The tickle started on Thursday, the hoarseness on Friday, and the worst of it was yesterday. I decided on our standard panacea for colds — fresh air and the incomparable chicken-ginger porridge at Aux Delice on Polk.

It was a sunny day, every bar, cafe, and restuarant spilled noise and drinkers out onto the sidewalk and were dotted with bored dogs tied to parking meters. I saw a pug, a golden retriever with the soft-furred look of a not-quite-grown puppy, a Wiemeriner mix (with a waterbowl next to it and a sad expression) and a giant that looked like it had some Irish Wolfhound in the mix. Mother would never have made it all the way down that sidewalk. She would stop to pet every dog and ask its owner about it.

Polk Street is still lined with crowded bars and tethered dogs on pretty days, but Aux Delice and its wonderful ginger chicken porridge, crunchy with slivers of fresh ginger that could build a fire in your throat, is gone. It closed last year after fifty years. I will have to make my own ginger-rice porridge.