Beans, beans, they're good for your heart

Both Ron and Emma were working all day today, leaving me on my own on a Saturday for the first time EVER. I mean-- seriously-- ever since she was born. After I dropped her off at work, I decided to head into Cary and let the Goddess of Soup lead me wherever she wanted and in the meantime take a leisurely look around town.

The first thing I noticed is that Kris Bailey, Judge, needs to get his campaign signs down. Of course this was this morning and it's only been a couple of rainy days since the election. This afternoon was nice, so maybe they're down now, but I was seeing them everywhere.

And then, Harrison Pointe Shopping Center is decorated for Christmas already. That makes the season seven weeks long, or 13.5% of the year-- and that's if they only just went up this past week. Come on! We can barely afford Christmas as it is this year-- we don't need MORE of it.

I don't go into Cary enough since we moved the office. It is seriously a boom town. So many new little places. I was driving and driving and wondering who had soup...

I ended up at Panera. I sort of knew that's where she was pulling me. I wasn't quite up for the Broccoli Cheddar yet, not after last night's cheesy soupfest, so I got the very saintly sounding Low-Fat Vegetarian Black Bean soup.

Or "saintly" so you would think. I did a nutritional chart of all the soups I've had so far and it fared only slightly better than the pack because it had the combination of lower fat, higher fiber and higher protein.

It has the highest fiber. Tomato soup has the lowest fat and a recipe I found similar to Food Factory's Chicken Orzo with Spinach had the highest protein (with Chick-Fil-A a close second). But black bean has the best overall profile nutritionally.

Unfortunately, it has two other strikes against it. At $4.59, it's expensive. It did come with a hunk of bread, but unlike last night, I didn't feel like I got my money's worth.

And then there was the cumin. I love black beans-- we put them in our chili and I make black bean quesadillas. But the cumin in the soup I ate today totally overpowered every good thing about black beans.

We like our black beans with shallots and red or green peppers. There were a few tiny bits of either tomato or sweet red pepper in the soup, but I couldn't taste enough to even know what they were. All I tasted was cumin.

And so-- it was a nice drive, but disappointing soup. I'd have to give it zero spoons for love and comfort, but a four for nutrition.

One potato, two potato, hot potato soup

My friend Jeff was in town this week packing up/cleaning out a storage unit full of stuff he left when he first moved to the west coast. A long time ago :). He's going back in the morning, so Emma and I met him at Texas Steakhouse for dinner because it was near his hotel out by the airport and because I had heard they have great Potato Soup.

Baked potato soup is sort of a strange concept, I think. It's like a loaded baked potato isn't enough of a treat-- we need it to also be a hot and creamy soup. And Texas Steakhouse puts all that in a bread bowl.

My bread bowl was a bit burnt tonight, but that was okay-- it kept me from eating the whole bowl.

It has to be the ultimate in soup decadence. Plus cheese and bacon. I had the soup plus salad just to lighten it up a bit. It was delicious.

Jeff and I reminisced about our days ruling Trade Wars on the old nando.net BBS-- about 15 years ago. And Emma demonstrated her ability to talk about anything. Seriously. I think maybe she should be on television-- like a talk show or local news. She's amazing.

We also got sauteed mushrooms to share and then stole Jeff's too. They're Emma's new favorites, which carries on a family tradition, but I'll talk more about that on Cream of Mushroom soup day, because the Baked Potato soup has put me in a soup coma.

So I give it 3 spoons worth of satisfaction and 0 spoons for nutrition... that's just 3 out of 8. The company was better than the soup.

Sleep tight. Love you. Mean it. I know I need to work on these photos for this blog. Today is the first one that's sort of in focus, but the food styling is a hot mess. *Sigh* :)

OH, guess what-- Emma drew me an icon for this blog. I'll have it up tomorrow. It's cute!

Saturday edit: It was $7.50 for soup and salad. It would have been $5 for just the soup. It may have been the company and actually eating in a restaurant, but that seemed like a fair price, even though it was the most expensive soup I ate this week.

There was no soup for lunch today, but there will be soup for dinner! I'll be posting later.

Some Like it Hot... and Sour

There are three places where I get Hot and Sour soup on a fairly regular basis-- often enough that I have come to conclusions about each and could recognize each out in the wild. There's our neighborhood Hot and Sour, my favorite Hot and Sour, and the other one.

Our neighborhood Hot and Sour comes from the Hong Kong restaurant in Plaza West off Western Blvd at Jones Franklin. It is one of those ubiquitous hole-in-the-wall places you can find in small shopping centers everywhere, with the same backlit plastic photos of menu items hanging above the counter.

