Tags
Alphonsa's Gourmet, Artscape Wychwood Barns, BASF, Bb33 Bistro, Cheesewerks, Cobs Bread, Globe Bistro, Humble Bread, Liberty Noodle, Magic Oven, Morgans on the Danforth, No.7 Hot Sauce, soup, Soupalicious, Southern Accent, tasting, The Chefs' House
Last year my wife and I attended our first Soupalicious which we found out about from our new friend, Lisa Kates. Lisa is known as A Food Gypsy and she showed off her show-stopper Cabbage Borscht soup last year. We had a great time last year and you can read my entire 2012 review at this link: https://petervisima.wordpress.com/2012/09/30/soupalicious-the-show/
We were excited to attend this year’s show although Lisa was not a participant, just an enthusiastic attendee and photographer.
We arrived shortly after 12 noon and it was a beautiful sunny day—definitely t-shirt weather. (click on any photo to see a larger version)
We exchanged our on-line tickets for 10 tasting tickets each, a spoon, and some delicious bread from Cobs Bread—their Cape® Seed products are our favourite.
Another bread vendor, Humble Bread, was also in attendance. Great bakery products from Perth County.
It takes quite a bit of coordination to juggle the tasting tickets, spoon, bread, soup samples and my camera. I decided not to use my spoon and went with the slurp method from the tasting cups. First up was a roasted spiced pumpkin soup from Alphonsa’s Gourmet. A nice balance of sweetness from the pumpkin and the spices. Winner! We were off to a great start.
It should be noted that with over 30 vendors, we did not taste everything. We sampled based on the descriptions of the soups that sounded interesting to us.
We did not taste this offering from Aria Ristorante. The soup was described as a cauliflower and potato purée with black and white truffle pesto, butternut squash, crispy sage and Parmigiano.
It was great to see Kevin Durkee from Cheesewerks. His cheddar and ale soup with pretzel croutons was one of the absolute best soups of the day.
We have visited Globe Bistro on Danforth many times and have always enjoyed great meals at their restaurant. They were serving up a delicious purple top turnip, ginger and sake kasu soup.
At about 12:30 pm Lisa and her husband arrived. Here’s Lisa with her camera checking out some photos.
Another one of our neighbourhood restaurants, Magic Oven, was presenting their variation of a miso soup. Their miso, tofu and kale soup was stellar.
A more traditional miso soup was presented by Liberty Noodle. Theirs was described as kinoko nabe—traditional Japanese hot pot with miso chili dashi. I make my own version of miso soup using their same ingredients: dashi, kombu and bonito flakes, but mine pales in comparison to Liberty Noodle’s version.
There was a ridiculous line-up for this soup from Morgans on the Danforth, so I was not able to taste this one. Mulligatawny and corn, spinish and butternut squash chowder. My wife and I are still trying to figure out if spinish is a typo for spinach or is it an actual ingredient? Wikipedia yields no results. Morgans is just a few blocks from our house, so we will be adding this to our must-visit restaurant list.
Our next soup was possibly our #1 or #2 ranked soup of the day. Presented by The Chefs’ House which is a restaurant run by students in the George Brown College Chef School. Their lentil soup with tamarind and garlic was truly magnificent and they were kind enough to present the recipe as well.
It was a pleasure to finally meet Carlos Flores from No. 7 Hot Sauce. He has taken his mother’s recipe and created a sauce that can be used as a marinade or drizzled on salads and soups. He was providing samples which were added to our soups. The sauce is handmade, vegan and contains no preservatives and is made right here in Toronto.
Plant a Row Grow a Row presented their golden squash and coconut soup.
Chemical company BASF was in attendance offering their chicken noodle soup in biodegradable plastic containers.
Southern Accent was presenting two soups. A cajun style Belizean escabeche onion soup and a collards and cannellini soup. I went for the cajun one and my goodness, it was phenomenal!
My last tasting of the day was a silken autumn harvest corn chowder with smoked duck presented by Bb33 Bistro. As advertised, the soup was silky smooth, sweet, and the smoked duck was perfect. It was my #1 or #2 soup of the day. What a great soup to end the day with.
In case you weren’t thoroughly stuffed by this point, Pizza Del Arte was giving away free pizza slices.
Great people, great soup, and perfect weather made for a fantastic afternoon at Artscape Wychwood Barns. We can’t wait until next year!
