The Tortilla Soup Quest

It's been over a month since my last post...and quite frankly I'm not surprised it has taken me more than 30 days to write my second entry. In fact, I should have called it out in my previous post so it would make it seem like a) I had no intention to get back to it in the near future and b) all my loyal readers wouldn't get their underthings in a bunch. In all honesty, I just didn't know what to write about. But at least I'm better than George RR Martin and his apparent total disregard to his readers. I mean, how stinking long does it take to put out the next book that was supposedly already half done like 3 years ago...anyway, that's for another post at another time.

I was out to lunch with some peeps this past week and we went to Saltgrass. After thinking about it, we really should have gone somewhere else because I seriously had the best steak of my life not 18 hours earlier down in the Fort Worth Stockyards and I should have known anything would have paled in comparison to the ecstasy I experienced that night. I mean, the thing was soooo good it's almost as if they carved it off the cow itself just moments before searing it. Which considering that we were in the Stockyards, probably wasn't far off.

Anyway, we went to Saltgrass and had an average steak (I wasn't paying for it, so what did I care?), and the all-important question came when I placed my order..."would you like soup or salad with that?" What I usually do is ask "what are your soups today?" knowing full well that I am so not a soup guy and will most likely go with the salad, but I guess I feel that I am being polite by inquiring after their soup selection. My waiter surprised me when he said they were serving tortilla soup, something I had not expected from a steakhouse, so I was like, well now I have to try it. I don't know what it is, but for some reason I have this compulsion to try tortilla soup wherever I go and make a mental evaluation based on previous taste trials. Similar to one friend that has to try and compare calamari, and another who's first order at a new place is always the chicken enchiladas.


So I've tried tortilla soups from a number of different establishments all across the country, (well, at least Texas, California, and Nevada anyway) and I can say that Saltgrass ranks towards the bottom. In fact, let's just be honest, it's dead last as far as I am concerned. First of all, it was kinda creamy, and I am such a fan of broth-based tortilla soup, but it wasn't all the way creamy...more like curddy, if that's a word. And the chicken was tiny cut up processed chunks of something or-nother, and then to top it all off, they threw flippn CORN in it!!! Ewwwwwwww! Why do people feel like that have to ruin perfectly good food items by thinking they are 'spicing things up' and adding CORN to stuff?? Why not throw some nasty peas in there as well? While you're at it, my rice and my mashed taters and my steak look a little dull, I think you know what to do....

So just in case you are wondering, the best tortilla soup I've had is at the Alamo Cafe in San Antonio. Taco Cabana's isn't half-bad either for the price and convenience. If anyone has any recommendations, please let me know, I'm always open to finding a succulent bowl of tortilla soup. I'm headed up to Charlotte, NC tomorrow, but I don't have high hopes of finding anything promising. I believe Bowling for Soup spoke true doctrine when they said in their rock anthem entitled Ohio (Come Back to Texas), "Besides the Mexican food sucks north of here anyway."