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Food & Drink

Soup’s on!

Yes, soup for you! In these freezing conditions, who doesn’t want a bellyful of warm, comforting soup? Snuggle up with this list of the city’s best bowls. They suit any craving, whether it’s for creamy seafood chowder in a bread bowl or old-fashioned chicken matzoh ball soup or more adventurous options like bloody noodle soup or a West African-style chicken-peanut concoction.

Santouka's Kara miso ramen

Santouka’s Kara miso ramen

The Hokkaido-based ramen chain is always packed with students, tired mall shoppers and hurried businesspeople slurping their noodles while fixated on their phones. Though there’s usually a lineup at this 36-seat location, the food comes fast and the turnaround is quick. On a blustery day, opt for fiery red kara miso ramen topped with wood ear mushrooms, bamboo shoots and fatty pork. It won’t set your mouth on fire, but the creamy pork broth has just enough spice to get your brow sweaty.

$11.45, 91 Dundas East, 647-748-1717, santouka.co.jp/en

Caplansky's matzoh ball soup

Caplansky’s matzoh ball soup 

This one’s just a simple homemade chicken broth with little beads of fat floating on top, diced celery and carrots, two fist-sized fluffy matzoh balls and a whisper of dill on top. Still, there’s something about a chicken soup that works wonders on a cold winter day. 

“Matzoh ball soup is Jewish penicillin,” says owner Zane Caplansky. “Whether you have a broken arm or a broken heart, that soup will make you feel better.” 

For him, the key to good matzoh balls is to keep them simple: matzoh meal, schmaltz, eggs, salt and pepper. They should be the right size so two fit in a bowl, and they shouldn’t fall apart. “Don’t mess with a good thing.”

$6/bowl, $4.50/cup, 356 College, 416-500-3852, caplanskys.com, @caplansky

Ravisoups' curried apricot and red lentil soup

Ravisoups’ curried apricot and red lentil soup

A best soup list would not be complete without an entry from this mecca started by the late, great Ravi Kanagarajah, who elevated the traditional side dish into a main course. 

Some are addicted to the porcini mushroom bisque, others won’t order anything but the corn chowder, but we dig this creative fusion of lentils, apricots and curry – a sweet, savoury, slightly spicy, ultra-velvety soup served in the trademark square bowl on top of a circular wooden tray. Its golden amber colour brightens up any dreary winter day.

$8.99, 322 Adelaide West, 647-435-8365 1128 Queen West, 416-538-7284 2535 Dundas West, 416-769-7284 9 Charles West, 416-515-7284 ravisoup.com

Rock Lobster Food Co.'s seafood chowder

Rock Lobster Food Co.’s seafood chowder

Served piping hot in a giant sourdough bread bowl, this seafood chowder loaded with haddock, clams, Nova Scotia lobster and smoked bacon easily warms you up for the night. Creamy without being heavy and spiced with just a bit of Old Bay seasoning, smoked paprika and mustard seeds, the chowder highlights the seafood’s sweet flavours. Too cold to venture out to any of Rock Lobster’s three locations? Stock up on jars of the stuff ($8.99/750 ml) at any Sobey’s or Foodland market and heat it up at home.

$13, 110 Ossington, 416-533-1800 538 Queen West, 416-203-6623 1192 Queen East, 416-850-3650, @rocklobsterfood

Nana's boat noodle soup

Nana’s boat noodle soup

This new offshoot of the Khao San Road team focuses on Thailand’s street foods, or rather river food in the case of boat noodle soup. 

“In Thailand you used to get these noodles from boats,” says owner Monte Wan. “They’d be served in small bowls, and you’d need to order four or five of them.”

The supersized version here has rice noodles swirling in a sweet and sour beef broth simmered with cinnamon and star anise and thickened with cow’s blood for a slight tang. It’s finished with braised beef shank, thinly sliced beef and beef balls with sprigs of fragrant herbs. Try this if you’re looking for a new take on pho.

