Annapolis – Great day trip from DC September 30, 2015
Posted by hslu in Travel.Tags: Annapolis, Army-Navy football, Maryland, Naval Academy
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Annapolus is Maryland’s Capital and it is where American Naval Academy is. It’s about 50 miles from Northern Virginia via US 50 through Washington DC.
We’ve been here a few times and like what this charming small town has to offer:
1. Free tour of the Naval Academy w/o a reservation. It is two blocks from the water front;
2. Water front tourist attractions;
3. Several ice cream shops near the water front and along the narrow street stretching from the water front to the back of the Maryland state house;
2 scoops。貪心不足。吃了發胖。
4. Many nice restaurants with street side tables serving decent food and drinks;
The entire place used to be a restaurant。 After it failed a couple of years ago，the landlord changed it into a market and sandwich shops。
5. Small town atmosphere where the pace of the life Is slow and the ambiance around the town is relaxed; and
6. On any night of the week, and of course on Fridays and Saturdays, you’ll see cadets in uniforms taking a break at restaurants and bars along the streets.
If you are around the area for a few days, take US 50 then follow the sign to this quite and small town.
If you are into football，annual Army-Navy football isn’t that great as far as football is concern，but you might enjoy the rivalry。
There are many great restaurants, such as this one, for you to choose from.
Level. Being here once. Enjoyed it very much.
老地方, Rockville, Maryland December 13, 2013
Posted by hslu in Chinese Food.Tags: 老地方, Maryland, Rockville
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Took Dad to this restaurant when it first opened about three months ago.
Not bad. But parking can be a hustle. The restaurant is small and the price was reasonable.
上海菜饭. Worth a try.
xiao cai.
Deep fried pork chop: My Dad’s favorite.
Tysons Buffet, Rockville, Maryland December 29, 2010
Posted by hslu in Chinese Food, Cooking, Restaurants.Tags: Chinese restaurants, 科班出身, Maryland, Rockville, Tysons Buffet, 半路出家
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Took Mom to the doctor’s to day after we had lunch at Tysons’ buffet in Rockville, Maryland.
We had to wait for 10 minutes before getting a seat. The place was packed to capacity and the line at 1 PM was almost 20 deep.
The line continued until about 1:30 PM and the entire restaurant was busy with guests young and old; men and women; Chinese, Latinos and others.
Chinese buffet restaurants, especially Tysons Buffet in Rockville, are like black holes on the landscape of Chinese restaurants. They suck in customers from other Chinese near by restaurants. They also suck in precious revenues from them making these restaurants very difficult to operate. They rob the margins away from near by Chinese restaurants because of ridiculously low prices and varieties of selections offered by these buffet restaurants.
In the case of Tysons Buffet, it probably takes away $650,000 from the coffers of near by Chinese restaurants every month. These buffet restaurant as a group also force other Chinese restaurants big and small to operate at paper thin margins because no one dare to raise its prices.
The mediocrity of buffet food lowers the standard of Chinese cuisine in the eyes of general public which also hurts business of Chinese restaurant every where.
People come to traditional Chinese restaurants expecting a good meal, huge quality, good value, mediocre service, broken English from wait staff, noise atmosphere and rock bottom prices. They no longer expect authentic Chinese food because some of them know that many cooks in the kitchen behind the wall are no longer 科班出身的厨师 “ke1 ban1 chu1 shen1 de1 chu2 shi1″ (Chefs with professional training” but 半路出家的二手货 “ban4lu4 chu1 jia1 de1 er4 shou3 huo4” (someone with minimum skill in Chinese cooking.) Even worse, some of them are even Latinos with only a few years of experience working in the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant.
It will not be easy to reverse this trend.
One more reason not to like Maryland December 16, 2010
Posted by hslu in Uncategorized.Tags: I-95, Maryland, Maryland House, Maryland state trooper, speeding ticket
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A state trooper gave me another reason not to like the State of Maryland early this morning.
He gave me a speeding ticket around 12:30 AM today and accused me of driving 83 mph at an 65 mph zone just north of Maryland House on I-95 .
There was absolutely no way that I was driving at 83 mph at that time because I was about 50′ behind another car on the second lane from the outside. The car in front of me was traveling way below that speed.
Another car in the inner lane about 75′ ahead of the car in front of me was traveling at a speed faster than me when I saw the trooper’s car pulling into the highway.
All three of us slowed down and my first impression when I saw the trooper’s car was that the first car would be stopped.
I noticed the trooper’s car pulled behind me and followed me for a while before turning on his flashes to signal me me to stop.
I said to myself at that moment that he must have made a mistake.
The trooper said that I drove at more than 80 mph in a 65 mph zone and asked me to show my driver’s license and registration.
