Greetings once again, my UMBC Eats blog mates and readers! I hope everyone had a lovely month of February! I know that I did, and I also know another person who did- my mom! In particular, we had a lovely 24^th day of February, as we and some of our family friends all got together and celebrated her birthday. One of the highlights of our celebration was the restaurant that we attended: G&M Restaurant, located on 804 North Hammonds Ferry Road, in Linthicum, Maryland. After suffering a fire in 2006, this restaurant went through remodeling in 2007, and now contains an expanded area for both dining and carry-out. Not to mention, it’s quite the hotspot for eaters of all ages, as I, my mom and our friends all watched the restaurant fill up with so many people that the line to get in almost went through the front door (and that includes all of the seating benches being filled)!

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Now on to the menu. Whether it’s a juicy steak, a magnificent stuffed shrimp (my mom’s personal favorite), or seafood to die for, it’s really hard to narrow down all of the appetizing choices and decide which is the absolute best. With that said, if you ever decide to walk in G&M and test your taste buds, I would definitely recommend ordering the combo of the Boneless New York Strip and a Crabcake Platter. The 18 oz. strip contains exquisite, juicy meat that is cooked to perfection when done medium-well, and the tasty crabcake is a fabulous example as to why Maryland is known for having the best crabs in the land, with minimum filling and succulent crab meat. Add two sides to this order (and there are so many delicious options to choose from, such as mashed potatoes, cole slaw, french fries with or without gravy, and homemade potato salad) and a “pre-game” salad to prepare you for the “main event” meal, and you’ve got yourself a fully satisfied stomach by the end of the night.

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If neither steak nor crabcakes fancy your liking, there are a variety of other options to select from, such as sandwiches, homemade soups, chicken specialties, and appetizers that vary from chicken tenders to fried mozzarella sticks. Finally, to top it off, the customer service is swift and courteous. However, on a side note, they do need to bring the tradition of the “birthday song and dance” back to the restaurant.

Overall, if you’re looking for a night of fine food, great customer service, and a comfortable environment of socializing and dining, then why not start off the month of March right and head on over to G&M, cause G&M is the place for you! See you folks in March!

- Ricky

Today, in the left corner you have Annie Chun’s All Natural Asian Cuisine Noodle Bowl: Pad Thai versus A Taste of Thai: Pad Thai Noodles. As a big fan of Asian cuisine, I love Pad Thai and I can find it in many places like Noodles and Company. My Asian girlfriend, Cynthia, also loves Pad Thai, was the one who introduced me to it. She got the Taste of Thai (ToT) Pad Thai while I got Anni Chun’s Pad Thai.

The ToT comes in a tall box and inside has tall hard noodles that are almost as long as the box. After pouring in the water and sauce, it seemed like would never soften, but after nuking it for 4 minutes or so and adding a little bit more water than required, we finally got the noodles to be soft and edible. Looking down in the box, the noodles didn’t seem to fill even a quarter of the box, and for 4 dollars, I was pretty upset. Then after taking a bite, the flavor was almost nowhere to be tasted. We had put so much water to soften the noodles that it took away from the flavor.

After that brutal upset, we try Annie Chun’s Pad Thai. With soft noodles to start with, I felt more at ease, and after microwaving it, I was pretty excited to try it. With the first taste, I took a pause―whoa, that’s real citrusy/sour-y. Normal Pad Thai comes with lime and peanuts, but the sauce that came with Annie’s Pad Thai had way to much lime and the sauce was too over powering.

If I was stranded on an island and had to choose between the two, Annie Chun’s would win, but not by much. I don’t recommend either, and for 4 dollars each, save your money at the Yum Shoppe, get something better.

Until next time, I’ll see you at the lunch table,

-Phil

I have just stumbled across a facebook event advertising Third Eye Blind as part of SEB’s Quadmania this April 16-18. Tickets are $10 with a UMBC ID and go on sale at the Commons info desk Wednesday March 10 at 12pm. The show will be in the RAC and there appears to be no ticket limit listed on the facebook event.

This seems like it has potential. Personally I feel like this is an act that could appeal to a wide variety of students. Obviously you can never please everyone, but I’m going to go ahead and give SEB some major props for securing Third Eye Blind to come play.

This is (or should be) the link to the facebook event.

So what are everyone’s thoughts on Third Eye Blind?