The story goes that scorched marks on an ancient pottery bowl, dating back to 20,000 BC, in Xianrendong Cave, Jiangxi Province, China, was the first indication of humanity’s first attempts at cooking foods in liquid.

Today, the roll-call of soups for every palate is staggering, underscoring its versatility and popularity.

A stroll through the historical timeline of soups is much like a wondrous trip of discovery for food lovers.

Ancient Romans brought the gazpacho – a cold soup that is an acquired taste for some, made of blended raw vegetables – to the Iberian peninsula.

The popularity of this dish, now synonymous with hot Andalusian summers, persisted thanks to its refreshing bite during steamy days.

Following the collapse of the Roman Empire by the fifth century, soups had begun to take on a distinctly Central Asian flavour thanks to the Ottoman Empire.

The Turkish, unlike their Western European counterparts, not only introduced handfuls of vegetables to soups but also made it acceptable for soups to be consumed any time of the day.

By the seventh century, the Chinese were creating their “shallow cloud” soup – the humble wantan – or known as wonton – the soup so named for the way dumplings floated in the flavourful broth.

It would be inconceivable to so many to not order a bowl of ramen, laksa (which in itself has numerous varieties), Vietnamese pho, heartwarming minestrone, sturdy wild mushroom soup, tomato soup or even the robust yet soul-soothing French onion soup with a chunky slice of toasted, cheesy bread.

In medieval Europe, however, the tradition of soups involving the pouring of broth over bread, was stopped in its tracks by fashion.

That’s right, fashion, specifically, of the 14th century, where high collars made it tricky to pick up the bowl and slurp soup out of it.

Ergo, the birth of the soup spoon, which many fine dining etiquette gurus will insist must never be left in the bowl lest one be labelled ill-mannered.

Contrast this with the Japanese practice where it is considered good manners to pick up the soup bowl with one hand and slurp the soup straight out the bowl, no spoon, thank you.

The variety of soups today, however, is like a geographical menu of taste. There is more to savour than just the reliable and easy-to-prep canned variety.

For the more adventurous, consider the tinola in the Philippines, with its green papaya and malunggay leaves, or the yayla corbasi from Turkey, made with rice, butter, yoghurt, egg yolks and mint.

Perhaps on your next adventure, you might try the avgolemono, a sourish Greek soup made with whisked eggs and lemon juice.

Further afield, in Morocco, the harira is not only the most popular soup there, but its name contains the word hareer which means velvetiness in Arabic. The dish contains lentils, fava beans and chickpeas in a tomato-based broth.

Closer to home, there is the classic sayur lodeh of Indonesia, which, for the uninitiated, comprises eggplant, jackfruit and long beans stewed in coconut milk. Fans of this dish say the melinjo seed is the magic ingredient that elevates the taste.

On home ground, Malaysians are spoilt for choice with the offerings from kway teow soup, bak kut teh, laksa (be it of the Penang, Sarawak or Johor varieties) and sup kambing to the home-made clear chicken soup said to be good for colds and broken hearts.

The curative properties of soup dishes stem from recipes lovingly crafted by grandmothers and cooks everywhere who doubtlessly spent hours in the kitchen adding beloved ingredients and kept secret, passed down to mothers and daughters.

Even in times when a thinning wallet means certain luxuries are put on hold, the versatility of a soup dish means leftovers such as roast chicken and mushrooms can be whizzed together in a food processor and simmered in a pot.

Add some water, some seasoning, perhaps some tomatoes, and your kitchen experiment may turn out to be tastier than expected.

The beauty of soup is that there are no rigid rules for what soup pleases your palate, and the variety of accompaniments – bread, rice, pasta, chips, noodles – means a lot of fun experiments when housebound in lockdown.