Instant Celebrity

Since I have written about the TLC Soupfest for the past three years (2013) (2014) (2015), I was not really planning on doing it again. But here I am, about to tell you what happened.

This was the 8th annual Soupfest, and I've been to at least seven of them, if not them all. The event was originally in Winchester, but moved to Kemptville several years ago, and will be held there next year, on March 4th.  Mark your calendars now.

The Kemptville Municipal Centre has enough space to feature 16 restaurants and their soups for the public to get acquainted with, and then vote on their favorites. Restaurants this year were from Merrickville, Morrisburg, North Gower, Perth, Manotick, and of course, Kemptville.   I didn't see any advertisement for the event this year, until just the week before, so it was a bit of a scramble to gather those who usually go with us.

While we were happily doing our taste testing, the organizer, Lynn Ford, was speaking to the assembled group about the event. She asked how many of us had been coming for several years, and a lot of hands went up, including those of everyone at my table.  She then asked if anyone would care to say a few words about their experiences at Soupfest. For some reason several members of my group decided to suddenly point at me.  I laughed and responded to them by saying, "Oh ya!"  Lynn apparently heard that but must have thought I was volunteering as she handed me the mic.  Oh well, I do tend to talk a lot, so I stood up and told everyone how my husband and myself came each year with a couple of his cousins and their spouses.  We always find it fun to compare opinions on the various soups, as we never, ever agreed on which ones we liked the best.  I mentioned that I have even brought my young grandson to the event a couple of times.  He enjoys being able to make his own pronouncements on the various soups, and voting for his own personal favorite.  Soupfest is indeed a great family outing.  For speaking, I was awarded a souvenir Soupfest apron, that I happily traipsed around in from the moment she put it on me until we left. I felt like a bit of a celebrity.  I have since read that public speaking is the number one fear people have. I can't vouch for that as I didn't have time to conger up a fear, let alone figure out what I wanted to say. I only hope whatever came out of me made some kind of sense.

I must say, that if it were not for Soupfest, there are a great number of soups I would never have even tasted, simple because of their ingredients.  No way would I ever have walk into a restaurant and buy whole bowlful of soup made with things that do not sound appealing to me.  But now I've sampled many of those, as a little taste and a chance to express my opinion isn't as intimidating as having to pay for a whole bowl of something I may not care for.  I found out that even though I do not like squash, or pumpkin or the idea of fish in a soup, all of those ingredients have been in soups offered to me at Soupfest, and I discovered that I actually liked them. This year the McIntosh Country Inn from Morrisburg served Pumpkin Gouda Soup, which was lovely and the Marlborough Pub from North Gower served a Smoked Salmon Bisque, that I was almost afraid to taste, especially since some others at my table didn't seem to care for it. I could smell the smokiness, but every sip I took made me like it more. This year my favorite was from a new restaurant to this event, The Keystorm Pub, from Brockville.  They made a Maple BBQ soup with Pork & Bacon.  I want to go to that restaurant just to get a whole bowlful of that soup, I liked it so much.  While other soups in the room may have been more imaginative,  as much as I liked them, I wouldn't make a special trip just to get some.  They Keystorm's offering will have me marching through their doors.  The chef told me it wasn't a fancy place. They just wear hockey shirts, and serve good food. If that soup was an example, I'm going to go as often as I can.  One other soup I went back and got more than one sample of was a delectable dessert soup.  Kemptville's Crusty Baker served up a Black Forest Soup. Yes, it had chocolate and creme brule, whipped cream (I think) and cherries. There was also a dash of kirsch in there too.  I don't know that I'd ever want a whole bowlful as I'm not one for sweets, but these little sample cups were just the right size for this lovely treat, at least for me. It made my heart sing.

I went to the bank yesterday and the first thing the teller said to me was, "Did you go to Soupfest?"  I told her I had. She said she saw a picture of me on Facebook (so of course she knew I'd been there).  The picture was taken just after I was given the apron.  I now have it on my Facebook page too, and already 40 people have liked it. I think the idea that a bank teller spotted me on the TLC page just proves I'm a bit of a celebrity now, don't you think?

Soupfest 2015 - Sold Out

It's been a hard winter with so many funerals in the family, but a group of us recently found a much better reason to get together.  The annual Soupfest, in support of the TLC Ministries,  took place in Kemptville on Saturday March 7th. This year it drew a record breaking crowd.  Every ticket was sold, and we were glad we were even able to find a place to sit. 

The tables were set up for 8 people at each, but we needed 10 chairs this year. The number of cousins in this family gathering together for this event reached an all time high. One branch had three generations present. With two children at our table, Brad the Balloon Guy stopped by to work his magic, just proving that Soupfest is fun for all ages.

Seventeen restaurants took part in the event this year.  There were a couple of new ones from Merrickville.  Both the Sugar Belle Bake Shoppe (their table pictured here) and Cha Tea House are new to the village this winter and decided Soupfest would be a great way for people to become acquainted with them.  Smiths Falls representation was conspicuously absent this year. Some of my favorite soups have come from Smiths Falls entrants in the past, so I hope they come back next year.

This year's judges were Executive Chef Michael Blackie, Chef Jocelyn Myre, Executive Chef Jhonatan J Gonzales and Nutritional Columnist, Heather Westendorp. They chose their three favorite soups of the day, and the people got to vote for their favorites also. The only soup chosen by both the people and the judges was the Sweet Potato and Cabbage Soup, topped with pancetta from the Brigadoon in Oxford Mills.  The people put it in Second place while the judges gave it a First.  The judges awarded Second place to the Merrickville's Yellow Canoe and gave Third place to Brewed Awakenings of Kemptville.

