(no subject)

I have a number of things I'll get to today but most won't be in this post.

Today for lunch I wandered over to the New England Soup Factory a short walk from my workplace. I first encountered a branch of this in Brookline a couple of years ago and found their tuna salad to be a sublime joy. I don't say that lightly about tuna salad.

Today behind the counter was the owner. I didn't recognize her at first as I hadn't seen her in person before, but her picture on an article near the door of the one in Newton showed, yup, it's her.

She greeted me with a cheery smile. When I mentioned I was hungry she said, "Well, you've come to the best place, then!"

I corrected her. "Actually, the best place is my kitchen at home. But this is a very good place."

I broke her stride for only a split second. "You must be an amazing chef then."

"I am," I told her.

She still smiled, a genuine smile of one food-lover to another.

After getting a bowl of chili to supplement the to-be-reheated poached coho salmon in lemon butter sauce, I complimented her tuna salad to the heavens and also made a soup request, for some sort of tomato bisque. And they just might make one.

I do hope to bump into her again. I respect her small chain greatly.