Cookbook Profile: The Soup Peddler's Slow and Difficult Soups

The Soup Peddler's
Slow and Difficult Soups
Recipes and Reveries

by David Ansel

"With just a custom-made yellow bike, a used bike trailer, and a few two-quart containers of homemade gumbo, David Ansel began peddling soup to his friends and neighbors in the close-knit community of Bouldin Creek in Austin, Texas. Many flat tires and gallons of soup later, his delivery route has grown from 17 soup subscribers, or "soupies," to more than 700 and counting.

In Slow and Difficult Soups, Ansel (aka the Soup Peddler) ladles out generous bowlfuls of some of the most delicious and lovingly seasoned soups you'll ever taste. This heart- and belly-warming illustrated memoir is an offbeat homage to the art, science, and joy of soup, offering a utopian vision of a community brought together through their love of spoon-licking comfort food. The Soup Peddler shares humorous stories about the eccentric folks who populate Bouldin Creek, along with classic and exotic creations like South Austin Chili, Smoked Tomato Bisque, Chompy-Chomp Black Bean Soup, and Bouillabaisse Marseillaise. A tast of simpler times in our modern fast-food nation, Slow and Difficult Soups is a rousing reminder of our basic need to connect to our food—and those who cook, deliver, and slurp it.

About the Author

The Soup Peddler is David Ansel, a sixth-generation Baltimorean Jew expatriate living in the liberal enclave of Austin, Texas. His transformation from software developer to yoga teacher to bicycle-pedaling purveyor of soup has attracted attention from such disparate media as the Christian Science Monitor and Punk Planet. His booming soup-delivery service has also been featured on the Food Network.

Buy the Book!

The Soup Peddler's Slow and Difficult Soups
Recipes and Reveries
by David Ansel
Ten Speed Press
$16.94 (CAN $23.95)
192 pages; Paperback
ISBN: 1-58008-651-9
Information provided by the publisher.