THE SOUP

Anyone who knows Meredith and me know our obsession with THE SOUP. The story goes back years. Ever since we both started coming to Rutgers, we've always had dinners together to celebrate stuff. Anything we can find we celebrate. The first was the fact that we were both there. We chose to go to Noodle Gourmet. Excellent place. I think most of my greatest college take-out memories are tied to Noodle Gourmet. Eat there. The first time we went I got a giant noodle soup. I'm not sure if any of you have ever had their noodle soup but that fucker is cheap and giant.

After that we spent a few years with Edo as our hangout before we eventually started celebrating at Saporo. That was a big leap for us and also the first encounter with THE SOUP. I can't remember what we were celebrating but we were there and decided to get the Nabeyaki Udon and some rolls. We could absolutely not finish that soup. Its not quite as big as the Noodle Gourmet soup and nowhere near as cheap, but the taste is infinitely better. Its like comparing a Kia and a Porshe. We've been hooked ever since. Any time we can we go sit and wait for that glorious pot to get set down between us where we delicately divy up the treasures burried within and setting atop those wonderful noodles and that flavorful broth.

Years later when I finally balled up the plate, this was the goal. Ever since we've been attempting to find others like it through our own cooking and through little eateries in the area. It's been a staple of my dutch oven cooking and my almost daily breakfast/dinner. Something about soup with an egg cracked into it is just the perfect breakfast/dinner combo I need to complete my day with the sunrise. Meredith has been getting on me forever to finally post one so last night with my extra time off work i finally decided to do so.

This was a quick one. I used a granulated bonito for the dashi with a little extra soy sauce and sesame oil. Once that was going I threw in two frozen dumplings and the miso. From there I added udon, seaweed, chicken, and dumped in a raw egg to poach in the soup. Thats always been my favorite part. Just before it was ready i threw in some kimchi. I've had it sitting around and I don't have many ideas so it went in. Just enough to sweat some of the flavor into the broth. I gotta tell you, its wonderful.

This kimchi will haunt me till the day I die. Or that day I move out and decide to not take it with me.

KETTLE CORN

This one goes out to Matt Keys! The genius cook! The master of the corn!

because he did what i'm not sure i could have done. he kettle-cooked some corn! mmm so good. some of the kernels were cooked a bit too much for me (see the golden brown corns above) but he preferred those, so it worked out quite nicely.

2 parts kettle corn
1 part white sugar
1 part oil (corn, preferably... though matt used olive oil and it seemed to work)
salt

(he cooked this with 1/2 cup corn)

take the oil and put it in a kettle, or for those of us in urban america, a thick-bottomed pot. put the oil on the stove on HIGH. put three kernals in the oil, and when the pop, take them out and stir the sugar in until it dissolves. i assume this was pretty quickly. then throw the rest of the corn in, and shake the pot until all the corn is popped! be careful not to burn the corn, which WILL happen if you dont keep shaking the pot. better to have unpopped kernals then a whole bunch of black and gross ones.

salt to taste. then strip down to movie-watching clothes (underwear, preferably), sit back, and pop in The Matrix and eat that kettle corn. oh yeah. best summer night ever.