It used to be that you could go to Cafe Presse and get a $7 bowl of fairy-tale red tomato soup with two slabs of goat cheese floating on two slices of toasted baguette. Then tomatoes went out of season and Cafe Presse’s menu changed, and everyone who loved the tomato soup had to imagine what the replacement, a $7 pureed mushroom-and-pear soup, would taste like. The imagination failed to come up with something that seemed good, and no one ordered it. Then one day someone ordered it and was shocked at how good it was, how salty and un-pear-like, how perfect for winter. It’s served with a hard dollop of cold crème fraîche in the center that spreads outward, galaxy-like, as it gets warm.
Christopher Frizzelle was The Stranger's print editor, and first joined the staff in 2003. He was the editor-in-chief from 2007 to 2016, and edited the story by Eli Sanders that won a 2012 Pulitzer... More by Christopher Frizzelle