Blog Today I'm Discussing Soup

i like mine thick. that runny stuff makes me sick. i'm not a dog. i don't wanna slop up broth from a bowl. put some stuff in it, for christ's sake. and it's not even hard to do, either. soup has that "anything goes" policy attached to it, so as long as you've got the basics in there, like some quality meat and veges, you can get away with adding just about anything else that's edible, from pasta shapes to navy beans. please do so. i didn't pay good money for hot water. if i wanted that, i'd grab some of that stuff chinese people call "tea." i'm convinced they use those tiny cups so americans won't know it's just water, btw. anyway...

the rule of thumb with any good bowl of homemade soup, the only kind i eat, is based on a big spoon, the same one i use to eat my soup with: if you shovel out all the substance of the soup, not allowing any broth-only spoonfuls, and the bottom of the bowl is any more than technically still wet, it's bad soup.

also, i like crackers with my soup, preferably ritz, the low-sodium kind, so i don't have to brush off all that salt that interferes with the taste of the soup. those round white "oyster" things are ok too.

I love soup! I also love thicker soups, aside from egg drop soup at two restaurants and only those two. I prefer really thick creamy soups in a bread bowl, I think it adds something. I cant add crackers or bread, except for the bowl, to soups though. I like them on the side but if they get too moist it ruins it all for me.

I don't mind soup but I'm not big on it. I like it if there's potatoes in it but potatoes always make things better.

Potatoes are good.

Yeah I'm usually more excited when a homemade soup has lots of mystery things in it, like you get spoonfuls that all taste different 'cuz there's so much variety in there, BUT ONLY if I know and trust the person who made it and know they aren't the type to put weird crap in there. My best friend is Filipino and I'll only eat stuff around her family if she's there or if her mom made it 'cuz they have one soup that has beef blood in it as the base. Absolutely GROSS.

So, Mr. Bobo, you don't like any broth in your soup? There's a lot of flavor in it.

I don't usually like soup, but on the odd occasion that I crave it I like Leek and Potato, Minestrone or Country Vegetable. Nice and chunky so I have something to chew.

There must also be bread dip in it.

Oh yeah, and I like big hunks of bread to dip in soup, really any kind that's real crusty.

just bobo. and no no no, i like some broth, now. it's a must, in fact. but no more than what would naturally accompany a normally dipped spoonful of solid "stuff" from the bowl. no conscious effort should be needed to drain the broth. by the time the "stuff" in the soup is gone, the broth should be gone, although as i said, a trace left behind to wet the bowl is fine.

also, i'm reading about potatoes going in. yes, that's excellent, to those who mentioned this. having a nice-sized hard roll is good for dipping, too. i'll accept that over the crackers.

there's one exception to the Too Watery rule for soup worth mentioning: squash soup! this is a fantastic soup and it has no solid "stuff" in it, unless you call "general thickness" solid. i don't. but this soup can go ahead and be watery. it's delicious...

and with this soup, i don't want crackers. i must have a big piece of bread to eat with it. i sop up the bowl clean with the last of the bread. i'm good about timing the portions so it always comes out this way -- the last of the bread is available for a final swipe of the last of the soup left in the bowl. i take my soup seriously.

Ahh, I see. Okay then, JUST BOBO. What about chowders, like clam chowder. Can this be runny? It's kinda always served that way, both the New England and Manhattan style.

love chowder. i only eat the new england style. and i've also found i can't eat too much of it at once, or at least in one sitting. i think it's the cream that limits my tolerance for it. or maybe the clams. yeah, i guess the whole soup is the problem. but this is another soup i like with bites of a hard roll.

when i worked on wall street, there was this vendor in front our building in the winter who did nothing but soups, all homemade. he tossed in a hard roll with your purchase. this man knew his soups! gotta like that.

oh sure, that's probably it right there. broth isn't soup. some people don't understand this simple concept.

I love soup. Actually I've been on a pretty big soup kick over the last month, had soup for lunch almost every day.
I enjoy thicker soups as well. Crackers aren't really my thing, but I'm big on pepper.

I prefer thicker soups, but I will eat most of them. I love potato soup, and the only kind of "runny" soup I really enjoy is french onion. There's a restaurant here that makes a baked french onion soup with a piece of baguette in the bottom and provolone melted over the top of the bowl, and it's incredible. But mostly I favor stews and chili.

Shut up.

forgot about french onion soup. this stuff is a bit of an anomaly with me. i love the blanket of melted cheese they lay on top. i guess it's mozzarella. but whatever it is, it's the highlight of the soup, which is good and bad. the good news is the taste, obviously. the bad news is it never lasts long enough to eat with all the spoonfuls of soup in the bowl, and once you run out of that tasty cheese, the french onion soup part of the soup is rather bland and runny.

i'd like to see them put a layer of that wonderful cheese at the bottom of the bowl as well as the top.

You can actually order it that way at the place I was talking about. It's so good, and they also have a really good cheddar and ale soup.