March Mania Day 15: Recommended Eats in the BWI Area

Yesterday I gave y'all some of my recommended eats in the Lancaster, PA area. Today we'll look a little closer to home for me, except I'm calling it the BWI area since I do live pretty close to the airport and it appears to be used as a landmark for road traffic in the area. The only chains I've listed are either regional to Maryland or started in Maryland. Sorry for the lack of pictures today.

Little Spice Thai Cuisine - Located in Hanover, MD, it's a bit out of the way from the nearby Arundel Mills mall and Live! Casino, but this is why I'd call it a hidden gem. They serve all the Thai fare for a reasonable price. Also I can vouch for their Drunken Noodles being spicy. I'd recommend the Drunken Noodles, the various curry dishes, or their Pad Thai.

Cantina Mamma Lucia - Mentioned earlier in March Mania, located in Hanover, MD right next to Little Spice, this local Italian joint has been filling the bellies of its loyal customers for thirty years this year. With many choices of pasta, you'll have a hard time not finding at least one favorite dish from CML. Also they sometimes have family flown over from Italy to cook up some special Italian treats. They have Osso Bucco sometimes, but you'll have to take initiative to find out when they'll have it. Last I remembered, they encouraged people to get on their Osso Bucco calling list and whoever is on that list will be the first to know when Osso Bucco is on the menu. Personally I stick with my favorite Chicken Brunello, but you really can't go wrong when choosing a pasta dish at CML.

Pachanga Grill - Located in Odenton near the intersection of MD 170 and MD 175, this local Mexican joint serves up a fiesta of flavor and for all the tortilla chip aficionados out there, they do give you chips and salsa before you order the entrées. I've only been there once, but I do recommend that if you want some Mexican and don't want to eat at fast food chains such as Taco Bell, then Pachanga should be one of your go-to's in the area. For those who like spicy food, I recommend the Camarones a la Diabla, or shrimp in a tomato-chili sauce. It reminds me of Ebi Chili (or as Iron Chef calls them: Prawns in Chili Sauce), so of course I'd find Camarones a la Diabla delicious.

Red Parrot Asian Bistro - Large Sushi Selection, many dishes from various Asian nations, and curry that's spicier than the Drunken Noodles? Only at Red Parrot do you get all of that and they serve all sorts of drinks if you are tired of the soda and water routine. Recently I've been getting their Panang Curry with pork.

Maiwand Kabob - This is a small chain in central Maryland that specializes in Afghan cooking, although it seems that they share similarities to some Middle East traditions, namely the focus on Kabob (or kebab, depends on spelling, I'll use "kabob" specifically for Maiwand). They have pumpkin served with meat and yogurt sauce (it's better than it sounds on paper, trust me), eggplant, lamb kabobs, kabobs made of other meats, and daily specials. I'm partial to the Do Piaza, which is the Thursday special and is basically a lamb curry with onions and green peppers. The specials are served with regular rice or naan bread (yes, I said "bread bread") and side salad while the entrées are served with naan, side salad, and a spiced rice.

Phubs - Located in the same set of buildings as Cantina Mamma Lucia and Little Spice (that area sure has a concentration of good food for being a bit out of the way of both BWI and Arundel Mills), Phubs is basically what is written on the tin: Pho and subs. My parents always get pho while I go for the banh mi subs. Too bad that the last time I was there that they replaced the Honey Sriracha Shrimp banh-mi with a different shrimp based banh mi, that Honey Sriracha sauce kicked butt. Though one of my favorites that is still on the menu are the summer rolls (clear rice wrapping veggies, pork, and shrimp together).

K-Manna Rice Factory  -  Located near Fort Meade, this restaurant serves up some good Korean food such as Bulgogi and Bibimbap. The beef bulgogi (and other meats also labeled as bulgogi) meals to me remind me of bento. Many sides accompany the entrée such as cucumber kimchi, vegetables, fried egg, and tempura vegetables. Since I love spicy food, I eat their Jeyuk Bulgogi set (Spicy Pork).

Ledo Pizza - A Mid-Atlantic chain of pizzerias. It started in Maryland therefore I can put it down in this blog post. They also have subs, pasta, and lots of appetizers. For pizza, I get their Sweet Baby-Q Chicken pizza or their Ledo Deluxe pizza.

The Grill at Quarterfield Station - This restaurant located in Severn, but closer to Glen Burnie than to Fort Meade, serves up a variety of dishes that run the gamut from simple sandwiches to special seafood creations, to everyday favorites. Their pasta salad is one of the better pasta salads I've eaten and the large menu should ensure that everybody will find something they like.

