Super soups in Fort Worth
The original comfort food popular with grandmas everywhere — soup — is heating up in Fort Worth.
“The 15 Best Places for a Chicken Soup in Fort Worth” blares the website Foursquare. Yelp’s “The Best 10 Soup Spots in Fort Worth, TX” seems to be getting plenty of traction and attention. There is a rampant ramen craze across DFW.
During the windy, chilly days of a North Texas winter , diners are seeking more than ever before — at least judging by the anecdotal evidence from local restaurants — the warmth and culinary solace in one of the most basic of food groups.
That means Fort Worth restaurant patrons are flocking to — and rediscovering soups — one of mankind’s oldest and most reliably nutritious foods. According to Dr. Anne VanBeber, chair of the department of nutritional sciences at Texas Christian University, from the moment our ancestors invented the precursor to today’s bowl, we filled it with some kind of water-based soup.
But soup’s popularity is based on a much simpler principle: We all prefer being warm.
“We have always gravitated towards warm things,” says VanBeber, “like warm beds, showers, clothes around our necks, lying in the sun, and soups are precisely like those things.”
Today, soups are the dependable delivery vehicle for today’s trendiest food items. Kale, bok choy and watercress are all starting to bob up in all manner of soups.
They are displaying to home and restaurant cooks alike a welcome clandestine quality. Moms know soups can conceal from unsuspecting kids a panoply of nutritious vegetables — squash, zucchini, Brussels sprouts, parsnips and sweet potatoes — that the finicky little ones would not normally eat.
Restaurants and home cooks are also rediscovering the notion that soups are a relatively inexpensive way to prepare a low-maintenance dish that can be very filling, yet low in calories.
“And still another bonus is that food doesn’t have to look pretty in a soup,” adds Lona Sandon, a registered dietician and assistant professor of clinical nutrition at UT Southwestern Medical Center. “You can put anything in there, and since it doesn’t have to be displayed on a plate, it becomes a great one-pot, convenient kind of meal.”
Broth or cream?
Most chefs and health experts agree that chicken, beef, or vegetable broth-based soups are intrinsically healthier for you than more caloric, cream- and butter-based creations.
“For sure, soups are getting lighter, catering to a more health-conscious crowd,” says Ann Afflerbach, who teaches nutrition at the University of North Texas. “I simply don’t see as often restaurants serving beer, cheese or potato soup, loaded down with cheese, butter and heavy cream. It’s much more about the broth-based soups.”
Yet, Saint-Emilion owner Bernard Tronche, who has been around DFW kitchens for more than 40 years, won’t deny the decadent pleasures of a cream-based soup.
“I’ve always liked soups because they are never intimidating as they don’t require a lot of knowledge, to simply enjoy,” Tronche says. “My ‘fine dining’ favorite soups definitely include cream of asparagus, spinach, watercress, leek, potato or corn — and, of course, lobster bisque.”
Many of Tronche’s most luxurious soups are garnished with such opulent accessories as a dab of caviar, foie gras or a mini lobster tail.
With Fort Worth’s international dining options, soups have become yet another passport to a variety of ethnic cuisines. Visit Japan via a bowl of miso or China with egg-drop, wonton, or hot-and-sour.
Thai soups begin with a complex broth before coconut milk, kaffir lime leaves and chicken or seafood are added.
In Vietnamese restaurants, it’s pho. India’s soups not only include healthful lentils and chick-peas, but they introduce Western palates to such dusky spices as turmeric, cardamom and cumin.
Experience Italy by slurping some root vegetable and white bean-rich minestrone. Of course, France’s most familiar broth-based soup is French onion.
Many of Mexican culinary traditions are distilled in one spoonful of its chicken tortilla soup. And, of course, nothing ails the sick, and lifts the spirits of the healthy, more than a bowl of America’s chicken noodle, or its Jewish counterpart, matzo ball.
So DFW.com ventured out to nine, ethnically varied Fort Worth restaurants to find the secrets of what was in the day’s soup pot. Here are the warming concotions that we turned up. Bon appetit.
Wonton Soup at Cannon Chinese Kitchen
Scott Kaiser, Cannon’s executive chef, takes special care with this soup’s broth by roasting chicken bones, pork necks and pig’s femurs for two hours at 325 degrees. In a separate pot, Kaiser assembles ginger, the whites of green onions, plus dried shrimp and scallops, in water and pours it over the roasted bones before cooking it all low and slow for 12 hours.
The following morning, thin soy and white pepper are added to the broth before cooking for another two hours on a stove-top.
For the dumplings, fresh wonton skins are filled with a cooked mixture of pork, along with black tiger shrimp, plus green onions, fresh ginger, thin soy and white pepper. The completed dumplings are then steamed for two minutes before being dunked into the golden broth.
“The roasting of the chicken bones, pork femurs and pork necks — with all that velvety collagen and marrow — eventually makes our court bouillon attain a real depth of flavor,” Kaiser says. “It just produces a rich, yet light tasting broth.”
