I’m lying in bed at 5 a.m. on a Friday morning, unable to get back to sleep, with a day of looming ahead of me, and I realize that, since moving to Gatineau from Montreal 3 years ago, I haven’t made a friend to make soup with this Sunday.
The thing is, I have no Sunday plans. Back in Montreal, that would mean that I’d fill the day by taking my biking or metro-ing to Jean-Talon market, loading up on discount vegetables and fruits, and shlepping it all home in an oversized backpack to Point-Saint-Charles to make heaps of food. In Gatineau, I might head to Landsdowne Market for very expensive but still delicious veggies, but there’s a car requirement because buses would take over an hours. Not that different, minus the carbon footprint, but what happens after is.
In Montreal, I’d have at least four or five people who I could message a day or two before and say, “Want to make soup on Sunday??” and I’d likely get at least one yes. So here I am, lying in bed at 5 a.m., realizing that I don’t have a soup-making friend after 3 years in Gatineau, and feeling a little like a friendship failure.
Don’t get me wrong, I have good friends here. I’ve got super-smart lawyers for friends, amazing climbers, Type-A medical folks and natural wine-lovers, but when I think about someone to make 4 litres of mushroom soup or minestrone with homemade pesto, I’m at a blank. Most just wouldn’t be available a day or two in advance, what with their families and triathlon training (neither of which I have here, which you may view as a blessing or a curse, depending on your relationship with siblings and cold water).
So, for now, I’ll make soup on my own, I guess. Maybe for me, soup friends are just the kind of friend that it takes time to make. It took me maybe 5 or 10 years to make a real soup friend in Montreal, I think. Why should it take me less here, especially when people are older and have their own friends and families to make soup with already? Patience, I suppose, is required.
But you… maybe you already have a soup friend, you lucky reader. Or maybe, like me, you’ll be making soup on your own this weekend, either reluctantly or by choice.
In any case, I have soup recipes for you. Plenty of chopping for a friend of a food processor, essentially the same thing (if it’s a good friend). In any case, hope your weekend is delicious.
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