The people chose The Crusty Baker from Kemptville in Third place, Brigadoon in Second, and gave top  honours to The New Rideau for it's Butternut Squash with Maple Cream.  That was a little too sweet for me, but the rest of my table just loved it. That, of course, is the fun of Soupfest. Everyone is entitled to an opinion and it's great fun to discover that the people sitting with you disagree with your choices, and vice versa. Some pretty lively discussions come about by comparing opinions on the offerings.

The various establishments hope to call attention to themselves, and while some managed to do that by letting us know they had great soup, others, like the Crusty Baker will be getting my business in the future, not only because I loved their Potato Stilton Soup, but also because they gave us a hot cross bun, which was one of the best I've ever tasted.  I'll be checking out more of their baked goods in the future, even though I'll have to travel to Kemptville to do that.

We all had a great time and are already looking forward to next year's Soupfest. It's a much more enjoyable reason to gather than another funeral.




 

SoupFest 2012

This weekend we went to the annual Soupfest. It's a fundraiser for TLC Ministries but it has also become a family tradition.  Two of my hubby's cousins and their spouses joined us this year, as well as another couple of friends of ours.  It's always more fun to go to this sort of event with others, as then you have someone to discuss your opinions with.

This year they changed the venue from Winchester to the new Municipal Complex in Kemptville, Ontario. I had heard the event had outgrown the old location, but I'm not entirely sure the new one was any bigger. There were nice looking round tables throughout the room, instead of the long ones placed end to end, but this and the newly added musical entertainment made talking a lot more difficult. 

What happens at the Soupfest is that many of area restaurants set up a table to offer samples of their soup.  There was a wide range of flavours and no two soups even slightly alike. We get an ample taste of them all, in little bowls that reminded me of Dixie Cups. When we are finished the taste test we vote on the ones we liked the best.  There are celebrity judges present too, and they do their own tasting and voting. This year there were 5 judges including Chef Stephen Haner, an instructor at the University of Guelph, Wayne Cavanaugh, the token media guy from Jack FM Radio, and the ever popular Chef Michael Dunn, who used to be the chef to Queen Elizabeth.

All in all, there were 16 restaurants represented, so 16 different flavour sensations.  Not all of them were something I'd care to try again.  One of those was the over all winner.  It was a Thai soup, so I guess I'm not into Thai flavours, or perhaps my palette is just not sophisticated enough to appreciate something that got both the People's Choice Award and the Judges Best Soup Award.  I'm not the only one that couldn't understand how that one became a winner though, so it's good to know I'm not alone with this opinion.  An offering of Stinging Nettle soup was given in a much smaller container, which made it all much more scary.  Having encountered stinging nettles in the wild, I couldn't get myself to taste that one.

I really liked a rich and creamy offering that I thought was a celery soup. It turned out to be called Pepper Pot soup, for some reason. That came from the Bridgeview Restaurant in Prescott.  Another one that I was almost afraid to taste was a Roasted Red Pepper soup from the McIntosh Country Inn in Morrisburg. They added a bit of pesto to the top to make it look good.  I was surprised to discover I loved the soup, but didn't like the pesto and had to scoop it off. I've got a jar of pesto in my cupboard that I've been wondering what to do with. Now I know. I'll give it away.  Then there was the Apple Cheddar soup from the Yellow Canoe in Merrickville. Oh, hey, I liked that almost as much as the Curried Sweet Potato one they entered two years ago!  I'm thinking that's definitely the place to go for a good soup.

A balloon man was on hand to make some nice creations for the children, but since it was mainly an adult gathering, he happily made things for the adults too. He was a big hit with everyone young at heart.  Another new feature this year was the dessert auction.  Even if you didn't bid on one of those, you could buy a slice of something for just $2.  That's a great way to finish off a meal of assorted soups.  I don't think I'll ever tire of going to this event. It's just a great adventure.

Local Rambles

Part of the idea of this blog was to let you in on some of the other things I do, besides geocaching . I guess I haven't been very good at that, since I've been on several interesting outings since I started this. There's no sense trying to go backwards too far, as that's what caused me to stall out on the other blog, so I'll just give you a bit on the most recent activities.

On February 16th, a group of Red Hatters came up from Ogdensburg to celebrate the anniversary of their group, and they invited my group (yes, I am Queen here) to join them for lunch at a local restaurant. They even hired a musician for the occasion, though we were likely all so busy visiting we didn't really pay that much attention to him playing in the background.  The Ogdensburg Mad Hatters are a lovely bunch of women, and I understand they come up this way quite frequently, so I do hope we can get together again sometime.

On February 23, the New Horizons Club held a Medieval Festival. We were encouraged to dress up for that, and while it was clear everyone had their own idea of what era they were supposed to be in, a good many of them did take part.  There was a tax collector who set about relieving those who didn't dress up of some of their gold. There was food and games and a lot of good fun.

Yesterday (March 5) we attended the annual Soup Fest in Winchester Ontario.  Many of the restaurants from miles around that area gather in one hall, and offer samples of their best soups all for one low admittance price.    This year there were 16 restaurants represented. That's down somewhat from last year's line

up, but still enough to fill you up and test your sense of adventure.  There was everything from a cold cucumber avocado soup, with a kick of jalapeno peppers, to a very popular Mexican offering that was more like chili than soup.  It's great fun to attend this fundraiser for TLC (True Love in Christ) Ministries, especially if you go with others, so that you can discuss and compare your views on the various offerings. Amazingly, we don't always agree on what we like, but we all get to vote on our top three favorites. There are official judges too, including some very prominent chefs and other celebrities.  Chef Michael Dunn, for instance, was once the Royal chef to Queen Elizabeth.  We like to take this opportunity to gather other family members for a good chat while tasting. It's becoming an annual family event, and we're already looking forward to it again next year.