Soup By The Bucket

Where: Rua Vang – The Golden Turtle, 125 Ossington Ave (Chow.com)
When: Lunch, Saturday, Feb 28, 2009
Cost: $5.75

Viewing the very sparse menu, obviously a home made one, is not a good way to judge the Golden Turtle. Although I arrived at about 2 pm, the lunch crowd was still very much in force. The interior is typical of a family run Vietnamese restaurant. While simply furnished, the walls display pictures of various menu items.

I ordered #1 on the menu, Rare Beef Pho. What arrived at the table was a very aromatic bowl filled with a slightly dark coloured beef broth. A generous helping of scallions and thin slices of onions covered thinly sliced raw beef and a portion of rice noodles. As is typical, there was a side of bean sprouts, a lime wedge and a sprig of Thai basil.

The raw beef slices cook in the broth as it arrives at the table, so by the time you’ve garnished the bowl with the bean sprouts, lime wedge and basil, the beef is well on the way to being cooked. Breaking it apart allows it to cook completely.

This was a very satisfying meal. One of the bowls of Pho I’ve had in Toronto. I will be returning to the Golden Turtle often.

Overall [rating:5]

Tags: Pho, Rare Beef

Where: The Roastery (website)
When: Lunch, Wednesday, Feb 25, 2009
Cost: $4.00

A delicious soup with just a few ingredients. Carrots, onions and coriander. The carrots give it a thick, smooth texture with a vibrant orange colour. Sprinkled with a few parsley leaves, this soup has a rich flavour that moves between carrot and coriander with each spoonful.

Overall [rating:4]

Tags: Carrot, Coriander, The Roastery

Where: The Roastery (website)
When: Lunch, Tuesday, Feb 17, 2009
Cost: $4.00

The Roastery cycles their soups about once a week. A few favourites like Chicken Noodle make it in to the rotation more often. Today’s soup, Cream of Mushroom, is not featured often enough. The Roastery Cream of Mushroom is a rich and thick†creamy soup with lots of fresh mushrooms and seasoned with pepper.

A lot of canned cream of mushroom soups that I’ve tried all have that same texture to their mushrooms. The canned mushroom texture. The kind of canned mushroom college students buy to add to ramen noodles to fake having vegetables with their meal. The mushrooms in the Roastery’s soup are fresh and full of flavour, having also absorbed some of the soup’s seasoning.

Overall: [rating:4.5]

Tags: Cream, Mushroom, The Roastery

Where: The Roastery (website)
When: Lunch, Tuesday, Feb 10, 2009
Cost: $4.00

The Roastery†regularly†features this delicious soup on their lunch menu. Featuring a thick and rich tomato soup base with hints of basil, chunks of celery and onions. Add a generous portion of cheese stuff tortellini pasta and you have a satisfying meal at a great price.

Overall: [rating:4]

Tags: Lunch, Soup of the Day, Tomato Tortellini

Where: The Roastery (website)
When: Lunch, Wednesday, Feb 4, 2009
Cost: $4.00

A rich textured soup with strong hints of curry. While a tad spicy, the curry flavours didn’t over-power or push aside the butternut squash that made up the core of this soup. As you get closer to the bottom of the bowl, the curry flavours become more pronounced, with slight hints of cinnamon as well. The taste lingers slightly, leaving a very pleasant aftertaste once the bowl is finished.

Overall [rating:3.5]

Tags: butternut squash, Curry, Lunch, Soup of the Day

This blog is an attempt to marry my love of soup with a productive outlet for letting others know the best places to go to find soup in Toronto. Not only is new content planned, but I will be working to setup a proper look and feel that properly reflects the tone of this blog.

Posts I’m working on are:

1. Best Pho in the city.
2. Soup recipes I’ve been given or are made by a friend.
3. Restaurant reviews based on their soups.

Feel free to make suggestions and requests for soup recipes for me to make!