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A colorful and delicious plate of authentic Asian street food, captured under the warm lights of a bustling restaurant.

Foodie Friends on Buford Highway

A Year of Fellow Eaters · No. 1 · Atlanta, Georgia

Foodie Friends on Buford Highway

In which a young man with a camera and an appetite shows the way

EAT

I’m embarking on a new year of writing that celebrates others like me, who LIVE TO EAT! Just such a person is 28-year-old Alex Rold.

A mouthwatering spread of gourmet street food highlighted by influencer Alex Rold on Buford Highway
A gourmet street-food spread, by the eye of Alex Rold

Rold takes eye-popping, UNREAL, mouthwatering photos of all his foodie adventures in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s not the marketing analyst’s day job but perhaps it should be. I know his mother… yet I found my food-centric cohort purely through drool of mouth. Suffice it to say, I was hardly the first one to notice Alex’s keen eye for superlative places to eat. He was featured on television a little over a year ago, when he said his nosh hobby really took hold and sent him on a photographic tour of the famed Buford Highway.

A steaming bowl of Vietnamese Pho soup and Szechuan chicken wings illuminated by glowing neon street signs.
Pho and Szechuan wings under the neon of the highway

The Bright Lights of the Market

A towering stack of fluffy Japanese pancakes
A towering stack of fluffy Japanese pancakes

“If you’re not used to Buford, it can be overwhelming,” Rold told me. “The diversity you’ll find there... it’s the best Asian food, best true Szechuan food, I’ve had in my life. I’m there almost every night of the week.” He recommended we all try the numbing peppers at Good Luck Gourmet and Masterpiece.

“I recognize friends from the internet on Buford Highway all the time—people I never would have met were it not for our shared love of eating,” he said. A quick glance at his community yields recommendations for the best fried Korean chicken wings to massive Japanese pancakes. I urge you to branch out and explore your own local highway—you never know who you will meet across the table.

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From the Memoir to the Kitchen

Inspired by Alex's hunt for the supreme Korean chicken wings along Buford Highway? Explore our Master Blueprint for the perfect Hot Garlicky Wings at home.

The Recipe Handshake

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