I think cville becomes even better when it can introduce me to something I have never even heard of…this week it is Spicy Senegalese Peanut Tofu soup at Revolutionary Soup. Thor touched briefly on how this is one of his favorite soup’s in his Week o’ Charlottesville Lunches series, and after trying it, I think it deserves its own soup bowl sized spotlight. It sounded very appetizing from the menu on the wall, but I was worried it would be some knock-off of a Thai-style peanut dipping sauce (satay sauce) turned into a soup. What I received was as non-Thai as it gets, and a my belly loved every bite of the small size cup I got (mistake #23093 in my book, order at LEAST the medium).
A couple interesting things about this soup:
It is vegan: definitely not the reason I tried it, but that does make it “hip” no? Other vegans agree this dish is hot.
- Local tofu: they use Twin Oaks Tofu, a local tofu producer, in this and its Miso Soup. That ties into previous local/sustainable food topics on cVillain as well.
- Fresh cilantro: this compliments the dish really well and provides a nice contrast to the smooth nutty flavor
- Side of ABC bread: you really can’t go wrong with this. Mine was a toasted sesame seed roll. It had the proper crunch and right amount of internal dough
I found a couple recipes, all with slight variations, that will allow you all to hopefully capture this delicious dish at home:
I made this soup last night for dinner using elements from the three recipes above. It came out flipping unbelievable. I gave it an extra gourmet twist by serving it on top of raw spinach and sprinkling fresh cilantro, chili flakes and fried tofu on top. And yes the picture above was actually taken at Revolutionary Soup.
[pic from thebittenword.com on Flickr]
Popularity: 23% [?]
Tagged as: glocal, Local, review, revolutionary soup, slow food, soup, Spicy Senegalese Peanut Tofu Soup, tofu, vegan
Almost every time I go in I end up ordering this and thinking “geez I should really order something else some time” and then I get the soup and suddenly don’t feel so bad about it anymore.
to save stanley the trouble:
to make a word plural, add an s not an apostrophe-s. thanks.
further to save Stanley trouble:
that’s tone-deaf sexist clattertrap and vituperative thread-policing: i mcquit.
[i’m a huge Stanley fan, no joke.]
i’m a huge Stanley fan, no joke
I take tribute in the form of soup. You can demonstrate your purported fan-boy fervor by delivering some of the soup mentioned in the post, as it sounds fracking delicious.
Stanley, I’ll owe you a lamb-curry when identities come out!! The soup DOES sound frickin deeeeelicious, Shen would approve of the wholesome ingredients.
RevSoup is AMAZING STUFF–filling and healthy and tasty as all-get-outi occasionally have friends smuggle it to me in my cell, in plain brown bags. (not cheap though, workers-unite!)
@general
anyone else a LITTLE bothered by RevSoup motif/themes? i had family killed in the Revolution, and in Stalin’s massacres (12 million murdered: Russia’s War, Richard Overy). Have they toned it down any?–last time in there i saw Communist badges, posters, etc. everywhere.
So many 20th-century euro-immigrants in America. Isn’t their decor (given massacres etc.) sortof like opening a sandwich shoppe on the Mall and calling it Der Reichstag and decorating the walls with swastikas and SS-lapel pins?
/too long—crickets and snores from lurkers and regulars…
@5: Actually, the thing is, in Revolutionary Soviet Russia, soup was known to eat people by the thousands, so when you eat at Revolutionary Soup it’s a sort of historical-ironical payback, which is basically a big ol’ po-mo middle finger at that menacing soup of the revolution. It’s arguably the most American thing you can do: pay a lot of money for soup.
That soup looks like a sinus infection in a cup.
I’m sure it tastes better tho.
@6
makes good sense! soupe-sinistre. i’ll take two of yummy everything.
maybe little swirls of shaped color on top like Cubano does in latte-foam:
screaming peasants on fire, Soviet tanks rolling across villages, trenches of bodies, etc.
or perhaps a Genocidal-Totalitarian-Regime Soup-of-the-Week?
we shouldn’t leave out Khmer-Rouge Cold-Cucumber Soup.
Khmer-Rouge Cold-Cucumber Soup
Served with a side of Dictator Tots.
Pol-Pot Potage?
evil makes everything taste better.
Mulligatawny a la Milosevic?
Slobodan Stew?