March Mania Day 14: Recommended Eats in Lancaster (City and County), PA

Happy Pi day y'all! Today's March Mania blog post is somewhat appropriate as I will be listing some of my recommended eats for Lancaster County, PA today. Please note that I'm not finished in my quest to eat delicious food in the county that houses my collegiate alma mater, though I do wish that I did try to eat more of the local stuff instead of Park City mall food court food (though China Party stuff was delicious). Anyways, more recommending and less regretting, here we go!

Lancaster City Eats

Isaac's: The downtown Lancaster location of this sandwich restaurant chain that only exists in South Central Pennsylvania also has a bar, but I enjoyed their sandwiches and pepperjack tomato soup. Good food for a good price if you ask me, many of the sandwich choices are named after birds as Isaac's is represented by a flamingo.

Sa La Thai: I ate there once and they had a ten dollar special at the time where at lunch time, you could get an appetizer, soup, and an entree for ten dollars. Their curry was pretty good and so was the amount of food for that price.

Issei Noodle: It's a mix of Japanese, Okinawan (Okinawa has a distinct culture and culinary tradition from the rest of modern Japan), and Thai influences. Many noodle dishes abound, some delicious appetizers, cool merch, and for some reason I've never seen anybody playing Super Smash Bros on the Nintendo 64 that is (or was, if they've removed it) in the restaurant. My favorite dish is the Midori Spicy Udon, basically curry udon except instead of Japanese curry, it's Thai green curry.

The Rabbit and the Dragonfly: I've never actually eaten there, but I've had their hot chocolate, mmmmmm! Also the atmosphere is nice if you love books, board games, and piano music. One of my regrets is not visiting this establishment more often.

Lancaster County Eats

Good 'n Plenty: Good and plenty Amish country cooking, need I say more?

Bird in Hand Family Restaurant: In 2009, my family vacationed in the Northeast, with a stop in Amish Country. This place was where I had shoofly pie for the first time. Shoofly Pie for more information on this delicious treat

Oregon Dairy Restaurant: They have a buffet similar to the Bird in Hand Family Restaurant, Miller's Smorgasbord, and Shady Maple, good enough for me! Next door is a market where you can get farm fresh food.

Miller's Smorgasbord: They have a lot of everything, including varieties of soups. So much good food, 15 year old me would call this place heaven.

Special Mention

Special mention goes out to the food places near Millersville University that have been feeding thousands of hungry college students for many years. Some of these places include Sugar Bowl (home of "World Famous Stromboli" and the local place for milkshakes), Jack's (a bar that is notorious for mountains of fries and is a favorite of Millersville students), and Far East Café (Although Oriental Chinese Restaurant is touted as better, I liked the service from Far East much better, a sweet Chinese couple always giving me large portions and I've never had problems with their food).

Bonus: Here is what Millersville University suggests for Lancaster eats: Millersville's Suggestions, though my friends would say the University and I forgot Shady Maple, but at least I have an excuse, I've never been there, though I hear it's pretty good.

Second Bonus: If you've made it this far, here's a picture of Susheen and Pizeko (Pizza Neko, neko meaning cat in Japanese) eating food. Pizeko is eating a pizza pie slice in commemoration of Pi day today.

March Mania Day 13: Sewing Successes, Fails, and Lessons

So in the past year or so, I've been making good use of the sewing kit I bought online, from sewing patches on to a blanket, finishing my merit badge sash, and trying to cover up holes. There have been plenty of successes and plenty of failures, each with a lesson for me.

The Successes

In 2018, five years after aging out of Boy Scouts, I finished my merit badge sash by sewing on the final seven merit badges I had earned since summer camp 2012. Other successes include improvements in sewing patches so that they aren't attached to a surface loosely and a successful sewing up a hole in pants. Too bad it was the only pair of pants I could successfully sew up as y'all will read in the next section.

The Failures

I had some pants with holes where holes shouldn't be. I tried to see if I could sew them up, it didn't look possible so I had to scrap those pants. I tried to do the same thing with a shirt, twice. Each time, the thread came undone and the hole showed up again. Thankfully I don't have many failures in sewing.

The Lessons

The lessons I've learned so far are that patience is key to getting a sewing job done, impatience can hurt or at least be mildly discomforting such as when the needle touches my fingertips, and that not everything can be sewn back together to look like new. I think I'll have more to say if I ever do more sewing later, stay tuned!

March Mania Day 12: 10 Favorite Restaurant Dishes

Today's episode of March Mania will be a less serious affair as I try to explain ten of my favorite restaurant dishes. There are a few rules however.

Rule 1: Fast food restaurants are disqualified from the list. This is to ensure that at least some effort was put in by the chef or the cook to create the dish. Fast casual is okay.

