Short/long soups

[annachan]

Got a take out menu from a local Chinese restaurant so I browsed through it. I came across "Short or Long Soup." I had no idea what the heck that was. I googled it and found that short soup means wonton/dumpling soup and long soup means noodle soup. If you want wonton noodle soup, it would be a short and long soup.

I read somewhere that long is referred to the length of the noodle. But how did that get turn into long soup? Never heard of this in Hong Kong, in China or the US. Is this just an Australian thing? Just find this interesting and wonder if anyone know much about it.

[CFT]

There are different 'classes' of soups served in the home setting though. One which is a quick boil of the ingredients, like tofu, leafy veg. etc. Then there are those which require low heat, long simmer like the medicinal ones (yerk choy). Oh maybe even 3 classes if you consider those which are steamed inside a separate container like dong guai.

[liuzhou]

yes, it's Australian.

[annachan]

There are different 'classes' of soups served in the home setting though. One which is a quick boil of the ingredients, like tofu, leafy veg. etc. Then there are those which require low heat, long simmer like the medicinal ones (yerk choy). Oh maybe even 3 classes if you consider those which are steamed inside a separate container like dong guai.

I understand that. But the name short and long here does not refer to the cooking time.

[natasha1270]

Perhaps because the cellophane noodles are sometime referred to as 'long rice'?

[djyee100]

It might be specific Australian terminology. I've never seen it before in a Chinese restaurant, East or West coast in the US.

However, I believe long noodles, in soup or stirfry, are supposed to signify long life. Maybe that's why "long" noodles are important. One is never supposed to cut the noodles--that's like cutting your life short. Once I and others were assisting a traditional Chinese chef at a cooking class. He made a stirfry with long noodles. No way we could quickly serve samples of those noodles to the class without cutting them. A couple of us blocked the chef's view of the counter while one person did some quick work with the scissors.