Hello again, fellow foodies!! Hope everybody’s last few weeks of the semester are going well, and we all know what that means: summer is on everyone’s mind! Whether your summer plans include interning, working full-time, or taking summer classes, a summer getaway (with lots of delicious food!) should be on the list of plans too! Still looking for that summer weekend getaway? How does Rehoboth Beach, DE sound? I had the opportunity and pleasure to visit Rehoboth this past weekend, and although it was their off-season, they sure did have a lot to offer!

While I was exploring downtown Rehoboth Sunday afternoon, I started thinking of the many beach snacks that I am known to love! Saltwater taffy, fresh cut fries, and popcorn are a few of the beachgoers favorites. Though it seems traditional to buy saltwater taffy while you’re at the beach, I’ve never been a big fan. Instead, I was craving popcorn as I walked the boardwalk and decided to put myself and other friends up for the challenge:

Who’s original caramel popcorn is the best of the Beach? Fisher’s or Dolle’s?

First up, Dolle’s! I got the information about Dolles from another competing candy store clerk. Dolle’s is the only company in Rehoboth Beach that makes their own saltwater taffy from scratch! I’ve always been appreciative of small, local companies: they put love, time, detail, and attention to their food (that ultimately become works of art). Established n 1926, Dolle’s has been a local, family, and tourist favorite for their comfort candy classics! Intrigued, I decided to stop by and saw that they too, had caramel popcorn. I purchased a small bucket ( oz.) for $5.25 and was delighted to open the tub and seeing the liberally sugar-coated popcorn. Excited, I take my first bite and was entranced by the sweetness and fragrant flavor of the caramel. Though the caramel was delicious, I was disappointed to not taste the fresh popped taste of the corn. The natural essence of the popcorn was lost due to the excessive amount of caramel coating. After trying what Dolle’s had to offer in their caramel corn, I was eager to compare the flavors of Dolle’s to another well known company: Fisher’s!

Right in the heart of downtown Rehoboth lies Fisher’s, the famous corn-popping company! Originated in downtown Ocean City, MD, Fisher’s continues to be a crowd-pleasing favorite in their popcorn selections. Having had Fisher’s popcorn as a child over my neighbors’ house, I was more than ready to make my first purchase of Fisher’s popcorn! For $5.75, I received their smallest tub of caramel corn and was already pleased by the warmth of the tub: the corn was fresh. Customers are able to see the labor of love workers put in to kettle-popping the corn. Kettle-popping keeps the popcorn especially light and airy, which I personally love. The hand mixed caramel coating did not overwhelm the natural flavor of the corn. Fisher’s logo and motto claim that you can “Taste the Difference;” I knew I made my decision, but what did my friends have to say?

After a blind taste test, 3 out of 4 of my friends agree that Fisher’s popcorn is still the favorite. But to all UMBC foodies, I challenge YOU to the caramel popcorn challenge! Plan a weekend getaway to Rehoboth Beach, DE and you too can decide which popcorn, in the words of Iron Chef America, “reigns supreme!”

Happy eating, foodies!

-Amy

As finals wrap up, final drafts of papers get constructed and another school year comes to an end at our beloved UMBC, I can’t help but to think back on my favorite dining moments from the past four years. For starters, there’s the Mondo Sub restaurant in the Commons, which has always been my favorite stop for food in the Commons, especially considering my love for subs in general. I’m still trying to decide which particular sub was my all-time favorite from Mondo Sub. Let’s see… considering all of my choices… there was the hot, appetizing, meaty Buffalo Chicken sub that was toasted on a soft, crisp, six inch piece of wheat bread and lathered in creamy ranch dressing, honey mustard, lettuce and buffalo sauce. Then again, there was the somewhat creamy, soft and equally hot and appetizing “Tuna Tuna” sub with a delicate touch of ranch dressing and lettuce on toasted wheat bread. On the other hand, I can’t possibly eliminate a delicious Meatball sub, or the new sensation, the “Usual Suspects” sub, which I am a tad bitter about it being released onto the UMBC scene only during my last semester as a UMBC student! Great call by whoever that was… NOT!!!

