Soup Diary 091018

What's the point of Chili Bean Soup? I mean, if you're going to make chili, why not just make chili, and not this watered down variation? Having raised the question, I have to say that the cup of chili bean soup I had at the Ellis Island Casino Restaurant in Las Vegas was awfully tasty. It came as part of what's billed as the best steak dinner deal in Vegas, and I'm not going to argue with that description. For seven bucks, I got the soup (again, very tasty, and garnished, as in the photo above, with a big dollop of sour cream, which generally improves most anything), what I'm guessing was an 8 oz strip steak cooked to order and perfectly done, mashed potatoes with gravy, green beans (with garlic, the only flaw in the entire meal), a couple of nice hot sourdough rolls (and I'm not a fan of sourdough, but these were pretty good) and a large glass of Belgian beer. It was such a good deal that I almost felt obligated to drop a couple of bucks in the casino, but managed to resist the temptation; and as a result, Ellis Island may have been the only casino I visited where I came out ahead. Even the chili bean soup was on the plus side of the ledger.