[edit] 6/11/2011 thesoupkitchen.com . Thought I would make a note of the url
It’s on days like these, cold and wet and wintery, that one starts thinking about a log wood fire and steaming hot soup. What I wouldn’t give for a genuine chicken broth soup, a small country style loaf of bread and fresh salty farm butter. But its not to be. It’s just the same old tried and tested menu year in and year out.
The best the local restaurants can come up with is that ambiguous soup of the day which is either a carelessly concocted minestrone or the faceless butternut standby with a swirl of cream. How difficult can it be to make a good pot of soup? Ideally it should simmer away quietly on the stove. Or it can be portioned and frozen and whipped out when needed? Have the restaurateurs forgotten what sort of business it is, they are in? Food is supposed to be exciting and emotional even. But that is something that somehow gets lost in the translation.
The best I can do, is firstly the Thai Kitchen. Joy does a chicken soup with coconut milk, galangal and lemon grass. She also offers Tom Yum Kung a hot and sour prawn soup as well as Tom Yum Het which is the same sort of thing, but with mushrooms. Next is The Tin House Cafe who also offer a soup menu which includes the ubiquitous Butternut soup along with a selection of Ham and Pea, a Minestrone and a Chicken & Corn. There is also Cafe 9 on Gray (previously Deenies) which has just opened. Finally there is the House of Flavour in George which I have been going to for years. I tried their lamb and lentil but still favour the chunky beef and vegetable which they, not surprisingly, do all year. They also do a Tortilla (tomato) based soup and one other.