Soups demystified

There is a lot of confusion and commotion when it comes to soups. So here I am trying to make an attempt to clear the blurred imagery of soups that most people have. So without wasting time on writing a big unnecessary introduction, I’ll get straight to the point.

Chinese Soup: Put a step on the gleaming floor tiles of any of the super markets of modern era and one will find a plethora of brands trying to convince the customer that it is the most authentic and delicious Chinese soup that your taste buds can enjoy or the most healthy soup that you can savor.

Most of these soups are pre processed powders with numerous ingredients that make the soup thick and tasty with small tits bits of chicken or vegetables floating in the thick liquid.

Reality about Chinese soups is quite a contrast to what is being sold to the customer in super market or in lavish restaurants. To understand the concept and the role of soups in Chinese food lets dig beyond the gravel.

Chinese rice is of a sticky kind and thus served in bowls and hence easy to consume with chop sticks. It is the same bowl in which the curry or gravy is served which converts this sticky rice into a thick paste. Thus the need arises of a thirst quencher and a throat pacifier while consuming this paste like meal. That is the exact purpose soup servers in a Chinese diet.

Soups form a very vital part in the Chinese meal and contrary to the way Indians consume it as an appetizer before the start of a meal, the Chinese consume soup not at the start but throughout the course of the meal.

Hence contrary to the thick Indianized Chinese soups, the real Chinese soup is clear n thin soup. What we are served under the pretext of Chinese soups in malls or restaurants is the customized and Indianized version of it.

Russian Soup: Russians do not consume soup as an appetizer or as a thirst quencher. They use it as a full wholesome meal. During the 2^nd world war the Soviet army marched thousands of kilometers only by consuming cabbage soup from nearby farms.

A close look on how the Russians prepare their soup. Its simple. The cabbages were cut into pieces, boiled and consumed with salt and pepper. The soups had nothing to do with numerous condiments and were not a delight to the taste buds but they were rich in proteins, very healthy and fulfilling. Even today in Russia, soups serve as a quick replacement to a full meal.

This is again a contrast to the Russian soups served in most of the uptown restaurants.

English Soup: The English never knew of a pre meal appetizer called soup. The word they used for soups was porridge. Like the Russians, the English consumed porridge as a replacement to a full meal.

The porridge was prepared from roasted barley, oats and peas and mixed with water or milk to serve as a full wholesome meal. The porridge was a thick liquid full of protein and very fulfilling.

This too is a contrast to the way we consume English soups as pre meal appetizer.

Indian Soup: Who so ever thought the Indians did not consume soups is mistaken. Though the consumption of soups in India was limited to certain parts only but it has been ever present from ages and still exists to this day.

Again contrary to popular belief, the real Indian soup was not consumed as an appetizer but as a replacement to a full meal. The soup was made from roasted barley/wheat, roasted corn seeds or even roasted ground nut converted into fine powder form and then consumed by mixing with water or milk. This soup is very healthy, fulfilling and rich in protein.

But this too was not an appetizer but replacement to a full meal.

So next time when you sit down to consume a bowl of soup, think what you are being served under the name of soup and how real is the soup you are consuming to the reality, or are you like a dumb layman consuming an Indianized version of a liquid which has nothing to do with its place of origin or with the geography under which name it is being served to you.