She wasn't necessarily noted for her cooking skills while growing up in Sri Lanka, but Esther Joseph's move to Canada in 1995 changed all that.
With the discovery of the cold winters and her fondness for hearty soups (her favourite growing up was oxtail), she soon got the hang of making them, lots of them, from beef barley to kale and potato.
Like so many enterprising immigrants, Joseph, 42 and single, was eager to start a business in her adopted country. She is now the proud proprietor of Esther's Soup Kitchen in the trendy Bloor Street-Yorkville area of downtown Toronto.
Six days a week, she warms up mainly lunchtime clientele coming in out of the chilly winds, ladling out generous sized bowls of soups costing from $5.50 to $6.65 (tax included) - a bargain in a city known for its expensive restaurants.
"I make about 35 soups, but we switch them every day and have different ones at other times to give my customers more variety," says Joseph, who is one of a family of nine children.
In the winter, she says, she and her staff of four can serve up to 200 patrons during the three-to four-hour lunch period, some takeout, others on the premises.
"It's really funny when some of my customers complain that we are serving them too much soup because invariably the bowl comes back empty," she says, chuckling. "They say, 'We never thought that this soup would taste so good' without milk or cream."
She does not use oil, cornstarch, flour, cream or milk in the soups. So many of her customers must avoid dairy, wheat or fat, she says.
Instead, she thickens soups like broccoli or leek with potato, which she turns into a creamy concoction using an immersion blender. "It looks and tastes creamy without the cream."
With the soup, she serves a selection of breads and crackers.
For those who would rather have something more substantial, the restaurant serves specials like chicken curry, biriyani, salads and sandwiches.
Sometimes customers order soups to take home and freeze for later enjoyment, says Joseph.
In the summer, she serves four cold soups such as gazpacho, spicy mango (the two most favoured) as well as carrot and orange with ginger and cold cucumber. But hot soups remain on the menu because people get cooled down with air conditioning and want something warm to eat.
Another immigrant group featuring soup in their restaurants are the Vietnamese whose specialty is the delicious rice-noodle soup dish known as pho. Pho is served as a bowl of white rice noodles in clear beef, chicken or fish broth with steak, chicken or seafood.
In cities in Canada where immigrants from that country have settled, there will be a number of restaurants to choose from. Most pho restaurants are open long hours because it can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner. The tables have a numbering system and are set with chopsticks, spoons and condiment dispensers.
A recent visit to a pho restaurant on a Saturday noon in Hamilton, Ont., was an intriguing experience. We watched entire families, babies, children, parents and grandparents supping on pho and washing it down with green tea.
The best part of the visit was the check. For two bowls of pho and several pots of tea, our bill came to $12.
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Judy Creighton welcomes letters at 9 Kinnell St., Hamilton, Ont., L8R 2J8, but cannot promise to answer all correspondence personally. She can also be reached by e-mail at jcreighton(at)golden.net.
