Students recount associations with various soup specialties

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Infographic: Sophie Jaro

Data in the above infographic is based on a poll conducted by The Rubicon of 20% of the student body.

Blood-red borsht splatters the ground and split-pea sloshes dangerously against the side of its bowl. It is a pity to waste a precious ounce of the perfectly balanced bisque and eloquent erwtensoep or good-humored gumbo, yet the greatest culinary debate rages on with the metallic clank of soup spoon against soup spoon. All of those who enjoy this great dish often fight over its culinary condition, a persistent question that some say commands consideration: can a bowl of soup serve as a full meal?

Regardless of its status as main course or side, the dish’s soup-reme importance to the cooking and consuming communities is unquestionable. Without even holding its own shape, soup has attained the role of holding up a culinary kingdom complete with distinct debates, recipes, preparation, and puns.

“More than once upon a time, I burnt my tongue eating soup,” senior Elena Youngdale said. “I continued to eat it anyway.”

Most soup consumers find soup irresistibly delicious, but it is difficult to pinpoint the exact qualities of soup that make it so enticing. Alas, soup is a cherished dish because of its diversity; two soups that go by the same name may taste very different. According to a poll conducted by The Rubicon of 20% of the student body, the highest-ranked soup, chicken noodle, gained top rank from only one in five responders. Rather than choosing from a list of possibly preferably soups, most students listed their unique favorites, ranging from consummé to pozole to alphabet soup.

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More than once upon a time, I burnt my tongue eating soup. I continued to eat it anyway.

— senior Elena Youngdale

Although the actual consistency of soup ranges from thin broth to thick potage, the dish consistently serves as the vessel of substantial memories for students at SPA.

“My dad and I love the Calvin and Hobbes comic where Calvin says that his mom told him that all his dad ate in college was canned soup and waffles. His dad responds by asking him to get out the can opener,” Sophomore Tess Hick said. “We always reference it when we’re making soup.”

In addition to holding a place in soup bowls and comic strips, the dish has secured a spot on the menu of nearly every country’s cuisine. Most geographic regions have some variation on a broth-and-chicken soup, but some cultures like to spice it up. Many students in Minnesota seem to like adding rice to the traditional stock. Junior Shelby Teitel said “the best soup at school is chicken wild rice, hands down!”

Often, student family recipes reflect the incorporation of unique national elements to tried-and-true international classics. Hick provides an example of such a fusion in her own household.

“My mom taught me how to make spaetzle, which we put in homemade chicken noodle soup,” she said.

 Vegetables of different colors and consistencies form the foundation of many other international soups. Borsht is a hot or cold beetroot soup originating from eastern Europe. Bisque is a smooth, creamy, highly seasoned soup of French origin, classically based on a strained broth of crustaceans. Consommé, also French, is a type of clear soup made from richly flavored stock. Split pea, named erwtensoep in the Netherlands where it is typically served with sausage, is a thick stew of green peas. Pozole is a Mexican stew made with hominy, a dried and cured corn. Just North of pozole’s origins, gumbo was created as a seafood stew unique to the Southern United States. Across the ocean, which unfortunately is filled with saltwater, not soup, hot and sour soup holds a place as a classic Asian culinary tradition, utilizing spicy and sour broth as the vessel for a variety meats, noodles and vegetables.

Soup is a universal dish that brings us all together in its own liquidy, creamy, meaty, spicy, or vegetable-y, way. Because of it’s innate variations in function and composition, soup can never be boxed—or canned—into an absolute definition as either snack, side or meal.