On fan mail, a polar vortex, and Southern comforts

1. I got a short, charming fan letter the other day, and if you’ve ever been on the receiving end of an unexpected — and genuine — compliment I don’t have to explain how GREAT it is. This one came from a Miami writer named Mia Leonin and in addition to saying kind things about the Soup & Bread Cookbook (which I’m still not sure how she stumbled upon) she enclosed a copy of a prose poem she had written called, serendipitously, “Soup and Bread,” published in her 2008 collection Unravelling the Bed.

With her permission I’m attaching it here (Soup and Bread), because I thought it was beautiful. Thank you, Mia. And, I urge the rest of you: If you appreciate the work someone is doing, take a sec and let them know. It’s free!

2. OK now, down to business. Soup & Bread 2014 kicked off in style January 8  … or so I hear, because I missed it. The perfect storm of the polar vortex, a nor’easter, and newly stringent FAA work rules for pilots left me stranded out of town, far, far away from the soup. Don’t hate me Chicago, but it was somewhere warm.

Many, many thanks to Sheila Sachs for picking up my slack, to Bethann Hester for photo and chauffeur services, to Stan Wood for stepping in as DJ at the last minute when Mary Nisi had to cancel, and to all the soup cooks: Bonnie Tawse, Diane Galleher, Mana Food Bar chef Jill Barron, hosts of WBEZ’s Chewing the Fat podcast Monica Eng and Louisa Chu, Blue Sky Bakery, and Grind Cafe‘s Tara Swadley. I asked the cooks to let me know how it went, and Bonnie — who made Arroz a la Tumbada, from an early Rick Bayless recipe — sent these notes:

“My two cents is that everyone in the room, both soup servers and people coming to eat soup, were THRILLED to be out of their own abodes but somewhere warm, cozy, lively. The theme of Fire and Ice couldn’t have been more fitting as we were all emerging from the Polar Vortex. People were just so grateful. IMHO Louisa gets the award for most interesting soup. It had ramen, American cheese, kim chi, it was wild and people were digging it. Had a fun name to boot, something like Korean General’s Soup.”

I am, needless to say, crushed to have missed all this.

Christa Creps, from the free Community Dinners program at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Logan Square, couldn’t make it either (their meal happens inconveniently at the same time as ours), but we’ll be sending her a check for just over $600 thanks to everyone’s very generous donations.

3. And now, on to next week, when our theme is “Southern Comforts.” We’ve got the Butcher & Larder, Chicagoist editor Chuck Sudo, The Trust for Public Land‘s Rich Kinczyk, From Belly to Bacon‘s Mark Smrecek, Tangleweed‘s Paul Wargaski, and occupational therapist Mary Black on the soup crocks. We’ve got Lawrence Peters in the DJ booth and bread from PQM and Crumb in the bread baskets. And this week’s donations benefit the Marjorie Kovler Center. That’s at the Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, 5:30-8 pm on Wednesday, January 15. We hope to see you there!

Posted: Sunday Jan 12,2014 01:34 PM In Event Schedule