Soup Tasting

We had a soup tasting contest at church today. It was part of a town wide festival. About one dozen local restaurants provided soups and people paid $3 for a ticket. Each person who bought a ticket was able to taste as many soups as they wanted and then they dropped their ticket into a bag that had a number that corresponds with the soup they loved the most.

I helped out in that I served out the samples for one of the soups. Basically that meant scooping a little soup into a 1 oz plastic cup. But, since my soup was called Buffalo Chicken, I also tasted the soup to see if it was hot or not and then tried my best to sell people on the soup. It wasn’t hot but had just a slight kick and a wonderful creamy and cheesy flavor with a TON of chicken in it. Despite my efforts, the soup I was serving didn’t win. So sad.

I do have a couple of observations on the soup tasting:

• All the soups were wonderful but there seemed to be an abundance of cream based soups. I know we live in chowder country but I felt there should be more broth type soups.
• Speaking of broth, a woman asked me for a sample but all she wanted was the broth. I said “you don’t want the chicken?” She informed me that she didn’t want the chicken because she is a vegetarian. I pointed out that the soup has chicken broth in it and is full of chicken. She said she understood but wanted to cheat a little and try the broth. I told her that it was her vegetarianism and she could do what she wanted and gave her a sample of the broth. She loved it.
• The winner of the contest, who won by one ticket, hung out in our Narthex during the whole contest even though all the other restaurant’s people left the building, as they were supposed to. Last year this chef actually hung out in the hall but we told her she couldn’t do that. She did insist on staying in the building. But she also had a group of her employees come by, buy tickets and “sample” the soups. A group at the beginning of the contest and a group at the end. Now, what is the likelihood that they voted for a soup that wasn’t their boss’ soup?

All in all, it was a fun day. The soups were delicious, people had a good time and we raised money for the church (the proceeds go to the organization that hosts the event). I’m looking forward to next year’s contest. It’s a great annual event!! And tasty too!!