A Day in Rockville, Maryland (January 2026)

We spent a day in Rockville, Maryland, to eat and go to a Turkish lamp making class.

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If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

Ever since I studied abroad in South Korea in the summer of 2024, I’ve been trying to write blog posts for the little things I do, even if it’s going across town for a fun little day. When I was studying abroad in Busan my Korean teacher would show us these Naver (a Korean search engine) blogs random people would make documenting visiting parks or bakeries, and I loved that energy.

I think the Internet is a cluttered place, so even if no one reads this at the end of the day, it’s a cute little time capsule for as long as we have electricity—or my credit card stops paying for this domain. Our blog post today actually is kind of sponsored by my sister!

For Christmas in 2025 she gifted my mother, sister, and I two things: tickets to see Wicked at the Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore, and attendance for a Turkish lamp making class at Mosaic Art Studio in Rockville. We saw Wicked at the beginning of the month, and by the time the end of January rolled around, it was time go head off and make our lamps.

So we got into the car and drove to Rockville for the class. More on that in a bit, as we get into the blog post. I don’t particularly live close to Rockville so whenever we do get the chance to go there, we try and stop at as many places as we can, especially if where we live doesn’t offer those kinds of foods or stores.

Let’s get into the blog post! I don’t want the introduction to be too long.

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A Turkish lamp making class at Mosaic Art Studio is perfect for a date or girls’ day.

We started the day off by driving straight to Mosaic Art Studio for our 11 AM Turkish lamp making class. We sat down at one of the big tables, then after more people trickled in we began the class at 11:05 AM. We had two lovely instructors for our class, and it was a packed house. Every seat at the tables was filled.

The class lasts two and a half hours and works in phases. First the instructors give a basic overview of what Turkish lamp making is like, and tells you about the materials you should have in your box. Phase one of the class is designing. Basically, you have a bunch of different shaped and colored tiles in front of you.

They give stencils for what the designs could look like, which is what I largely followed. I went for a blue and white aesthetic mainly, but mixed in some mirror shards and pink/green tiles when I felt like a pop of color was needed.

Phase two is when you actually glue the beads on the orb. I thought this was a lot easier than expected, especially considering how hard it seemed in theory. Basically you smear a solid amount of glue around on a section and work your way from the inner part of the design to the outer.

Phase three is when you select the beads you want. I wanted the multicolored beads because I had a specific vision of what my orb could look like. Something I learned after the at-home step, grouting, though is that you want a lot of beads in this part. My sister and I did not put enough, and when you go to grout the lamp, you’ll find that beads will fall off. So put a little extra than what you might think you need.

We were given a tiny cup of çay, or tea, and a Turkish delight. Those were fine, but I thought the class overall was really fun. I even recommended it to my friend right after the fact, especially considering it seemed like it would be something she would enjoy.

The Thai Cuisine Restaurant had a khao soi so good I knew I wanted to come back immediately.

Once our Turkish lamp class finished, we gathered back in the car and drove fifteen minutes to our lunch spot: a modest, unassuming spot called Thai Cuisine Restaurant. I had found it on Google and thought it had pretty high reviews and a good menu.

When we arrived around 2PM, almost every table was full of families and friends gathering for a meal. The waiter kindly asked if we wanted to wait for a table closer to the back, away from the door, and we were seated within five minutes. They cleaned off the table and handed us our menus.

I knew going in that I wanted to eat a khao soi, but when I saw they had a beef one then I was pumped. I was used to chicken khao soi before this moment, but I wanted to try the beef. And when I say that blew me out of this world, I definitely think I mean it. That was the best khao soi I’ve ever had.

I even took home the leftover broth and made an excellent lunch out of it the next day for work. I added my own noodles, beef slices, and vegetables for the perfect meal to heat up in the break room. The waiter was very kind as well and made sure we were comfortable and had everything we needed, which was always great to see. We all enjoyed our food a lot.

Japong Bakery, Yasaman, and HeyTea are all a great combo for sweet treats and drinks.

Our next stop was Japong Bakery, a Taiwanese bakery my sister wanted to go to. I was pleasantly surprised that most of the items in there were under $4, with many of the items I picked out being about $2.50. I bought seven items for $18, which blew my mind. I enjoyed everything I got, with my personal favorite being their chocolate croissant and the ube cake, but the rest of my family was lukewarm about the items they got.

We then headed to Yasaman Bakery across the plaza, which is an Iranian bakery we’ve been to before. We picked up some Iranian style cream puffs for my father, then headed back to our car for the final destination: HeyTea. I’m a HeyTea addict from the sheer amount of times I’ve gone in New York City.

This time, though, I wanted to try their jasmine tea with the pistachio cream on top. My mother ordered a brown sugar boba, while my sister got another jasmine tea. We ended up waiting about twenty minutes for our drinks, which is a long time, but the cashier did warn us about the wait.

We all enjoyed our drinks on the way home. I thought the jasmine tea was really good, but the mango coconut boom is the #1 drink in my heart.

After that we wrapped up for the day. It was such a great time overall. I love being able to visit Rockville when I have the chance!

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