Rule 2: Past offerings and restaurants that formerly existed are fair game if I can remember them clearly. This rule is just so that I can include a dish that came from a restaurant that no longer exists.

Rule 3: These are not in order from 10 being the least most favorite to 1 being the most most favorite, so please don't treat the list like a top ten list of favorite dishes.

Rule 4: I reserve the right to elaborate or not elaborate on each dish.

With that out of the way, here we go! Also sorry that I only have pictures for five of the dishes.

1.

Chicken Tikka Masala from Himalayan Curry and Grill, Lancaster, PA

2. Ribs and Shrimp from George Martin's Grillfire, Hanover, MD
The notable part of the dish was that the shrimp were covered in a soy-ginger glaze, giving an Asian flair to a seafood that Americans love to eat.

3.

Crabby Friday from Three Brothers, a regional chain in MD

4. Spicy Chipotle Chicken Pasta from The Cheesecake Factory, the only national chain featured in this post.

5. 

Katsu Curry from Temari Café, Rockville, MD

Sometimes, I want extra meat in my curry, and pork katsu is always a good choice for an extra meaty curry.

6. Camarones a la Diabla from Pachanga Grill, Odenton, MD

Camarones a la Diabla remind me very much of the Japanese-Szechuan Ebi Chili dish. Shrimp cooked in a sauce that contains chiles and tomato stuff. I really like  Ebi Chili so I figured that a similar Mexican dish would also taste good.

7. 

Maspero's Crawfish and Tasso pasta from The Original Pierre Maspero's, located in the French Quarter of New Orleans

Crawfish? Tasso? Sounds like a good combination of New Orleans' favorite proteins in a cajun sauce. Mr. Sean likes!

8. Penne a la Vodka from Bei Tempi, a former restaurant in New Orleans located near the convention center. I've had Penne a la Vodka from various places before, but what made the one from Bei Tempi stand out were the large onion slivers (that resembled unfried Bloomin Onion petals, if I had to reference a different restaurant's food) that were not too crunchy, but a good mix of soft enough on the inside, crunch on the outside, and flavor all over. The rest of the dish was good too, but the onions stood out for me. Too bad it doesn't exist anymore so I'll have to make my own Penne a la Vodka and try to make and sautée onion petals.

9.  

Midori Spicy Udon from Issei Noodle, Lancaster, PA

This dish combines Japanese udon with Thai green curry. My mom sometimes makes me curry udon using Japanese curry, but if I want a good bit of spice, this dish brings spice a-plenty. I remember one time during Lent when I had a meatless version of this dish, if y'all want to see if they do it for real or if they just forgot to put the chicken on that one time I went, I'd suggest going to Issei on a Friday sometime before Easter.

10. Chicken Brunello from Cantina Mamma Lucia, Hanover, MD

Near home, there is a local Italian place well known for generous portions of delicious pasta called Cantina Mamma Lucia. My favorite pasta dish from Cantina Mamma Lucia is their Chicken Brunello. Pasta served with chicken, mushrooms, and topped with a tomato cream and marsala wine sauce. The sauce is very rich, but very delicious all the same.

March Mania Day 11: Origami: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

I started taking origami seriously nine years ago when I bought an Origami Page-A-Day Calendar for the year 2010. In the years since then I've folded many sheets of paper into many things, torn more than a few trying to coax out some origami "limbs", and generally have enjoyed most of the journey. Today's post will be a showcase of the good, the bad, and the ugly as I'm pretty sure I've folded enough to have at least one photo for each adjective. I don't apologize for the bias towards "The Good".

THE GOOD

1000 cranes folded

In 2016, I decided to embark on a challenge that would prove my origami worth: folding 1000 cranes. There is a legend that whoever folds 1000 cranes is entitled to one wish coming true. I read a book titled Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes in elementary school which centered around a girl named Sadako Sasaki who initially survived the atomic attack of 1945 but later was diagnosed with leukemia. The book claims that she did not finish her goal of folding 1000 cranes for the wish, falling short at 644, but there are competing claims that she did indeed fold 1000 cranes and then some from various sources including her brother Masahiro Sasaki. In any case, I saw a challenge and I figured I'd be able to fold a crane by memory by the time I folded 1000. Three years later and I'm trying to repeat, but with tiny cranes instead. Only, with the tiny cranes, I don't feel as motivated as I did in 2016.

Origami Playing Card Case by Jonathan Graham 

Link: Origami Playing Card Case

I used to and to a certain extent still do collect decks of playing cards. I collected mostly for the cool back designs such as the NYPD logo or Busch Gardens Williamsburg. My cards were all disorganized at one point and I recently (at that time, circa 2017) bought a box that was shaped for storing cards, so I decided to place all my playing cards in that box, but I thought to myself, "How can I keep the cards organized, especially if they've lost their packaging? I stumbled upon Jonathan Graham's video on YouTube while searching for a solution and I have to say it's a neat and nifty way of using origami and I've yet to lose a playing card since.

