Soup at a Street Cart?

Guest Post by Doug Feingold, Columbia Correspondent

In my opinion, soup is an enigma. Is it a meal, or simply an appetizer? If it has chicken, beef or other hearty components, do you need less of it to fill you up? Why is it that a 12 cent pack of ramen is just as good as a $4 Progresso can? These are the questions I ask myself as I stare at the cans in the super market or the soup section on the menu. Subsequently, I don’t eat it too much unless I’m sick.

Well, the other day I was feeling a bit under the weather, so it put me in the mood. It also gave me the opportunity to try a relatively new cart across the street from the office that serves only soup. Being that one of my passions is street cart dining, I’ve sadly looked forward to the day where I awoke with a sore throat and a craving for piping hot broth.

I think about a place that serves only soup, and I imagine two things. One, that it must be damn good, because if you are only going to serve one thing, it better be excellent. Second, the soup Nazi. Thus, as I approached the cart with anticipation, I dreamt of a bitter man passionate about soup and only soup, slaving away in the early hours to achieve just the right amount of spice in the mulligatawny. Unfortunately, it was just a guy with a ladle reading the newspaper. Even so, he made some decent soup.

There were more than enough options to choose from, including chicken noodle, clam chowder (New England, of course), lobster bisque, chili and numerous others. I went with the chicken dumpling, fearing that I needed a hearty soup to fill me for the afternoon (like I said, enigma). For the 16oz cup, which I went with, it was $5, and it came with a roll. There was also a 12oz cup for $4 and an 18oz for $6. Some soups, like the bisque, were an extra $1.

Most importantly, it more than filled me up. I didn’t even eat my roll for another hour. Although it could have used a bit more salt, the broth was pretty tasty. It definitely soaked up the chicken taste and was a delight to sip on as it cooled down. The dumplings dominated the bulk of the meal, as I got at least one on every spoonful. They were each about the size of a dime, and packed a great potato flavor. My only complaint is that I could have used a bit more chicken. The chicken slices were small and tender, and I prefer large chunks in there, like it came straight off the bone. Fortunately, they didn’t get lost in the soup. There wasn’t much else thrown in there, which I prefer. If I order chicken and dumpling, I want 85 percent chicken and dumpling. In the end, I was more than satisfied, and would take it over a can any day.

However, I think next time I’ll go with the 12 oz, knowing I have the bread as a back up. Chicken and dumpling, I admit, is not that complicated, and been done to death. Thus, next time I’m feeling a tad ill, I’m going to head back and try one of the other, more interesting varieties.