Tilda learns to love pho

One of the Dearest Partner's most endearing qualities is his openness to new things. A few months ago, seemingly out of the blue, he had a hankering to try the Vietnamese soup called pho. We watched videos to learn the correct way to pronounce it ("fah") and to ingest it (with chopsticks and a spoon/ladle combo). Slurping, we learned, is acceptable.
I went on social media to look for restaurant recommendations, and it turns out there is a place called Pho Now fairly close by, between Coatesville and Downingtown on Business Route 30, in the Caln Village Shopping Center. Between COVID lockdowns 1 and 2, we visited twice for dinner and had terrific meals. 

Pho is a mixture of rich broth, rice noodles, green onions and cilantro, along with your choice of very thinly sliced meat or fish. They give you a plate full of bean sprouts, basil sprigs, lime wedges and hot peppers to mix in to your liking, as well as a spicy dark sauce. It's fragrant and pungent, but you can control the spiciness. The bowls are big enough that you can take home fully half the soup as a doggy bag.

While eating, we noticed that the place was doing a pretty good takeout business. One fellow came into the restaurant and the owner looked up and said, "Brian? Takeout?" The man was baffled: yes, his name was Brian, but he hadn't even ordered yet. A few minutes later the real Brian came in to pick up his order and they laughed about the mix-up.

Pho Now also offers an extensive menu of dishes and beverages we haven't tried but will. The owner is welcoming and delightful and grateful for the business in this tough business climate. It was close to the freezing mark when we visited for dinner the second time, and I told him that pho was a perfect meal for a chilly night.

He corrected me: "Pho perfect every night!"

Pho Now is at 3911 West Lincoln Highway, Downingtown. The menu and contact information are on Facebook.

Our COVID Christmas tree

Our quest for a Christmas tree on Saturday did not go as planned -- but, really, what has in this topsy-turvy year? 

First we visited the annual Boy Scout Troop 53 tree sale outside the New Garden Giant -- but it wasn't there. I don't know if they had sold all their trees or if COVID had discouraged them. (Fortunately, we were able to support the Cub Scouts a few weeks earlier, buying wreaths from their stand at Barnard's Orchards.)

I'd driven past the Avon Grove Lions tree sale in Jennersville, so that was our next stop. Again: no trees, no Lions (we discovered later they had sold all their trees; good for them!).

Time to reboot and fortify ourselves with McRib sandwiches in the car while watching the sun setting over Jenner's Pond (they were meh at best, but we were curious to learn what all the fuss was about; kind of like eating fried Oreos at the Cecil County Fair). I had seen people online talking about Clark's Tree Farm, and it was close by (on Pusey Mill Road in Cochranville), so we headed over there. Almost unbelievably, we saw two friends in the parking lot -- worth a mention in these days of social distancing!

We went into the gift shop and Dearest Partner asked about the procedure for finding and buying a tree, and the employee filled us in. So we headed out to the tree field and after some debate selected a tree that was perfect in shape, fullness and height. I stood there while D.P. fetched an employee with a saw. We carried the tree to the "corral," where it was measured (they charge by the foot), and then we paid inside the gift shop. 

The guy who seemed to be in charge told us a funny story about some customers earlier in the day who purchased a towering 18-foot-high tree and hauled it off in a Ford F150 pickup, well strapped down. He was tickled that they later sent him a photo showing the tree inside the house.

We were fortunate to have an unseasonably warm day to buy and set up the tree -- usually it's freezing!