Campbell’s was right, soup is good food.
Alright, maybe not the kind that comes from a can, but the warming,
sustaining meals-in-a-bowl available locally that take you far
away from the chilly gray streets of Brooklyn, and return you,
invigorated, with a new appreciation for this multi-ethnic borough.
Start near the bridges at Brawta, a Boerum Hill cafe where you
can enjoy the distinct, exotic flavors of authentic Jamaican
food in a hip, candlelit dining room. Brawta owner Jennefier
Ewers points out the merging of Spanish and African influences
in the typically Jamaican red pea soup ($4).
The fragrant soup is crowded with red peas (beans), lima beans,
regular and sweet potatoes, pumpkin, peppers and coconut milk.
In addition to the lightly sweet flavor of coconut there’s a
savory sweetness from scallions and the woodsy note of thyme.
A dense dumpling of flour and cornmeal guarantees that this jam-packed
soup will stick to your ribs.
On the other end of the spectrum is congee, a Chinese rice porridge
that can be as simple as rice and water. Head to Sunset Park’s
Chinatown, where pork and preserved egg congee is dished out
from stands on the street during lunch, and other varieties are
served all day at Yat Sik Ka Tea House. The creamy porridge is
as soothing as mother’s milk, and a garnish of bright ginger
and crisp scallion provides the perfect contrast.
Congee additions include a choice of lettuce, fish, beef, chicken,
frog, or – though I don’t know anyone who’s tried it – pork blood.
Despite my distrust of comfort food with little bones, I love
the sliced fish congee ($2.50). The white slices of rich, firm-fleshed
fish become silken in the soup.
Surprisingly, fish is not an ingredient in two of the borough’s
best beach soups. In Brighton Beach, the warmest place to enjoy
the view is from Volna Cafe on the boardwalk, over bowls of either
mushroom soup or borsht ($4 each). Watch the parade of fur hats
and coats on the boardwalk as you relish the Russian soups.
Mushroom soup is salty and hearty, full of barley, carrots, celery,
white beans and mushrooms and flavored with dill. Mix in a dollop
of sour cream and dunk rye bread in the broth for a rich savory
meal. Or opt for the sweeter side of soup with vibrant beet-and-tomato
borsht, thick with potatoes and cabbage, also floating with dill
and sour cream. And if you’re inspired by all that ocean, smoked
and pickled fish makes an appropriate accompaniment.
To really feel like you’re on a trip, drive along Hamilton Avenue
toward the entrance to the Battery Tunnel. At the last moment,
turn right onto Columbia Street and enter the world of The Tunnel
Cafe in the Columbia Street Waterfront District. When traveling
in Turkey I made many a midnight meal of lentil soup at roadside
restaurants. Eating lentil soup ($3) at this Middle Eastern cafe
brings me right back.
Monday through Saturday, until 1 am, several tables are occupied
by tea-sipping men smoking water pipes or talking on cell phones.
Sure the creamy lentil soup is superb at Park Slope’s three branches
of the Olive Vine Restaurant, and it even comes with freshly
made pita, but I’ll settle for store-bought bread in exchange
for the strange, phantom tollbooth setting and calm, warm, yet
impenetrable ambiance of The Tunnel Cafe. The soup is the same
as it was in Turkey, its smoothly leguminous flavor imbued with
the dusky scent of cumin, sweetened with caramelized onions and
offset by a squeeze of lemon juice.
Sitting down to a lunch of soup can be transporting at the same
time that it is nourishing. There are soups right here in Brooklyn
that will make you feel like sending postcards home: ’Darling,
am slurping noodles at the counter of a steam-filled lunch spot.
There must be 20 ducks hanging in the window. Wish you were here.’
Sure, the soups you know and love are comfort food, but soup
can also be intrepid – and cheap! – making it a low-risk way
to explore the flavors of an unfamiliar cuisine. Sampling some
unusual soups is like touring the kitchens of Brooklyn’s grandmothers.
While a bowl of soup may be strikingly different from one restaurant
to the next, the sense of wellbeing it offers is the same. And
on a miserable rainy day, there is nothing more cheering.
Call in advance to be sure a specific
soup will be available. Brawta Caribbean Cafe, 347 Atlantic Ave.
at Hoyt Street, (718) 855-5515; Yat Sik Ka Tea House, 5414 Eighth
Ave. between 54th and 55th streets, (718) 972-4971; Volna Cafe
& Restaurant, 3145 Brighton Fourth St. at the boardwalk,
(718) 332-0341; The Tunnel Cafe, 323 Columbia St. at Hamilton
Avenue, (718) 694-9205; and Olive Vine Restaurants, 131 Sixth
Ave. at Park Place, (718) 636-4333, 441 Seventh Ave. at 15th
Street, (718) 499-0555, and 81 Seventh Ave. at Union Steet, (718)
622-2626.
