All Souped Up

Soupfest is an annual event that I really enjoy.  Restaurants from all over the region gather to offer up samples of their soups for us to taste and we decide among ourselves which soup is the best.  There are official judges too, and they also make their own choices. It's interesting because they don't always pick the same soups as the people do.  The official judges may know about when some especially innovated combination has been put together, but we, the people, just know what we like. To me winning the people's choice awards are actually more valuable. It's the general public that the restaurants have to please, or they won't come back.  The chefs can get as fancy as they like, and that that may impress the official judges, but if the people don't like what is being offered, they aren't going to buy it.

There is a certain establishment in Smiths Falls where I often go for soup.  You never know, when you walk through the door, of the Good Life Bistro what their soup that day will be, but I can tell you that I've never had a bad one there.  I mentioned to them recently that they should get in on Soupfest. They had never heard of it, but looked it up on the internet while I had my lunch, and by the time we were ready to leave, I was told they had managed to sign up.  And this weekend they not only discovered how much fun the experience can be, they won first place for one of the categories with their Squash Pear Bisque with maple cinnamon cream.

Another restaurant, The New Rideau near Kemptville, had only just opened under new management three weeks ago. They placed in two categories with a Cream of Broccoli, Cauliflower and Cheddar soup, so now I'm interested in going there for lunch some day too.

Soupfest is good for getting new customers for businesses some didn't know existed.  We were first introduced to the Basket Case in Morrisburg though their participation in Soupfest.  We've been there several times since then, and highly recommend it.  They were not present at the event this year though, and I missed those fun filled ladies.

One of our local businesses did very well too. The Goose and Gridiron in Merrickville put forth a very colourful Mexican Chicken Tortilla Soup.  If that soup is on their menu, I'll be dropping in there more often in the future.  I had a hard time deciding if I was going to choose it for my second or third place vote. In the end, it came in third, both for me and the rest of the public, but placed first with the official judges.

My personal favorite of the day was the Silken Scallop with Crisp Pancetta by the Black Dog Bistro in Manotick.  My nine year old grandson agreed with that choice, and even went back for more.

"Thrillusionist," Michael Bourada was on hand to entertain this year, and he worked the room, one table at a time. Of course, when he got to us, he zeroed in on the only child at the table.  It was such fun to watch them interact.

This was the first year we have taken one of the grandsons with us. I told him he was going to get to taste all the soups, and he didn't have to like them, just judge them. He gave them scores from one to ten, and was far more adventurous than I expected.  I think he only missed 3 or 4 of the 16 offerings, and that was likely because he was full by then.  Oh, but not too full for the great big chocolate covered rice crispy square he picked for dessert.  He already has told us he wants to come with us again next year.  I'm looking forward to that already.

 

 

I've Run Out of Time

Well, I said I'd try to take you along with me on some of my rambles, and I managed to get some of them in here, but not everything.


If I didn't mention The Basket Case in Morrisburg, I'm giving it the highest rating for where to have lunch, or even just dessert. It was the first time we've ever been there, and you can be sure it won't be the last. 

If things like Whiskey Apple Cake, or Raspberry Port Cake (it's chocolate) don't tempt you, then maybe a nice piece of quiche and a lovely salad for just $6.99 might get you in the door.  As you can see, the walls are lined with local art, and there are other lovely gift items at the front of the shop too.  Well worth a stop, even if you aren't hungry.

We did locate a Stone Cold Creamery in the Tim Hortons across the street from where we saw Sir John Eh? on Friday night. (our previous search) The play was in an old stone church and it was quite hot in there, so an ice cream treat seemed like a perfect way to end the evening.  It's a good thing we were hot, and that the ice cream was good. These treats cost us over $11....but now we can at least say we tried them.
We had the medium size in a waffle cup.  You can get a smaller one, in a normal paper cup for somewhat less.  Mine was raspberry ice cream with blueberries and strawberries mixed in. Hubby's was vanilla with crushed oreo cookies, chocolate chips and chocolate syrup. There were lots of other choices and apparently you can even just tell them what you want and they will mix it to your specifications.


We also took in the Sheep Dog Trials, down near Kingston on Saturday. This was an extremely well organized event, and if you have never been, I recommend it. There were more than just sheep dogs there, and if you wanted something a little more exciting, there were wolves and tigers and eagles and other interesting things to see.  I'm not sure I'd have put my small child in the front row. This tiger may have been just a young one, but those kids still look too much like tiger food to me.

I've run out of time and while what I've shown you is not everything I saw and did over the past couple of weeks, I hope you enjoyed going along for the ride

One of Those Days!

Did you ever have one of those days when nothing went right?
I had one today.

First we thought we would make reservations to go on the Lost River Cruise, out of Morrisburg, as they are having Old Home Week there this week. Last year this was a very popular cruise and was sold out. Today we found out it had been cancelled "due to lack of interest."  Well, I doubt it was really lack of interest, but rather the poor way in which it was advertised. I had a hard time locating any information about it and I'm actually better at searching out such things than most people I know.  Anyway, we couldn't book the cruise.

Next we decided we would go to the IMAX today, and eat in Ottawa before the show.  I had two coupon deals. One was for a place we have been to many times, and the other was for a place we had never been to.  We thought we'd try that one.  We managed to get confused about just where it was, and ended up at the one we knew after all.  The portions have shrunk, and they no longer included the salad, but we got enough to eat, and enjoyed the meal. The waitress forgot about the coupon at first, but then remembered after she brought the bill. She fixed that and off we went.

There was a little discussion about which side of the river the IMAX was on, but I won that one, thank goodness.  My memory isn't the best these days, but I was sure I knew where that was.

So, we got there in plenty of time, drove around and around until we finally found a place to park and then proceeded to stand in line for our tickets.  The show was sold out.  We had driven all this way and paid for parking for a show we could not even see. 

We decided to head for Michaels on Bank Street, as I have a gift card to spend, and we had run out of ideas for the day.  As everyone knows, Ottawa has two seasons:  Winter and Construction.  It was definitely construction season as we saw lots of scaffolding where buildings were being renovated or repointed; great holes in the ground at various places, where new buildings would soon be built; and cranes lifting things high over other construction sights, and sometimes over the roadway, which is a little scary.  We also came across at least five areas where road construction was underway.  One of those was Bank Street.  That required a rather long detour.

I found some of the items I wanted at Michaels, but there were still three I couldn't find. Perhaps I'll have better luck at Deserres, where I usually shop, next time I get a chance to look. 

We stopped to pick something up at a store closer to home.  I thought I was lucky to find a cashier with only the person she was dealing with and one other person in line.  But then another cashier beckoned me over to her cash.  There was a man there, ready to pay by debit card, and I would be next.  She actually had the "Cash Closed" sign up, but since I only had a couple of items in my hand, she was being nice to me.  But as luck would have it, as least for today, the man's debit card wasn't working for him.  He had to try several times before he was able to pay for his purchases. I would definitely have been better off to have stayed where I was. 

Yep, it was just one of those days!