Egg Lemon Soup Review

In unit 3 called Birth of my Food For Thought class, we learned about about the process that some food has to go through to get to your plate and if the process is industrial or organic. We also learned about the Industrial Revolution. The most important thing we talked about was Michael Pollan’s 5 diet transformations and how people have changed their diet so drastically that we don't get the correct amount of nutrients today. The 5 transformations were:  Whole food to Refined foods, Complexity to Simplicity, Quality to Quantity, Leaves to Seeds, and Food culture to Food science. For the action project each student in my class picked a different food that they liked. Then they had to go out and buy it from a restaurant and write notes about the taste smell, and most important tell if he/she thought it was Fresh, Organic, or Industrial. Then go home and make our own homemade version, listing the same notes. After we took the notes we had tp make a food review and which I prefered and why. The food I picked is a well known Greek dish, Egg Lemon Soup, it is mainly an appetizer. For a restaurant I picked a local place near my house called Psistaria, which has very good egg lemon soup. Going there with my parents I was happy when the food came, and then I thought if it actually looked fresh or not, the answer is my food review. When I went home to go cook it, my mom helping understand what the descriptions of the process meant in the recipe, I knew that all my ingredients were organic and didn't have chemicals and if they did they were good chemicals that added vitamins. This has greatly impacted the way that I eat, it makes it hard for me to trust the restaurants that I’m eating from. Now I will try my best to cook my own dishes using organic or fresh ingredients.

NVA, "Egg Lemon Soup at Psistaria" 5/20/14, Chicago

Egg Lemon Soup is one of the biggest Greek appetizers, which might seem weird but actually it is one of the most sweet, sour, and bold that isn't a pastry. Everyone I know has liked it and never has said anything bad about it.

I have always loved something that is sweet and has a bold taste, once it is put in the mouth it gives an amazing variety of tastes to your tongue. I was very excited to go to one of my favorite Greek restaurants, Psistaria. Like most Greek restaurants it was filled with Greek people and the lighting was always the same, a light sunny yellow with white walls with paintings of different islands or churches in Greece. I mainly picked the soup because it is an appetizer used at any Greek event, from the fanciest places to the most local restaurant.

Once the soup was brought to my table I was instantly hit by the sweet but sour smell. The soup looked a sweet pale yellow, and I could see the rice and chicken slowly floating up to the top. Even with it looking very nice, it looked industrial because of the thickness of the food and the poor texture of the chicken. Once I put a spoonful in my mouth I got a sweet zesty taste with the rice calming the the strong lemon. I could feel the soft squishy rice while I chewed and the smooth chicken run against my teeth.

Everyone that is Greek knows this soup very well, but I have never heard of anyone talking about it - if what they’re eating is actually nutritional or if they just don’t care. It isn't homemade by lots of families today, and I thought I would try to make my own that came from someone with a cooking background and related to a strong Greek culture. After flipping through many Greek cookbooks I found a recipe that was by a priest. I thought if I made something from scratch it could give me more nutrition and taste better, plus add more culture to what I’m eating.

The result was a soup that wasn't thick, it was watery, and was a weird yellow color with white strands made by the eggs. It didn't look as good as the restaurant’s. I didn't care about the look though,I wanted it taste good and have the nutritional value. The smell of it was the same as the restaurant’s, because of the same ingredients used. Once I ate the soup I was amazed at the sweet and pungent taste that came from it. I wasn't disappointed at all, it felt like it was a lot healthier. I could taste the tangy lemons mixing with the rice and smooth chicken. The egg added a sticky feeling to the soup that helped with the watery feeling making it thicker. Now the rice was the same as used in the restaurant, converted, which meant that it was refined but had chemicals added to get back the vitamins.

NVA, "Homemade Egg Lemon Soup" 5/21/14, Chicago

The best way to show the difference between the two is using Michael Pollan’s five food diet transformations, where he talks about how much our diets have changed and in what ways, listing five different ones. For this taste test it would be quantity over quality, which talks about how someone today will buy a food that has a lot of ingredients in it but barely has any nutrition, where quality you get the nutritional value of the dish, but not have has much.

The reason I say that is it quantity over quality, is because when I bought the food I got a lot of the soup for a low price.  Once I made it myself I got the nutrition from the eggs, chicken, and lemons. Except for the rice because it was refined and had chemicals added to it to give back the vitamins. One of the chemicals was Thamin, which adds B vitamins to the rice. The B vitamin had to be added back, because the rice was refined, so the company had to add it back. Overall, the quality of it was so much better than what the restaurant gave me.

Something that I like better about what I made was that I made and I saw and knew everything was being put in it. In a restaurant they could put something in it that the consumer would think is gross.

Overall, I prefer the homemade version because it had a simple taste and smooth feel when in my mouth. It really didn't hit my senses as much as the restaurant, but I felt better after eating it, I was very energized. Since it was homemade I had a control over what is being put in it, such as the rice, which is refined, but it does have chemicals that give it a B vitamin complex. Meaning it isn't perfect, but it does have some nutrition to it, making it better than the restaurant’s soup. The dish is a lot better when put in the fridge and eaten the next day because it has a thick texture that I like but others may not not. Homemade is the way to cook and eat your food, because you can trust what you are eating.