My first words to him was “Sir, I think you’ve made a mistake.”
He repeated the request to see my driver’s license and I said again: “Sir, you’ve made a mistake. It was that first car that was driving too fast. Not me.” I then repeated my assertion:”sir, you’ve made a mistake.”
I reluctantly gave him my driver’s license and car’s registration. He came back and said that he gave me a citation for speeding and all that other crap about paying the fine or showing up at the court.
I said to him again:”Sir, you’ve made a mistake.” “I am telling you that you’ve made a mistake.” “You are wrong.”
He said that “I am not going to argue with you. You can pay the fine or you can show up at the court.”
I said to him again: “Sir, you’ve made a mistake and you are wrong.”
He said that he doesn’t want to argue with me and want to leave. I asked for his name he said he was trooper so and so and said that I can find his name printed at the bottom.
I said again to him that “Sir, you are wrong. You’ve made a mistake.”
He said that he will not argue with me and if I choose, I can argue with him in front of the judge.
I said to him as he walked away from my car:”Sir, you are wrong. I’ll see you at the court.”
Well, the more I thought about that, the more I dislike Maryland because of many other things. The $160 fine certainly pour salt on the injury.
I am not sure I will g through the hassle showing up in front of the judge because it would be my word against his. I have no way of proofing that I wasn’t travel that fast prior to being pulled from the traffic.
I certainly wasn’t planning to spend 1/2 day in a court house about 100 miles from my house defending a case that I have very little chance to be successful
From now on, I am going to spend as little money as I can in the State of Maryland while taking advantages of buying items that have no sales tax.
In the mean time if you are traveling near Maryland House on I-95, beware of Maryland state troopers because they may not be the most honest bunch on the road.
Buca, Gaithersburg, Maryland March 19, 2010
Posted by hslu in Food, Restaurants.Tags: Buca, Gaithersburg, Maryland
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Dinner at Buca: March 11, 2010 – Gaithersburg, Maryland
We saw a coupon in the mail for $10 off at Buca and Bao and I decided to check it out.
Buca has two locations here: one in DC and the other one in Gaithersburg, Maryland. We chose not to go to DC because I don’t like DC unless I have to.
We got there at 8 PM and the restaurant was still busy with customers. The hostess led us through its kitchen saying that they always give their customers a tour of their kitchen first. Hmm, not bad an idea, I thought.
The kitchen was clean, open and right by the front door. There was even a 6-seat booth with a group of customers enjoying their food too. Interesting!
We were taken to a section with about 10 tables close to the kitchen. There were several more sections like ours and the restaurant has about 350 seats. It had opened for 10 years and was doing a good business while we were there.
Every inch of the walls from waist and up were covered with pictures of everything Italian: Sophia Loren, chefs, gorgeous Italian women, old Italian women, babies, street scenes, cars, cats, dogs, fat boys, nuns, peeing babies, buildings,Italian men and many pictures of Misses Buca.
The thick, colorful menu was amazing too with descriptions of food and many pictures of men, cheese and dishes.
Placemat
We ordered a trio appetizer of fried calamari, fried cheese and baked mushroom, a pizza and a bowl of gnocchi. For dessert, we had their tiramisu in a big (6” or so) soup bowl.
All portions were huge (we had ordered small portions) because they were meant to share among guests. I thought about ordering a salad but I couldn’t pass on the chance to try the trio appetizer because we both liked calamari and stuffed mushroom. Calamari was tender on the inside and crunch on the outside. It was very good with their warm marinara sauce. The deep-fried cheese wedges and stuffed mushroom were both good too.They were well worth the price tag of $19.95.
Pizza was great with generous amount of meat and the cheeses were excellent. When we picked up the slices, the cheese was hot and the crust was very crunchy. The smell of onions and green peppers permeated the air as I ate them. The sausage was infused with fennel seeds and it was well-spiced. It was great! The pepperoni was dripping meat juice when I put it in my mouth. And the tomato was fresh and sweet too. The sauce wasn’t very sour which was the way I liked it. The only complaint I had about the pizza was the color of the crust which was too white as if it wasn’t baked at all.
The gnocchi dish was disappointing because the gnocchi and the sauce were unsophisticated with not much taste at all.I won’t ordered this again.
The portion of tiramisu was surprising: about three times the size of a regular one we were use to see in a restaurant. I also didn’t like the presentation and the taste was somewhat light as well. The meal was good but the amount of cholesterol was too much for one seating. We just have to do something about it later.
We also ordered a glass of Chianti and a small glass of Peroni. We of course couldn’t finished the whole thing and had to take about half of the dishes home. The bill came to $85. With $10 discount and $17 tips, the finally came to about $90.
Next time we’ll need more people to go with us.
xiaohua 