Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Soup, the good old appetizer

I remember writing some post before about a topic that came to my head just like that, Bhindi.

My son has been saying that he wants soup today and hence my next post is going to be about , Soup!

I remember we had a Management course in college where the professor used to say , "In India we say we drink soup because its always a liquid here and in fact is served in cups on trains. But in other countries it has a lot of things like vegetables, meat etc and they say they eat soup not drink it" .

Its become customary starting any dinner with soup as it is supposed to be a good appetizer. But consider the gluttony all of us indulge at treats with friends or eating outside, does one really need an appetizer? What we actually need is an antacid at the end of the meal.

I remember going to restaurants with my dad and he loved adding all the sauces placed on the table into his soup. My mom would insist that those would actually shadow the whole taste of the soup and I think she was right. Of course every person has a basic birth right to eat what he wants to , the way he thinks is right!

He would also panic whenever I added salt to my soup assuming that I was mistaking it for pepper. Once he did not and the lid of the salt shaker actually fell into my soup. Of course along with its entire contents making my soup not at all consumable and an expression of "See this is why you need to be careful" on my darling dads face.

We once went to a restaurant , just me and my dad. The soup was obnoxiously spicy. Without realizing that he proceeded with his usual ritual of adding all the sauces including chilly sauce. The moment he put the first spoon in his mouth, his eyes welled up .  My poor dad! I remember how he did not want to waste what had been ordered and painstakingly somehow tried to finish it.

These days I see so many peddlers outside parks selling soups early in the morning. Somehow the word soup is associated with health conscious or sick people and so we have a variety of soups using all the traditional herbs meant to be good for the body.

I love trying different kinds of soups at restaurants and my favorite is Sweet Corn Vegetable soup. My kids love tomato soup or Tamatar Ka Shorba as its called in Tandoori restaurants.

Well thats not a bad post I guess. So what memories does the word 'soup' kindle in you?



9 comments:

  1. during winters,soup is like heaven. during other seasons,one can have soup if you are living in air conditioned places all the time. when i was in chennai,i was surprised to see soup stalls in most of streets which i din't find in other south indian cities. but i still have an unanswered question,why soup in such hot humid weather?. drinking something hot in hot weather is really uncomfortable.

    whenever i go out with my mom for dinner,though i like creamy tomato soup ,i do order veg corn soup for both cuz she likes it and she won't come out often to eat at restaurants. next morning one has to take ilaprazole on empty stomach after eating all that masala and heavy food to keep your stomach normal.

    having soup late night on tirumala hill in chilly weather is kinda experience. soups are really famous, so is SOUP SONG,WHY THIS KOLAVERI KOLAVERI DI. :-)

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    1. Even though the weather is hot and humid we still prefer our food really hot and that includes our rice..... We just prefer it hot

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    2. i don't find much difference between telugu and tamil people.we too eat everything very warm in a meal except you guys eat sambar,,we eat rasam. what i meant is having hot soup at road side soup stall in hot humid weather is strange. i think home made black pepper tomato rasam or charu tastes better than any soup.add few drumsticks to it,its yummiest.

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  2. I just put up a post, crying copiously about a soup, and you come out with 'soups are yummy'? :)

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    1. Actually I was thinking of your cabbage soup when I wrote this :D

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  3. A delicious post, Jaishree! I too like Tomato and Corn Soup:)

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  4. Oh, I love soups! That's another story that it does not act as an appetizer for me but a small meal in itself!!

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  5. Soup - the delicious chicken soup my mother makes when we catch a cold and the scrumptious 'chicken soup for the soul' series :)

    Jaysh - I just saw your comment. It's been seriously long. I know. You know what if you are on Facebook we should catch up there we've been friends here for too long.

    Btw if you have seen my other posts you would realize I am a mum now. So you know who occupies the writing time. I am super glad to see you write consistently! Keep doing that

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  6. we definitely need an antacid :D :D

    amused that "soup" is a topic of a blog post. you etched it out very well. :)

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