Oh, what atrociously gaudy delights will the Super Bowl bring us this year? It's not hard to predict. The halftime show will probably begin with an excessive amount of explosions, followed by a synchronized squad of girls jumping round in outfits that show off almost all of the results of their recent Brazilian bikini waxes. And then comes the entertainment! Which lowest-common-denominator entertainers have they signed on this year? Someone guaranteed not to have a wardrobe malfunction or even a banal tabloid expose? Could it be the resuscitated corpse of Pat Boone? (What? He's not dead yet?) Oh no, it's the resuscitated corpses of the Rolling Stones, a band that had a hard time raising eyebrows even when Mick Jagger was sleeping with David Bowie 30 years ago.
While the Super Bowl's escalating mediocrity is an annual sure-thing, this year's Souper Bowl, the twelfth annual Food Depot fundraiser, is getting a surprise upgrade in fancy-pants-ness (or upper-crust-icity) with a change of venue. Instead of the cozy but humble digs at the Food Depot, this year's cookoff and competition will be held at the Eldorado Hotel.
Never been to the Souper Bowl? It's the kind of event I like to call a "slurp 'n' burp." You pay a set fee at the gate, and are then let loose in a room full of chefs looking vaguely stressed out as they struggle to heat vats of peeky-toe clam chowder over tiny portable gas burners. You take a sample from one table, swish and swirl and slurp in the style of the snobbiest oenophile, then hurry! Move on to the next table before all of the truffled boar gumbo is gone. Remember it all because there's voting at the end. The chefs' challenge of serving restaurant-quality food far from their own kitchens, combined with a dash of competition for awards, and a soupçon of attendees' voracity, lends the whole event an air of excitement. Whose cuisine will reign supreme?
Participating restaurants compete in five categories: Best Chunky Soup, Best Cream Soup, Best Seafood Soup, Best Vegetarian Soup, and Best Soup, but the stiffest competition seems to be in the popular seafood and vegetarian categories.
According to pre-game stats released by The Food Depot's Sherry Hooper, it looks as though this Saturday will find Fuego at La Posada de Santa Fe fronting yet another version of their reigning champion soup. Fuego's signature pear and ginger soup has taken home awards for the past three years, each time with a slightly different taste twist. This year's version is expected to be flavored with thyme and Gorgonzola. Expect it to offer stiff competition in the Cream Soup and Best Soup categories.
Seafood soups are always a big hit at the Souper Bowl, probably because home cooks pretty much never have the time, energy, resources or skill to whip up a little lobster and lemongrass bisque for lunch. Restaurants know this and they capitalize on the public's lust for lobster and the like. Baleen, the upscale restaurant at the Inn and Spa at Loretto and last year's winner in the Seafood Soup category, will offer a Northwest clam chowder. The Blue Heron Restaurant at Sunrise Springs Inn and Retreat is reported to be cooking up a coconut curry soup with tiger shrimp. The Catamount Bar & Grill will compete with a sherry lobster bisque, while the East Mountain Grill proffers a "Desert Fire" shrimp and mushroom soup.
The combination of winter squash and chile is big this year. The Cowgirl BBQ is planning to serve a pumpkin green chile chicken chowder; not sure which category they'll have that one in. Santa Fe Bar and Grill's cream of butternut squash with chipotle sounds like it could be a vegetarian contender, as could Zia Diner's roasted ginger butternut squash bisque. Last year's vegetarian winner, Café Pasqual's, will make another appearance with a to-be-announced entry. But they'll all have to out-wow Whole Foods' tempeh chile. (Tangent: While Ms. Hooper and I were talking about the restaurants' offerings, she confessed to me that she had no idea what tempeh was. In case you're not familiar with the stuff, let me offer a quote from
. "Tempeh is a fermented food made by the controlled fermentation of cooked soybeans with a Rhizopus mold (tempeh starter). The tempeh fermentation by the Rhizopus mold binds the soybeans into a compact white cake. Tempeh fermentation produces natural antibiotic agents which are thought to increase the body's resistance to intestinal infections but leaves the desirable soy isoflavones intact." And in my carnivorous opinion, tempeh tastes just as good as it sounds, so if Whole Foods wins it will be a very, very hard earned victory.)
Other participants include El Farol; Il Piatto, Jinja Bar and Bistro, La Casa Sena and La Plazuela at La Fonda (last year's winner in the Chunky Soup group). Los Mayas will be there, as will The Mission Café, with Cindy's homemade vegetable soup. The Piñon Grill is coming, as is Rio Chama Steakhouse, with their shitake mushroom beef soup. Santa Fe Baking Company, Sol Café, Vanessie of Santa Fe and The Club at the Hotel St. Francis are also expected.
You should go! I'm wholeheartedly endorsing the Souper Bowl. Think of it as a warm up for the following day. You'll get a little taste of competition, a little flavor of defeat and sweaty men in cute uniforms.
The Souper Bowl
Noon to 2 pm
Saturday, Feb. 4
$15
Eldorado Hotel
309 W. San Francisco St.
471-1633
www.thefooddepot.org
Tell me where to eat! I need your input. Send all of your tips, gripes and raves to food@sfreporter.com.
