Dad's noodle soup, updated

When I was growing up, things in my family were a little different. My dad stayed at home and took care of us when we were young; between that and his wee perfectionism, he did all the cooking too. Let me be clear: my home was no fish-out-of-water slapstick sitcom, because my dad is a good cook. While he does tend towards WASPy meat-and-two-veg cooking, most things he makes are delicious, and there are a few things he makes that are out of this world. Soup is one of those things. Through example, Dad taught my brother and I that soup doesn't come condensed, from a can; it's a serious business. And really serious soup takes two days to make.

Dad makes stock the first day, simmering onion and carrot and celery--plus whatever bones he has saved and frozen in the past little while--and cooks them on the stove, all day, until the house fills with the pungent, rich scent of home cooking. He takes the pot of stock and cools it in the garage overnight, cold enough so that the fat hardens on the top of the stock so he can ladle it off the next morning. Then the next day if we're really lucky, he makes noodles, rolling out thick noodles and cutting them into fat strips by hand. It is slurping noodle soup, with broth splashing everywhere as noodles fall off the spoon.

When I became vegan I realized that some of my old familiar foods would change. While the things I learned from watching Dad cook have stuck with me, I know I will never again have his chicken noodle soup. Luckily, my palate had expanded, so I can now look beyond the handful of basic soup recipes I learned from my dad to curb my comfort-food cravings. So this week, with winter's chill deep in my bones, I wanted soup. I flipped through my recipe books and was rescued by Asian-inspired Sesame Shiitake Noodle Soup in Laura Matthias' ExtraVeganZa. Whe I don't have time to make pasta by hand, the thick udon noodles satisfy my comfort-food cravings and the hearty, filling vegetables nourish me. The only thing better than eating noodle soup? Eating noodle soup with chopsticks.