Categories
Chester County Exton Reviews

Asian Grocery Store – Review

Logan & Madison looking at Dried Mushroom
Logan & Madison looking at Dried Mushroom

The Asian Grocery Store is located in the Marchwood Shopping Center in Exton, just off of Route 100.

I do not know how long my parents have been going there, but definitely before I was born.

There are many things you can get there, and even my dad does not know what most of the stuff in the store is, because most things are written in Chinese, but we do get this stuff on most of our trips.

Nori Snacks

I remember my Dad buying the green seaweed, and bringing it home. I could not believe he was eating seaweed, but one day, I decided to try it. After I tried a nori strip, I really liked it, because I like the taste of salty stuff, and even my brother, Logan, enjoys eating nori!

Rice Sprinkle

Both my parents have been making rice for as long as I can remember, and during one visit to the Asian Grocery store, we found this stuff that you sprinkle over your rice.

We got the rice sprinkle, then the next time we had rice, we put it on the rice, and my brother and I ended up liking it!

There are three types of the sprinkle, the flavors are:

Nori Komi Furikake (Blue Label) – Which has in it: sesame seeds, salt, sugar and seaweed.

Wasabi Fumi Furikake (Green Label) – Which has sesame seed, horse-radish, shaved bonito, Japanese mustard plant, sugar, seaweed, soy sauce, salt, and cooking rice wine in it.

Ebi Fumi Furikake (Red Label) – Which has in it sesame seed, shrimp (ebi), potato starch, seaweed, sugar, salt, and dried yolk powder.

I like the Nori Komi Furikake, but the Ebi Fumi Furikake would have to be my favorite, because I love shrimp! And I would like to try the Wasabi Fumi Furikake, but I am scared of the wasabi being too hot!

Madison and Logan looking at ginger
Madison & Logan looking at ginger

Soy Sauce

My mom loves soy sauce, more than my dad, so I saw her putting it on her rice a lot!

I did not want to try soy sauce, because the dark color kind of scared me, and I was not really sure what to put it on, but then one time at China Grill, when we were having sushi, my dad had a bowl of plain soy sauce, which he finally got me to try with my finger tip.

And at first I didn’t know what to think of the taste but, once I tasted it again I liked it!

Then my dad had me try the soy sauce on rice, then I tried it on sushi on my own, and that was awesome!

Pocky Sticks

Well I kind of discovered Pocky Sticks on my own! What they are, are biscuit sticks covered in flavored cream. There are two flavors Chocolate and Strawberry, but if you want more crunch to your Pocky sticks you can get chocolate cream and peanuts, but if you’re allergic you can get strawberry cream with strawberry pieces!

Noodles

At Asian Grocery when you get there if you go to the aisle farthest from the register you will be surrounded by plenty of types of noodles!

One of my favorites is Ramen noodles, especially the chicken flavored, but in this house we have a special name for Ramen noodles we call them “Daddy Noodles”!

I came up with that name when I was younger. How I came up with the name is the only two words I knew at the time, where “Daddy” and “noodles”, so I put them together, and came up with “Daddy Noodles”!

One time when I was in Daycare, they asked me what was my favorite food, and I said “Daddy Noodles”, and at the end of the day, my teacher had to ask what “Daddy Noodles” were, because they had no idea what I was talking about!

There are noodles made out of all sorts of things, like rice and beans. On our last trip we got invisible noodles, that are made out of mung beans, which we have not tried yet, but hope to soon.

Wasabi

Logan & Madison looking at deserts
Logan & Madison looking at deserts (Moon cakes)

My dad introduced me to wasabi at China Grill!

At first I didn’t know about it, but that day we had bacon wrapped crab, so when my dad wanted me to try wasabi, I took a tip of a toothpick, and it set my mouth on fire! Then my dad had me try wasabi in soy sauce. Then I thought that my tongue would feel really weird, but I tried it, and it was delicious! The soy sauce really took away a lot of the hot and spiciness!

In the Future

Right now we are working on my brother’s adventure into asian food!

Thank you’s

Just a quick “Thank you” to my new readers for inspiring me to keep blogging!

Updates

2012 July 10 – Published as “8-Year-Old Foodie Reviews Asian Grocery in Marchwood Shopping Center” on the ExtonDish.com.

– M ;  }
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Categories
4th of July Chester County Downingtown Events Holidays Photo Journal Photography

2012 Downingtown Fireworks

Images taken during the 2012 Downingtown Fireworks in Chester County, PA.

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– Andrew
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Categories
Blogging Chester County clouds Equipment Filters Gadgets Lionville Nature Photo Journal Photography Tone Mapping

First Day with ND 3.0 10-stop filter

As part of “Daddy Day Camp”, I took the kids up to Lionville Elementary School to practice their biking riding, in prep for taking off the training wheels.

We first started in the upper play ground, and after parking, I unloaded the bikes, and the kids were gone. I had to coach them a little, but with the follow-up tweaks after Sunday’s outing, both kids were doing much better.

Now I was able to grab my tripod and camera and set up for some shooting.

The wind was rather gusty, and was really nicely formed white clouds against a very deep blue sky, and I had my new filter… Tee hee! wink… wink…

With my first few shots, I felt like a complete amateur, because as I would set one thing that, I’d forget about something else, and the shot would be blown, but I got into a rhythm and finally began to click off some shots.

