On Korea's east coast, seaweed soup for new mothers is sometimes made with a whole flounder instead of beef. The seaweed is stir-fried in sesame oil before the water is poured in, and the flounder, blanched briefly to take away any fishiness, joins it whole, seasoned with soy sauce and garlic.
Thin instant noodles and thick, chewy tteokbokki rice cakes cook in one pot, so the spicy broth carries two very different bites. Both keep drinking the broth after the heat goes off, and a bowl left sitting ends up with little soup and soft noodles. The egg is cracked in whole and either basted with broth for a soft yolk or boiled 1 minute more to set firm.
Eggplant is steamed for just five minutes, torn along the grain and tossed with soup soy sauce and garlic so it takes on seasoning of its own. It then goes into cold water seasoned with vinegar and sugar and is topped with cheongyang chili and sesame seeds, a summer side dish. If ice is going in, the seasoning should be a little stronger, since it thins as the ice melts.
A quick winter supper from farm kitchens in Kagawa, uchikomi-jiru cooks fresh, slightly thick noodles directly in a root-vegetable miso soup. Kagawa's celebrated handmade udon is boiled on its own; this everyday dish skips that step, and the flour on the noodles thickens the broth. Low rainfall made the region good for growing wheat, and the Seto Inland Sea supplied the dried sardines for the dashi.
Horse mackerel, cut in half on the bone, simmers with napa cabbage in a thin, strained doenjang broth in this Jeju soup. The pieces are left alone because stirring breaks the flesh, and the soup keeps cooking past the point where the cabbage softens until the fish is opaque at the center.
Shrimp and pork wontons, thin Hong Kong egg noodles and bok choy each keep their own texture in a clear pork bone broth. Stopping the mix as soon as the filling turns tacky, before the shrimp are fully crushed, keeps springy pieces in each bite.
Unlike milky seolleongtang, galbitang should come out nearly clear, yet the short ribs still leave a faint richness from their fat. For that clarity the ribs are soaked to draw out blood, then blanched and rinsed before the real simmer starts. Leftover broth sets like jelly in the fridge.
With only blanched bok choy and sliced scallions on top, the clear chicken broth seasoned with light soy sauce and the springy fresh noodles carry nearly all the flavor. White pepper and a few drops of sesame oil, added at the end, give the plain broth its aroma. This Shanghai noodle soup comes together quickly, which suits a fast breakfast or a light meal.
Short ribs simmer with radish for an hour before octopus joins them, and the pot ends up part beef soup, part seafood soup. Koreans also make it for boknal, the hottest days of summer.
The chilled broth comes from young radish kimchi brine, sharpened with vinegar and a touch of hot mustard that lingers after the sourness. Because the soup is meant to be drunk, temperature matters as much as seasoning, and even the toppings wait in the fridge. Thin somyeon absorbs the broth quickly, so bowls are filled right before they go to the table.
Potatoes and ground perilla seed cook in anchovy broth until it turns an opaque ivory. There is no doenjang and no seaweed, and no oil either; the body comes from potato starch and the perilla itself. It rarely appears on restaurant menus and belongs to winter meals at home.
Shredded brisket, fernbrake, and bean sprouts fill a red, chili-oiled broth, and thin somyeon noodles take the place of the usual bowl of rice. The heat comes from gochugaru coated on the vegetables with sesame oil and fried briefly, and chili scorched at that point turns the whole pot bitter.
The clams spend an hour purging in salted water in the fridge, which rules this out as a last-minute soup. No stock goes in; thin potato slices shed a little starch into the clam broth and soften it.
Pressed out with both thumbs as it is torn, each piece of dough ends up thin at the rim and thicker in the middle, chewy and tender in one bite. Potato thickens the broth as it cooks, and with crumbled laver on top the bowl is a whole meal, no rice needed.
Three potatoes, anchovy stock and a spoonful of doenjang are all it takes, which makes it a standby when the fridge is running low. Starch from the potatoes thickens the soybean-paste broth slightly as they cook.
Doenjang and chili flakes go in together, turning the pork bone broth red but earthy, and the spine, halved potatoes and dried cabbage greens cook down in it. Two tablespoons of ground perilla seed go in near the end, and leaving them out changes the stew a great deal.
A generous amount of ground perilla seed turns this gamjatang (pork spine and potato stew) pale and creamy, and with the same chili flakes it still tastes milder than the usual red pot.
The shredded pollock is fried in sesame oil until golden before any water goes in, and that step gives this Gangwon version a nuttier smell than ordinary bugeoguk. It is a clear hangover soup with no chili, finished with beaten egg that sets into soft curds.
Nothing in the bowl looks like a loach. The fish is boiled, blended and pushed through a sieve before going back into its broth, and with siraegi and ground perilla seed the soup turns thick and earthy.
Fishing villages in Shizuoka make this summer soup from raw bonito pounded with miso and umeboshi, then loosened with ice water. Since nothing is cooked, the bonito must be labeled for raw eating. It is pounded coarsely, leaving small pieces rather than a paste, and eaten as soon as it is mixed.
Stale bread soaked in water goes into the blender with the tomatoes, cucumber and pepper, and it makes the soup heavier and smoother than vegetable juice. No heat is involved at all, only two hours or more in the fridge. This Andalusian cold soup is only as good as its tomatoes, which need to be fully ripe.
Toasting the dried shrimp in sesame oil first drives off their staleness, and their aroma alone is enough to carry the broth without anchovy stock. Season with salt instead of soup soy sauce and the soup stays clearer.
Swiss chard has more chew than spinach and a slight bitterness in the leaf, which sits well in a nutty doenjang broth. Korean families make it most in spring and autumn when chard is around; out of season, frozen chard gives much the same broth.
Blue crab in its spring or autumn season is halved and simmered in a radish broth with a little doenjang and chili flakes. The shells turn red well before the meat is cooked through. Crack the claws with the back of a knife beforehand and the meat comes out easily at the table.