Soup Diary 100104

Yesterday Tom, Ben, Andromeda and I took a little road trip up to Youngstown and the shores of Lake Ontario. We didn't stay there long, as there was a storm just shy of a blizzard blowing in off the lake, and after about ten minutes of being pummeled by wind and snow we hustled back to the car and, after a few little detours, headed off in search of lunch. We ended up in Lackawanna at a place called Curley's (Sally and Natalie having joined us). Lackawanna is a very blue collar kind of place, famous for its massive Bethlehem Steel plant (now long-closed) and Father Baker's home for wayward youths-- not someplace you'd expect to find a rather high-toned restaurant (especially one called Curley's) that specializes in Caribbean fare. But that's what we found. I had a really good corn-meal crusted chicken sandwich, with a really tangy orange-colored slaw, and a bowl of black bean soup (still trying to shake the cold from our earlier stop at the lake). The soup was not the same as the variety offered at Fables and written up here a couple days ago-- this version was a bit more robust and not as spicy as I anticipated (which actually was a good thing). And best of all, it did warm up my insides when I really needed that. If you're familiar with the geography, you'll recognize that Lake Ontario and Lackawanna are not really all that close together-- but the metaphorical distance between the wind and snow of the former and that bowl of soup at the latter was perhaps even more substantial than can be defined in miles. It was a great example of the context really enhancing the experience.