Feuille de lyciet

Simmered into a light pork broth, the bitterness of the leaf is the whole reason for the soup.

Whisked through the same broth at the end, the ribbon softens a leaf that leans bitter.

Warmth against a genuinely bitter green, the standard Cantonese soup fix.

A few drops at the table round off a broth built mostly on bitterness and salt.

A light stock is the base almost every version of the soup starts from.

Lactic chalk against a bitter mineral leaf, treated the way a Western cook might treat dandelion.

Dried mushroom depth against a leaf that supplies bitterness but very little savour.

Koji salt over a bitter green; not traditional, but it reads like a very Cantonese miso soup.

Bitter cocoa against bitter leaf, two bitternesses that agree rather than cancel out.