why stonesoup?
My mum tells the story that when I was about 4 years old my younger sibblings and I watched a particularly inspirational episode of Humphrey B Bear where someone read the story of stone soup. For those of you not familiar with this tale you can read it here.
Rather than taking home the moral of the story, I was inspired to start cooking. As soon as the show was over I raced down to our closest creek and picked myself the tastiest looking stone I could find. After lugging my treasure home I persuaded my mum to humour me and help me create what in my small mind was a masterpiece with my new found stone and whatever soup ingredients she could spare.
Since this first foray into the world of food preparation my cooking style and technique have definitely evolved. What has remained the same, however, is my passion for exploring new ideas and willingness to find inspiration in the unlikeliest of places. It isn’t very often that I cook the same recipe twice.
In the spirit of this I have decided to call my blog ‘stonesoup’ to keep me mindful of the fun I had during my first cooking experience and to remind me that whatever you are making, it is only ever going to be as good as the ingredients you use.
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thought you might enjoy knowing that there is a wondering restaurant in Budapest called “Stone soup” and they have the Hungarian folk tale about Stone soup on their website: http://www.koleves.com/
cara
I didn’t know – thanks for the link cara. now I have another excuse to visit budapest
Hi, Jules, I my so happy I found your beautiful blog. Photos are absolutely gorgeous! One more thing about the stone soup – actually there is a real dish called “sopa de pedra” in Portugal. :) I found a paragraph in Wikipedia about this Portuguese traditional soup – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_soup
hi agnieszka
thanks for dropping by, and thanks for sharing – had no idea about the portugese soup
I first heard the story of stone soup on a Bananas in Pyjamas video when my first born (soon to be 18) was turning one! I heard of your book and blog tonight when I finally got around to filing some recipes I had clipped from the newspaper/magazines or downloaded and just put into a manila folder. There was an article about your book in the Daily Telegraph food pages (and a great recipe for summer quiche too!).
Love the story… definitely one of the best tales around a blog name I’ve ever come across! :)
Hi! Very interesting story!
In the vally where I was born (Pays-d’Enhaut ,Switzerland), we have a specialty called Stone Soup, which precisely consists of a vegetable soup cooked with a big stone. An other key point is to use nettle : don’t worry, when cooked, they don’t sting any more (and they are delicious and nutricious). The only difficult part is to pick them : gloves strongly recommended!
Thanks for your blog, have fun with it, and keep the receipts coming (I loooooooove ‘em).
Jérémie
I used to read this story over and over when I was a kid, it was one of my favorites :) It made me want to cook as well, not professionally, but it was inspiring!
Hi
Just joined! I was intrigued with the name you chose since it’s also a very old Portuguese legend (similar to the soldiers story but with a pilgrim) and I think it’s wonderful to discover how international a folks tale may be! In Portugal you can ask for Stone’s Soup in restaurants (the fancy ones may not have it but the traditional ones will know what you mean…)!
BTW a foodie that hasn’t been to Portugal is not a foodie!!…;) just joking but make sure you visit!
Mariana
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