Le Dog (Part 2)

I think the thing with Le Dog is that if it sounds good, it’s really good, but if it sounds normal, it’s pretty ordinary.  I’ve had a pretty ordinary chicken noodle soup here.  The best soup I’ve ever had here was a ribollita, an Italian soup made of veggies, sausage, and potatoes.  I’ve only seen it once though!

Monday:

Monday I decided to get the cheesy chicken tortilla soup, which is one of the most popular soups Le Dog offers.  As I was waiting for my soup, the woman behind me in line went up to order and said to the worker, “I just realized I don’t have enough cash… would it be possible for you to spot me?”  The worker said “yeah, no problem, that’s fine,” with a big smile.  Not sure if she was a regular or something, but it was still nice regardless.

When my friend Max had this soup on Friday, he took one taste and said, “This is by far the best chicken tortilla soup I’ve ever had.”  As I was eating it outside on Monday, this woman passed by and stopped and said, “Where did you get that soup!?  It looks really good!”  It definitely is really good.  The cheese makes it thicker than normal chicken tortilla soup, but it isn’t an overwhelming amount of cheese.  It’s also a little bit on the spicy side, as I spotted a few jalepeno pieces in my soup.

Today’s Michigan Celebrity Spotting: I’m pretty sure I saw Meryl Davis walking by Angell Hall on State Street.

Tuesday:

I was really excited to go to Le Dog on Tuesday!  On Monday’s menu, it said that it would be offering a cassoulet on Tuesday, and they only have it once a year.  I had to get it!

It was more of a stew, not a soup, which might be why it was labeled the “best item today” and not the “best soup today”.  I was actually a little disappointed with this.  It was advertised as “duck, pork, lamb, sausage, beans, tomatoes + spicy herbs”.  So you’d think there’d be a lot of meat in it, right!?  However, I’d say it was 70% beans and 30% meat.  And even with the meat, it had way more sausage than it had duck, pork, or lamb.  I think it had one chunk of lamb in it… that one chunk was very good though.  This was extremely filling and I didn’t even finish half of it, I saved it and ate the rest for dinner.

Today’s Michigan Celebrity Spotting:  Mary Sue Coleman crossing Ann Arbor’s most annoying intersection (if you’re driving) at South U and State St.  Denard Robinson and Kevin Koger chillin’ on a friend’s porch at State and McKinley.

Wednesday:

I realized I had spent $28.50 on SOUP in the last four days and decided to take Max up on his offer of bringing over food… which was soup.  Hahaha.  Thanks Rachael!

Le Dog (Part 1)

It’s definitely NOT soup weather here in Ann Arbor, where it’s been 70 and sunny – there are a million runners on the streets and girls wearing short shorts to class as if we’re in South Beach.  However, this did not deter me from visiting my favorite lunch spot in AA – Le Dog.  While they do have hot dogs as its name suggests, they’re most known for their delicious soups.

Le Dog is based out of an extremely small, bright red booth on the corner of Thompson and E Liberty (there’s also an indoor location on Main St.).  It’s only open from 11:30 am to 2:30 pm Monday – Friday and takes cash only, so it’s not the most convenient place in the world.  Every weekday, there’s a rotating selection of around 7 to 8 soups so you never know what they’ll be offering, but there’s always something that sounds pretty good.  The soups are $6 or $7 and you can get a Zingerman’s pretzel roll or bread for another $1.

Thursday:

I wanted to try the Irish stew, but the pozole with hominy, pork, tortilla strips, avocado, lettuce, salsa, radish, and lime sounded delicious!  AND it’s only offered about 10 times a year?  I couldn’t pass that up!

This soup was actually a lot spicier than I had expected, but it was still really good.  It kind of tasted like a more spicy chicken tortilla soup.  The avocado was a nice touch, and I’m glad I didn’t wait very long to start eating the soup because the tortilla strips were still pretty crispy.  My only complaint was, of course, that there should have been a lot more pork.  At first I thought there was a lot of corn in it, and then I thought they were chickpeas,  but then I figured out that it was the hominy.  Hominy doesn’t really taste like anything, so it didn’t really bother me.

Friday:

On Friday, I went with my friend Max, who had never been to Le Dog before.  In addition to his cheesy chicken tortilla soup, he got one of the jumbo hot dogs… I’ve never gotten a hot dog here before.  Upon opening it up, he said, “Whoa, this really is a jumbo hot dog.”  He also said that “hot dogs are either really bad or normal, and this one’s normal,” so I guess that’s a good thing.

Lobster bisque is only offered on Thursdays and Fridays at Le Dog, so I knew I wanted to get the lobster bisque on Friday.  I was actually really pleased with the batch I got.  I’ve had it before where it’s had a little too much sherry, but this one had the right amount.  It also had a more than usual amount of lobster meat in it, which I was pretty happy about.

Stay tuned for the rest of my Le Dog adventures!