Half the soup is blended and stirred back in, so the broth thickens while whole corn kernels and pieces of potato stay intact. The onion and garlic cook in the fat left from crisping the bacon, and the bacon itself returns at the end, scattered over each bowl with parsley.
Dried anchovies and kelp make a clear, light broth for thin somyeon noodles, served warm or chilled as a summer meal. Toasting the cleaned anchovies in a dry pan before simmering takes the fishy edge off and adds a faint nuttiness. Skimming the foam keeps the broth clear, and rubbing the cooked noodles under cold water until it runs clean keeps them springy and stops starch from clouding the bowl. Seaweed flakes, sesame, and green onion are all it needs on top.
The mushrooms are wiped clean with a paper towel rather than rinsed. Wet slices release water in the pan and struggle to brown, and that deep browning is where most of the soup's flavor comes from.
The broth for this bowl goes into the freezer just long enough to form thin ice crystals, so the first sip is slushy and sharply cold. Firm buckwheat noodles sit in it with julienned cucumber and pickled radish for crunch and half a boiled egg for softness. Vinegar, mustard, and sugar are stirred in a little at a time, letting each person set the sour and pungent edge of their own bowl.
Smoked haddock warmed in milk with a bay leaf flavors the whole pot, and that infused milk becomes the base of this soup named after the village of Cullen in northeast Scotland. There is no salt in the ingredient list because smoked fish brings its own, and how much varies by product. Fully cooked potato, not cream or flour, thickens it.
Cooked and served in a small earthenware pot, nabeyaki udon stays piping hot from the first bite to the last. Chicken thigh simmered right in the dashi, soy, and mirin broth adds fat and body that breast meat would not. The egg poaches in the center under the lid until the white sets and the yolk stays soft, and the shrimp tempura is added after the heat is off so it reaches the table still crisp.
Every solid in this pot, from chicken and lotus root to taro, konnyaku and fish cake, is cut to the same 1cm dice, so each spoonful carries a little of everything. Dabu comes from the Karatsu area of Saga, and its name is said to echo zabu-zabu, the sound of plenty of broth sloshing around the ingredients. Neighbors once gathered to cook it in large pots for weddings, funerals and invited guests. The cut changed with the occasion: squares for celebrations, triangular konnyaku for Buddhist memorial meals.
Shepherd's purse, a spring herb with an earthy, peppery fragrance, goes into a doenjang and anchovy-kelp broth with fresh knife-cut noodles. Its aroma is strongest from mid-March to early April, and it is added only in the final minute over lower heat, since a rolling boil drives the fragrance off. Pressing the doenjang through a strainer keeps the soup smooth and less cloudy. Doenjang brands vary in saltiness, so the broth is seasoned lightly at first and finished with soup soy sauce. Zucchini and onion cut to the same thickness cook through together in a couple of minutes and sweeten the broth evenly.
Cod carries very little fat, which keeps this broth clear and light. The fish rests briefly in rice wine before going into anchovy stock already sweetened by radish, and crown daisy (ssukgat) goes on top thirty seconds before the heat is cut, just long enough to wilt.
Pork, shrimp, squid, and clams are stir-fried hard with cabbage and bean sprouts, then simmered with thick champon noodles in a chicken-based broth seasoned with oyster sauce and sake. There is no chili; the flavor comes from the seared seafood and the sweetness of the vegetables. Kamaboko fish cake and shiitake round out a bowl that is mostly toppings. Serve as soon as the noodles have soaked up the broth and the cabbage still has some bite.
Just scallions and eggs, ready in under ten minutes. The scallions do two jobs: the first batch simmers until soft, translucent and sweet, flavoring the broth, while the rest go in at the end for a sharp, fresh bite on top.
Thin shabu-shabu beef and onion, glazed in soy sauce, mirin, and sugar, sit on top of thick udon in clear dashi, giving the bowl a sweet, savory topping over a light broth. The beef is cooked in a separate pan rather than in the soup, which keeps its glossy finish and stops the broth from turning murky. It needs only about 2 minutes once the seasoning is added, at the point where half the red has gone, or it toughens. A little dashi is held back at the start to soften the broth if it tastes too salty. Rinsing the boiled noodles with hot water clears off their surface starch so the soup stays clean. Sliced scallions finish the bowl with a fresh edge.
