Rx for heat relief: Why steam over a bowl of soup when you can chill? Refreshingly, Olivette [inside the Houstonian Hotel and Spa, 111 North Post Oak Lane, (713)685-6713, nonmembers welcome] offers cold seasonal soups du jour. For the dazzling orange-strawberry number ($4.50), fresh OJ and strawberries are pureed to a silky rouge finish (no seeds), then prettied up with crรจme fraรฎche and garnished with basil chiffonade. The result: pure refreshment ย not sweet ย with a balanced, citrus-edged fruitiness and a herbaceous bite. Olivette’s summer melon soup is creamier, with a fresh, ginger-scented yogurt base, diced cantaloupe and mint. Curry-apple soup is Chef Mills’s newest creation, a bowl of pure gold with a savory chicken stock and Granny Smith apple puree laced with cayenne and garnished with watercress and minced pineapple. All suitable, slightly chichi prescriptions for curing the Houston summertime blues.
This article appears in Aug 19-25, 1999.