds
1 lb. uncooked shrimp, peeled and deveined
Note: reserve 2-3 tablespoons of the gochujang mixture
Kimchi Slaw Ingredients
10-14 oz of thinly sliced cabbage or bagged coleslaw
2 tablespoons kimchi juice
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon of reserved gochujang sauce
1 tablespoon thinly sliced scallions
1/4 teaspoon lime zest
1 teaspoon lime juice
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon cilantro, chopped
Note: feel free to add 1-2 tablespoon chopped kimchi
Other Ingredients
Lime wedges, for serving
Cilantro, for garnish
Toasted sesame seeds, for topping
Reserved gochujang sauce mixture
Flour or corn tortillas, note: I used flour for this recipe
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- For the gochujang sauce, combine the gochujang paste, honey, sesame oil, olive oil, soy sauce and rice wine vinegar together. Lightly season with salt and pepper, to taste. Set aside.
- Peel, devein and pat shrimp dry. Toss the shrimp in about half of the gochujang sauce. Evenly disperse the shrimp on a greased baking sheet. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds. Place in the oven and cook for 10 minutes, or until shrimp are cooked, but still juicy and plump. Remove from heat.
- For the slaw, combine the kimchi juice, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, 1 tablespoon reserved gochujang sauce, lime zest, lime juice and mayonnaise in a mixing bowl. Whisk until smooth and thoroughly combined. In a separate bowl, toss the cabbage, cilantro and scallions together. Add enough slaw dressing to coat the cabbage mixture to your liking.
- In a skillet over medium heat, place tortilla over heat for about 30 seconds or until warm. Top each tortilla with gochujang shrimp and the creamy kimchi slaw. Garnish with fresh cilantro, additional toasted sesame seeds, reserved gochujang sauce, lime wedges or any garnish of your choice.
Charmain Z. Brackett is the Features Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com
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