Split Pea Soup with bacon and fresh peas.

Okay, yea.  Split Pea Soup is not a summer thing.  But you know what is?  Bacon, cooked into crispy little lardons, sprinkled over almost everything.  Coupled with morning Berkeley fog and unpredictable June summers, Split Pea Soup was and is perfect for late June.  And, thanks to Thomas Keller and Ad Hoc, it was surprisingly easy to make.

Soup is, in its essence?or rather as it really ought to be?comforting, hearty, thick and warm.  No gazpacho or vichyssoise, please.  It?s not salsa or cooled and thin mashed potatoes that summon up images the thick and delicious bowls soup should be.  Chicken Soup, Chicken and Dumpling Soup, Tomato Soup, Corn Chowder, Vegetable Soup, Palau Soup, Onion Soup.  Delicious and warm things, all in a bowl.  The bowl may be a small bit of why I love soup.  I can?t fully articulate why, but eating from a bowl is so much more satisfying that eating off a plate with a knife and fork.  Especially, it seems, when you?re eating something that really should not be in a bowl.  Steak?  Salad?  Thanksgiving?  In a bowl?