Dough made from flour and glutinous rice flour is stretched by hand into short, flat pieces and dropped straight into the simmering pot. These dago are kept short rather than pulled into long, even noodles so a spoonful can hold them together with burdock, taro and carrot. The broth comes from dried shiitake soaking liquid and dried sardines, seasoned with pale usukuchi soy sauce.
Despite the name, the noodles are thick wheat, not buckwheat, served in a clear bonito broth under pork belly braised sweet and salty in soy, mirin, and sugar. Because the pork carries so much seasoning, the broth gets only a light touch of soy so it stays clean. The cooked noodles get a brief rinse in warm water rather than cold, which removes surface starch without cooling them down, and bonito flakes on top add a smoky aroma.
A young chicken is simmered whole on the bone, lifted out, and its meat pulled apart and served under the clear broth. Only whole garlic, jujubes, green onion and ginger go into the pot, so the seasoning is just salt and pepper at the end.
In Gunma homes, wide unsalted noodles go straight into a pot of root vegetables and dashi without being boiled first. The broth comes out slightly cloudy and thick rather than clear, and that is how it should be. Taro, burdock, daikon, shiitake, and fried tofu make it a hearty one-pot meal seasoned with both soy sauce and miso. Noodle thickness and vegetables change from one household to another.
After the whole chicken has simmered for fifty minutes, the meat comes off and the bones go back in alone for another fifteen, releasing gelatin that gives the clear broth a gentle body. Unlike samgyetang, it has no ginseng or glutinous rice, only onion, garlic and ginger, so the taste is mostly chicken.
Soaking water from dried shiitake, with no meat or bonito, forms the broth for this Japanese vegetable soup, and potato starch thickens it just enough to coat a spoon. In southern Miyagi it is a Buddhist meatless dish served around the spring and autumn equinoxes, at Obon, and at memorial gatherings. That light body holds taro, burdock, carrot, tofu, and fried tofu in suspension, letting each spoonful bring up both broth and filling. The umen noodles are boiled in a separate pot, since cooking them in the soup would release enough starch to cloud and weigh it down. Shiraishi umen, shirataki, and small wheat gluten puffs (mame-fu) make it something between a soup and a noodle dish, and a scattering of mitsuba adds a fresh herbal note at the end.
Dak hanmari means one whole chicken, and it arrives that way: uncut, simmered with potatoes, still in its pot, to be snipped apart with scissors at the table. Once the chicken is gone, knife-cut noodles go into the broth the potatoes have turned cloudy, and that is the end of the meal.
Beef brisket simmered for about twenty-five minutes gives this warm noodle soup a light, clear stock, strained of fat before it meets thin somyeon. Soup soy sauce is added gradually so the broth stays pale. The simmered brisket does double duty, torn along the grain and laid on top with thin egg ribbons and scallion. Since the noodles are rinsed cold, the broth comes back to a rolling boil before pouring so the bowl arrives hot.
Bite-size chicken thigh gets a one-minute blanch in boiling water before the soup proper begins, and the broth stays clear despite the meat. The radish is sliced thin and flat, turning translucent in ten minutes, and the seasoning is soup soy sauce and salt, with no chili.
Thick red bean broth, salted first and only lightly sweetened, turns knife-cut wheat noodles into a filling winter meal rather than a dessert. The beans are boiled twice, with the first water thrown out entirely, which strips their astringent edge and gives the broth a cleaner color. Glutinous rice flour thickens the strained puree just enough to hold the noodles without turning stodgy, and the pot needs frequent stirring because the bottom scorches easily. Cooking the noodles in a separate pot and rinsing them keeps their starch from thinning or clouding the broth. Chestnuts and pine nuts on top add a firmer bite against the smooth puree.
A whole chicken is simmered, its cooking water kept as the stock, and the meat shredded and tossed in chili oil with bracken and bean sprouts before going back in. It is yukgaejang, the spicy beef soup, built from a single chicken, so the broth and everything in it come from one pot.
Starch from sliced potato simmered first gives the broth its base body, leaving the perilla seed powder added near the end only to finish it. The result is a light, nutty soup that clings thinly to the noodles. Fresh kalguksu noodles go straight into the pot, and stirring right away is the main guard against a clumped, stuck mass.