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   Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 20-Dec-2025 12:11:52 JST Adrianna Tan

   As a person with southern Chinese tastes, I am very picky about (East Asian) soups. Anything that tastes like water, or lightly flavored water, is not acceptable to me. I don’t always have the time to do a double boiled Cantonese soup either.

   I just made a fake tonkotsu soup with some broth, and homemade (unsweetened) soy milk. It’s all about layering flavors.

   Borrowing a leaf from the Japanese ramen playbook (where a flavored ‘tare’ is a big part of the top notes of a soup, I did a garlic confit in some fat / oil, then reduced soy sauce, dark soy sauce, scallions, ginger, and combined the liquids before serving.

   There are so many East Asian soup techniques. Many of them have overlaps.

   My favorite will still be my grandmother’s peasant / struggle soup base: a bunch of mince with a handful of dried anchovies and spinach. The taste of my childhood.

   Dries soy beans, dried mushrooms, are all easy ways to bring out lots of flavor cheaply too.

   #Food #ChineseFood

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     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 20-Dec-2025 12:13:56 JST Adrianna Tan

     in reply to

     At Chinese restaurants in the U.S., they often have a ‘quick soup’ or ‘soup of the day’. This would be a soup that is quickly made with water, tofu, veggies, etc. usually the one that’s served free with a meal.

     A ‘double boiled soup’ especially at a Cantonese restaurant is serious business. It’s an easy way to determine which is the best high end cantonese restaurant where you live because it’s the one that will be doing at least 3-5 double boiled soups.

     Cantonese double boiled soups is a craft that involves using top quality ingredients, especially herbs and roots and proteins. It takes great skill to make soup that looks like clear water taste like a deeply flavored soup. That’s my favorite type of soup and it will be my life’s work to try to get to that level of Cantonese soup expertise.

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     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 20-Dec-2025 12:24:18 JST Adrianna Tan

     in reply to

     Both those types of soups (quick soups and double boiled soups) are fundamentally different from the other Chinese restaurant soups that people would be more aware of (like egg drop soup or hot and sour soup). Those feel like they have a different consistency to me, more gloopy (often with added cornstarch) rather than clear soups that look like water but taste like a lot.

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     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 20-Dec-2025 12:27:28 JST Adrianna Tan

     in reply to

     If you have a Din Tai Fung where you live, their famous clear chicken soup is a good example. They’re not Cantonese, they it’s definitely in that style.

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     Patrick Lam :tinoflag: (va2lam@mastodon.nz)'s status on Saturday, 20-Dec-2025 12:31:25 JST Patrick Lam :tinoflag:

     in reply to

     @skinnylatte I've read that good pho broth is supposed to be clear also. I'm not sure I've had that, though it's not really on my actual criteria I'm looking for with pho.

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     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 20-Dec-2025 12:31:25 JST Adrianna Tan

     in reply to

     • Patrick Lam :tinoflag:

     @va2lam that feels very Hanoi style to me!

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     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 20-Dec-2025 12:42:38 JST Adrianna Tan

     in reply to

     Here’s an example of the soup menu at Harborview in SF, probably the most serious Cantonese restaurant we’ve got. I like going there because they have all the classics in including the right selection of soups.

     The top row is the double boiled soups, the bottom row is the normal soups.

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     Spocko (spocko@mastodon.online)'s status on Saturday, 20-Dec-2025 13:34:53 JST Spocko

     in reply to

     @skinnylatte I'm interested.. I have 2 concerns. How salty?
     So many Asian restaurants over salt the food.

     Also, lots of them use a lot of oil when cooking the vegetables.

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     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 20-Dec-2025 13:34:53 JST Adrianna Tan

     in reply to

     • Spocko

     @spocko overly salty and oily Chinese foods are usually made for other people :)

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     liferstate (liferstate@mas.to)'s status on Saturday, 20-Dec-2025 14:02:18 JST liferstate

     in reply to

     @skinnylatte Soup question: there's a Cantonese/Thai-Chinese place near me whose hot & sour soup I absolutely love. This description looks similar, so I'm wondering, does "thick broth" mean having a sort of lightly gelatinous texture?

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     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 20-Dec-2025 14:02:18 JST Adrianna Tan

     in reply to

     • liferstate

     @liferstate yep. More ‘gloopy’