Soup! (at Halina's)

It has been noted that soup is often and seemingly oddly enjoyed intensely in hot weather locales. Pho, birria, pickly south Indian soups, these hot pots are supposed to help cool people down. But on the other hand, soups can also warm you up, and this is, of course, the dawn of need to be warmed up season in Chicago, Illinois. Which should drive all hounds to the far Northwest side of Chicago, to Halina's.

Hat Hammond once declared, I hate soup. As it has un-folded, it seems that his soup phobia has a lot to do with post Thanksgiving turkey carcass soup, something he blames, with little support, on the women's movement. I have, however, taken Hammond to Halina's for soup, and I am pretty sure he does not hate soup any more.

Does Halina's serve the best soup in Chicago? Well, Evil Ronnie's triple processed soupe au poulet is not served at Halina's, so I know there is competetion. I know Halina's is far up there in the soup competation for two reasons. For one thing, I have never had a bad soup there; for another thing, there is always a variety of interesting soups. What really says it all at Halina's, is that you can see on the board, the daily soup as tripe, and well, order it with high confidence.

When we dined at Halina's the other day, we sampled four soups (and I am very tempted one day soon to just order several soups for dinner at Halina). Three of the soups were standards: chicken with thin noodles and lots of fresh parsley; mushroom and red borsht. Of course, red borsht is also an excuse to have the crispy-delicious "egg roll", but this is a borsht of many flavors, not just beet water. You drink it from a coffee mug. The fourth soup on our night was dill. The dill was not actually the most interesting element. Rather, it was tons of tiny fresh made flour dumplings, like spatezle that supported the dill in this soup.

Like I say, you can pretty much pick any soup at Halina's and be happy. Cucumber sounded weird but tasted incredible. Bean is rich with slices of sausage. Order two bowls. It is soup season.

Halina's
5914 West Lawrence Avenue
Chicago, IL 60630
(773) 205-0256

I love soup anytime, and this place is new to me. Tell me more -- what other food is served? Can I bring the kids? Borsht, bean soup, dumplings -- makes me all warm just thinking about it.

Soup Stands (as opposed to Soup Kitchens) is another culinary area in which Chicago seems lacking as opposed to New York. Seinfeld's classic Soup Nazi episode was based on the very astonishing Soup Kitchen International and, Al, its very astonishing proprietor, literally a hole in the wall (you walk up to an opening of a building facade and order your soup). I haven't yet tried Halima's, but there certainly are very few all-soup all-the-time restaurants. SKI's Crab Bisque is as platonic as streetfood as I have ever had.

In attempting to find the address, I discovered (disconcertingly) that: 1) Al's SKI now has a webpage (http://www.therealsoupman.com/), 2) he will ship soup (I suppose this should be good news, but now anyone can share the soup), and 3) the website indicates that Al's is currently closed, although it will be reopened.

Al's Soup Kitchen International
259A West 55th Street
New York

Is Soupbox/Icebox still open?

Soupbox/Icebox
2943 N Broadway
Chicago,Il.
773-935-9800

Podhalanka has amazing soups as well in aa soviet-type environment. They have several every day- mushroom barley, cabbage, red borscht,white borscht, chicken noodle and others.
1549 W Division

Rob, I thought Halina's had their soup outsourced from across the street. No?

VI's fondness for Halina's prompted me to visit several years back, and it became my go-to place when wintery weather led me to want a filling Polish meal. I've had many a fine cutlet there, in several styles, and their fine version of Hungarian potato pancake with goulash inside. Always enjoyed my meals there.

Don't get the duck.

Tried out my theory the other night that a few pints at Galvin's across the street followed by dinner at Halina's would make a fine evening out. And it was. [Try to snag the table in front of the fireplace on a cold evening. Makes the Jameson's that much more warming . . . ] However, ordering the duck was the one low point of the evening. The duck's skin was grey, moist, and greasy, the meat tough, grey and stringy. Clearly the duck had been reheated for serving, and not skillfully. [And I don't know enough about holding and reheating a duck to know if this can ever work.] It was everything I don't want a duck dish to be.

So, stuffed cabbage, cutlets, pierogi . . . enjoy Halina's. In keeping with the title of this thread, the creamy tomato soup with tiny fresh noodles was very, very good. But you've been waved off of the duck. [Unless Steve Z can swear otherwise, I would never try again.]

Giovanna

GAF wrote:Soup Stands (as opposed to Soup Kitchens) is another culinary area in which Chicago seems lacking as opposed to New York. Seinfeld's classic Soup Nazi episode was based on the very astonishing Soup Kitchen International and, Al, its very astonishing proprietor, literally a hole in the wall (you walk up to an opening of a building facade and order your soup). I haven't yet tried Halima's, but there certainly are very few all-soup all-the-time restaurants. SKI's Crab Bisque is as platonic as streetfood as I have ever had.

In attempting to find the address, I discovered (disconcertingly) that: 1) Al's SKI now has a webpage (http://www.therealsoupman.com/), 2) he will ship soup (I suppose this should be good news, but now anyone can share the soup), and 3) the website indicates that Al's is currently closed, although it will be reopened.

Al's Soup Kitchen International
259A West 55th Street
New York

I agree, Al makes about the best soup I've ever tasted. FYI, he now has soup at retail at Costco. I purchased some on Saturday, but have not tried it yet. Not fresh, but at least the line was shorter.

Al Yeganeh closed the International Soup Kitchen on 55th Street a few years ago in favor of franchising his "soup nazi" concept. There are a few stores in lower Manhattan. None are of the quality as produced by the now defunct Daily Soup that was located in various locations in Manhattan. Hale and hearty, a local NY chain is ok though quality varies from location to location.

Getting back to Halina, if you've never tried her white borscht, it is a must. It has a slight tangy tasty from it's rye base. and is loaded with sausage and a whole boiled eggs.

It's aboslutely my favorite soup in Chicago.

Anyone know if the soups at Podhalanka are vegetarian? I'm afraid I don't know much about Polish food, or how dependent it is on meat (broth). Some of them sound so tasty.

My wife and I had grander plans for a Valentine's Day lunch, but then that strange (and seemingly unknown to some) item called work interluded. So, we ended up in the romantic in its own way Halina's. Which, I am sad to report, was a bit below par.

Soups, however, remained strong. I'm not sure if it was a lent thing, but our two soups, the special barley and a menu mushroom, were meatless. With heavy hands of cream and butter, they reminded me very much of the soups from Ratners, the old dairy place on the Lower East Side*. A fine start segued into a mediocre lunch. We had a cutlet that was with bacon, onions and cheese, a Halina contractor so to speak. Nothing on it, however, seemed to zing. The onions were bitter, the bacon tough, believe it or not, and the whole just too greasy. Our other entree was the Hungarian pancake thing of goulash inside potato pancake. Maybe the oil in house needed to be changed, because again the pancake was flat and greasy. The goulash was tender but limited in flavor.

No trip to Halina's is wasted though as Cookie Monster and her Delightful Pastries are just across the way. She plied us with macaroons and kolachy and we purchased a bunch of pink and red and heart shaped things to send love to all the members of our family (except the cat, later that day we got him some catnipped toy).

*Noted exchange we once had at Ratners:
Me, after seeing something on the menu, $4 (!) called sour milk, "what's sour milk"
Waiter, shrugs, the shrug, "sour milk"
Ratners RIP