AMA: Cereal = Soup ?

It didnt’ take an hour after releasing my AMA post that I received the first question. A fun one.

Nate wrote:

Is cereal a soup? If not, why?

I thought “obviously it isn’t - why would you ask that?”, but naiive me was not aware that this is a thing. I had a fun little rabbit hole to explore. I learned that a soup is “solid ingredients served in a liquid” and cereal pieces served in milk pretty much fall under this definition.

Then I thought “ok, but soups are salty and hot, while cereal is not” - and learned about gazpacho (a cold soup) and fruit soups (sweet).

So for me, cereal isn’t a soup. It’s something in between. And if you want to follow up on this and read some of the - more or less plausible - arguments, have fun.

Thank you Nate for being the first 🙏