Linda Green grew up in Central City watching her great-grandmother make a beef noodle soup with an aroma strong enough to pull neighbors off their porches with empty bowls in their hands. Four generations later, she’s still making it, and the neighbors are still showing up.
Yakamein goes by a few names in New Orleans. The polite one is Old Sober, a nickname earned through decades of mopping up the morning after a Saturday night, or a second-line Sunday, or really any occasion the city manufactures for excessive enthusiasm.
The soup itself is chopped beef in a dark, salty broth built on soy, Crystal hot sauce, and a spice blend that Green has never written down for anyone. It comes in a foam cup with spaghetti noodles, a hard-boiled egg, and green onions, and it costs next to nothing…