“It’s soil soup,” the woman explained, hands folded at her stomach. “Soil?” Mitsutsuka asked. I took another look inside the bowl and asked if dirt was edible. “When properly prepared, it’s safe to eat. We boil it for several hours, which kills off any bacteria, then carefully skim off the impurities and pass it through a strainer,” she said. “Then we finish it off with gelatin.”