$4 cup, $11 bowl; 304 W. Cannon St., Fort Worth. 817-238-3726; cannonchinesekitchen.com
Green Chile Chicken Pozole at Taco Diner
For Oscar Saravia, culinary operations manager for Taco Diner, “a lot of the inspiration for this soup came when various general managers started played with different ingredients and we all started remembering how our grandmothers used to cook the same soup back home in Mexico — so we stayed with roughly that same recipe.”
For Saravia, it all starts with a large soup pot holding copious amounts of water, onions, chicken base, garlic, dried oregano, bay leaf, poblano peppers, salt and white pepper. This mixture is brought to a boil — taking around 10 minutes. Then, the distinctive hominy or “pozole” is added. This will be brought to a boil.
In a blender, Saravia combines spinach, cilantro, salsa verde and romaine leaves. This blended mixture is then added into the main pot along with a previously boiled and cubed chicken. This entire mixture is then allowed to cook for another five minutes. The total cooking time for the entire soup is about 20 minutes. It will be garnished with shredded green cabbage, diced yellow onions, radishes, more dried oregano, chopped cilantro and pickled jalapeños.
“And what you then have is a very traditional Mexican soup,” Saravia says.
$4 for a cup and $7 for a bowl; 156 W. Fourth St, Fort Worth. 817-566-0357; www.tacodinerrestaurants.com
Pho Bo at Pho District
Pho bo, which translated means “beef noodle soup,” is indeed that, at least judging from this version’s ingredients of filet mignon, meatball and brisket.
All three meats never threaten to overshadow the perfume of the exceptionally complex broth. The broth serves as a potent marinade for the beef, while also soaking the accompanying noodles.
The process for pho bo begins by placing a large quantity of beef knuckles in a pot and cooking them (for around 45 minutes) until they are free of any ancillary grease. Then in a new pot, they are covered in water, joined by shallots, ginger, a Vietnamese spice mixture (including star anise, citrus fruits and ground cinnamon), and then allowed to cook overnight.
The following morning, all the excess fat is skimmed from the pot’s surface before rock sugar and salt are added. The broth is then ready to be joined by rice noodles.
The garnishes include sliced red onions, cilantro, julienned green onions, jalapeños, bean sprouts, lime and Thai basil.
The brisket and meatballs are pre-cooked, and the filet mignon is so thinly slicedt that it will cook simply by being dunked in the scalding hot broth.
$9.95; 2401 W. Seventh St., Fort Worth. 817-862-9988; phodistrict.com
Baisen Shouyu Ramen at Hanabi Ramen & Izakaya
The process by which this remarkable soup is made purposely remains, by the restaurant’s choice, a Sphinx-like mystery.
However its base ingredients are pork bone, anchovy, apple, salt, a special soy blend that incorporates roasted garlic and onion, and tonkotsu (a broth often paired with ramen noodles).
Pork belly, ajitama (flavored egg), bamboo shoots, green onions and nori (seaweed) are added to the base.
Thanks to one of the best tools ever devised for eating a substantial, broth-based soup — a soup spoon that is part oar — this soup almost doubles its taste-bud pleasures. Arriving in its large, white ceramic bowl, the rich broth bears a flotilla of bamboo shoots, along with piping hot seaweed and luminescent green scallions.
Its pork-belly slices are balanced between tender and crisp. And everywhere are ramen noodles, encircling the rest of the soup’s ingredients. But perhaps the soup’s greatest miracle is a still-runny, perfectly soft-boiled egg, its mustard-colored yolk poised over the liquid replete with still al dente noodles.
$10.50; 3204 Camp Bowie Blvd, Fort Worth. 817-420-6703, or visit Hanabi’s Facebook page.
Winter Sweet Potato and Squash Soup at Bird Cafe
It should be noted that Bird Cafe’s soups change daily so this particular one may not be available.
“I love making soups because you get to utilize great product in order to make the soup into a kind of entree,” executive sous-chef Scott Curtis says.
And this wintery cream soup lends itself to any one of several members of the squash family — from spaghetti to summer to butternut.
Curtis, naturally, makes his own chicken stock by roasting chicken bones (thigh, breast and legs) low and slow, along with the classic combination of carrots, celery and onions, plus bay leaf, thyme and black peppercorns — all in water and left to simmer overnight, for about 10 hours.
The following morning, any residual fat is skimmed off and even strained through a cheese cloth.
In a pan, leeks, celery and onion are sweated before being roasted with the spaghetti squash and sweet potatoes. This pan is then deglazed with sherry before a house-cured tasso (spiced pork) is added to the already shredded, cooked squash and sweet potato mix.
The house-made chicken stock is then added to this mixture, before a bit of cream is folded in. Then the soup is smoothed with a stick blender.
Before serving, it will be salted and peppered a final time and a last dash of unsweetened cream and grated nutmeg added.
