Days grow shorter. Leaves turn brown and fall. Halloween has passed, and autumn is upon us. In Louisiana, the approach of fall can mean days will be cold. It can mean days can be unseasonably warm. By nature, I’m a warm, approaching hot person (which doesn’t necessarily jive with my love of hot soup, but so it goes). The weekend preceding 17 November was the coldest I can remember this early in the season. As sometimes happens when the weather changes, I also managed to come down with a cold. Perfect time for some soup! You can see this website to get to know some mouthwatering food items.
The crew and I headed out in search of something hot to satiate my sniffles. Located in Youree Drive’s Shoppes at Bellemead, Fairfield Grocery and Market Café is a friendly, inviting lunch spot with daily soup specials. I’d eaten at Fairfield more than a handful of times before, but I hadn’t tried their soups.
Options on the day we arrived was their seafood gumbo, along with their chicken and rice soup. Having just written about a gumbo in the previous “Toups on Soups” piece, I opted for the chicken and rice. Besides, it sounded like the perfect comfort food to help soothe my cold.
My waiter, Trey Fayard, brought forth a steaming bowl of goodness. By this point in my cold’s progression, I was starting to regain use of my nose and was treated to the rich aromas of chicken stock. I knew I’d be in for a treat.
Looking at my bowl, still in a cold-induced fog, I immediately made note of the soup’s crab meat. Only thereafter did it occur to me I’d ordered “chicken and rice soup” and that the ‘crab meat’ I was seeing was chicken that had been slow cooked and shredded after boiling in the stock. Score one for my Big Dumb Brain. It was time to grab my spoon and get to work.
I was quickly taken aback by the richness of the flavor, bordering on creamy. The rice caught my attention. I enjoyed their use of short grain rice as it clumped together well in the soup, forming bites rather than individual grains. I couldn’t pinpoint any particular notes of any of the other ingredients; the phrasing “nothing stands out” crossed my mind, but with the caveat that it was meant in the absolute best possible way. The soup was just good. It was exactly what I needed in my stomach to fight the cold — hot, delicious, and comforting.
About halfway through, deciding I’d like to add a little spice, I asked Trey for some hot sauce and received a bottle of Tabasco. Adding a few drops gave new life to an already delicious soup. What was already a hugely pleasing culinary outing turned into something perfect. Once stirred in, the Tabasco seemed to awaken every bite — it was a perfect complement, accenting the other flavors.
Noting that there were coolers in the back grocery section, I walked back and browsed the selections available, seeing numerous soups, from Tuscan tortellini, savory pork and cabbage, and many more, all frozen and ready for at-home consumption. I asked Trey his favorites, being told, “I’ve been here two years and I like them all, but I really love the vegetable beef tenderloin.” Trey took special care to mention the deliciousness of the pieces of filet in that particular dish. At this point, my mind was made up which soup I was taking home for the evening, only to discover there was no vegetable beef tenderloin to be had. I glanced through the other options and chose their hearty minestrone. A few hours later, from the comfort of my home, I had more delicious Fairfield Grocery & Market Café soup to complete my evening.