Tiny Origami

At this point, regular origami was starting to become easy and I like challenging myself, so I decided to cut up some origami paper into smaller sheets and try folding tiny versions of origami models. So far I've folded one tiny modular wreath, at least 20 tiny cranes, more than 250 tiny swans, and at least one tiny crown. I'll update y'all when I create more tiny origami.

THE BAD

It looks impressive, but...

So my journey into modular origami (fold multiple units of one shape and then put them together to create a larger different shape) started as early as 2014 when I folded 16 sheets of square paper into units to create a 16 pointed star, so far so good. The bad made itself quite clear when I was trying to assemble it and units kept separating from each other. The 16 pointed star did not endear me when I was finished with it as it was so easy to separate the individual units from each other, which is not a good sign in modular origami.

THE UGLY

One of the very few models I did not enjoy folding

I tried folding the above model, but was not satisfied at all after completing it. So many parts were sticking out, a lack of symmetry, and a general dissatisfaction with how the model turned out is why I placed it under "The Ugly".

Thank you for reading about some of my origami adventures throughout the years and if you want to hear more about my origami adventures, please do say so!

March Mania Day 10: Sumo

Chiyonofuji vs Hokutoumi by Daimon Kinoshita

About two years ago, I got a TV for Christmas and saw that the local PBS station had a sub-channel that aired NHK World programming. Sweet! Stuff from Japan but in English. I watched mostly NHK World during that winter break and sometime around mid-January I saw that NHK World aired Grand Sumo Highlights, a recap of the day's bouts. I later learned it was the top Makuuchi (Makunouchi in spoken word) division bouts, but no matter, they still intrigued me that I tried to find more info on sumo and fan opinion. I managed to find an excellent forum at Sumo Forum, quick uploads of Makuuchi action from Kintamayama (sorry to the Japanese people out there, he thought it had an "ii sound" when he came up with it). and an at the time budding but excellent blog in Tachiai. I started watching sumo at the time that the now former Kisenosato was coming off a very consistent but very good year as an Ozeki, the second highest rank in sumo. He won the January 2017 tournament and along with his 2016 bouts was promoted to the highest rank of Yokozuna. Tragedy would befall him in March 2017 as he suffered an injury to his left shoulder that permanently reduced his ability to do sumo. Meanwhile even the most dominant Yokozuna in modern history and perhaps all of history Hakuho (from Mongolia) was dropping out of tournaments on claims of injury. Recently there have been more than a few young men hungry for glory in the top ranks and some surprise tournament winners. Last year, Tochinoshin from Georgia won the tournament in January as a Maegashira (first rank in the top division) then proceeded to post two more good winning records with enough wins to promote him to Ozeki. Other surprises include two tournament wins from the Yokozuna Kakuryu (from Mongolia, like Hakuho) in spite of injuries, and tournament wins from Mitakeumi, Takakeisho, and Tamawashi. Last year, Hakuho barely competed but did manage a zensho-yusho. Each tournament lasts for fifteen days and a yusho is a championship while a zensho-yusho is winning the championship without a single loss. Only the Juryo and Makuuchi rikishi participate all fifteen days, the lower ranked rikishi compete for seven days. There have been scandals, miracles, and disappointments a-plenty in the past two years and I can't wait to see what sumo has in store for 2019. Will Takakeisho (who is a year my junior) earn Ozeki after the current tournament? What about Tamawashi (who at 34 was the second oldest Makuuchi yusho winner)? Will Mitakeumi and Takayasu cement a fierce rivalry? Stay tuned!

March Mania Day 9: Project Euler

Today's post won't be as interesting as I don't have any images and haven't made it far progress-wise.

So I like math and puzzles and have worked quite extensively with computers, so a challenge solving math problems that computers can help with sounds like just the kind of thing I would enjoy. It all started with a co-worker from my IT job at Millersville University. He suggested that I try a website called Project Euler. Project Euler has a collection of more than 600 math problems that are guaranteed to give people a challenge and figuring out the solution requires ingenuity, patience, logic, and sometimes a computer. My personal journey in Project Euler so far has been fun, even though I've only solved about ten problems. Sorry I haven't had much to say about this subject, but now that I'm out of school, I have some time to try to solve these problems and sharpen my brain in programming and math skills. An example problem includes finding the sum of multiples of specific numbers below a chosen number (Look for problem 1 for the specifics). In good news, tomorrow's post will be about Sumo, of which I'll have more immediate knowledge. Apologies for the short post today y'all!