Who here loves soup?

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I really like these soups too (some are fantastic), but usually the cooking process for these soups is quite fast so you don't really get the full "soup" experience.

Hmm...

not as far as i know... Pho broth is made with a cheese cloth tied up with tons of whatever spices they put in it to make said soup... Its boiled in a huge vat for at least 6 hours... but usually more like 12... the chef needs to prepare for the business day the previous evening at the place i go to...

No idea how they do it in Asia... but here in Canada thats how its done... Pho Dau Bo originated in BC... and its expanded all across the country... We have 7 in Ontario, and i've been to all of them several times... a few locally on the regular for the past 10 years

originally posted by: Misterlondon

originally posted by: schuyler
You managed to hit the one "food" I detest: Soup, and I'll eat most anything. My wife has learned to call whatever it is "stew" so it will pass under the radar. Not to derail, but hey! It was the headline that got me!

Me too.. Especially Chinese soup although some say it is purrrfect..

I think that went over most peoples...whiskers

Okay, for those of us still living under a rock...

What the heck is Pho soup ??
And what the heck does it taste like ??

I'm wondering if I've actually had it and just never knew what it was called ?

a reply to: CranialSponge

I shall gladly explain...

As i've said... I don't know how they do it in Asia... and thats where it came from...

its Vietnamese noodle soup... its a poor mans dish, and actually has been around for thousands of years as far as i know... Here they've refined it i would assume...

It starts with the broth which i've explained above... it creates a very mild tasting broth that has such an amazing taste its impossible to explain... then said broth is poured over rice noodles...

The options in your soup are:

Raw tenderloin beef (sliced paper thin) which actually cooks in the soup...

Fatty beef... (exactly how it sounds) also sliced paper thin

Beef tendon...

vietnamese Meat balls (very tasty but squeak when you bite into them) They taste like swedish meat balls

Chicken

Tripe... (cows stomach) Tastes like fish... (Nasty!)

Vegies

The soup is topped with raw green onions, and white onions... and cilantro...

Looks like this....



Tastes like... Heaven

Seriously... its so good you can eat it cold...

a reply to: Akragon

You're actually correct about the process, and ironically enough, Canada has the closest thing to the real deal available (especially Vancouver with such a tidal wave of Asian influence).

My point was, even though the Pho broth may have been boiled for hours, the ingredients like the noodles, vegetables and the meat are added at the last moment, on an order basis. This distinction is fairly large when it comes to "soup".

Believe me, I like the stuff (a LOT), so I'm not minimizing your point, but rather just trying to point out a distinction.

I love soup, lentil is sooooo good on a cold winters day.

a reply to: Akragon

The whole Asian thing is about the taste of the raw ingredients (as I have stated). The mantra is to not change the raw flavor through the heating process. It is indeed VERY good.

I think the cooking processes in Asia come from the desire to eat closer to the source and the difficulty transporting fuel to remote locations (and I've been in some VERY REMOTE loctations!). I applaud the freshness of the ingredients, and frankly, I like them better. My point was, you have to take a whole culture's food as a whole. You have to appreciate the cultural reasons for why it is the way it is.

Bottom line; until you sit in a Malaysian, Vietnamese or Indonesian "Kampong" and eat with the locals, it's hard to characterize something like Ayam Kampong, Radong, Banh Cuon, Bo Kho, Nhung Dam.

edit...incidentally, "kampong", loosely translated, means 'village'.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Well i've had a few dishes from the place i go... they're not bad...

But i always get the soup... at least once a week... and there was a time when i lived in Hamilton that it was a daily event... 2 bowls a day, and thats pretty much all i ate... lost some weight too because it is a very healthy dish

I'd like to try authentic style, like straight from a village though...

Kartoffelsuppe- German potato soup . nothing better on a cold winter's day

I agree; there's nothing better than warm soup on a cold day, but I also think soup is good inside a warm restaurant.

I just like soup.

I don't like "any" soup, just for the sake of being soup, but I like real "soup"!

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
I agree; there's nothing better than warm soup on a cold day, but I also think soup is good inside a warm restaurant.

I just like soup.

I don't like "any" soup, just for the sake of being soup, but I like real "soup"!

Cold soup on a hot day is good with me.
I've had some good gezpacho in a Texas summer that would make you want to slap yo' mama.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Best Veggie Soup Ever!
1 lb Hamburger (Brown and Drain)
4 Cans Veg-All (Open and Drain Juice)
1 Can of V-8 (Even if you hate to drink it, you'll love this)
1 Can of Diced Tomatoes (I like Fire Roasted)

After Hamburger is drained, mix and bring to boil, simmer no longer than 10 minutes.