Of course, when I think about my dining experiences at UMBC, I’d be out of my mind if I were to forget about the delicious pizza (sausage, pepperoni or cheese- take your pick), strombolies, spaghetti with meatballs, chicken parmagean and various other fulfilling options (especially when they were hot and fresh out of the oven) from the Commons’ Famous Famiglia. My enjoyable dining experiences also expanded outside of the Commons, notably at a dining hall that improved for me after Chartwells took it over. Although I yearned for more chicken or steak nights, I was still very happy with the variety of choices that I ultimately received at the dining hall… or, should I say True Grit’s…, whether the choices involved meat, pasta, salad or potatoes. I’m also happy that I did not limit myself to dinner meals at True Grit’s because I also had some extremely fulfilling breakfast meals there, especially when they involved a heavenly waffle that was made to perfection, with some sugar and peach toppings to add on. Not to mention, the dining hall played host to Midnight Breakfast and Midnight Dessert, two fun events where I could dine on either a late night breakfast meal or a late night funnel cake, while I socialized and kicked back, breathing the sigh of relief that indicated how thankful I was to survive another semester of strenuous classes.

Lastly, for those days in which I was on the run or just felt like dining in my room, there were always the reliable mini-convenient stores, from the Yum Shoppe to “The Spot…” or, should I say “Outtakes.” I’ve lost count as to how many French Bread pizzas I’ve purchased from Outtakes and digested within the last two years ALONE, much less all of my four years at UMBC! And of course, last but CERTAINLY not least, there was the Spring 2009 grand opening of my dear friend, Chick-Fil-A… I don’t think there’s much else that needs to be said here, except that I wish this special buddy of mine was around for my ENTIRE UMBC ride. Then again, I’m much appreciative for having one at UMBC in the first place!

It has truly been an honor and a pleasure to have been apart of the UMBCeats family for the past year. Congratulations to my fellow class of 2010 graduates and I wish great success and the best of luck to all of you, as well as to all of the remaining undergraduates! Signing off, over and out!!!

- Ricky

Digital Capital Week (DCWEEK) is a 10 day festival running from June 11 to 20 in Washington DC focused on technology, innovation and all things digital — social media, games, policy, multi-media, activism, new media, mobile computing, animation, etc.

DCWEEK is expected to involve more than 4,000 people — artists, technologists, entrepreneurs, communicators, govies, and citizens. They will come together to participate in over 100 distributed events produced and hosted by individuals, organizations and community groups. Most of the events are free or charge a nominal cost, but pre-registration may be required.

At DCWEEK you can:

• learn from others through sessions, keynotes, workshops and panels
• meet new friends, clients, partners, investors and collaborators
• focus on the issues in DC that can be addressed in new ways
• come together to support innovative businesses, people and ideas
• work on projects that benefit the city and the world
• experiment with what’s possible
• have fun at some great parties

See the DCWEEK site for for registration, schedule and details.

The June 2010 CACM has an interesting article by Jilin Chen and Joseph Konstan of the University of Minnesota on Conference Paper Selectivity and Impact. The abstract gets right to the point:

“Studying the metadata of the ACM Digital Library (http://www.acm.org/dl), we found that papers in low-acceptance-rate conferences have higher impact than those in high-acceptance-rate conferences within ACM, where impact is measured by the number of citations received. We also found that highly selective conferences — those that accept 30% or less of submissions—are cited at a rate comparable to or greater than ACM Transactions and journals.”

A key paragraph later in the paper has some more detail:

“Addressing the second question— on how much impact conference papers have compared to journal papers — in Figures 3 and 4, we found that overall, journals did not outperform conferences in terms of citation count; they were, in fact, similar to conferences with acceptance rates around 30%, far behind conferences with acceptance rates below 25% (T-test, T[7603] = 24.8, p< .001). Similarly, journals published as many papers receiving no citations in the next two years as conferences accepting 35%–40% of submissions, a much higher low-impact percentage than for highly selective conferences. The same analyses over four- and eight-year periods yielded results consistent with the two-year period; journal papers received significantly fewer citations than conferences where the acceptance rate was below 25%."

Impact of CS conferences vs. journals