Lamb offal soup Photo: RNZ / Ruth Kuo
With winter set to throw a final wave of wet and windy weather at us, there's no time like the present to indulge in some nourishing Chinese soup.
While Western-style soups tend to focus on the meat and vegetable elements in the bowl, Chinese soups typically place more emphasis on the broth itself.
Throughout much of China, soup traditionally appears at the end of a meal.
However, dining customs are a little different in certain southern coastal provinces and regions.
Hong Kong, Macau and the provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian, with diners ordering soup at the start of their meal to sip as they wait for other dishes to arrive.
What follows is a primer on some regional Chinese delicacies that are typically served in a bowl.
Cantonese soup
Cantonese soup typically treats "food as medicine", with a focus on seasonal balance and preventive care.
The region's subtropical climate - hot, humid, often draining - shapes the local palate.
Locals believe that appetites sometimes wane after a long day and so they prepare a clear, fragrant soup to help "wake the stomach".
Such soup is deliberately refreshing in the hotter months and warming during cooler weather.
One needs to devote plenty of time to prepare an authentic Cantonese soup.
A simmered soup is typically boiled over low heat for as much as three hours, while a stew typically takes four or more.
A traditional double-boiled Cantonese soup Photo: RNZ / Ruth Kuo
The refined "double-boiled" Cantonese soup takes four hours or more to produce.
Meat, herbs and water are sealed in a small porcelain or clay pot, then submerged in a larger pot of simmering water for hours.
The enclosed environment accentuates aroma and flavour, producing a silky texture and exquisite taste.
Cantonese soup recipes shift with the seasons, one's health and even one's mood.
Minor ailments - headaches, coughs, indigestion and so on - are often treated with a bowl of steaming soup instead of a visit to a doctor.
Examples of nourishing seasonal Cantonese soup for late winter include:
- Polygonatum odoratum, lily bulb and quail soup: Lotus seeds are often added to help moisturise the skin in cold weather.
- Ginseng and black-bone chicken soup: Rich and restorative, a favourite for women's health.
- Pig lung and snow pear soup: Fritillaria bulb soothes coughs and clears phlegm.
Anyone who is pressed for time, can order the "soup of the day" at a Cantonese restaurant, which typically adjusts its de jour offerings to match the weather.
Where to find Cantonese soup in Auckland
- Guang Zhou Soup Shop: 952 Dominion Rd, Mt Roskill
- Kings Restaurant: 713 Manukau Rd, Royal Oak
- Golden Garden Restaurant: 583 Dominion Rd, Mt Eden
A local version of Taiwanese sesame oil chicken soup. Photo: RNZ / Ruth Kuo
Regional bowls of comfort
In Taiwan, the Hakka-inspired sesame oil chicken can be made "full spirit, full chicken", using equal parts poultry and rice wine and no added water.
The pot is tilted when cooking to allow flames to ignite the liquid, burning off the alcohol while leaving the wine's sweetness behind.
The dish is finished with sesame oil and rice wine-soaked goji berries, creating a broth that is rich, aromatic and comforting.
Fujian households also share a love for fragrance. The banquet masterpiece Buddha Jumps Over the Wall layers abalone, sea cucumber, fish maw, dried scallops, mushrooms, chestnuts, pigeon eggs, pork tendons and chicken in a luxurious winter stew.
Meanwhile, General Tso's chicken was created to cater to Western diners' love of sweet-and-sour flavours.
The subtly flavoured yan du xian soup from the Shanghai- Jiangsu-Zhejiang region is believed to have a connection with General Tso.
The soup blends salted and fresh pork, bamboo shoots, tofu skin and old chicken in a slow simmered broth that is savoury yet delicate.
Taiwanese lamb stove soup Photo: RNZ / Ruth Kuo
In Yunnan province, which borders Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar, steam pot chicken uses a special clay pot to draw out the last remaining drop of chicken essence with a small amount of water, often enhanced with medicinal herbs such as sanqi, cordyceps flowers and bamboo fungus.
Sichuan and Chongqing provinces - famous for their fiery concoctions - also offer simpler winter broths, including gastrodia tuber chicken soup that calms headaches or pig's trotter and peanut soup that nourishes the blood and skin.
In the central province of Henan, spicy pepper soup is an item of intangible cultural heritage of China. It's also a regular breakfast ritual.
The dish includes up to 30 spices, beef cubes, kelp, daylily flowers and handmade wheat gluten, and is finished with white pepper, ginger and sesame oil - an invigorating start to the day.
Farther north and west, lamb offal soup reigns supreme, featuring lamb's head meat, tripe and lungs with noodles or hand-cut pasta, topped with scallions, coriander and plenty of pepper.
The broth certainly provides a robust shield against the cold.
Soup can provide comfort during colder months. Photo: RNZ / Ruth Kuo
Home-style or vegetarian soups
Carrot and corn soup, with a few slices of ginger and optional additions such as Chinese yam or apple for extra sweetness, is a home favourite.
The soup can be enriched with ribs or beef for a non-vegetarian version.
Restraint is key to this dish, with chefs typically adding a very light pinch of salt at the end to "lift" the natural flavours.
In traditional Chinese dietary therapy, the combination of the above ingredients is believed to moisten the lungs, generate fluids and strengthen digestion.
In China, a bowl of soup is more than nourishment - it's an emblem of care.
As steam from bowls of soup being prepared in kitchens throughout China curl through the winter air, one is reminded of the flavours of their hometown and the warmth of the hands that made it.
A traditional worker's lunch set. Photo: RNZ / Ruth Kuo
