No soup for you!!

So the day has arrived.  The day I knew would be one of M's biggest challenges:  Soup for dinner.  It's hard to believe that someone can hold such contempt for an entire genre of food.  I'm not quite sure what his aversion is.  He's given me many reasons:  "It's gross," "It's not a meal," "I don't want to drink my meal."  You get the idea.  The man hates soup.

So of course I made soup tonight!  And not just any soup.  Oh no.  Creamy Taco Soup.

Let's get this party started:

The meal:  Creamy Taco Soup

Why is this challenging?  Hahaha, where to begin?  I could just say "because soup" and that would really be enough.  Just the word sends shivers up his spine.  Well, maybe not, but that thought makes me giggle, so we'll go with it.  In addition to the general category, it basically has everything he hates:  chicken that is not grilled, roasted, or baked plain, everything is all mixed together AND to top it all off...he has to use a spoon.

ESL:  I went with a 4.5.  I didn't think he would hate the flavors as much as the fact that it was soup.  I was wrong about this...as I explain below.

ASL:  A 5.

M's reaction:  First of all, when he got home, he asked what was for dinner and when I told him, he face went from interested to utter defeat.  He had been beaten down by a meal before he even took his first bite.  From his standpoint, I might as well have poured 6 cups of water in the slow cooker and walked away.

What followed might be the best part of the night.  After he ate and gave me his ASL, we had a conversation about the meal that had me almost crying I was laughing so hard.  And I still don't understand where he was coming from.  Apparently anything in a broth of any kind lacks flavor...not because of actual lack of flavor, but just because of the existence of the broth.  Stay with me, it gets less rational.  The fact that it is a soup means that the potential flavors are somehow sucked out through some kind of broth vortex and sent to some alternate universe where flavors chill out.  The soup never had a chance.  Anyway, with that in mind here are a couple of highlights from our discussion.  How do you even argue with this?

"I couldn't get past the wetness."
"It was bland and wet."
"I don't want wet food.  If I want something wet, I'll get a drink."

Notice a theme?  Isn't soup supposed to be wet?  What an odd thing to say.  What an absolutely bizarre way to critique soup.  Or maybe he's just ahead of his time and I have a future Gordon Ramsay on my hands?

Either way, I think the next soup is going to have to be a lot less soup-y.  But I'm not ready to give up yet.  Challenge accepted!