Sometimes, when you experience something so good, you want to share it with the world. This is what’s happened to me as I’ve dined at All Spice, the ethnic fusion restaurant at Cardamom County Resort. As I mentioned in a previous post alluding to the pleasures of growing one’s own herbal ingredients in an urban setting, I’m a huge fan of coriander, also known as cilantro. So when I sat down for dinner at All Spice last night, I ordered the sliced cucumber, lemon and coriander soup knowing I would love the flavor of this dish, which is an original house recipe.

What I didn’t know was that, by the second slurp, it would replace miso soup to become my all-time favorite liquid appetizer. A bold statement which, given my two years spent guzzling miso in Japan, I don’t make lightly.

That makes three out of three now, soups on the menu that blew me away. The Ayura soup made of Ayurvedic herbal ingredients was the first one I tried (and the second and third because it was just so tasty and made me feel so healthy), and each time it makes me think, for some odd reason, “I wish my mom could try this.” And the cream of tomato soup gives you that pleasantly satisfying feeling of “yes, now if only all cream of tomato soups could taste like this,” a bit of relief when you order cream of anything soup. Plus, knowing that the majority of the ingredients for these brothy delights are grown in the resort’s organic garden somehow makes the world seem perfect for the moment it all comes together to pleasure your senses.

Cream of tomato soup

Ayurvedic herbal soup

Now, I’m no professional food critic, nor can I even begin to describe the flavors of foods the way a sommelier describes wines with all their flowery language. But as anyone who knows me will confirm and probably tease me about, I love food. And as someone who is enamored with almost every kind of cuisine I’ve tasted, for such a simple dish to stand out so much really says a lot. If I could write a passage that somehow put the flavor of this soup on your tongue, trust me I would. I could describe it as rich and aromatic yet minimalistic and fresh, or savory and smooth yet tart and succulent… or I could just describe it as cucumber-y, lemon-y and coriander-y. The truth is no words would do it, or any of the soups on the menu, justice. So if ever you have the good fortune of visiting Cardamom County and eating at All Spice, please do yourself a flavor and start with the soup.