TASTE BUDS
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Staff writer Kelly Huth got a chance to sample some of Zoup's various soup concoctions. Here's what she had to say:
With choices like Macaroni & Cheese, Vegetable Bounty and Vegetarian Split Pea, it took a good 10 minutes to even figure out what to order. Lucky for me, I got to sample as many soups as I wanted before making my final selection, Chicken Potpie. I'm leery of ordering anything with potpie in the title because what you get is usually a bowl where chefs hide a few leftover vegetables under a too-thick crust. I spend most of the time dejectedly trying to locate the promised chicken and vegetables under a very starchy crust.
But that's not what I tasted at Zoup. Its version can only be described as the way grandma makes it. One sample told me I'd need at least a bowl to satisfy the craving. Zoup's Chicken Potpie was chock full of fresh vegetables in a creamy, flavorful sauce. But the star of the show was the large chunks of chicken I found in every spoonful.
The best part of the soup? No crust! Instead, they add a simple buttery crumb topping. Each bowl of soup comes with a choice of bread -- French, multigrain or sourdough ciabatta. It was the perfect choice for a filling lunch.