$6 for a cup; $8 for a bowl; 155 E. Fourth St., Fort Worth. 817-332-2473; www.birdinthe.net
Cream of Mushroom Soup at Little Red Wasp
Blaine Staniford, executive chef of Little Red Wasp and its elder sibling-restaurant, Grace, loves soups “because of the endless possibilities they present,” Staniford says.
“As the seasons change, you can mark that with a great soup, especially if you can use the freshest product. We want to treat the soup like the star.”
To achieve the “star” quality in his cream of mushroom soup, Staniford doesn’t bog it down with too many ingredients. He uses cremini or baby Portobello mushrooms and then caramelizes them till they reach a nutty brown color. They are then joined by equally caramelized yellow onions before deglazing the entire pan with sherry wine.
The soup is finished with house-made chicken stock, along with a touch of heavy cream, a half-bunch of fresh thyme plus salt and pepper.
It is topped by a centerpiece of crispy, sourdough bread croutons, redolent of olive oil, Parmesan cheese and fresh garlic.
“What you look for in a winter-time soup is one that coats the back of a spoon — which indicates an absolutely perfect cream-based consistency,” Staniford says.
$5 for a cup; $6 for a bowl; 808 Main St, Fort Worth. 817-877-3111; littleredwasp.com
Tom Yum Soup at Tie Thai
The sweet broth of this soup supports bobbing, toothsome mushroom caps, dotted by a fleet of red pepper flakes and scallion shavings.
In only about 30-minutes’ time, the following ingredients are all folded into, and cooked with, a basic chicken broth. These items, mostly purchased at one of the more popular, authentic Asian markets in east Fort Worth, include palm sugar, ginger root, lemon-grass, basil, shrimp, chili paste and soy bean oil, along with a dash of old reliable salt and pepper.
It is the palm sugar that lends the soup its slightly sugary tinge.
As someone familiar with the soup put it: “It’s a 2,000 year old recipe that is not rocket science but it tastes really good.”
$4.95 for a cup, $7.95 for a bowl; 911 Houston St., Fort Worth. 817-332-9110; thaifortworth.com
Carlito’s Bowl at La Perla Negra
There is an added dash of Prohibition-era speakeasy mystery surrounding the Carlito’s Bowl at La Perla Negra. For starters, it isn’t formally listed on the menu, nor is it, technically, a soup.
But if you request it, it will come.
“Carlito’s Bowl is quite a popular item because it is simple and clean,” says the chef, Kevin Martinez. “It is just a good, honest bowl. Nothing too fancy. Just a good meal.”
Deconstructing this bowl allows its “honesty” to shine through. Its bottom layer is a simple batch of expertly cooked rice. On top of that is a soupy layer of charro beans (really a Great Northern white bean) that also incorporates a mix of bacon and chorizo, vegetables, onion and jalapeño. Placed on top of the charro beans are slices of pleasingly-seared flank steak. The Carlito’s Bowl is then finished off with a shower of cilantro.
Those in the know often add their own finishing touches of avocado and shredded mozzarella cheese.
“And that’s really it,” says Martinez. “Again, I chalk up Carlito’s popularity to its simplicity. It’s just a clean dish, reminding many of our customers of what their mom might have made for them as a kid.”
$10; 910 Houston St.; Fort Worth. 817-882-8108; www.lpnegra.com
French Onion Soup at Saint-Emilion
One of the secrets of Bernard Tronche’s French onion soup, at his Saint-Emilion restaurant, is that his soup — a regular menu item since 2000 — actually gets better after its flavors are allowed to marry over several days.
Tronche admits his French onion soup is based on a remarkably simple recipe. But as with all tasty recipes, it’s no surprise that Tronche starts with bacon, which he rolls around several sprigs of rosemary, thyme and a bit of celery.
This is sauteed in a stock pot. A large quantity of yellow onions are added and allowed to cook until they reach that ideal, caramelized state. It can take as much as an hour for the onions to attain a dark, gilded color, when all the onions’ natural sugars have been coaxed out.
A touch of flour is added to the onions to act as a slight thickener. After that, a bit of Madeira and beef stock is added and reduced.
Before it is served, a few slices of toasted baguette form the soup’s roof, and then a slab or two of Swiss gruyere cheese are placed on top. The cheese will be melted into gooey submission underneath the salamander (a professional broiler).
Saint-Emilion serves its onion soup in another classic conveyance: A mini cast-iron bowl made by the French company Staub. Cast iron is vital here as it can withstand an oven’s high heat and allows the onion soup to be served piping hot.
“That heat is important because you don’t want to wolf down onion soup,” Tronche says. “You want to wait on it a bit. That’s part of the fun.”
$12.50; 3617 W. Seventh St., Fort Worth. 817-737-2781; saint-emilionrestaurant.com
This story was originally published February 17, 2016 at 4:19 PM with the headline "Super soups in Fort Worth."