curry

soup today was coconut chicken and red curry. it wasn't even close to being spicy enough, but the flavour was right and it was sprinkled with large clumps of chopped cilantro leaves, vermicelli, and roast chicken. what it tasted like more than any other thing was laksa -- all that was missing was the handful of thick rice-flour noodles and a sprinkle of chopped laksa leaf (Persicaria odorata, related to buckwheat and also known as vietnamese mint even though it is nothing of the sort).

soup and sandwich

'soup and a sandwich' may be the most riffed-upon comfort food theme i know. thomas keller's version is now famous and features a cup of early-girl tomato water and a brioche toast sandwich stuffed with aged farmhouse cheddar. baudrillard would be proud. today, in no-name, i saw a tray of what looked like toasted rice cakes. i figured they were croutons and got a cup of ramp and potato soup (like a hot vichyssoise, but better -- ramps are garlic greens and have that same spicy aromaticity as garlic but with a more vegetal overtone) and put one in it. john came up behind me and suggested that i try one on it's own: it turned out to be a circular sandwich of thin-sliced brioche and cowgirl creamery goat cheese, toasted and then brushed with clover stornetta butter infused with butter.