In Edmonton, we complain when it’s -20 Celsius. And then we complain when it warms up to nearly zero, because things get slushy, our socks get wet inside our shoes, and we’re even more miserable than when it was absolutely frigid outside.
A slushy, wet-sock day calls for one of the oldest remedies in the book: chicken soup. Chicken Mami Soup, to be found at the Chicken Hauz on Jasper Avenue, intrigued me. Was that fried chicken in the soup?
For the record, it’s chicken skin. But this fried-chicken spot serves up a soup that’s a Filipino staple. The chicken broth carries a noticeable punch of roasted garlic. Carrots, green onions and cabbage swim in the soup, along with noodles. There is shredded chicken, boiled egg and the fried chicken skins (pro tip, eat them first, before they get soggy), so I have to respect the commitment to feeding customers chicken from all the stages of their lives (or deaths, I guess). Chicken, more chicken and eggs.
The broth is almost creamy, and, yeah, I know I already mentioned the garlic, but it’s worth mentioning again. I have some lineage that can be traced back to Transylvania, and the fact that this soup did not kill me is proof that I didn’t get any of the vampire blood. A bloodsucker would stand no chance against this broth.
And it’s big. As in, too-much-for-one-person big.
Now, most of you won’t walk into Chicken Hauz for the soup, so I brought a takeout order of fried chicken back to the office. After all, Cory Schachtel is our resident fried chicken expert (he doesn’t actually call himself that), and he reported back that he found the breading to be almost “buttery.”
Chicken Hauz
Downtown | 10752 Jasper Ave NW, Edmonton | 587.454.4146
