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[ # ] Pea Soup
June 28th, 2006 under Trips

I am not from California. It’s a nice state, though I think it’s a little big. I always feel a little weary when flying from the East Coast to the West or vice versa and when it occurs to me to go from the L.A. area to the Bay area. I wish there were a lot less in between my two destinations.

From L.A. to S.F. can be lovely if you take U.S. 101 (or “the 101″ in Cali parlance). That takes longer than the traverse up I-5 (“the 5″). Honey and I chose the latter. It was hot. Proof:

We got stuck in a traffic jam in the middle of the brown on the way.

The traffic jam was AFTER we had passed up one of the better exit-opportunities (or exitpertunities if you will). It was all going to be ok though, because Honey and I both knew in our hearts what would be there waiting for us if we just stayed the course.

Pea Soup. Andersen’s Pea Soup. Santa Nella, California.

Pause for a reflective moment.

I didn’t know about Pea Soup until I met Honey. Here’s a short primer:

Started in 1924 in Buellton, CA (rhymes with mule + ton), Andersen’s Pea Soup had as many as four locations. Now each is independently owned (as best I can tell). There are three extant Pea Soups–one on US 101 in Buellton, one on CA 99 in Selma, and the one Honey and I stopped in in Santa Nella. Regardless of the freeway, the basic structure is the same. You start with a windmill, add two cartoon characters–Hap-Pea and Pea-Wee, give away some cheese, and sell pea soup and Scandinavian goodness.

The cheese is tasty and I always have a couple of cheese spreads on toast. Not the most hygienic thing ever, but I can handle it. My hand spends a lot of time in Biscuit’s mouth (her choice, not mine), so clean is relative.

The soup is nice, too, as pea soup goes. No dairy or meat, though you can “play with you soup” and add ham and the like to it.

For sale in the gift shop are the expected and the unexpected. You decide which is which:

As the windmill bade us safe journeys…

…Honey took a moment to contemplate what it would be like to split the peas…

…and I felt a little sick. Cheese? Soup? Corn? (No I didn’t eat the corn). Kitsch? I don’t know. I do know that I’ll be back, though. Because someday I’m going to remember to bring a cooler so I can have my very own crock of cheese.

Read the Comments

[ # 321 ] Comment from scout [June 28, 2006, 2:04 pm]

Mmm, Scandinavian goodness. Nothin’ like it to get you that last third of the way to SF.

[ # 322 ] Comment from treecup [June 28, 2006, 2:23 pm]

I remember seeing the signs for it when I was growing up, but never stopped until I traveled with you two. I still have a photo with both your merry heads popping out of that sign. It captures something essential about how I think of the two of you, though I don’t know exactly what…

[ # 323 ] Comment from treecup [June 28, 2006, 2:24 pm]

Jezebel has this to say about it:
mh sss?
zhnbujbcd c we eb q1qiuJJm x ,

[ # 324 ] Comment from WordsRock [June 28, 2006, 4:47 pm]

Do you eat your pea soup with a spork?

I’m intrigued by the ears of corn in the jar. What’s up with that?

[ # 325 ] Comment from sporksforall [June 28, 2006, 4:52 pm]

That’s the beauty of sporks. You can eat anything with them. I didn’t have one with me, otherwise I would have. I’ve eaten other soups with sporks.

Scout and I both thought the corn in the jar was deeply scary.

[ # 326 ] Comment from WenWhit [June 28, 2006, 7:01 pm]

I’m still chuckling inside because you really did blog about pea soup, as you intimated yesterday.

I saw Suzanne click on your link earlier and asked, “Did it occur to you yesterday that she was really going to blog about pea soup?” She had apparently just started reading this entry and so replied, “I’m guessing she’s going to reference fog.”

And size is one of the few things Texas and California have in common. When I moved from TX to Maryland (before Virginia), I was shocked at how many state lines one could cross in an hour or so!

Oddly, I was okay with the corn. It was the images of Hap-Pea and Pea-Wee that were disturbing. ;p

[ # 328 ] Comment from bryduck [June 29, 2006, 9:10 am]

So, the one on the way to San Diego is no more? (Unless I’m misremembering.) In any case, pea soup is de-lish, so I guess I’ll have to try me some o’ that.

[ # 329 ] Comment from scout [June 29, 2006, 10:32 am]

The Carlsbad Pea Soup is indeed gone. First it went breakaway republic, unacknowledged by its brethren restaurants but still serving the same delicious soup, then it was just gone. : (

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