@2 i blame it all on the spell check.
peanut soup is a tradition in Virginia—suffolk county virginia (i think largest peanut-producer in the world) serves a variety of it in every restaurant. not spicy, i think, and heavy-heavy-heavy.
this doesn’t look so rib-sticking as the VA-version, will give it a try on your strong recommendation.
@5: one could also argue that a restaurant dressed in US patriotic colors embodies modern day imperialism and senseless killing of women and children in Iraq
i think when food is involved we just sweep these things under the rug
@16
i’m sure you’re right!!!!! then again, the US hasn’t massacred 12 million innocents within the last 50 years
also thinking of the obvious parallels between Stalinist Purges and Nazi Final Solution, wondering why nobody objects to restaurant-decor celebrating the one but no living human would NOT object to the other.
i keep forgetting and bathing before i come downtown, so i never get to go to the TeaHouse, but i think i’ve been told that they also have a lot of Soviet-theme, ‘neo-Comm’, stuff everywhere?
nobody cares about this stuff, may as well let it drop!!!!!
soup is good food, peanuts are healthy source of vegetarian protein–
everyone-everyone should try this cool new Rev Soup dish today!!!
@15 this is more of a traditional Va Peanut Soup:
http://www.roanoke.com/columnists/nair/recipes/wb/148015
Different from the Senegalese one at Rev Soup, but also yummy.
4: stanley said frack! geeky fist bump!
also, this is a very good soup. It’s my second favorite rev soup…. I think.
@16 i don’t go to patriotic-american restaurants for that very reason. & because they usually are filled with fat south carolinians.
Stanley
@’carolingians’?
@22: Huh?
sorry—it was an honest question. (and not correcting orchid, just curious)
do they say ‘carolinians’ or ‘carolingians’?
In South Carolina? They say all sorts of crazy shit down there, so I couldn’t tell you one way or the other. But the conventional, agreed-upon spelling is the former in your #24, viz. Carolinians.
This is an honest question (ie, I’m not impugning the post or the soup): hasn’t this soup been on the Rev Soup menu more or less since they opened? I’m certain there’s been a spicy peanut soup of some sort on there, but I can’t recall specifically if this is the same one as has always been there.
@10 - dictator tots is the most genius thing i’ve heard all week. bravo!
i kept hoping to hear 26 world comment on whether or not the iconography of genocide and totalitarianism is cute and appropriate for a marketing motif.
hoping for his//her seal-of-approval, or his/her vigorous denunciation of it, and some insight as to why people think it’s cool, but/or why it’s not… i’m a little foggy in my feelings as to whether it’s harmless, or really is sinister revisionism emotionally if unintentionally harmful to survivors of brutal communist regimes/orphans of their massacres, etc.
as above, those badges/pins could be seen as almost as or more offensive than swastikas, or whatever BS the klan uses (i assume they have a logo or some such sh*t).
indulge me, 26, as a favor, by commenting?
@27 @10
yes, brilliant.
stanley never ceases to amaze me, both in wit and at serious purposes.
i miss parlie’s one-liners though–he must be recharging.
@24-25 ha, OD trying to correct the english professor…
oops, didn’t read again… but using iconography and genocide in one sentence has got to earn somebody some sort of award
Sorry, OD, I thought you had it all under control. I’ve also been busily working on the graphic for my official seal of approval.
Hey! I invented that soup! The Treehugger one is the closest, only you need to throw in a jalapeno with the onion, and more garlic, and I used sweetened peanut butter (jif creamyto be exact; it has molasses) but I bet a million dollars Will has changed that. Oh, and diced tomatoes, not crushed, for the texture.
The real deal is making the curry powder that goes in it: This is the big batch, you do the math
Toast:
6Tbsp cumin seed
6 Tbsp coriander seed
3 Tbsp Black Peppercorns
3 Tbsp Fenugreek
3Tbsp Fennnel seed
1-2 tsp cloves
2 tsp brown mustard seed
Let cool completely then grind and stir in:
2 Tbsp cardamom
2 Tbsp cinnamon
2 tsp turmeric
and grate in maybe half a nutmeg.
It makes a lot but you can give it away for Christmas.
I can’t believe I remembered that recipe off the top of my head!
Also, the initial idea behind “Revolutionary” was that it was soup for the people. Just FYI.
i think i had ‘Carolingian Empire’ stuck in my head, or whatever the Carolingians had.