Hot and Sour soup has been our go to soup for curing colds since Ron and I got married. We have lived in the same house for 22 years and so have been eating Hong Kong Hot and Sour for 22 years. We've been eating it since before Emma was born and that soup has never changed. It's the fullest version-- with lots of tofu and wood ear mushrooms. I believe it's the most authentic.

My favorite Hot and Sour comes from Super Wok in Cary. It's relatively new and the restaurant has gotten rave reviews.

It's one of those chinese take-out and delivery restaurants that also has a real dining room and the option of a menu written in Chinese with all authentic dishes.

It's what we get delivered at work. It's what I had today.



It has a much more intense broth and there is more broth with less tofu and more room for crunchy noodles, but the best thing is that they put in quartered white mushrooms. Yes, just good old pedestrian button mushrooms.

I'm sure that that breaks some rules of authenticity, but those mushrooms give the soup a nice bite. And button mushrooms are a blank palette-- like tofu, but not tofu-- so they absorb all the spiciness in the soup. And it is nice and spicy.


I also find that Super Wok has the best crunchy noodles.

The third soup, the other soup, is from Shanghai Express on the NC State campus. It's authentic like the soup from Hong Kong, but not so full-- there's room for more crunchy noodles.

The important thing about Shanghai Express has nothing to do with the soup. They are Emma's favorite Chinese restaurant. They have String Beans in Garlic Sauce on the menu, are inexpensive, and deliver to her school.

She's in the last three weeks of play rehersals at school-- the cast of the play has taken to ordering from Shanghai Express. She comes home fed, but reeking of garlic.

So anyway, today we found out that our boss is moving to another office :(. So he bought us all Super Wok :). Yes, I think that makes perfect sense! It was also a rainy miserable dark day-- a perfect day for Hot and Sour Soup.

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Whoops-- I almost forgot. I give this soup 3 spoons for love and satisfaction and 4 spoons for nutrition-- because it's important for women my age to get some soy protein and this is my best source. So 7 out of 8-- nearly a perfect score. Today that feels fitting. I paid... I mean... Jack paid $2.50 for this bowl of soup. Amber got some too.

EaMoSuMo wordcount since 11/1 = 2126

A long, long time ago...

Across the street from the old office there is a deli called The Food Factory, owned and run by Jimmy and his wife-- I want to say her name is Sue Lisa, but right this second I'm drawing a blank. I can say it opened up about ten years ago because I know it was open on 9/11. They came from New York and had family and friends in the NYC Fire and Police Departments. The deli became a gathering place for workers in downtown Cary on that horrible day.

(I looked it up on their website -- the restaurant's 10th anniversary is November 15. And while I was there I stole that picture to the right.)

Anyway, back in the day we spent a lot of time over there. You could get a good grilled cheese sandwich and they would let you customize it-- my favorite was swiss on rye, but american on white with tomato was a staff trend at one time. Ann started that. Or you could get just a few slices of turkey or some cheese or little side servings of a variety of deli salads. Their designer sandwiches, wraps and paninis could be pricey, but we learned to improvise.

In those days, I had a partner-in-crime up at the front desk-- Dee. Dee turned me on to their Cream of Mushroom soup. It was a real treat-- so rich and creamy it was hard to finish-- so when they did offer it, we always had a discussion about should we or shouldn't we. And then hours of anticipation if we decided that we should. I can still remember how that soup used to make me smile.

I thought that Wednesday was Cream of Mushroom day and didn't even check before heading over there today, but alas-- there was none to be had. It may not be offered anymore (gasp) or they may have run out. They were busy so I didn't ask about it then-- but I will. Instead I settled on Chicken Orzo with Spinach.

I was a little disappointed thinking it would be similar to yesterday, but it was like apples to oranges. This soup is broth based and beautiful-- snow-white slices of chicken, bright orange carrots and deep green spinach with a decent amount of orzo swimming in a light broth.


The second reason I decided to hit The Food Factory today was that I knew I wouldn't be able to look up food values and obsess. It's a really lovely soup-- I'd say my favorite so far. It had the most meat and no processed flavor at all.

So I'm going to give it 3 spoons for love and 3 spoons for nutrition-- 6 out of 8 for Chicken Orzo with Spinach soup from The Food Factory. This bowl of soup cost me $3.99.

And I'll be back again someday soon,
looking for the Cream of Mushroom.

Never on Sunday

So I decided that the next logical step would have to be chicken noodle. I hate canned chicken noodle. I used to love those envelopes of Mrs. Grass Chicken Noodle-- which were just packets of flavored salt I suspect-- but you can't get that anymore. At least not around here.

And I never order chicken noodle soup when eating out. It's just not a restaurant soup in my mind. It's a traditional comfort soup that I generally don't like.

There is one version I've been curious about-- Chick-Fil-A's Hearty Chicken Breast Soup. And so that's what I ate today.

