At Romantic Steakhouse in Monterey Park, CA I would often order the special dinner set. The first course was always a cup of light and tasty ruddy soup, served with toasted baguette slices infused with melted butter and crispy garlic. A small iceberg salad with creamy dressing came next, followed by a sizzling steak platter, a substantial and perfectly medium rare tenderloin wrapped in bacon and topped with a mushroom or pepper sauce flavored with wine and lightly thickened with cornstarch. On the side, you could have rice, but I always had the "spaghetti", Chinese egg noodles with a translucently sticky, sweet tomato sauce ladled on top. For dessert, there was a scoop of vanilla ice cream with coffee or tea. The entire meal, at once humble and fancy, cost less than 13 dollars, in an age when a lonely steak at a chain might run you 25 dollars and up, so I often had a virgin Mai Tai on the side.

While such a meal is singular (Romantic has been defunct for many years) the soup is a mainstay at any number of Hong Kong style western-cafes, where it's often part of a cheap lunch meal that includes tea or coffee, a savory appetizer (like a fried chicken wing), and a small main course (often Chinese noodles, baked pork chop, or whatever the house special is). This humble vegetable beef or tomato borscht is often replaced  in newer establishments by the trendier cream soup covered by a baked puff pastry hat.

4 quarts of water
3 bay leaves
10 peppercorns
scant 1 lb of beef chuck roast 
1/2 lb of beef bones
1 carrot, small dice
1/2 very large red onion, small dice
3 stalks celery, sliced
1 large garlic clove, minced
4 ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded, diced. I find it easy to score them and poach them directly in the poaching liquid as the beef is cooking.
1 1/2 cup crushed tomato, juice drained off very briefly. Tomato paste is more common, but I find the crushed tomato makes this dish fresher
5 small waxy yellow potatoes, small dice, skin on
1/4 cabbage
1 tbsp sugar, to taste
1/4 tsp ground white pepper, to taste
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice. optional.
salt to taste

Boil water in a 5 quart pot. Trim obvious fat off the chuck roast simmer in the pot uncovered with spices. Keep the water to just a tiny roll, lifting off scum on occasion. Turn the meat every 20 minutes so it doesn't dry out. Cook 90 minutes or until the beef is tender ie easily pierced with a fork and the connective tissue gelatinous and soft. Set aside to cool. Can be made the day before but do not remove oil as it makes the soup richer.

Sweat carrots, then onions and celery together in a large soup pot. Add garlic after several minutes and stir till fragrant but not brown. Turn the heat to high and scoot vegetables into a pile on one side. Add fresh tomato on the bare part of the pan till broken down and slightly reduced. Then, add crushed tomatoes and do the same. 

Include remaining poaching liquid, resting juices, and waxed potatoes After the liquid boils for a minute, bring down to a simmer for 10-15 minutes, about halfway through. Cut the chuck roast into bite size dice. Add meat and cabbage to the soup pot and continue simmering until the potatoes are tender but not falling apart. Add sugar, white pepper and lemon juice. Adjust salt to taste.

This dish keeps well in the fridge. I find 1 lb of chuck to be much more than enough, as I enjoy the soup and vegetables most, but used 1 1/5 lbs in my maiden trial which gives a nice flavor to the poaching water.

You may have to adjust the amount of tomato and beef broth liquid to get the right consistency. The soup should be like a thin tomato soup flavor, acidic but leaning towards the sweet side.  Not very salty, the flavor of vegetables should shine through rather than beef. If fresh tomatoes are readily available, a good amount can substitute for the crushed tomato and paste. Making this a truly healthy soup.

For a thicker soup, use russet potatoes that break down with cooking. For deeper color, add a little tomato paste at the end.
Serve with garlic baguette rounds.


update:  Romantic is now Hot Stuff Cafe, a location that I'm sure to try the next time I'm in the area. Bacon wrapped filet mignon?  Still 13 dollars. Hell yeah!