Yummy Yummy Soup!

The first weekend in March one of my favourite events takes place, Great Bowls of Fire. Great Bowls of Fire is an event put on by the Ottawa Guild of Potters in support of the Ottawa Food Bank. Each year more than 300 soup connoisseurs and pottery lovers fill the Glebe Community Centre to enjoy soup from some of the best restaurants in Ottawa, in bowls made by some of the best potters in Ottawa.

My new bowl!

This year my friends and I decided to get there early to make sure that we could get seats together, it’s a good thing that we did! Not long after we got in line, people were lined up around the block! Once you’re allowed in, you go and pick out your bowl. This is no easy choice! All of the bowls have a unique look and are made by some extremely talented Ottawa potters. My strategy when picking out a bowl is first to look for size and then for colour and design. I want to make sure to have a big enough bowl to hold all of the yummy soup. Next you go and find a seat, instead of small tables, everyone sits family style around long tables. This lets you meet some new friends. The next step of the evening is to go around and scope out all of the soups. This is hard because there are about 12 restaurants each serving one soup. Picking the ones you want to try is next to impossible; sometimes I just pick them at random. If you want to know what kinds of soups are available here is a list of what was there this year.

• Restaurant 18 – Chicken and mushroom with galangal, coconut milk, lime and red chili
• Domus Café – Canadian “Ribollita”
• Fraser Café – Thai sweet potato soup

• Town – Tuscan white bean soup
• Wellington Gastropub – Hot and sour duck broth

• Il Piccolino Ristorante – Potato, leek and fennel soup with crispy pancetta
• Il Primo Ristorante – Curried lamb with cilantro and crème fraiche

• Thyme & Again – South west corn soup with cilantro oil
• Stone Soup Foodworks – Winter root vegetable and beer bisque

• Allium – Smoked chicken and cauliflower soup
• Absinthe – Mushroom veloute with tarragon truffle crème fraiche
• Canvas Restro-Bar – Black bean chipotle puree

I had 3 of the soups and Sarah had 4 soups, so in total I got to try 7 of the 12. It’s ridiculously hard to choose just one favourite soup, two of them are tied for me in the number one spot. The curried lamb with cilantro and crème fraiche and the smoked chicken and cauliflower soups were my favourites. The curried lamb soup was really hearty and had a really nice spicy kick to it. The smoked chicken and cauliflower soup had amazing deep rich flavours and was a soup you could just eat forever.

This amazing event not only showcases the talents of Ottawa’s potters and top restaurants, it also supports an amazing cause. Next time you’re getting your groceries, think about picking up something extra to donate to the Ottawa Food Bank.

More info on Great Bowls of Fire

Check out the Ottawa Food Bank website  – ottawafoodbank.ca