<p>regina - you are going to be paying a lot for the dining plan (unless you are on some kind of scholarship that covers it) … might as well try to use it!</p>
<p>You can’t put a price on good health!</p>
<p>Just kidding. I know, I know, I should suck it up and try to use it but I don’t know if I’ll be able to bring myself to eat that stuff on a daily basis.</p>
<p>Do you like catfish gulf shrimp, gulf oysters, and/or crawdads? They are the types of seafood most commonly found in Alabama. </p>
<p>I also enjoy seafood and found that the best (and least expensive) bet is to buy frozen seafood from Target when it’s on sale. I’ve cooked Wild Alaskan Salmon, cod, and swordfish this way and it has tasted quite good, but not as good as fresh. Generally speaking, fresh salmon, halibut, etc., is expensive in Tuscaloosa. If you have a car and a Sam’s Club membership, they will have a greater selection of and better prices on seafood. </p>
<p>The dining halls post their menus online at midnight. Note that fish and chips refers to hand-breaded catfish and crinkle-cut French Fries, without vinegar. Signs are posted stating that Alabama (and Federal) law gives you the right to know the country of origin and farm-raised/wild-caught status of all seafood being served. The catfish will always be a farm-raised product of the United States.</p>
<p>Regina: My D felt/feels the same way. She had 192 meals left from the two semesters of her freshman meal plan (which may or may not have been donated after the tornados, but I digress.) She loved having the Publix there; she’s a big fruit & veggie person and isn’t a fan of fried foods. She loves Fresh Foods in the Ferg, but they’re not open for dinner. And she was sad that the burrito place in the Ferg closed during the Spring (does anyone know what happened with that?) </p>
<p>She’s not really a picky eater, but she likes to cook and is used to fresher foods (she’s taken cooking classes at Viking; I don’t worry about her going hungry when she has her own apt.!) With some family history of diabetes, etc. she wasn’t willing to develop bad eating habits for a few years for convenience sake.</p>
<p>Regina…</p>
<p>There are sushi offerings and other fish offerings at various Asian places.</p>
<p>There is Chuck’s Fish
[url=<a href=“http://www.chucksfish.com/Chucks_Fish/Welcome.html]Welcome[/url”>http://www.chucksfish.com/Chucks_Fish/Welcome.html]Welcome[/url</a>]</p>
<p>I know that I’ve had seared Ahi tuna and salmon at various T-town restaurants.</p>
<p>Bryant [Athletic] Sports Grill/Dining Hall is the only dining facility that can accommodate gluten free diets.</p>
<p>Yes and no. My son is on GF diet. If you get meat, unbreaded fish, potatoes, rice, salad, fruit at any venue…then that is GF</p>
<p>Bryant may be offering some GF alternative foods…like pizza and pasta made with GF items.</p>
<p>
I don’t know what crawdads are, but the rest I’ll certainly eat. Had my first experience with catfish when I ate at Cracker Barrel while visiting colleges…wasn’t half bad. 
Definitely a fan of shrimp and oysters!</p>
<p>RobD, that sounds exactly like me. I’m not a health freak by any means, but I’m a fruit, veggies, and lean chicken or turkey person most of the time. I’m really not a picky eater at all, though; I prefer healthier foods, but I’ll eat whatever’s available. I also love sushi and mexican, and I know there’s a good amount of that around.</p>
<p>The site for Chuck’s Fish looks great, I’ll have to get there whenever I can! How far from campus is it? Definitely a place to visit when my dad is in T-Town; we’re all big seafood eaters in my family.</p>
<p>Crawdads…same as crawfish…are somewhat similar to a small lobster (they are a hard-shell fish) are often in New Orleans style foods like etouffee (love that!).<br>
[url=<a href=“Étouffée - Wikipedia”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Étouffée</a>]</p>
<p>mom2collegekids,
If you like crawfish etouffee you have to go to Tunks someday
The best etouffee ever
[Tunks</a> Cypress Inn. Home Page](<a href=“http://www.tunkscypressinn.com/]Tunks”>http://www.tunkscypressinn.com/)</p>
<p>Well, I’ll be in Baton Rouge next weekend, but sadly that’s not close to Boyce. :(</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“YouA moves from Youtube – The Crimson White”>YouA moves from Youtube – The Crimson White]Crimson</a> Caf</p>
<p>* Madden said he received a letter from Aramark, the company with which UA has a contract to operate food services on campus, saying that starting in August, Crimson Caf</p>
<p>All that aside, charging vendors 21 percent for Dining Dollars seems REALLY high to me.
