This post is a mix of comments from North Carolina, a recent novel, and a note about spring in Manhattan.
DINING IN THE TRIANGLE
Taste Vietnamese Cuisine, Morrisville, NC
The Chief Penguin and I regularly join the Adventurous Eaters group for lunch at a different restaurant each month. Our area is home to a wide variety of ethnic restaurants, and it’s fun to explore a new place without having to navigate there ourselves.
Taste Vietnamese Cuisine is a small eatery that graciously accommodated our gang of twelve. Menu offerings ranged from rolls to start—spring, shrimp, and summer ones; several choices of pho (Vietnamese soup with rice noodles and meat); sandwiches (banh mi); and entrees such as the Saigon Special which included a sample of almost everything!
I opted for a straightforward and tasty chicken BBQ banh mi with the customary carrots, cucumber, daikon, and jalapeno slices, while the CP enjoyed chicken pho with bean sprouts and jalapenos. Everyone was pleased with the food and appreciated the friendly service. We’d happily return to try more dishes.
NEW FICTION: ON AN ENGLISH FARM
Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall
Broken Country is Clare Leslie Hall’s first book published in the United States. She’s also written several thrillers published in the U.K. Set in rural North Dorset, England, this book’s bucolic setting masks the backbreaking work of life on a farm. There are lambs to birth and always fences that need fixing. Hall’s writing here is lovely and feels true.
The novel moves back and forth in time from Before to the late 1960’s. Beth and Frank and his younger brother Jimmy have known each other for years and been friends. Gabriel, from a wealthy family, is a bit older and an aspiring writer. He and Beth fall in love, and she hopes to join him at university when she’s of age.
After their unexpected break-up, Beth agrees to marry farmer Frank and they have a son Bobby. Some years later, Gabriel, divorced with a son of his own, returns to Dorset and he and Beth re-connect. Her marriage is tested, tension builds, and there is violence and then a death.
The book is told almost exclusively in Beth’s voice and from her perspective. How can she be involved with two such very different men? There are twists and turns in these very human relationships, some predictable, others not. For me, the ending combined grace and forgiveness with resolution. Broken Country is a Reese’s Book Club title. Recommended! (~JWFarrington)
ON TO THE BIG APPLE
As is our custom, we headed north to Manhattan a few days ago. From gloriously blooming spring in North Carolina to early spring in New York. The trees here have not yet fully leafed out and are mostly soft green. Tulips abound in sidewalk beds and up and down Park Avenue. Red, yellow, or pink, they are fully open, but not yet past their prime. It’s a lovely time of year.
Note: Header photo of the soft colors of early spring in Manhattan by JWFarrington, tulips by GC.
