Summer noodle bowl from the Humble Kitchen, a food cart serving Vietnamese street food in the Harmony parking lot, Brattleboro Vermont

Yesterday Shannon suggested take-out food from Brattleboro's newest restaurant, The Humble Kitchen.  It's a food cart in the Harmony parking lot that serves Vietnamese street food, sourced locally where ever possible.

Wow, is it delicious and worth the trip, even if you're travelling from NH,  MA or anywhere in Southern Vermont.

Fried mango wontons with a sugar lime sauce might sound a little exotic but you have to try them.  I can't even begin to describe how wonderful they are.

In addition they have specialty dishes for meat lovers, vegetarians and vegans, like the  Banh Mi sandwich, Hot Noodle Soup, Summer Noodle Bowl and a salad with local greens & ginger-lime or toasted sesame vinaigrette.

Today was opening day for The Humble Kitchen and by all accounts they had a nice turnout of support from the community.  If you live in the Southern Vermont area, be sure to take advantage of this great opportunity to enjoy authentic fresh, Vietnamese cuisine.  I guarantee you'll be glad you did.

Vermont Woods Studios Fine Furniture

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So why wood?  I mean you could eat off a glass top table or a metal table or even a plastic table.  I think for many people, wood makes an important emotional connection that maybe we're not even consciously aware of.  A customer recently told me she came to us because of the natural, organic apsect of our wooden furniture.  She said that trees are actually a source of spiritual sustenance and renewal for her. I was thinking about that and came across this passage about trees written by woodworker and naturalist Brian Clifford:

A tree is a thing of beauty and wonderment, huge, but full of life and movement. A deciduous tree is the embodiment of the changing seasons: a stark framework in winter, bursting life in spring, a vast green canopy in summer and the bearer of seeds and fruit in the autumn. It is the embodiment of man's condition: birth, life, death, regeneration and rebirth.

I'm not sure people choose wood for their dining and kitchen tables for reasons quite that deep, but I love reading Brian's thoughts and philosophy about the relationship between trees and man.  He notes that our ancestors evolved in trees:

The period our ancestors spent in the trees was of great formative importance; this was the environment in which man's basic structures, brain, sense organs, limbs and reproductive system, evolved. In response to the exigencies of living in trees the animal's paws were modified into members able to grip: the claws atrophied, the digits lengthened, and an opposed thumb developed. The eyes became larger and moved towards the front of the head providing three-dimensional vision. In concert with these bodily changes, and their application in confronting the dangers in the tree tops, the creature's brain developed new features and increased in power.

Ha!  It seems we owe our brain power to trees.  I bet you never thought of that as the reason you were shopping for a wood dining table today.

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