I’m curious how long it takes vendors to get paid.</p>
<p>No one was required to participate in the DD program.</p>
<p>According to the article in the Crimson White, businesses were NOT required to join DD program, but initially chose to do so in order to gain back business lost to students eating at Aramark facilities when the contract was made for DD between Aramark and UA. UA benefits by getting 15% of sales once Aramark reaches 8 MM. It certainly seems reasonable, as credit card companies do, to charge a transaction fee paid to Aramark from vendors for the service of being in the DD network, but 21% seems really high when compared to the 2% - 5% that credit card companies charge. Does not seem to be a good business proposition to be in the DD program from a margin standpoint, and certainly Aramark doesn’t care since if a vendor drops out of the program then more than likely those percentages will revert back to Aramark facilities. And … since the University mandates $300 per student account in DD, that’s roughly 8 million in mandated discretionary spend that passes through DD yearly that is targeted primarily for Aramark and those unlucky vendors willing to pay the exorbitant transaction fee. The University is not innocent in this since 1) it’s mandated, 2) they know who the major vendor is benefiting from the spend, and 3) since they stand to benefit by the success of the DD program if it exceeds certain spending levels. This is a simple economics exercise regarding control of a captive market segment.</p>
<p>No one is required to accept Visa/MC either, they charge 1-2%
21% is just really really high.</p>
<p>You could have Visa handle this for the University directly, charging 2.5%, Visa could pay the university a 8% premium for the privilege and still be HALF of what Aramark is charging.</p>
<p>^^^ If it were only about the transaction cost, then that would be one thing. Visa and Mastercard make their money from the transaction charge. Certainly a major card vendor could do this cheaper than Aramark. What makes this even “shadier” is that Aramark and it’s facilities on campus also get the SPEND of the real dollars associated with DD dollar for dollar and the university benefits from it if spend exceeds 8 MM (according to the Crimson White article). Therefore, it makes sense for Aramark to make it as difficult / expensive as possible for other vendors to gain access to the DD $$$ pool, since every dollar spent at a non Aramark facility is real money lost to Aramark … so they try and at least get 20% off that non-Aramark spend back in the transaction charge. Not a winning proposition for any vendor, unless they have profit margins in excess of 50+%.</p>
<p>Considering that the University paid for a consultant in the mid 1990s who said that the only way for the University to make money on its dining services was to require freshman meal plans and dining dollars, I think that it’s time to reassess the situation. With almost twice the number of students, I could definitely see a UA-themed debit card associated with ones Action Card and managed by Blackboard or Visa/MasterCard to be a viable option.</p>
<p>^^^
Yep, and any profits generated flowing back to the University,
not to a 3rd party. The Dining Dollars could/should be used
to promote and support the community - with a vibrant off campus scene.</p>
<p>Crimson Cafe set to reopen within the next week or so. Unsurprisingly, they will not be participating in the Dining Dollars program. ;)</p>
<p>Considering that the University paid for a consultant in the mid 1990s who said that the only way for the University to make money on its dining services was to require freshman meal plans and dining dollars, I think that it’s time to reassess the situation. With almost twice the number of students,</p>
<p>I don’t think the rising number of students makes a difference because Bama has added more dining venues to compensate…a very large Dining Hall and more retail venues…and will be adding another dining hall. Many other schools (even larger ones) require frosh to buy certain meal plans and require some kind of DD plan.</p>
<p>Those on-campus vendors/franchises need some kind of system that somewhat assures that they will get campus business since they aren’t really that assessable to the public at large and they can’t have more normal operating hours.</p>
<p>Crimson Cafe set to reopen within the next week or so.</p>
<p>Did they get a new menu/recipes???</p>
<p>Their menu is posted under photos…do you think there are changes to recipes, etc?
<a href=“http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Crimson-Cafe/39765799779?sk=wall#!/pages/The-Crimson-Cafe/39765799779[/url]”>http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Crimson-Cafe/39765799779?sk=wall#!/pages/The-Crimson-Cafe/39765799779</a></p>