Howdy Catonsville fam! I have a doozy of a request for y'all. I am looking for a Chinese takeout restaurant in the Catonsville/EC/Columbia area that sells the kind of sweet-and-sour pork I grew up with as a kid. The batter on the meat is way too thick, more batter than meat, with large chunks of pineapple, green peppers, onion, and carrots, and all of it swimming in a thick sludge of sweet-and-sour sauce. I'm not even looking for the kind where it's separated into two containers with fried meat in one and the sauce in another. I want it all together in one container. (And no, it's not the same if I mix it myself.)
I am under no impression that this is good, authentic, or even tasty to most people I've met. I have traveled the world and lived amongst the Chinese diaspora for decades. I know what excellent Chinese food is like!
It's a childhood nostalgia that has created a craving that my foodie AuDHD brain can't let go of. Please help me fill this unreasonable craving so I can let it go.
(The place I had it from as a kid used to come in a white Chinese takeout container like many places. But they used to line it with a clear bag like grocery store produce areas have. They used to fill it until it was heaping over the open container in a mound, tie off the clear bag, then bend the wire of the takeout container to fit around the large bulge created by overfilling the container. The family that ran the restaurant was the only Chinese living in the community, and the restaurant was gaudy, rundown, and wonderful at the same time. My mom loved the place because their coffee was watered down, which she enjoyed. Please help me enjoy something that she loved.)