Skip to main content

Beautiful Soup






BEAUTIFUL Soup, so rich and green,

Waiting in a hot tureen!

Who for such dainties would not stoop?

Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!

Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!


Beau- ootiful Soo-oop!

Beau- ootiful Soo-oop!

Soo- oop of the e- e- evening,

Beautiful, beautiful Soup!


Beautiful Soup! Who cares for fish,

Game, or any other dish?

Who would not give all else for two

Pennyworth only of Beautiful Soup?

Pennyworth only of beautiful Soup?


Beau- ootiful Soo-oop!

Beau- ootiful Soo-oop!

Soo- oop of the e- e- evening,

Beautiful, beauti- FUL SOUP!


- - Lewis Carroll



Well, it’s lucky for us it isn’t just “soup of the evening” at the Common Kitchen in Clarksville, but, all day as well. This weekend they are celebrating Souper Bowl Weekend and it is going on until 8 pm tonight. I went yesterday around lunchtime.




First of all, I want to clarify something in case this reminds you of another longstanding HoCoLocal event.  This is not “Souper Sundae”, a charitable initiative to raise funds for Grassroots which has been held in recent years at Wilde Lake High School. This is a celebration of soup for soup’s sake, with a little extra fun thrown in.



When you arrive you’ll be prompted to pick up a soup menu which explains exactly what the soups are and where they are located. (It also gives you one free raffle ticket just for walking in the door.) For my first soup I picked the Potato Leek from GuiGui’s Kreyol Flavors. As I was not ordering the vegan option, they finished it with a touch of cream. It was soothing and heavenly.



It also came with another raffle ticket. You put your name and phone number on the back. 

Next I went over to the Taco Joint to order some of the Birria Ramen I keep seeing people rave about on social media. 



Wow, is this stuff good! They made sure to ask me whether I wanted the onions and cilantro on top. I did. They also offered hot sauce, which I declined because I wanted to experience it in its original form first. I will be back for more of this. It could easily become an obsession.

Oh yes, another raffle ticket, too.

I grabbed a large iced coffee from Trifecto and asked them what to do with the raffle tickets. They directed me to a table to the right of their counter.



So, I dropped mine in and I’m hoping for the best. Here’s a closer look at what I might win. 




I need to stop and comment about the customer service at the Common Kitchen yesterday. It was over-the -top good. Like: fine dining good. While I’ve never had truly bad service there, yesterday was exceptional. It was a great day at the Common Kitchen. All kinds of people were there enjoying the food and drinks, picking up takeaway food, or hanging out, catching up with family and friends. If the folks who created the Common Kitchen had popped in yesterday, I think they would have been proud. 

Another interesting side effect of having an event like this: I went to vendors I had never been to before and left feeling that I had “established contact” with them, if you will. Next time I go there I’ll be more likely to order from them. I know who they are now. 

Funny how that works. It turns out that soup can be a great way to meet people.

Let me know if you go/have already gone and what soups you tried. Don’t think you’ll bore me. I always have time for soup. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...
1 comment
Read more

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday.  Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was  "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018.  2018 .  But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest.  In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...
1 comment
Read more

Columbia Chance Connection

  Last night, as my husband and I were about to sit down to dinner, our front door swung open and a cheery voice announced, “I’m ba—ack!”  We weren’t expecting anyone. Clearly the only people who’d walk right in to our house would be one of our offspring. I had my reading glasses on so I wasn’t seeing too clearly. It seemed too tall for our youngest, but we knew our eldest was at work. I took off my glasses to see a friendly but confused face scanning our living room. When her gaze landed on us we all had a sudden realization. We didn’t know eachother. “Oh I’m so sorry! I’m in the wrong house! My daughter just moved in and she needed hooks for the kitchen so I ran out to get them.” She waved the package. “All these houses look the same and I don’t know the neighborhood yet. I thought this was my daughter’s house.” We were all getting a bit giggly. “That’s okay. For a quick second we thought you were our daughter,” said my husband. I told her our names and said she should defin...
Post a Comment
Read more