Long exposure 019 – Take of the intersection of Rt 113 and Devon Drive.
Long exposure 022 – Taken from the outfield of one of the Baseball diamonds.
Long exposure 024 – Taken of the Main School Building
Long exposure 035 – Tennis Practice

Most of these pictures were taken at ISO 100 f22 for 30 seconds to 1 minute, the tennis practice image was around 3 second, using the B+W 58mm 3.0 ND MRC 110M Filter.

At one point, I could hear Logan asking me why I was taking pictures of cars, as I set up for my shot looking north on Route 113 with the Devon Rd. intersection in the background.

He was very puzzled, and even more so, when I showed him the pictures later during proofing. The cars just disappeared!

While playing with my new filter, it became very apparent to me, that I was going to need to recalibrate my water shots, and how to do my HDR work with so much potential ghosting issues during processing.

But as they say no gain without pain.

So come back again, and see what new things I’ve done with this new filter of mine!

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Categories
Blogging Science

A Basic Ant Lesson

Anatomy of an Ant - antstuff.net
Anatomy of an Ant – antstuff.net

In today’s mini-science lesson…

After lunch, I asked Logan to go check the mailbox, and within a few seconds, he came running back screaming “Sissy, Sissy, come see this!”.

Madison darted out the front door, and after a few seconds, in the distance, I could hear “Daddy! Daddy! Come see this!”.

I exited the house, and see both kids at the end of the driveway looking down, still very excited.

When I got to their location, and looked, I could see a big cluster of small ants that had swarmed for some reason, and I started to explain to the kids, that ants work as a group, and explain the various functions of each group, and what they provided to the colony.

The scout ants go out first, and explore for food, and when they do find food, the scout ants return to the colony, leaving a scent trail for the foraging ants to follow, back to the found food, and with each back and forth from the colony to the food, the scent trail is built up.

In this case, there was no visible reason why the ants had swarmed, but there were two  very distinct tails going in opposite directions, which I followed, and show the kids where the ants where disappearing into the ground.

I also explained that both entrances where most likely part of the same colony, because ants where smart enough to do so, just encase one entrance got destroyed, the ants could escape out the other side. (Being a home owner, the concept of the main colony being in the middle of my driveway entrance was not the most comforting.)

Returning to the main swarm, I asked the kids if they wanted to see something cool, and I proceeded to gently blow on the group, and as I expected the ants started to scatter, to the delight of “That’s cool!” and “Let me try!”.

It was from here I said “I have an idea!”, to which Madison responded, “I don’t like when he says that.”

I went back inside the house, and grabbed a small container of crackers, and returned to the driveway edge.

Breaking the crackers into smaller pieces, I placed the first piece in the center of the main swarm, and as expected the ants started to scatter, but soon where crawling and biting the cracker, trying to break it into smaller pieces to be carried off.

We watched for a few minutes, and because the crackers were orange, it was easy to see some of the ants heading back to the colony.

I also explained that ants were capable of carrying things may times their own size. We also saw several ants working together to carry off larger pieces, and I explained how ants work together for the good of the colony.

After a few more minutes of watching, we went back inside the house to get ready for some soccer, but before we left, Logan insisted that we take another look at the ants.

When we got back to the foot of the driveway, the kids noticed that several of the larger cracker pieces has moved several inches since we had last looked. I was able to point out that their noticing the movement of the crackers was a good observation, and good observations are very important when doing science.

Here is a perfect, innocent way to introduce your kids to the wonders of nature and science.

What started as a routine trip to the mailbox, turned into a basic lesson on ant colonies and how they function, as well as the importance of good observations.

Logan is now obsessed with checking on the ants!

Additional Reading

Ant colony – Wikipedia
10 Fascinating Facts About Ants – About.com

– Andrew
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Categories
Blogging Chester County Exton Restaurant Review

China Grill – Review

MAS writting her review
MAS writting her review

China Grill is an awesome buffet where you can get Chinese food!

My parents tell me, that China Grill was the first restaurant that they took me to, They put me on the table in my baby carrier.

When I got older to eat on my own, I had to use a fork or a spoon, but I now use chop sticks just like my parents! It was hard to learn how to use them.

They also have a lot of sushi! My favorite type of sushi to get there is the avocado, crab/pollock, nori seaweed and orange roe (flying fish eggs) around the outside!

I remember watching my parents putting this brown stuff into a small bowl, and then add this green stuff to it. It looked really yucky!

I now really like soy sauce, and the last time I went, I tried the wasabi, mixed with it and that is good, but can be hot if you are not careful!

My dad has a rule when eating there: “You have to try at least one new thing each time we go”.

One time, my dad made me try these round little balls covered with seeds.

At first, I was not sure, but then I tried one, and it was really good!

I now like the sesame seed balls filled with sweet bean paste!

Trust me they sound weird, but it’s like chocolate inside a sesame ball!

Even I like them, and I’m 8!

There’s a whole little dessert part of the buffet, and sometimes they even have a chocolate fountain on!

There are so many things there to try, and I think you’ll really enjoy it!

– Maddie ; – }
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Update

8-Year-Old Foodie Strikes Again, Reviews China Grill