Thanks, Chris–would love to hear someone who knows anything talk about this; i guess Communism is cute and fuzzy ever since the Che film came out and some wag printed all those teeshirts. Same, i can’t get away from thinking of 12 million massacred in WWII (and however many in the killing fields and the Ghurkas and our local fave Thibetans) and wondering if anyone ‘feels’ me on that.
I thought it was cake we were supposed to let the masses eat?
I love Rev Soup but yesterday I thought they were going to ruin it for me forever. Luckily, they didn’t. My fucking jaw is wired shut and I can’t fit any of their tasty soups through my teeth because they’re too thick. I asked them to strain the Miso for me (taking out everything but the broth, which is basically salt water). They did, but then they wanted to charge me full price for the large. I told them that they’re giving me only salt water and all the chunks are out because I can’t eat them and could they charge me for a medium? At first they said no. After much pleading, they charged me for a medium, but I couldn’t take the apple or bread either. This shit is killing me. Fucking Panera is on my shitlist too because they will only charge me full price for their soup (even though they strain the French Onion so it’s just brown water). Their excuse? The computer won’t let them ring it up any other way. Fucking A.
/Pissed because I can’t talk, eat, chew, etc. and have already lost 5lbs…Skeletor, here I come!!!
/Thanks jeebus for alcohol, which now supplies nearly 99.99% of my caloric intake
Bad as the Russkis were we would have had twice (?) as many casualties in WWII without them. Hate `em love `em.
@35 - dude, that sucks. I’d go to K*** Br*****’s and drink melted frozen custard in your situation. I would hate to lose my pleasant rotundity, due to having my damn mouth wired shut.
I’ll grab my Catholic worry beads and pray for your speedy recovery and intake of solid foods. Salut!
@36
dead-on. Stalingrad alone remarkable, and race for Berlin.
i like ‘em and their language, lit, history, study them, but won’t wear their badges.
Also like Chaing-Kai for what he did with (Vinegar Joe) Stilwell in Burma,
but you wouldn’t catch me dead in one of those funny jackets with no collar.
@36, @ post
You’ve jogged my tired memory, Doofus:
Stilwell used to refer to Chaing-Kai Shek (spelling, Stanley?) as ‘Peanut’ sometimes affectionately, sometimes not. I think Rev Soup is missing a great naming-opportunity on the above dish!
@39 Chiang Kai-shek or 蔣介石 or 蔣中正
@35 = dang, just say the word and I’ll totally be over at your house making whatever you can eat for you. I really, really totally feel your pain. I’m not kidding - I’m so there for you!!!
@ 38 have you ever been to stalingrad? it’s astounding - i spent two days alone in the museum there dedicated to the battle and still didn’t get what i considered enough. never mind the mat’ rodina, who i saw in an encyclopedia when i was 5 and vowed to see in person one day. freakin’ amazing.
@36 - And don`t forget the time lag of defeat which would have occured if Germany had no second front at a time when the V1-V2 bombings were becoming more sophisticated (guided as opposed to ballistic); the very high probablility of a successful nuclear weapon development by Germany (remember the heavy water ) and “lest we forget” the probable defeat of the UK AF by the first combat jets (German development)………………………on and on.
@39 -sorry
@37, 41, thanks for the kind words. I’m definitely still adjusting (will be a week on Tuesday), but it’s hard. I’ve been eating ice cream and smoothies nonstop because they’re the easiest, but I’ve been craving delicious salty and crunchy foods soooooo bad and all I can get through my teeth that has salty flavor are filtered soups (broth, basically), and instant mashed potatoes that are heavily diluted with milk so as to give them a gravy like quality. But, I’ve still managed to keep my booze intake up, which is nice. Gotta stay positive about something…
dirty martinis = salty + booze
dirty
martinis[insert noun] = salty + boozeMan, all the comments are broken today.
@34 I’ve finally emerged from the weekend and may be able to string together what I hope will be coherent thoughts. No promises though.
I have to say that I hadn’t spent a lot of time thinking about the Revolutionary Soup thing in terms of Stalin. I’ve been trying to figure out why that is because in most instances like that, even if something doesn’t bother me to the same extent that other things might, I tend to notice them. One thing I’ve realized is that I don’t think I actually learned about the Russian Revolution, Stalin and the Purges until at least my senior year in high school and perhaps not until I was in college. By contrast, I knew the basics about the Holocaust by 7th grade at the latest. Hitler was defined as the epitome of evil. Anything else, more or less by definition had to be less bad. I think that gets at the question about why Communist badges and things evocative of Stalin (if you know things to be evoked, anyhow) are OK while similar things evocative of Hitler and Nazism would clearly not be tolerated. Most people know not to tolerate Hitler and most people don’t know why we might not want to tolerate Stalin.
