Souper advice for cold, cold weather

Good morning — are you buried under three blankets huddled beside your oil-filled radiator heater, or is that just me? Tonight, it’s going to get down to 41 degrees. Frankly, I moved here to sunny SoCal from the frigid Central Coast, and I want my money back. 

Folks who just rolled their eyes, that’s a joke; we’re lucky to have walls around us at all. 

OK, second question: Have you been acquainted with one of the several nasty nasties infecting seemingly everyone lately? I don’t know about you, but I just barely stopped coughing and hacking last week from a mystery respiratory bug I caught in early December. That one rendered me horizontal for days and days.

Many others I know are still catching either COVID, RSV, the flu or something else we don’t yet know about. Some are struggling with the lingering symptoms, and the rest of you are trying like hell to avoid it all. 

So, where am I going with this? Soup and places to keep warm this week, obviously.

Soup, curry and other spicy delights

We’ll begin with something warm to fill our bellies, but please friends, order takeout or have a saintly friend deliver if you are sick or even have the beginnings of a pesky sore throat — stay your butt home. 

During the cold seasons, I am partial to soups of the Vietnamese and Thai variety. Why? Because they’re herbaceous, can be ordered spicy, they’re pretty healthy and ridiculously delicious.

I’ll start with Thai. While I’m a huge fan of and would recommend Thai District, Long Beach Thai and Thai Curry Pizza & Thai Cuisine every day of the week, I’m going to recommend Rim Talay. It’s Naples’ newest restaurant, which opened quietly over the summer. And I recommend it simply because it’s good (I’m picky) and I hope it will stay open.

When Thai Gourmet closed several years back, the area went through a rather dark chapter, with hardly any Asian cuisine (except sushi) available for a corridor with the nickname “Restaurant Row.” Now, Belmont Shoreans and Napleites can enjoy Mangosteen, Rakkan Ramen, Northern Cafe and Rim Talay (“By the Sea”). 

The Green Curry, Drunken Noodles, Tom Yum, Tom Kha (coconut soup) and Pad Woon Sen are all wonderful and will warm you up if you order them spicy (“Thai-spicy” if you’re looking to break a sweat). For me, it’s the Tom Yum Noodle Soup (a standing chef’s special) that stole the show. Note: Everything on the menu can be made vegetarian. 

Moving onto Vietnamese, there’s no better way to kick your immune system into gear (IMO) than to indulge in a giant bowl of hot pho. I’m going to admit straight away that I may not have the best recommendations as to what is considered the best pho institution in Long Beach, simply because I tend to gravitate toward several small strip mall gems over in Orange County (will share in another newsletter). 

In Long Beach, my long-standing favorite has been Pho Long Beach, over in the Wrigley neighborhood. You simply can’t go wrong. When I used to eat meat, my staple was the noodle pho with rare steak for $12.50 (a steal). Lately, however, I’ve been going to Mangosteen in Belmont Shore, a new-ish but reliably good pho plug. Plus they have a lengthy vegetarian and vegan menu offering mock beef, pork, salmon and chicken. The vegetarian pho is gigantic ($13). It has tofu, tons of veggies and of course, a pile of herbs and other goodies on the side to mix in — mint, basil, lime, sprouts, jalapenos and more.

Where do you go for your pho? (If you heard a rhyme in your head, you’re pronouncing it wrong) Email me your recommendations. 

Warm and cozy theaters

Now that our bellies are full of soup, herbs, curry and spicy things, we’ll head to the theater. When the cold snap began last week, I didn’t quite know what to do with myself, so, naturally I stayed home buried beneath three blankets beside my old space heater (if you have central heating, you are blessed). But on Monday night, I ventured out to the movies in my coziest attire (after eating aforementioned soup of course).

After settling into the oversized reclining seats over at AMC Marina Pacifica, I thought, this must be the place. Full disclosure, I watched “Poor Things” and absolutely adored that trip, but be warned, it is R rated and they really meant it, so probably don’t take your grandparents to this one. The film is also showing at the Art Theatre on Retro Row all this week and next. Find showings here.

You can also watch an 11 a.m. matinee, “Gumby: The Movie,” this weekend (Jan. 13 and 14) at the Art Theatre, the city’s last standing independent (and only nonprofit) movie house. 

A place to sweat

Here’s perhaps a weird one, but I’m simply sharing my own, personal cold-day itinerary and this last step certainly melts the ice for me. Before, between or after bowling for soup and movie-watching, I need to get my body moving to really feel good about myself. 

This wretched weather has absolutely killed my motivation to go out on a morning or evening walk or jog, so, I’ve been going to hot yoga (not bikram). Personally, I am a huge fan of hot weather. Born in the summertime, I find myself yearning for that all-enveloping warmth (and even tropical humidity). Since that isn’t an option at the moment, I have found myself flocking to a place where I can enjoy artificial tropics. 

There are many studios in the city that offer heated yoga classes, but my loyalties lie with Ra Yoga over at the Long Beach Exchange. It’s a wee bit expensive, but for newcomers, they offer two weeks of unlimited classes for $35. They have a whole range of classes for any level of experience from meditation and restorative classes to the extremely active vinyasa and yogalates classes. 

Happy sweating and souping. 

Where do you flock to during the cold months (aside from your couch)? Email me, tell me your winter secrets.