To Strain Or Not To Strain - That Is The Question

It's two a.m. in the morning now, and I know way too well that I should be lying cozy in my bed now, not sitting in front of the computer drinking miso soup. Yup, miso soup. Two in the morning. Haha.

It all began at 11+ at night, when I was feeling a lil hungry and sweet treats weren't doing any good. Then it hit me that there was some of the bean paste thingy used to make miso in my fridge. And so I raided the poor fridge.

So I made a simple plain miso soup. Threw in a little seasoning and some bean paste into hot boiling water, and voila! No tofu or kombu or anything else though sadly. Added an egg as insurance against more hunger pangs.

Apparently it didn't work for long, as I'm now on my second freshly made bowl of hot soup. Mmmm... But this is partly because of a little clarification I was curious to find out for sure. I've seen many chefs strain their soup, claiming that it helps the flavour of the soup. I have been skeptical about this, thinking that it really makes no difference. Which brings me to the topic of my post today- to strain soup or not to strain soup.

While on my first bowl of soup, I noticed that the clear soup I spooned actually tasted better than the cloudier part I spooned (you know how miso has almost-suspended-particles-that-sink-yet-rise-easily). I kept trying over and over, wondering if I was being brainwashed here. But it seems that I wasn't. It did taste better clear.

And now, drinking my second bowl of miso which I took the pain to strain, I daresay the hypothesis is accepted. The verdict? Strain if you want to taste more flavour; and don't strain if you can't be bothered. The difference isn't THAT much to radically change the way soup is consumed. =D

Goodness, I used the word 'hypothesis' and 'accepted'. See what kind of head damage exams can do? *sigh*

Next post: Probably something decadent again, like bakery... Or maybe savoury, like comfort food. Yum.