It might be interesting that there’s no “about our name” information on the Revolutionary Soup website. (I’m not attempting to impugn Rev Soup for that, only taking note.) I’m not sure the original owners spent much time pondering it which might tell us more about what is taught and believed in our country than we’d be told if they’d spent a lot of time thinking about it and chose their name and logos as a way to try to influence people. Of course, I don’t know the original owners, so I’m guessing and this might not be interesting at all.
Ultimately, I think such naming and advertising tells us more about what we teach in schools generally and what people are aware of in a world-wide historical context. I think the naming was innocent enough: sounded good, came with some easy logos. The vast majority of people have no idea what happened in the Soviet Union and so don’t take issue with the name or logos. In peoples’ minds Nazism is a horrific thing to be shunned. Communism is what happens in China and maybe Russia and wait, isn’t North Korea communist or something?
@42
The museum sounds bloody magnificent—may be worth my soon pilgrimmage. I’ll see if i can find a website or something. Assume you’ve watched the film?
@43
again, unerring and dead-on. Was thinking also of Paul Fussell (wwii infantry later rutgers prof), his book Thank God for the Atom Bomb, speaking of his being a soldier waiting for deployment to mainland japan, and how the bomb prevented what would have been (he suggests) the nastiest and most protracted invasion of the war.
@48
thank you for that reasoned reply. makes sense. Really, the Russian War AArchives only became available recently, and the Soviets did an amazing job of covbering up the purges and massacres. the 12-million murdered/massacred number only came out within the last, what, 10-15 years. And Killing Fields is pretty much ignored, so many others under the red-banner. as doofus says, so much good-bad in USSR’s role in 20th century.
Abraded by Shen, i return now to light-hearted banter and whatever gossip i can dig up, to drive the site back towards pleasant and light-hearted.
has any town in the US got more educated 30+ unmarried women per-capita and per-bar?
[wow. a moveable feast.] i guess this explains the popularity of the Cougar-thread and concept generally here.
are they happy that way? what are we doing wrong if they aren’t?
@49
should have read ‘upbraided’….
Anyone know of anywhere in town with real mariachi bands? does anyone still ever swill margaritas and watch mariachi bands? do mariachi bands still wear funny costumes and provide that je ne sais quoi of exoticism and rowdy good fun, ai-ai-ai-ai-yip-yip?
@51, good question. Margaritas are delicious on their own, but the flair of a mariachi band in addition makes that a night of pure gloriousness. Does anyone know the answer?
/doubtful
Hi, you rang for doubtful? I’m here.
I tried to find a mariachi band here recently to hire, and came up with nil. Talked to some people in the know, including the ones that do the late-night scenes a la espanol. Apparently there’s some bands over the mountain, but I wasn’t interested in those.
Since Aqui es Mexico is expanding, maybe they’ll add a mariachi band some nights! Couldn’t hurt to ask.
/a girl can dream
mariachi is a thrill and delight.
maybe with a few bars of soap and a couple ponchos/sombreros
we could get the Hackensaws to stop playing rich-kid fake-hootenanny and do spirited mariachi instead?
@48 and the rest of it. There is a stupid long story behind the name involving an imaginary governess named Becky and the French revolution. If anything, I meant the name to reference the IDEALS of the revolution, any revolution (i.e. good, cheap food for the workers) rather than the harsh reality of the Communist state in maturity. But mostly that the soup was so fucking good it was revolutionary. Sorry that you got confused by that.
“The mariachis would serenade,
And they would not shut up ’til they were paid”…
I love Wendy. and that soup was fucking gud!
@55 which Hackensaws, the original members or the guys that still tour under the name, pretty much being a cover band of the original boys??
But mostly that the soup was so fucking good it was revolutionary
Mission accomplished. And don’t mind all the nutjobs in this thread hand-wringing about the name. They’re obviously deranged and shouting at shadows on the walls of a cave.
calling them nutjobs is derogatory language aimed at defenseless nuts, shame on you Stanley
Really ought to be more sensitive to the peanuts that may have read this thread, they have been traumatized enough as it is
A lot of my friends have peanut allergies, so IT’S TOTALLY OKAY ZOMG.
so worth not commenting…