Do You Pour Soup Over Your Rice?

For many Filipinos, pouring broth over rice brings the main dish and the rice together in one spoonful.

If you're used to soup arriving in its own bowl before dinner, that plate can look like somebody skipped a step.

But many Filipino soups are dinner, eaten with rice alongside them.

Take sinigang, a sour soup with meat or seafood and vegetables. The broth often goes straight over the rice.

The meat and vegetables can sit beside it, so a spoonful brings everything together: rice, broth, and a little of the main dish.

Food writer Connie Veneracion describes exactly that way of eating in the Philippines.

That's the part I find so satisfying. The broth gets to be part of the rice, too, instead of waiting for a separate spoonful.

And it isn't unique to Filipinos. Veneracion also describes Koreans mixing rice into a bowl of soup.

Of course, some people keep their soup separate, and bowls have a place at the Filipino table too.

So the interesting question is how much broth makes it onto your rice: a little to wet it, or enough for a very soupy plate?

My Soup of the Week: Nilaga, Beef soup with Hearty Vegetables - Served during our Special Filipino Dinner here at THD celebrating FAHM.

My Photo of the Day: The Perfect Urinals