Hot and Sour Soup

Believe it or not, hot and sour soup is not part of Sichuan cuisine. Growing up there, I never once had this corn starch thickened soup filled with shreds of mushrooms, bamboo shoots, tofu…etc. It wasn’t until I moved to Canada as a child that I first tried this Chinese restaurant staple.

At the time, my dad had a friend who owned a Chinese restaurant, and I vividly remember tasting my first wonton soup and hot and sour soup there and instantly loving it! I don’t know if it was the sourness from the vinegar or the different textures of the vegetables but I would crave it often. I would order it whenever we ate out growing up.

Then after awhile, the taste worn off. I moved on to new and exciting flavours and forgot about hot and sour soup. From time to time, I would revisit it in Chinese restaurants all over the world out of nostalgia, but somehow, they never captured those first memories again.

Until I started cooking it myself.

A simple soup

Turns out, hot and sour soup is easy to make at home! Essentially, it’s just a vegetable soup heavily flavoured with ginger and white pepper for the “hotness” and Chinese black vinegar for the “sourness”.

Except of the tofu and egg, everything else can be substituted to suit your preference. Although traditionally, veggies used are:

- dried wood ear mushrooms
- bamboo shoots
- dried shittake mushrooms

The most important detail is that all the ingredients need to be cut into similar sized stripes.

The broth and sauces

Chicken stock is not needed for hot and sour soup, water would suffice because it doesn’t compete with the main flavourings of the ginger, white pepper and vinegar combo. Having said that, a mild veggie stock can be used if you so choose.

Sauces too, are kept simple. Soy sauce and Chinese vinegar of course and optionally some Sambal chilli paste for added spice. Be quite aggressive with the vinegar because it is that which make hot and sour soup tangy.

Corn starch and white pepper

But without a doubt, the Most Valuable Players (MVP) in a classic restaurant style hot and sour soup have to be corn starch and white pepper.

White pepper is used liberally as it is that that make this soup its heat, please don’t under estimate the power of white pepper, it packs a mighty punch. And corn starch give this soup body, making it more interesting than pieces of vegetable floating in water, corn starch thickens the soup making it heartier and smoother in texture.