Soup–Source to a Happier Life
5 min readPeople throughout the world share almost the same view on drinking soup. The French love to drinkonion soup, the Americans love to drink chicken soup, the Germans love to drink beer soup, the English people love to drink curry soup, and the Russians love to drink borscht. The Chinese are also fond of drinking soup. In China,a bowl of soup serves not only as a”cupful of a snack”before a meal, but is also a symbol of “home”and bridges affection among family members.A bowl of long-cooked soup on the dinner table will kindle the feeling of having returned home.A bowl of sweet soup served after returning home at midnight will dispel all the day’s frustrations. Soup is the timely rain that saturates the lives of the Chinese people.
Many kinds of soup can be found in China: clear soup, meat soup, thick-and-strong soup, broth and sweet soup.
Cooking clear soup does not take long; meat soup takes a little longer; and thick and strong soup takes the longest.
When making broth, starch is often used to thicken it, and, for sweet soup, no meat is used. Of all these, meat soup can be eaten as a main dish, sweet soup is often used as a midnight snack, clear soup, thick-and-strong soup and broths are good companions of various food and dishes. The most frequently seen soup on dinner tablesincludes chicken soup, fish soup and bone soup. Chicken soup can serve to keep away a chill, fish soup can proveeffective in curing asthma and bone soup can compensate for a calcium deficiency, demonstrating the healthful benefits of drinking soup, which the Chinese people believe implicitly. Soup can be made of meat, vegetables, beans, fruits and even all kinds of grasses. The utensil that is best suited for cooking soup is a sand pot madeof pottery clay and fine sand. Of all the food utensils, the sand pot heats the slowest and is the most balanced in gathering heat, and the best in retaining heat and keeping the temperature constant for the longest time.
The heat it carries is moderate and lasting. Soup cooked in a sand pot is not just intoxicatingly delicious, but its nutritional value is preserved to the fullest. Generally, almost all soup is stewed over a slow fire. The Chinese are not in favor of extremes or acting uncontrollably. The way of making soup in China-over a neither too strong nor too weak a fire, neither too quickly nor too slowly-represents the very essence of the Chinese people, whoadvocate being moderate and pursuing the golden mean.
Generally, soup can be divided into northern soup and southern soup, the former stressing color, fragrance and taste; the latter stressing concept, form and nutrition.
In Henan Province, people greet each other by saying,
“Have you drunk soup?”instead of “Have you had yourmeal?”In Luoyang, two out of the three meals of each day are addressed as”drinking soup.”Among the elderly Luoyang people is the saying,”Bean curd soup in the morning and meatball soup in the evening.”Luoyang Soup Banquet, Luoyang Peony and Longmen Grottoes compose the”Three Wonders of Luoyang.”Luoyang Soup has a history of over 1,000 years and Luoyang people always entertain their guests with soup banquets on major occasions, such as weddings and funerals. It is called”soup banquet”for two reasons: one is that the procession in which the dishes are successively brought to the table can be likened to floating clouds and running streams, and the other is that each of the dishes contain soup and juice within. The last course of a soup banquet is egg soup, which is jokingly called by the local people “get out soup,”for the arrival of egg soup means that all the dishes have been served and the banquet will soon beover. This is also common practice in many other regions, where soup is regarded as the grand finale of a dinner.
Soup is like a ceremony without speeches, as well as cheerful.
Southern soup is headed by Guangdong soup.
Guangdong people, just like Shanxi people who have no vinegar or Sichuan people who have no peppers for a whole day, will feel uncomfortable if they don’t have soup all day. Guangdong people love soup and are good at making it as well. The ingredients they use are usually purchased from Chinese medicine stores. These include items such as fructus amomis, which helps to regulate the stomach, Chinese angelica which enriches the blood and regulates the qi, fuling, which soothes the nerves, apricot nuts, which reduces phlegm and stops coughing, the blossom of crab cactus, which relieves fever and moistens the lungs, sea-bottom copra, which softens the skin and enhances beauty, and so on. Most Guangdong soup is thick and strong and the principal ingredient is usually meat. Also, different soups differ in terms of function: mutton is warm, chicken moderate and duck cold. The arrangement of the principal food and other assortmentsshould be done according to the principle of regulating the yin and the yang, depending on the season. Moreover, the arrangement also needs adjustment according to people’s physiques. Those who have excessive internalheat are not compatible with ginseng, while those who suffer from internal cold are not compatible with green beans. Most people from the north take it for granted that soup will be fresh and delicious without condiments.
This concept leads to their massive use of onions, ginger, Chinese prickly ash, aniseed, gourmet powder and cooking wine. Actually, for Guangdong people,a single piece of ginger is sufficient to make a pot of soup, as what they seek is nothing but the original taste. In Guangdong, soup signals not the end of the meal, but the beginning.
Guangdong people are used to having soup before the meal; otherwise, they find it difficult to gobble down the food. In Guangdong and Hong Kong, what men and women cherish most is the strong aroma emanating from a pot of slowly cooked soup. For this reason, each girl firmly believes that she will not have a happy family unless she fully knows the art of making soup.
