|
All Souped Up
Soup, over the
centuries and in all cultures, has been a basic food. Look at a bowl
of soup and one can see the evolution of foods created in remote
locations, made from recipes passed down from one generation to the
next and transported by Roman soldiers, European explorers and Asian
and Arab traders. According to one medieval cookbook, soup is ‘just
the thing for a pale cheeked Troilus or a striving Piers Plowman; an
excellent strengthener for the sick or for those girding their loins
to do battle in the fields of love...or in quest of spiritual
fulfillment.’
One only needs
to look for soup humour to see how important this unassuming food is
– the internet is full of jokes and quotes:
You know how
movies always have sex scenes and the studios say that is because
sex is part of life and movies should be lifelike? So why don't
movies have more soup scenes? Soup is part of life; no one was ever
too tired to have soup.... (Jackie Mason, in The World According
to Me)
Russians say
about post-Soviet economic reform, "We know that you can turn an
aquarium into fish soup; the question is, can you turn fish soup
back into an aquarium?" (could the same perhaps be said for
Zambia?)
Ocean City,
New Jersey, USA even has a law which proclaims that "It is illegal
to slurp your soup."
Now, Lusaka
residents can buy, on the shelves (or rather in the freezer) of
their local supermarket, cartons of readymade soup which only need
defrosting and heating.
Made by Ecoveg
from vegetables grown, organically, on their farm in Chisamba, they
currently have five different varieties : Cream of Tomato, Onion,
Butternut and Ginger, Carrot and Coriander and Sweet Pepper and
Honey, all marketed under the name of Farmfresh Souper Soups. These
are all soups which should be served hot, but as the temperatures
start to climb again as we head into summer, they will start
producing soups which should be served cold.
Never having
perfected the art of soup making myself, I surprised my household
during that very cold week at the end of June, with the most
delicious soups – the Butternut and Ginger and Carrot and Coriander
varieties were our favourites. Sadly I had to admit that they came
‘from a box’ although they would not have guessed it – they thought
I had been slogging over a hot stove. And they are reasonably priced
as well – around K 17,000 for a litre. No more instant packet soups
for us, no more tins of condensed soup for us.
So remember
the old Yiddish saying : Troubles are easier to take with soup
than without |
September
2006