The other day, I decided to try a can of Campbell's Soup. It's been a
while since Campbell's and I have spent time together, and since then
they've come up with many new products in several new lines.
I decided to try their Chunky Philly-Style Cheesesteak Soup.
I like to start product reviews on a positive note, if I can. So,
here are the positive notes. I have no reason to believe that
anything in this soup is not legally edible. And, by all accounts,
what was in the can could easily be called soup.
Let's begin with the word "Chunky." This soup does indeed have
chunks. For some reason, I expected those chunks to be either cheese
or, more preferably, steak. Campbell's decided to add chunks of
potato, which does make the soup chunkier, but I honestly can't
recall ever having potatoes in a Philly cheesesteak sandwich. So, the
soup is chunky, but not necessarily in a good way.
Now for the "Philly-Style." It is clear from tasting this soup that
the fine folks at Campbell's have never been to Philly. In fact, the
only reason I can think that the word "Philly" is on the can is
possibly because it is a misspelling of "Filly," and that the tiny
strips of meat-like stuff (more on that later) are, in fact, the meat
of small horses. It's possible. It really didn't taste much like beef.
The other possibility is that it is in the style of the city of
Philadelphia in the sense that the city has areas which are not very
appetizing at all.
And finally, we get to "Cheesesteak," a joining of two words, neither
of which was properly represented in this can. I had trouble finding
any trace of cheese flavor, unless they're using a very unflavorful
cheese. But certainly, this did not contain the cheese used in Philly
cheesesteak sandwiches.
"Steak," I suppose, is technically true, assuming that the small,
leather-like strips of meat were from cows. If they were beef, they
were in the style of chipped beef, and not worth of the word "steak"
in any sense.
In summary, avoid this stuff at all costs, unless you're feeding an
unwelcome guest or a felon. Actually, feeding it to a felon could be
a violation of federal law, so maybe just unwelcome guests.
