The nickname actually came from an Austin café near the Austin Visitor Center.  The employees called me the “soup lady” because I always ordered the soup, but never a sandwich.  I think my fascination with soup came from my Mother’s homemade vegetable soup which she made every summer from our bountiful garden that my Daddy so lovingly planted and tended during the day.  He worked the 2^nd shift at Goodyear in Decatur, Alabama so spent a lot of daylight hours babying his garden.  Mother would can what we couldn’t eat, and winter to me was special with warm soups.

When I sent to work at Motorola in Austin, I would go to the cafeteria order 2 soups instead of a soup/salad combination.  My friend, Kathy, actually was amused by this and we still occasionally mention it in conversation.

Imagine my surprise when I got to Budapest and learned that it is the self-proclaimed soup capital of Europe.  Soup is on all the menus I have seen – not just one or two but several.  Also, there are soup food trucks, and restaurants like the one below that sell only soups.  I have even gotten Clay to stopping for a bowl of soup with me for a quick lunch.  One of my favorite places is just around the corner from our apartment.

As you can see a bowl of soup is 490 HUF which is about $1.79 using today’s exchange rate.  Cheap lunch!  Long live soup!!