Last Saturday, March 7, 2020, my wife Candice and I attended a concert by Marty Stuart and The Fabulous Superlatives at the Lexington Opera House in Lexington, Kentucky. We had bought the tickets several weeks before the corona virus pandemic and seriously considered just eating the price
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| Marty Stuart, Photo by Biography.com |
of the tickets and not going because of the danger of being in a tightly packed crowd in a concert venue like the opera house which is a beautiful but small concert hall which was built and generally intended for performances such as opera, Shakespeare, and small classical music groups. But I consulted with a friend who is a retired doctor with whom I served on a non-profit board for a couple of years. She said that she is currently on immunosupressant treatments and still has not curtailed her activities in public. Let me state, though, that the communication about the corona virus took place more than a week ago and what she said then might well not be what she would say when you read this post. NEVER TAKE ADVICE ABOUT THE CORONA VIRUS FROM ANY SOURCE OTHER THAN THE CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL IN ATLANTA. HERE IS A LINK TO THEIR WEBSITE. Far too much wrong, foolhardy, and deliberately deceptive information about the corona virus is being handed out to the unsuspecting public and has been since a few weeks before the pandemic reached the United States and much of it has originated from the White House.
Now, back to the evening of food and entertainment which is the primary topic of this blog post and was the sole reason we decided to take one last trip abroad from our home before shutting ourselves in as much as possible until the pandemic is brought under control. Both my wife and I have always loved the work of Marty Stuart for many years. He is a musical virtuoso and began earning a living as a road musician before he was a teenager. He plays guitar, mandolin, bass, and fiddle, and could probably learn any other instrument he would choose to devote some time to. He writes and performs in four different categories of music: country, bluegrass, gospel, and rock. He has always had a wonderfully skilled and diverse band as well and they live up to the name The Fabulous Superlatives quite well. Ever person who has ever been a member of the band has played multiple instruments and sung well enough to be featured at times in the act. My one regret in this concert is that we never saw Stuart while Paul Martin was still the bass player. After several years of playing in the band, Martin left the group to perform with his wife and children in a family band. He was replaced by Chris Scruggs, the grandson of virtuoso banjo player Earl Scruggs, who is a tremendous bass player whether he is playing the electric bass or what we Bluegrass fans fondly call the doghouse bass. I do not say this to disparage Scrugg's musical ability in any way but I would have loved to see the band with Martin still in it.
The concert was tremendous and the building was apparently at capacity despite the onset of the corona virus pandemic in Kentucky. Since Candice is in a wheelchair, we were seated at the back of the front seating area in a row which is composed of straight backed chairs which can be moved to accommodate patrons in wheelchairs and might have had a little less contact with other concert goers than was true in any of the regular permanent seats. The concert was billed as a "Pilgrim Concert" which meant that it featured a classic album of Stuart's from several years ago, "The Pilgrim", which has recently been reissued with several additional tracks. The album was written in a form similar to "Tommy" by "The Who", a classic rock opera. The album tells the story of two men and a woman from Stuart's hometown of Philadelphia, Mississippi. It is complex, varied in its musical style and composition, and well worth listening to any time. The story of the people it tells is about a tragic love triangle which results in the public suicide of the man who lost the woman's love. The other man blames himself for the death of his rival and becomes a wanderer across America until he is able to contact the woman, learn that she loves him still, and wants him to return to Mississippi. It is every bit as good a story as "Tommy" and just as pleasurable in a musical sense. If you haven't heard it, listen to it on YouTube. To say the least, we enjoyed the concert tremendously and have not yet shown any symptoms of corona virus although we are still not out of the two week incubation period which might even be a bit longer.
