"W. Baker" > wrote in message
...
> Peppermint Patootie > wrote:
> : ***** Begin quoted recipe
>
> : From _How to Cook and Eat in Chinese_ by Buwei Yang Chao.
>
> : (This is the edition I grew up with:
> :
> http://www.amazon.com/cook-Chinese-B...I6VDU/ref=sr_1
> :
> : _9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336531462&sr=1-9 )
>
> : Sour-Hot Soup
>
> : This is also a very famous soup that sometimes will help you get rid of
> : leftovers. But sometimes we also purposely make it with fresh
> : materials. Whichever its origin, it is a most appetizing soup, if
> : properly made, and is very helpful when one is not hungry but has to
> : eat.
>
> : The eggs and characteristic seasoning exist in all kinds of Sour-Hot
> : soup. As to the other things you can ad lib; they can be fish, meat,
> : shrimps, bean curd, etc. Even the water itself can be replaced by
> : chicken soup, meat soup, made from boiling meat bones, etc.
>
> : 3 eggs
> : 7 cups water or any soup
> : 1 teaspoon salt
> : 2 Tablespoons soy sauce
> : 1/2 teaspoon taste powder (omit if you use soup instead of water)
> : 2 Tablespoons cornstarch
> : 3 Tablespoons vinegar
> : 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
> : 1/2 lb of any other materials chopped in small pieces
>
> : Mix salt, soy sauce, taste powder, and cornstarch with 1 cup cold water
> : or soup. Then put it in 6 cups of boiling water or soup. Keep a low
> : fire while doing the following:
>
> : