East Stroudsburg
, PA 18301
Phone: 570.476.1229
Update: Kreative Kuisine is no longer a stand alone restaurant. They do, however, supply daily soups to The Coffee Rush (1995 Milford Rd on Route 209 East Stroudsburg), and bulk soup orders can be made directly from Donald McGill.
Chef and owner Donald McGill works magic with homemade broths for his delicious soup concoctions. In fact just recently a group of friends and I were sitting around one of the tables in Kreatives dining room trying to figure out the secret to his homemade broths, the foundation for all of his soups. The menu changes weekly depending on what is in season and the names of his soups sound more like a list of ingredients. Heres a sampling of some of the soups in his repertoire: cream of potato leek with lemon thyme, spicy Thai shrimp, saffron fish and scallop chowder, cream of broccoli with pepper asiago, cream of roasted turkey, sesame roasted chicken mushrooms and bok choy.
My two favorite soups, however, surprise even me because their main ingredients are both things that I usually dont care for: barley and eggplant. The peppered roast beef mushroom barley soup is the savoriest, beefiest, most perfectly executed mouthful of flavors. I dont know how they do it, but the barley becomes a conduit for more of the intensely comforting flavors, and makes me want to give barley as an ingredient another try. My second favorite soup (that I buy in bulk when they have it in stock) is the roasted eggplant with wild mushrooms. Typically a forgoer of anything eggplant, (perhaps from embarrassment of my youthful phase when I wore something purple everyday) I cant get enough of this amusement park ride on my tongue-the sweet from the think spongy chunks of the roasted eggplant, the texture and earthy flavor of the shitake mushrooms all made irresistible by the generous inclusion of fresh ginger in the broth. Perfect.
Included in the more of their tag line, home of organic soups and more& are some of the most perfectly constructed sandwiches that you will ever find. Chef McGill takes pride in making sure that everything coming out of his kitchen has been perfectly presented and seasoned. Whether it is the marinated roast leg of lamb with mint aioli, the marinated hanger steak with caramelized onions, the teriyaki ginger roasted chicken, the pecan-crusted tilapia with chipotle mayo, or any of the other sandwiches that you are lucky to be on the receiving end of, I think youll come to the same conclusion that I have: Kreative Kuisine makes being good, easy. It is my wholesome pleasure.
*This review was written by DRF&W Founder Alisa Tongg Weiler and was originally published in Local Flair Magazine.
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