Chinese has two words for soup. The most common is 汤 (tāng) which refers to a common soup with a high liquid component. I'd say most of the soups here fall into this category.
Then there is 羹 (gēng) which is a thick soup. These are much more rare in China, but they turn up now and again.
This is on my mind as yesterday I made what is definitely a 羹 (gēng). There is little Chinese about it other than it was made in China. In fact, it's how my mother used to make soup.
I had half of a salt-baked chicken which I separated into meat and"bits", "bits" being bones, skin, feet and head etc. The "bits" were used to make a quick stock then discarded. The stock was strained through cheesecloth to remove any "bits" of "bits".
Then I sweated some leeks, celery, and carrots, added some chili flakes and shiitake mushrooms, s+p and added that to the stock. When the veg were cooked I added the chicken meat and some leftover cooked rice.
It is a meal in itself and I had it for dinner last night and for breakfast this morning. There is a load leftover which will be in the freezer very soon. Just waiting for it to cool a bit.
