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Tuesday, February 8, 2022
The Observer & Baker City Herald
Tomato soup: cold-weather cure-all
TOMATO SOUP
WITH RICE
By KATE KRADER
Bloomberg News
In the dark days of winter, the
feel-better food you want to eat is
a steaming bowl of soup.
This is a food with a long his-
tory of comfort; no less an expert
than Campbell Soup Co. traces
its roots back to 20,000 B.C.,
the approximate date of a soup
bowl found in China. (The pot-
tery fragments had scorch marks
on them, a sign that the soup had
been hot.)
More recently, the aura of
nourishment and convenience that
soup provides was spotlighted
during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the fourth quarter of 2020,
Campbell’s sales rose 52% com-
pared to the previous year, though
they have since retreated closer to
pre-pandemic levels.
Traditionally, chicken soup
has been considered the de
facto cure-all. But Alon Shaya
believes that tomato soup, dotted
with plump grains of rice, reg-
isters even higher on the com-
fort scale. The acclaimed New
Orleans-based chef, whose most
recent opening is Miss River
in the Four Seasons, addressed
the issue in his 2018 cookbook,
“Shaya, An Odyssey of Food, My
Journey Back to Israel: A Cook-
book” (Knopf; $35).
The book features a recipe for
his tomato and rice soup. “People
call chicken soup with rice ‘the
Jewish grandmother’s prescrip-
tion,’ a cure for whatever ails
you,” he writes in the recipe’s
headnote. “This vegetarian ver-
sion may be even more so; it just
makes you feel good.”
Shaya’s tomato soup recipe
comes courtesy of his grand-
mother, Matilda Gerassi. Growing
up in the suburbs of Philadelphia,
he would fake a high temperature
so she would make it for him. “I
would stick the thermometer in
the radiator and then run down
and show it to her. I’d say: ‘Look,
I can’t go to school, can you make
me that soup?’” She also made
Serves 6 to 8
Two 28-ounce cans whole tomatoes, or
4 pounds very ripe tomatoes, cored
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil,
plus more for serving
1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon Morton kosher salt
1 dried bay leaf
1 star anise pod
1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
1/4 cup tomato paste
2 cups water
1/3 cup jasmine rice, or other
long grain rice
Dreamstime-TNS
Tomato soup is a classic winter comfort food.
chicken soup, “but this was the
one I craved.”
The vegan soup employs the
standard ingredients you would
expect: onions, garlic, and toma-
toes, which, at this time of the
year should be good-quality
canned ones. (If you happen to
live in a zone with ripe, fresh
ones, go for it.)
Where his soup becomes a
work of genius is the inclusion of
caramelized tomato paste, which
Shaya calls his secret weapon.
Spoonfuls of the paste are stirred
around with the sautéed onions
and olive oil to caramelize and
magnify the sweet tomato pop.
He also throws a couple uncon-
ventional spices into the pot:
Syrian Aleppo chile flakes, which
have a sharp, bright heat, and star
anise. The tastes bounce around
in your mouth. “I always want to
keep the flavors rolling; a good
way to do that is with spices,”
says Shaya. “You might not know
exactly what you’re tasting, you
just know that it’s interesting.”
As a final soothing touch,
there’s the rice, suspended in the
thick soup.
Shaya has never served the hot
soup at any of his restaurants; he
prefers to make it for friends at
home. He does offer a chilled ver-
sion at Miss River, made with
Creole tomatoes, tomato paste,
and olive oil. This sounds lovely,
but it’s not what you crave on a
chill winter day.
The following recipe is adapted
from “Shaya, An Odyssey of
Food, My Journey Back to Israel:
A Cookbook,” by Alon Shaya.
Put the tomatoes in a blender or
food processor and purée; work in
batches, if necessary. (If using fresh to-
matoes, cut out the cores and coarsely
chop them first.)
Put the olive oil in a large, heavy-bot-
tomed pot over medium heat. Once it’s
warm, add the onion, garlic, and salt. Stir
occasionally so the onion slices sweat and
soften, but don’t let them build any color.
When the vegetables are translucent and
soft, add the bay leaf, star anise, Aleppo,
and sweet paprika. Give everything
a good stir, and toast the spices for a
minute or two until they’re super-fra-
grant. Add the tomato paste and stir to
combine, letting it toast and build flavor
for another couple of minutes.
Add the puréed tomatoes and water,
and turn the heat high. Bring everything
up to a boil, skim off any foam (being
careful not to strain out the spices), and
decrease the heat to medium-low. Cook
for 10 minutes until it’s just starting to
thicken. Meanwhile, rinse the rice in a
sieve until the water runs clear. (Be thor-
ough here, or the starch can gum up the
soup.) Once the soup has thickened a bit,
add the rice to the pot and let it simmer
away, stirring occasionally, until the rice
is cooked — 20 to 30 minutes. Before
you serve the soup, fish out the spices (or
make it a game, and see who finds them
in the bowls). Finish each bowl with a
drizzle of olive oil.
La Grande’s grocery-attracting street corner
GINNY
MAMMEN
OUT & ABOUT
e have now reached
the southwest corner
of Adams and Fir in
downtown La Grande. As men-
tioned before, the earliest busi-
ness located at this site was that of
John H. Childs, a harness maker
called Jack, who listed his address
as 1320 Adams in the 1893 City
Directory. Likely at that time there
were no brick or stone buildings at
this location or at 1318 Adams.
