+1, though I always say it tastes like what I imagine dishwater would taste like. Not good.

As long as they are prepared correctly the way they are supposed to, I like them. Not my most favorite soup, but I enjoy them. Not necessarily suited to everyone's taste however as evident in many of the above replies.

Does anyone have any idea about the quality of JL's miso soup? I have never tried it but am flying JL business next year.

Nothing at all remarkable about the miso soup I had from CDG to NGO, same with the Udon. The inexpensive miso soup I had with onigiri for breakfast from a little restaurant concession open before 8am at NGO (just before my sento bath) was way better.

The rice and furikake on board was very good though ^

I am Japanese and while I love miso in general I am more partial to the white miso as opposed to the red miso (which most of my relatives in Japan love and tend to serve all the time)

Some of the miso we receive from Japan is to die for; many miso soup offered at most North American restaurants is really sub-par but will suffice.

I do a lot of Asian cooking, but my Japanese experience is very, very limited. What is the difference between red and white miso? I have thought about experimenting with it, but I just haven't had the time or ambition.

I love miso, though I suspect that only having eaten it in the U.S., I've never had the real thing.

Yeah, what's the difference between the white and red miso soup? I had miso soup in Japanese restaurants in the US and there was nothing red in there ...

I love miso!!!!

MMMMMMMMM, miso horny!

Thoroughly enjoy it. To each his/her own though.

Most of the miso soups I've ever seen sold, particularly outside of Japan, are made with white miso. I understand this is the most popular kind for soup.

White miso is made differently to red miso (higher rice to -typically- soybean content?) and has a less salty, sweeter, 'milder' taste. From my experience, it tends to have less 'bits' in it too once dissolved.

Red miso is more, what I regard as, 'country style'. The taste is stronger, and it is usually noticeably saltier.

I've only been able to purchase artisan grade Japanese miso in the UK quite recently (earlier this year) and so far only in the red style. This has a rich, developed taste and makes a hearty, delicious soup (it's amazing in Korean style soups too). It would be unfair of me to make a direct comparison of this 'primo' miso with the white stuff you get in London stores.

If you are going to spend time on making a superb stock, I wouldn't use the red miso though. That hearty taste will probably overpower it.

My view is that a good dashi stock and a good white miso will meld together in a blissful partnership.

A soup based on red miso is usually dominated by the taste of miso.

As my dashi making skills are only so-so (I only make it occasionally, the rest of the time I rely on the best hon-dashi pre-pared dashi I can get) a good red miso makes all the difference. So much so, that now I can source and replenish good quality miso the 'miso soup' I now make most doesn't need any dashi at all (recipe came courtesy of another FTer - QShoeGuy^)

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There are other misos apart from red and white, but these two are the most common. Miso can also often be found with dashi flavouring/concentrate already added to it so that you only need to stir it into hot water, I'm not that fond of this, but it sure beats powdered miso soup. Be warned that these are usually not vegetarian. I need to get myself familiar with another kind not used in soups called moromi miso.

Good one!

Weird--I had genuinely never noticed anything related to dirty socks in miso soup, even the generic stuff you get in cheap US restos. It just tastes salty and tasty to me. Now I'll have to go downstairs and make some, and see...

The dirty-sock element I guess comes from the fermentation? I wonder if the people here who don't like miso soup also aren't so keen on soft-rind cheeses, or kombucha, or sauerkraut, or any of the other rotting-but-tasty culinary phenomena?

Or does the bad taste come in from boiling it? I know you're not ever supposed to boil miso. (And you're also not supposed to make green tea in too-hot water--that's when that nasty fishy taste comes in.)

Totally forgot to come back to this thread.

Saturday night we went to a Japanese place we don't get to any where near enough. The manager is a great guy, and he'll take good care of you. Don't even look at the menu good, he'll have them make stuff for you.

One of the specials was Spicy Lobster soup. I asked about it.

Do you like Miso?

No not really (thinking of this thread)

Have you ever had good Miso?

Not that I knew of.

Well, this isn't the same Miso you get at most places, try it and if you don't like it you don't have to pay for it (standard offer on all his choices).

OK, as he has never steered us wrong.

It was a spicy lobster vegetable Miso soup that was in a word to die for. It was wonderful. It certainly won't make me be ordering miso everyplace we go, but if it's on the special board next time we are there, it's a must have.

See! What a difference a good miso, I mean, a really good miso can make!

For those who haven't enjoyed it yet, don't sentence miso to death until you really try the really good one. Probably ask cordelli where to get this mind-changing soup.