Chicken and Corn Soup

Chicken and corn soup in Australia means two different bowls that share a name. The one on the menu of nearly every suburban Chinese restaurant is a Cantonese-derived egg-drop soup: chicken stock thickened with cornflour to a glossy, spoon-coating body, creamed sweetcorn stirred through it, shredded poached chicken, and beaten egg trailed in at the end so it sets in soft ribbons, finished with white pepper and a few drops of sesame oil. The other is the home and café version, a chunkier chowder of chicken, corn kernels and potato in a stock and milk base, often thickened with a little flour, which is what pubs and bakeries ladle out in winter. Both are among the most ordered soups in the country, the Chinese-restaurant kind is the default entrée on a banquet menu, and the tinned supermarket version is the sick-day soup of a generation of Australian children.