There are a handful of lovable Asian soups, such as corn soup found at yum cha restaurants, or Taiwanese beef noodle soup found at many family-run Taiwanese restaurants.
I actually resented Chinese soups when I was younger; they were too watery compared with the much creamier pumpkin and pea and ham soups that my friends boasted about.
However, my palate has since matured and I'm now far more appreciative of the soups of my childhood. One that flies well and truly under the radar is a vegetable soup called luo song tang.
Luo song tang is a Chinese adaption of Russia's borscht. It's said that Russian immigrants brought borscht to Shanghai during the early 20th Century where it was named luo song tang and beetroot was swapped out for tomatoes. The soup also made its way to places like Hong Kong.
HONG KONG CAFES
Making sense of Hong Kong's cha chaan tengs
When I was a kid, mum used leftovers to make luo song tang. She especially liked to make it after cooking beef noodle soup, because the broth is a great base for it. She added freshly chopped vegetables, like carrots, cabbage and fresh tomatoes, and topped this off with more water.
But it didn't stop there. The following night, mum kept adding vegetables and other ingredients to the broth, claiming that the broth was getting better and more intense as the days went on. The problem was that this dish didn't seem to have an end date.
During one school holiday, we ate luo song tang for lunch and dinner, then lunch the next day, before having it again for dinner the night after. Mum added new vegetables to each rendition. She even included vermicelli noodles and Chinese bean curd to try and trick our family into believing it was a new dish. By day three, we begged mum to stop feeding the "luo-song-tang beast". Mum ate as much as she could before throwing what remained into the bin. I think she was secretly glad to see it go.
Taiwanese beef noodle soup broth is the perfect base for luo song tang. Source: SBS Food
However, as much as I crave a Chinese vegetable broth with lotus root or mum's cat's ears, I still have a soft spot for luo song tang. I find myself making it even when mum isn't there to tell me to reinvent a leftover Taiwanese beef noodle soup the only way she knows how. While I wouldn't purposefully make luo song tang from scratch, when Taiwanese beef noodle soup lingers in a giant pot, like mother, like daughter I turn it into luo song tang. However, I won't make more than two leftover meals. That's the rule.
MORE FROM MICHELLE TCHEA
Ambrosia salad: Bring back this 70s classic
