What does “a lot of cargo for noodle soup" mean?

Solution 1:

“This is a lot of cargo” is grammatically correct. Cargo is both a countable noun and an uncountable noun, depending on the context. As a rule of thumb, a physical cargo is countable, and a metaphorical or abstract one isn't:

(Countable:) The ships had brought twenty-five full cargoes of wheat into the tiny port in the space of 36 hours.

(Uncountable:) The metaphysical cargo embodied in the traditions of African tribal art that Picasso had observed as a young man influenced him long into his most productive years as a painter.

In the context of the NYT piece you quoted, This is a lot of cargo for noodle soup means, in effect, "This represents a considerable range of culinary diversity and sophistication for [implied: something as humble as] noodle soup to have to carry".

In other words, this range of diversity is the soup's metaphorical cargo.