I don’t know what kind of allure I have for soup. It’s a dish that literally seduces me into ordering every time I open a menu and sit down to decide. Maybe because we ate a lot of soup in my childhood. Soup signalled the beginning of a meal. It was also the first morsel you put in your mouth when you came running to the table, starved after a long day. There would always be soup. My grandmother’s kitchen, influenced a little by western food, thought solidly Maharashtrian, produced a range of the basic soups — tomato, cream of spinach, cream of chicken soup. At the club, they had mushroom, asparagus or a Mulligatawny soup. I grew to love the snugness of this warm, thick broth and I suppose that’s where my love for soup first started.
It’s the latest wrinkle nowadays to talk about one-bowl or one-pot-meals. A bowl full of fresh ingredients, bold seasonal flavours, and a multitude of textures and temperatures. What is a good soup if not exactly that? It’s protein, veggies, carbohydrates, grain, pulses, and flavours in one bowl, the way you choose to combine all of them. I mean, even before the arrival of a proper recipe, a YouTube channel (ha) or even a cuisine, gathering a few ingredients and boiling them up in a pot was not only simple but also nutritious and filling.
There is no meal as simple and yet as complex as a soup. And while modern soups all find their origins in cereal, wheat or rice boiled in water or milk, and we could discuss how the soups evolved from the porridge of Britain or the Bouillon, Consommés, Veloutés, Bisques and Bouillabaisses of France, let’s talk about my favourite kinds of soups ever — Asian soups.
From Myanmar, all the way to China, Thailand, Vietnam and far away Japan, soups form a staple at any meal. But if you ask me what’s my favourite soup? I’ll tell you. Here are my favourite Asian soups of all time. There is nothing I like more than a well-made sweet corn crab meat soup.
Sweet Corn Crab Meat Soup
Every Chinese restaurant in India serves Sweet Corn Crab Meat Soup, including the roadside Chinese cart. The crab is usually replaced with chicken, or vegetables, depending upon availability, allergies and choice. It’s a thick soup, simple and hearty, with sweet corn kernels in a strongly flavoured meaty or seafood stock with egg drop thickened with cornflour of arrowroot and a happy helping of fresh crab claw meat. If the crab meat is not fresh, or available, I opt for shrimp. Works for me if and only if there is no crab.
Tom Yam Goong
When you think of Thai food, you think of complex aromatic, pungent flavours all coming together. A unique mix of spices, chili heat, herbs, sweetening, seasonings, all combined with bitter, pungent, sour, creamy ingredients that make Thai food distinctive. “Tom Yam” comes from two Thai words, “Tom” to boil, and “Yam” to mixed. Goong, of course, means prawn. It’s at its most basic a hot and sour soup where the inherent flavours come from three herbs — lemongrass, galangal, and makrut (kaffir) lime leaves. It’s hot, sour, spicy and enormously aromatic.
Laksa
Laksa is one of the most celebrated dishes in Singapore and Malaysia, and the best Laksa you can have is at the street-food hawker markets. It’s a bowlful of hot, spicy and creamy flavour. Loaded with lemongrass, galangal, and chillies, served with thick rice noodles and fresh goodies such as cucumbers, onions, mint, pineapples, strong and sweet prawn paste, and ginger flower. The Laksa comes in a bunch of local varieties. I love the Sarawak Laksa, which is served with rice vermicelli noodles and topped with sliced egg omelette, chicken strips, peeled boiled prawns, and chopped coriander leaves in a soup made with sambal Belacan chilli, coconut milk, sour tamarind, garlic, galangal, and lemongrass. It’s just heaven.
Chicken Won-Ton Soup
So simple, it’s available everywhere in any part of India, even on the road. It’s a hot Chinese broth flavoured with soy sauce, garnished with finely chopped spring onion, greens and delicate wontons. The broth is made with a mixture of chicken, meats, and ginger and spring onions, and should be allowed to simmer for a few hours. Just before serving, wonton skins are stuffed with a mixture of ground dried shrimps, minced pork, or chicken, ginger, sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil and Chinese chives, folded gently and then dropped into the broth and allowed to cook for a few minutes in the broth.
All this talk has made me hungry for soup. Yes, hungry for soup and not thirsty, because remember, in English, we never say, “I am drinking soup”, we always say, “I am eating soup”. Although I’d just say, “I am demolishing the soup”.
Kunal Vijayakar is a food writer based in Mumbai. He tweets @kunalvijayakar and can be followed on Instagram @kunalvijayakar. His YouTube channel is called Khaane Mein Kya Hai. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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