I've been curious about it because Chick-Fil-A is sort of an enigma. First of all-- they are closed on Sunday. Of course, I only ever want Chick-Fil-A on Sunday.

And then-- it's fast food, but you can get chicken salad on whole wheat there. And it's good chicken salad-- it's not all mayonnaise-- it has a little tang to it and crunchy bits of celery.

I've been told it's an acquired taste, but I have acquired it.

Their combo meals have the option of swapping their waffle fries for a cup of soup, a side salad or carrot raisin salad. But when I feel like I'm being good-- having the chicken salad sandwich-- I must have the waffle fries-- to balance out the goodness. You know? Fast food is not for behaving.

(I've just peeked at their website and the chicken salad sandwich is just about as bad as their breaded chicken sandwich. The chargrilled chicken sandwiches are better. So I've just been lying to myself.)

Anyway-- today I just got the soup. And it was like no chicken noodle soup I've ever had before. It was more like a stew-- or what's inside a chicken pot pie-- but then with these thick noodles that were perfectly cooked. Tender but not falling apart. Yum. I could have licked the bowl.

I got the small. The website and a couple of other sites I looked at had it listed at 140 calories, but I think that's off. I was full and completely satisfied until well past 5:00-- on 140 calories??? And look at those noodles. No way. Maybe it thickens up or they don't dilute it as much as they're supposed to.

And it gets even worse-- the same sites that say 140 calories also say 900 mg of sodium. So if it's more condensed than it's supposed to be, that would be worse too.

The medium waffle fries have 200+ more calories (359) but 1/6th the salt (153). Of course the side salad would be better still.

This is getting sad. I meant this blog to be PRO-SOUP!! I need to find some good news tomorrow.

I'm going to give it 2 & 2-- so 4 spoons out of 8. I don't have an emotional attachment to chicken noodle and now I just feel decadent for having enjoyed it so much. It gets 2 nutritional points for bringing some protein to the party and because I suspect that normally it is a low calorie food.

I wanted to start logging this too-- Today I paid $2.25 for this bowl of soup.

9:47 p.m. Edit: Okay, I've decided-- I'm not going to sabotage this by becoming obsessed with sodium. The fact is that processed food contains a lot of salt-- it's not like I didn't already know that and it's not as if I've been eating low sodium up to this point.

I will eat one serving of soup each day and because it is filling and often nutrient dense, it will help me make better choices later in the day. And I'm going to look hard for sources of homemade soup. Mom?

Let's start at the very beginning...

I am certain that for many people a quest through the land of soup would begin at Chicken Noodle. That is the traditional soup of childhood sick days. But not for my family. Soup in my family begins at Tomato.

So I decided that EaMoSuMo would begin with Tomato-- and not just any Tomato-- Campbell's Tomato Heat & Enjoy Microwaveable Soup.

I am the eldest of four. My father was a grad student most of my childhood and so we ate a lot of cheap food. We ate a lot of soup. We ate a lot of Hamburger Helper and also TV Dinners-- but not Lean Cuisine foo-foo TV dinners-- metal tray TV dinners with four segments full of lava. This was in the 60's and the 70's. We were tough back then.

My mother always served tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches and dill pickles and so for a real comfort fest it has to be with the sandwiches and the pickles. But for lunch I like tomato soup with lots of pepper.

When I got to grad school myself, I was on my own for the very first time and my food budget was $25 a month. This was in the early '80s and $25 went farther than it would today, but still-- it didn't go far.

I do think Ramen was around then, but it wasn't all the rage. I lived on Campbell's soup, Kraft Mac & Cheese, Rice-a-roni and beer. But that was okay-- I was young and determined and moved around a lot :).

And now-- tomato soup still tastes like youth and determination to me.

But now that I'm an old woman, it's hard to look past the fact that soup can pack a lot of sodium, particularly canned soup. So I'm going to log the data here so as to compare. This 15.4 oz Campbell's Tomato soup is two servings with 480 mg each. If I were to eat the entire thing (which I didn't) I would have had 40% of my recommended daily value of salt.

And yet-- a quick peek online at some other products (yes, I know, that's cheating) reveals that that's not actually high for canned soup. And yet if I were to eat this entire thing (200 calories) and stick to 2000 calories a day, I'd have had 40% of my salt in 10% of my calories. And only 3 grams of protein.

So for nostalgia and dependability, I'd give Campbell's Tomato Soup 4 out of 4 spoons.

For nutrition and balance, I'm afraid I have to give it only 1 spoon out of 4. I'd give it zero but for the fact that it is low calorie and filling, and because of the antioxidant properties of tomato products.

Final score: 5 spoons out of 8.

P.S. Don't go for a manicure and forget to vote.