REED

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Starkville Country Club with their Smoked Duck and Coconut soup. Already, regular readers are wondering, “Did he eat it? He hates coconut, right?” And I do. And I did. The coconut was apparently in the form of coconut milk, to give it a touch of cream. That I can handle. This one won second place, and an award was well-deserved.

Two Brothers also featured smoked duck, theirs in the form of gumbo. The dark roux was from the duck fat, the stock was from the duck bones, and the duck was from, you know, the rest. I confirmed that the andouille sausage was NOT made from duck, nor was the rice, I assume, but this mostly duck dish was delightful.

Black-eyed Pea Curry was the offering from Kings Craft Butcher. A perfect example of jumping way out of the box and getting creative. Kings Craft has “Butcher” in the name - they like meat things. This was a pea thing, and a boldly flavored one. I was especially impressed with the ground fresh Sri Lankan curry leaves on top.

The first place winner was Central Station Grill for their Farfalle Noodle Soup with roasted pork. The pork had been roasted 8 hours with horseradish and fennel, and topped the uber-creamy pasta soup - it was a brilliant combination.

The Camphouse had Chicken Stew over a broken biscuit, and they, too, used all the chicken: bones for the stock, even a piece of fried chicken skin as garnish. Not to be outdone, Harvey's brought a Wild Rabbit Gumbo, which started with the holy trinity of Cajun cooking (onions, bell pepper and celery) and finished with a rabbit stock. (Did anyone else catch the Harvey-rabbit connection?)

Main Street neighbors 929 Coffee Bar and Moe's Original BBQ also got in the game. I like most everything Moe's smokes, and they smoke most everything. This time it was turkey (in a white bean chili), which we don't see in soups a lot unless it's the weekend after Thanksgiving, but now I'm thinking maybe we should. 929 went way off the coffee cart with their Rosemary Chicken and Dumplings, and if you've eaten lunch there lately, you'll already know they set a high bar for all kinds of other things not coffee.

Bulldog Burger was born out of a deli, and now makes ramen? Well, yes. At least when soup is the object. Tonkatsu ramen, begun with fish dashi, then noodles, pork bone broth, thin slices of pork, and enoki mushrooms. Lots of work went into this one.

Last but certainly not least: a tale of two bisques. Commodore Bob snagged third place with their Lobster Bisque, which followed the pattern of the day, using the lobster shell and salmon skin to make the stock. Rosey Baby got everybody in the bayou involved: shrimp, crab, crawfish and alligator. They all came together for a sho'nuff cup of Cajun deliciousness.

Turns out any weather is soup weather when it's all this good.