The Damn Soup

Sometimes you just gotta throw the damn soup away and start from scratch.

You think you are stupid for effing up the soup. You think you are inadequate or a failure. You should have known better. You should have choose better.

And it may be correct. You should have done your research first on what ingredients to get. You should know your limitations and preference instead of dive head first splurging on unknown quality produce that you can't handle, or worse, not your taste.

Then there's other thing you need to consider which you may not have prior knowledge of. Different flavor, different type of salt has different effect depends on the type of produce/food you have. What you think a good amount may not be enough, or even ruin the overall flavor.

So there you stand in front of the kitchen sink sobbing pitifully with the pot of soup you just threw away. You spend so much time and money and effort, but no dinner tonight. Goddammit, you say. Goddammit, goddammit, goddammit.

You then swear to never cook again. Take-out it is from now on. It's safe. It's fun. It's refundable if something went wrong. 

The stove is there, and the pot and things you need to make soup. There are nights when you can't find soup delivered, or you wish there's one waiting for you at home after a long, difficult day. Why bother, though? You will just effed it up again.

But it was never about the perfect soup. The many soup you throw away, the many dinner you missed, it was not a failure. It was you finding your limit and preference. You finding what base recipe, ingredients, seasoning works best for you. You gaining knowledge on identifying shitty ingredients altogether.

Make the damn soup. It may be so bad you have to throw it away. It may be a one-time thing that you enjoy while it last. It may be something you keep for life and pass it as an "heirloom recipe". You got this. Make that damn soup.