Information regarding later
construction on either of these
two sites is quite elusive. It
appears there was just one struc-
ture that was built serving both
addresses, but I could not find
specific information regarding
when or by whom it was built.
The facade in later years indicated
there was some modification for a
more modern look before 1922.
The large two-story corner
building offered the opportunity
to house a single large business or
several smaller ones at the street
level. This makes for confusion
in determining the occupants, but
my intent is to show how vibrant
and alive this downtown corner of
La Grande was in the early 1900s.
Over the years grocery stores
seemed to gravitate to this area.
According to the 1903 City
Directory there was a business,
La Grande Cash Store, called
Boorey Bros. & Thome, operating
at this location. Proprietors were
Ferdinand Jack Boorey and Edwin
Thomas Thome. Further research
found they were in business here
as early as 1902 selling dry goods
and clothing for the whole family,
as well as offering a full line of
groceries. This tells us there was
a building of substance on the
southwest corner of Adams and
Fir by 1902.
W
Richard Herman-John Turner Collection/Contributed Photo
The corner of Adams and Fir in downtown La Grande. The building was demolished
in 1973.
Because of his health, Thome
left La Grande in June 1904 for
a new home in Utah. By 1910
Boorey had also moved and was
established in the grocery busi-
ness in Los Angeles.
According to Robert Bull, in
his book “Charge It Please,” Dal-
ton’s Cash Store was the occu-
pant of 1318 Adams around 1912
before moving west on Adams
close to the Post Office. By Sep-
tember of 1915 the corner of
Adams and Fir was home to C.J.
Black Grocery, advertised as
‘“The Tru-Blu Grocery.” Pre-
viously in the history of 1316
Adams it was noted that Black
was a partner with Clarence Cum-
mings at that location and bought
him out. He then moved to a new
location which just happened to
be right next door at 1318.
This corner was most known,
however, for the grocery that was
in business here from the late
1920s until 1942 when it moved
to its new location on Spring
Street across from the Presbyte-
rian Church, where it operated for
another 30 years. This grocery
opened first as the Community
Cash Store, later known as Chris’
Food and finally as Hub City
Foods, and was operated by M.M.
“Chris” Christiansen and Wilda,
his wife.
As mentioned before, the
building often had two businesses
sharing space. It has been difficult
to sort out just what business was
where or when, but there are some
that we do know. For example,
Community Cash Store at 1320
Adams shared space in the 1920s
and ’30s with M.J. Goss’s Stude-
baker Dealership at 1318 Adams.
In 1912, when Dalton’s Cash
Store moved from 1318, the busi-
ness replacing it was the L&M
Chili Parlor with Louis Trickle
as proprietor. When Louis left La
Grande, sometime prior to May of
1913, a new shoe-shining parlor
moved in offering a complete line
of fine tobaccos, cigars and ciga-
rettes. Not wanting to forget the
women of La Grande, they adver-
tised that they offered private
chairs for the ladies.
As we look at the proprietors
involved through the years to
get the full picture of just what
made La Grande tick, we find a
true mix of people who made it
happen. Some came for a short
period of time and then moved
to greener pastures. Some were
misfits, but the majority of people
involved were people of integrity,
hard workers and involved in var-
ious community activities.
An example of a misfit was
Louis Trickle, who ran the L&M
Chili Parlor. The M stood for
Mary, his wife. Louis and Mary
left La Grande and moved to Spo-
kane, Washington. In January of
1914 Lewis and Mary went to the
theatre. When they returned to
the home of Mary’s sister, Mary
accused Lewis of eavesdrop-
ping on her conversation with
her sister suggesting that she
was thinking of divorce. Lewis,
being a man who disagreed fre-
quently with his wife, went into
a rage, took a razor and slit her
throat. She was instantly killed.
Lewis tried to slit his own throat
but didn’t succeed. The Observer
later reported that “Trickle was
wiping the blood from her face
when the police arrived.” He told
the police, “I had hoped to get
away without doing it, but I had
to do it.”
An example of the majority
of people was John Henry (Jack)
Childs, who was born in 1858 in
California. In 1886 he married
Laura Stevens in Union County.
For more than 30 years he worked
hard and not only improved his
life, but did the same for La
Grande. He started in the late
1800s as a harness maker, he then
added contractor to his resume
along with house mover.
Jack had a great interest in the
relationship of health and septic
systems. In 1904 he designed a
septic tank for the high school,
which meant that La Grande
would have the first septic sew-
erage tank outside of Portland.
Later he designed and con-
structed the main sewer system
in Enterprise. He put his bid in to
do the one for La Grande but was
outbid by a Portland contractor.
Jack had many interests. He
later opened a general storage
business and because of his
great interest in automobiles
had an extensive collection of
them stored on two levels of this
building. He also bought and sold
Ford cars.
Jack moved back to California
in the late 1910s, and in 1920
wrote to The Observer that he
had “sold his automobile business
in Salinas, California, and for
the present will pick daisies and
have a rip-roaring time in his own
sweet way.” Jack died in 1925 at
the age of 67.
The building at the southwest
corner of Adams was another
piece of history lost in 1973 when
it was demolished for the First
Interstate Bank.
Keep looking up! Enjoy!
———
Ginny Mammen has lived in
La Grande for more than 50 years
and enjoys sharing her interest in
the history of people, places and
buildings.