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Tag Archives: Artscape Wychwood Barns

Soupalicious 2013

30 Monday Sep 2013

Posted by petervisima in Food

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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)Sept_29_Soupalicious_2_2013-09-29_12-14-06_DSC_8362

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.Sept_29_Soupalicious_16_2013-09-29_12-16-41_DSC_8376Sept_29_Soupalicious_19_2013-09-29_12-16-50_DSC_8379

Another bread vendor, Humble Bread, was also in attendance. Great bakery products from Perth County.Sept_29_Soupalicious_5_2013-09-29_12-15-58_DSC_8365Sept_29_Soupalicious_9_2013-09-29_12-16-05_DSC_8369Sept_29_Soupalicious_13_2013-09-29_12-16-17_DSC_8373

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.Sept_29_Soupalicious_23_2013-09-29_12-17-21_DSC_8383Sept_29_Soupalicious_29_2013-09-29_12-17-29_DSC_8389

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.Sept_29_Soupalicious_36_2013-09-29_12-22-04_DSC_8396

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.Sept_29_Soupalicious_43_2013-09-29_12-23-05_DSC_8403Sept_29_Soupalicious_41_2013-09-29_12-23-01_DSC_8401

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.Sept_29_Soupalicious_50_2013-09-29_12-29-02_DSC_8410Sept_29_Soupalicious_56_2013-09-29_12-29-09_DSC_8416

At about 12:30 pm Lisa and her husband arrived. Here’s Lisa with her camera checking out some photos.Sept_29_Soupalicious_61_2013-09-29_12-32-10_DSC_8421

Another one of our neighbourhood restaurants, Magic Oven, was presenting their variation of a miso soup. Their miso, tofu and kale soup was stellar.Sept_29_Soupalicious_65_2013-09-29_12-36-55_DSC_8425Sept_29_Soupalicious_71_2013-09-29_12-36-59_DSC_8431

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.Sept_29_Soupalicious_159_2013-09-29_13-05-51_DSC_8519Sept_29_Soupalicious_164_2013-09-29_13-05-57_DSC_8524

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.Sept_29_Soupalicious_83_2013-09-29_12-41-16_DSC_8443Sept_29_Soupalicious_91_2013-09-29_12-41-30_DSC_8451

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.Sept_29_Soupalicious_98_2013-09-29_12-42-41_DSC_8458Sept_29_Soupalicious_100_2013-09-29_12-42-51_DSC_8460TheChefsHouse lentil soup

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.Sept_29_Soupalicious_105_2013-09-29_12-48-16_DSC_8465Sept_29_Soupalicious_114_2013-09-29_12-48-30_DSC_8474Sept_29_Soupalicious_135_2013-09-29_12-49-56_DSC_8495Sept_29_Soupalicious_129_2013-09-29_12-49-50_DSC_8489 Screen Shot 2013-09-30 at 30-09-13, 12.04.44 PM

Plant a Row Grow a Row presented their golden squash and coconut soup.Sept_29_Soupalicious_139_2013-09-29_12-51-41_DSC_8499Sept_29_Soupalicious_144_2013-09-29_12-51-50_DSC_8504

Chemical company BASF was in attendance offering their chicken noodle soup in biodegradable plastic containers.Sept_29_Soupalicious_150_2013-09-29_12-55-17_DSC_8510Sept_29_Soupalicious_157_2013-09-29_12-55-26_DSC_8517

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!Sept_29_Soupalicious_168_2013-09-29_13-12-11_DSC_8528Sept_29_Soupalicious_178_2013-09-29_13-12-20_DSC_8538

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.Sept_29_Soupalicious_180_2013-09-29_13-22-46_DSC_8540Sept_29_Soupalicious_47_2013-09-29_12-27-57_DSC_8407Sept_29_Soupalicious_183_2013-09-29_13-22-49_DSC_8543

In case you weren’t thoroughly stuffed by this point, Pizza Del Arte was giving away free pizza slices.Sept_29_Soupalicious_191_2013-09-29_13-30-11_DSC_8551

Sept_29_Soupalicious_196_2013-09-29_13-38-04_DSC_8556Sept_29_Soupalicious_203_2013-09-29_13-38-12_DSC_8563

Great people, great soup, and perfect weather made for a fantastic afternoon at Artscape Wychwood Barns. We can’t wait until next year!

43.680083 -79.424361

Soupalicious–The Show

30 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by petervisima in Food

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

A Food Gypsy, Artscape Wychwood Barns, Christie Street, Lisa Kates, Soupalicious

As promised, this is part two of Soupalicious. If you read part one, you saw the dedicated and talented volunteers who got together at The Depanneur to help Lisa Kates (A Food Gypsy) prepare for Soupalicious.

https://petervisima.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/soupalicious-the-prep/

Since I helped in The Prep, I couldn’t miss The Show which happened today at a great venue, Artscape Wychwood Barns, 601 Christie Street. This venue was originally a TTC streetcar repair barn, and kudos to the City of Toronto for turning it into a multi-use facility for artisans and special events:

http://torontoartscape.org/artscape-wychwood-barns

Soupalicious is a gathering of over 30 restaurants and chefs showcasing their soup-making and culinary talents.

For an advance ticket price of only $10 per person, we were given 10 tasting tickets. In addition, a visit to Cobs Bread entitled us to a free tote bag, a free bread item, and a coupon for a free loaf of bread. If you haven’t visited a Cobs Bread location, you must do so. Their Cape Seed loaf is our absolute favourite:

http://www.cobsbread.com/home/

My wife and I arrived shortly after they opened at 12:00 noon because we were warned that depending on the crowds, some vendors might run out of soup early! There was a good crowd by the time we arrived and our very first stop had to be A Food Gypsy, Lisa Kates:

https://www.facebook.com/Afoodgypsy

Twitter: @afoodgypsy

Lisa and her daughter Katie were already hard at work providing sample cups of Lisa’s incredible cabbage borscht soup:

Although I have a slight bias, and we tasted more than 10 different soups, Lisa’s was hands-down the best soup of the day! But we did taste some very delicious soups from other vendors. Of particular note my wife and I really enjoyed these soups:

  • Dish Cooking Studio: roasted red pepper soup with goat’s cheese and basil pesto
  • Globe Earth Restaurant: white chocolate parsnip soup with pistachio earth and sour cherry reduction
  • Ravi Soups: curried apricot and red lentils with cilantro and lime fraîche

  • Southern Accent: seafood gumbo
  • Thai: coconut chicken soup
  • Plant A Row: chicken soup

This is Alphonsa’s cream of kale and mushroom soup:

More photos from the event:

After two hours of wandering around and sampling soups, both my wife and I were thoroughly stuffed and satisfied with our soup adventure. You simply cannot beat the value that was offered today and the fresh Ontario-grown ingredients that were part of these tasty offerings made it all the better.

My thanks to Lisa for getting me involved in this project and I am already looking forward to next year’s event.

http://soupalicious.ca/

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