Before the concert, we had a meal at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant, Pho Saigon, in Woodhill Shopping Center just off New Circle Road in Lexington. They serve great, fresh, hot, beautifully presented Vietnamese dishes including pho or Vietnamese soups, hot pot dishes, and noodle dishes. My personal favorite is Shrimp Hot Pot which contains more than half a dozen large shrimp, a rice base, and a belly full of fresh, perfectly cooked vegetables. The secret to a hot pot is that it is served in a ceramic or earthenware oven proof deep dish which is placed in an oven before the dish is placed inside. The rice is layered in the bottom and the pot is hot enough to make the rice adhere to the pot and become slightly carbonized beneath the vegetables, whatever meat you choose, and a wonderful sauce. The pot is so hot when it is served that you cannot touch it and if you take your time eating the last bite will still be hot when you reach the bottom. That is a feat which very few restaurants can pull off successfully. Pho Saigon serves beef, chicken, pork, seafood, and vegetarian dishes and everything I have ever eaten there was well worth having again. And, in what I consider to be a positive sign of any restaurant which is billed as ethnic, when you go in Pho Saigon you will nearly always see other diners who are speaking the native language of Vietnamese. If you hear Italian in an Italian restaurant, or Mandarin in a Chinese restaurant, or the native language in any supposedly culturally based restaurant, you will generally see and eat food which is more authentic than if you did not hear the language. If you have never been in Pho Saigon in Lexington, the next time you are there take a trip to Woodhill and have a wonderful meal. Another aspect of the place which I like a lot is the owner and employees are all friendly, talkative, willing to please, and hard working. The dining room and bathrooms are spotless. The room is large and comfortable and the atmosphere is always open, friendly, and inviting. And if you like Asian foods, there is an Asian food market next door which I suspect is operated by the same owners.
The concert was tremendous and the building was apparently at capacity despite the onset of the corona virus pandemic in Kentucky. Since Candice is in a wheelchair, we were seated at the back of the front seating area in a row which is composed of straight backed chairs which can be moved to accommodate patrons in wheelchairs and might have had a little less contact with other concert goers than was true in any of the regular permanent seats. The concert was billed as a "Pilgrim Concert" which meant that it featured a classic album of Stuart's from several years ago, "The Pilgrim", which has recently been reissued with several additional tracks. The album was written in a form similar to "Tommy" by "The Who", a classic rock opera. The album tells the story of two men and a woman from Stuart's hometown of Philadelphia, Mississippi. It is complex, varied in its musical style and composition, and well worth listening to any time. The story of the people it tells is about a tragic love triangle which results in the public suicide of the man who lost the woman's love. The other man blames himself for the death of his rival and becomes a wanderer across America until he is able to contact the woman, learn that she loves him still, and wants him to return to Mississippi. It is every bit as good a story as "Tommy" and just as pleasurable in a musical sense. If you haven't heard it, listen to it on YouTube. To say the least, we enjoyed the concert tremendously and have not yet shown any symptoms of corona virus although we are still not out of the two week incubation period which might even be a bit longer.
Before the concert, we had a meal at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant, Pho Saigon, in Woodhill Shopping Center just off New Circle Road in Lexington. They serve great, fresh, hot, beautifully presented Vietnamese dishes including pho or Vietnamese soups, hot pot dishes, and noodle dishes. My personal favorite is Shrimp Hot Pot which contains more than half a dozen large shrimp, a rice base, and a belly full of fresh, perfectly cooked vegetables. The secret to a hot pot is that it is served in a ceramic or earthenware oven proof deep dish which is placed in an oven before the dish is placed inside. The rice is layered in the bottom and the pot is hot enough to make the rice adhere to the pot and become slightly carbonized beneath the vegetables, whatever meat you choose, and a wonderful sauce. The pot is so hot when it is served that you cannot touch it and if you take your time eating the last bite will still be hot when you reach the bottom. That is a feat which very few restaurants can pull off successfully. Pho Saigon serves beef, chicken, pork, seafood, and vegetarian dishes and everything I have ever eaten there was well worth having again. And, in what I consider to be a positive sign of any restaurant which is billed as ethnic, when you go in Pho Saigon you will nearly always see other diners who are speaking the native language of Vietnamese. If you hear Italian in an Italian restaurant, or Mandarin in a Chinese restaurant, or the native language in any supposedly culturally based restaurant, you will generally see and eat food which is more authentic than if you did not hear the language. If you have never been in Pho Saigon in Lexington, the next time you are there take a trip to Woodhill and have a wonderful meal. Another aspect of the place which I like a lot is the owner and employees are all friendly, talkative, willing to please, and hard working. The dining room and bathrooms are spotless. The room is large and comfortable and the atmosphere is always open, friendly, and inviting. And if you like Asian foods, there is an Asian food market next door which I suspect is operated by the same owners.
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