$15, 785 Queen West, 647-352-5773, khaosanroad.ca

Cheesewerk's roasted tomato cream soup

Cheesewerk’s roasted tomato cream soup

Nothing goes better with a grilled cheese sandwich than a bowl of creamy tomato soup, which is why big cheese Kevin Durkee turned to his mom’s tried-and-true recipe for this quintessential side. 

“You can probably thank Kraft and Campbell for coming up with this pairing in the 50s and 60s,” says Durkee. “Still, there’s something about the tomato’s acidity that works well to cut through the creaminess of the cheese.” 

Roma tomatoes are roasted with garlic until they’re caramelized, and then they’re blitzed with a house-made vegetable stock, 10 per cent cream and a bit of oregano. Best sandwich pairing from the menu? Keep it simple with the original aged and double-smoked cheddar.

$3-$5, 56 Bathurst, 416-243-3327, cheesewerks.com, @Cheesewerks

Galleria Supermarket's pork bone soup

Galleria Supermarket’s pork bone soup

The food court at this suburban Korean mega-supermarket is its own destination, with a bakery, tofu and fish-cake-making stations and a giant open kitchen where big boiling bowls of pork bone soup are dished out to hungry shoppers. For just $7 you get massive pieces of bone with silky hunks of meat you can easily pick off with chopsticks, a side of purple rice and a little dish of spicy pickled daikon to help temper the slow burn on your tongue as you sip the bright red broth. 

$6.99, 865 York Mills, 647-352-5004 7040 Yonge (Thornhill), 905-882-0040 galleriasm.com, @galleriasm

Pai's tom yum nam sai kung mor fai

Pai’s tom yum nam sai kung mor fai

Chef Nuit Regular doesn’t hold back with her tom yum. You can get it at a spice level she calls “Thai spicy,” a tongue-sizzling, please-pass-the-beer kind of spicy (though customers can ask for reduced heat based on levels posted at the end of the menu). Still, with its ultra fragrant broth simmered with fresh galangal, kaffir lime, lemon grass, chili paste, whole button mushrooms, tomatoes, shrimp and a bit of evaporated milk, it’s so good that it’s hard to stop eating even if you’re dripping in sweat. The soup comes with rice, but Regular prefers pairing it with noodles. The substitution isn’t on the menu, but ask nicely and they’ll do it. 

$15, $13 for takeout, 18 Duncan, 416-901-4724, paitoronto.com, @PaiToronto

Soup Nutsy's West African Senegalese peanut chicken soup

Soup Nutsy’s West African Senegalese peanut chicken soup

Approved by the original Soup Nazi from Seinfeld (there’s an autographed photo of the actor who played him hanging on the wall), this PATH spot always has more than a dozen varieties simmering away in big pots lined up along the counter.

As on the show, you’d better know what you want to order when you get to the front of the line. Fortunately, you can check the website, which updates the menu daily. Try West African Senegalese peanut chicken, a slightly spicy, super-thick and creamy soup loaded with big hunks of chicken, plump peanuts, sweet peppers and rice. It’s almost like a gumbo, so medium size will get you through the afternoon. 

$7.09-$9.09, 220 Bay (TD Centre), 416-304-1383 120 Adelaide West (Richmond-Adelaide Centre), 647-352-7799 200 Wellington West (Metro Centre), 647-351-1723, soupnutsy.ca

Soup N' Such's quinoa chili

Soup N’ Such’s quinoa chili

Healthy fast food is what owner Jeanette Bayley makes at her narrow four-year-old restaurant in Roncesvalles Village, and one of her biggest goals is keeping the sodium level down in her soups. 

“Just because something is vegan or gluten-free doesn’t mean it won’t have a thousand calories or a high sodium count,” says Bayley, who’s working with the city’s public health department to get eateries to put nutritional info on their menus. 

A good bet is a big bowl of vegan quinoa chili with just 250 mg of sodium. A thick tomato soup base is simmered with black and kidney beans and quinoa and then punched up with cardamom, cumin, paprika and jalapeño. 

$6, 2285 Dundas West, 416-916-4131, soupnsuch.net

More Restaurants info here.

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