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Whether for a snack, appetizer, or complete meal, think soup...
The jambalaya at Snake River Brewing Company will have you dancing to Cajun tunes in your dreams.
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My braids are frozen and my partner’s cheeks are white. We’ve just finished skiing a few up-and-down laps on Teton Pass and we’re shivering on the drive back down to Wilson.
Despite the blizzard conditions, we make it to Nora’s Fish Creek Inn and shuffle in, peeling layers and anticipating a steamy bowl of pumpkin soup.
How can something so simple—a bowl of mashed-up veggies, spices, and water—be so soul-warming and, well, delicious?
Soup varies by vegetable and meat content, viscosity, the garnishes involved, and purpose so much that it’s impossible to pick out the best one. It depends on such factors as personal taste, weather conditions, and mood. Each ingredient yields a new variation and can sometimes stir an old memory. Trying to compare two soups can be a lot like comparing apples and oranges (or, say, horseradish-apple soup and gingery carrot-orange soup).
While searching Jackson Hole for steamy snacks and liquid lunches, I was able to sample some of this valley’s finest full-bodied fillers—from Albertson’s takeout to Rusty Parrot’s gourmet. I found that Jackson Hole’s restaurants, bars, and grocery stores offer a vast, yummy variety of soups to help people stay warm slope side and fireside.
“Soup is definitely popular here because the outside temperatures get down to the negative thirties, and soup stays up in the one-eighties,” says Greg Carey, a server at the Westbank Grill. “Not only does it warm people up nicely, but a good hearty soup—like chili—gets them back on the slopes.”
“Our patio opens up and people sit out there in the winter eating steaming soup,” says Carey, who has worked at the Four Seasons for three years. “They’re shivering from the cold, but they’re warm inside.”
Local photographer Tristan Greszko thinks the Four Season’s Peak restaurant’s tortilla soup is “ridiculous.” He takes breaks from shooting skiers at Teton Village to chow down on the soup, which features white cheese melted on top and avocado mixed in. “It’s the best,” he says. “It’ll warm you right up.”
On a wintry day in town, you might try Suchada Johnson’s beef noodle soup, which she serves in bowls and larger hot-pot sizes at Teton Thai. The family-owned and -operated hole-in-the-wall restaurant just off the Town Square greets customers with its steaming bowls and warm atmosphere. Johnson says the beef noodle soup is one of her most popular dishes.
“People love to eat soup,” says Johnson, who grew up in Bangkok, Thailand. “It’s hot and it makes your body warm. In Thailand, we eat soup for every meal. We eat soup for an entire meal instead of just an appetizer.”
Once, she says, a busload of Japanese tourists filed into Teton Thai, and they all ordered the beef noodle soup. And then they came back the following day for a repeat performance.
“Soup is an international food,” Johnson says. “It’s comforting because it’s familiar. Plus, we can make it any style you want. We can put chili, sugar, vinegar, or sour in it … You can add anything to soup. It is the perfect food.”
Teton Thai improves on that innate perfection by using fresh ingredients that Johnson’s family obtains from places including Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, and Twin Falls, Idaho. Her mother picks her kaffir lime leaves—a staple Thai ingredient—straight from a friend’s tree in L.A. The truly secret ingredients, though, are the inspiration and knowledge that come from previous generations: Johnson learned the recipes from her mother, aunt, and grandmother.
A bowl of Teton Thai’s beef noodle soup costs about $6.50. I’d also recommend the creamy, coconut-milk-based tom kha gai with rice; the Thai chilies and lime will make your mouth tingle.
If Thai isn’t your style, Johnson recommends the French onion soup at Rendezvous Bistro or at the Gunbarrel Steakhouse, which also offers an Open Range soup of the evening.
Soup is an ideal all-in-one simple, yet filling, meal. It can also be one of the most complete meals. The complexities come with the ingredients—if you choose, you could combine items from the entire food pyramid in one tureen.
