I had my first bowl of miso soup today (autocorrect makes it misogynist!) I got it as a sample from the sushi guy.
And loved it. I know there are lots of types of miso paste, but don't know what makes one better than others or if there's not much difference between varieties . Edumacate me, please.
Well, my suggestion is to just try some and find what you like. Be aware that miso soup in restuarants starts with "dashi" which is japanese sea stock . So, if you make it at home it probably won't taste the same and that is why. You can make your own dashi pretty easily if you can track down the konbu & bonito- easy to find here, I'm not sure that's the case everywhere.
Anyway- Bonito is fish so I always make my miso without it at home. I like the fuller flavored misos. Typically, the lighter the miso the lighter the flavor. You can also use it for a lot of other things like marinades and salad dressings.
Miso paste, i get the fermented brown rice miso. I start with a pot of water, bring it to a boil with some cut up veggies. I take some of the water and put it in a bowl and let the wakame (seaweed) soften in it. I add tofu and then take some more of the hot water and mix some of the miso in it and pour it into the pot. I usually add some shoyu to the pot as well. At the end, i cut up the wakame and put it in. yum.
RA, thanks for that bit about the dashi. I like miso soup at sushi places, but when I made it at home it was decidedly underwhelming. That explains it!