James Silverton > wrote:

> There is also the Western notion that a Chinese
> meal ends with soup but that's a misapprehension from the fact that the
> broth is drunk at the end of cooking of a Mongolian Hot-Pot.

Yes, but a Peking duck dinner also usually ends with duck soup in China.
Any meal may just happen to end with soup, because soup is often enough
eaten throughout the meal, serving as a kind of beverage.

Victor