A selection of summer treats
Restaurant traffic is generally a bit slower during the summer months with kids out of school and families out of the city on vacation.
Yet cooks still whip up interesting special treats that include ices from Colombia, hot chicken from Nashville and the popular drink-or-dessert combination suited to Rome’s Piazza Navona.
Here’s my short list of selected summer treats from restaurants.
Please check with individual venues regarding availability.
Nuts for soup
Also known as wax beans, cultivars similar to today’s Cherokee Wax and Honey Gold yellow beans have been grown by Indigenous peoples in the Americas for 7,000 years
While restaurants might include cold soups like gazpacho, watermelon, summer pea and vichyssoise on menus in July and August, Kirstie Herbstreit, co-owner of Waterloo’s Culinary Studio, can’t wait to see the local harvest of yellow beans.
Also known as wax beans, cultivars similar to today’s Cherokee Wax and Honey Gold yellow beans have been grown by Indigenous peoples in the Americas for 7,000 years.
But beans are also part of more recent “Waterloo County fare” and the region’s Pennsylvania Dutch heritage too. For Herbstreit, that means using a smoked pork hock to start the seasonal dish.
Herbstreit says the soup is only made in the summer when the beans are at their peak freshness.
“My oma called the thyme ‘little trees,’ so we can only assume she meant fresh thyme,” Herbstreit said.
“It’s almost like sacred tradition in my family in the summertime when those yellow beans come out. Everybody knows that soup is going to be made,” Herbstreit said, adding that white vinegar is passed around at the table as garnish.
Herbstreit says the soup is only made in the summer when the beans are at their peak freshness.
“My oma called the thyme ‘little trees,’ so we can only assume she meant fresh thyme,” Herbstreit said.
“It’s almost like sacred tradition in my family in the summertime when those yellow beans come out. Everybody knows that soup is going to be made,” Herbstreit said, adding that white vinegar is passed around at the table as garnish.
For more, visit CBC-KW.