Viola Best Damn Soup Ever! Crackers are a must!

originally posted by: IridescentPhoenix
a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Best Veggie Soup Ever!
1 lb Hamburger (Brown and Drain)
4 Cans Veg-All (Open and Drain Juice)
1 Can of V-8 (Even if you hate to drink it, you'll love this)
1 Can of Diced Tomatoes (I like Fire Roasted)

After Hamburger is drained, mix and bring to boil, simmer no longer than 10 minutes.

Viola Best Damn Soup Ever! Crackers are a must!

Don't drain anything!
That is just flushing nutrients away.

Oh! Don't turn down the offal. When you make stock, the giblets in the chicken are a must. And when you are done, you can either discard them or puree them and put them back in if you are using some of the stock right away. We've gotten to where we keep a small tub of chicken livers split into packs of three or four specifically for when we make chicken soup. We thaw them and chuck them in a then puree them and put them back after the broth making time. It adds to the flavor.

Oh, and I like cold cucumber soup. It's a Mediterranean recipe that's sort of sour but cold and fresh at the same time with cucumber in it. Almost a modified tzatztiki in some ways.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk When I was a small child, my teacher read us the story of the stone soup. I went home and told my mom about it and told her I wanted to make my own soup, but leave the rock out. She said sure, and got out every vegetable and ingredient I asked for. It came out pretty good for a kid, and it seems like the whole family ate it. Ive been making soups ever since. A couple days ago I made Manhattan clam chowder with chopped sea clams. It was excellent. a couple weeks ago I cooked at the table and made Sukiyaki from scratch, starting out with Dashi. It was superb. I love making a Tuscan style bean soup, and serving it with parmesan. I like to make chicken soup with rottisorie chicken. I make french onion soup with spanish onions, shallots, leeks. and a little garlic, I thin slice french bread and dry it and float it on the soup with cheese on top melted and browned under the broiler. I have a Velox sauce mill I run fresh organic garden tomatos through to make my own tomato soup. One of my tricks for a short cut, if I dont have time to use bones to start a broth is a soup base from Minors. I use the low salt Minors chicken base, Mirapuah, beef broth, and beef au jus. They also have a lobster base that is good for starting a lobster bisque.

a reply to: visitedbythem

But did you use the Soup Stone????

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: visitedbythem

But did you use the Soup Stone????

I did
That is what started everything it was in the 60s

a reply to: skunkape23

Unless you like Hamburger grease....and the vegetable juice. Either way it is Awesome!

The most amazing healing soup I have ever had is miso soup. Recipe first, then some comments on ingredient quality: This recipe is for 2 people. Take 4 10-inch strips of kelp, break up as necessary, and soak overnight in 2 cups of deep spring water, either in the refrigerator, or at room temperature. An hour before lunchtime the next day, start cleaning and chopping the added dry soup ingredients. The exact add-ins vary for me by season. While it's still springtime, I use 2 stalks of leek and either cubed tofu or soup noodles. Precook the noodles if you are using those. Measure out 1 level teaspoon of the preferred miso per person, placing each into 2 tiny separate bowls. Remove the kelp from the soaking water, move the soaking water to an uncovered cooking pot, and turn on the stove burner to medium-high heat. While that's coming to a boil, take 2 postage stamp sections of rehydrated kelp, mince them, then add them to the soup pot. Once the soup comes to a boil, add the dry ingredients. Cooking of those ingredients only takes 2-3 minutes. During that final cooking, ladle out about 2 tablespoonsfull of the boiling water into each of the 2 tiny bowls. Use the blunt end of a chopstick to mash up the miso and mix with the hot soup water. Once that is done, and the dry ingredients have softened, pour one serving each into soup bowls. Add the mixed miso, combine with the soup, and serve.

Ingredient quality:

1) Water ... you know how opinionated people get about their food preferences? Choices about drinking water get even more opinionated. Anyway, for fundamental mathematical reasons, no drinking water filters will ever remove 100% of ionizing radiation and other contaminants from surface waters, even the most outrageously expensive filters. Deep spring water, on the other hand, requires up to 10s of thousands of years to acquire that contamination. Nowadays, due to competitive pressures, vendor websites for deep spring waters include analytic laboratory analyses of their water.

2) Miso...dry misos found in packaged soup mixes lacks the beneficial probiotic organisms that traditionally prepared miso includes. Reputable vendors of miso include Eden and Gold Mine.

3) Seaweed...use a seaweed tested for ionizing radiation. Maine resident Larch Hanson -- seaweedman dot com) has his seaweed tested by physicists at the University of Maine ... I have zero financial connection with him.

4) Dry ingredients ... go organic as much as possible. Check out what is sold at your local farmers' markets ... prices for seasonal fresh organic are reasonable ... it's much fresher than grocery store produce.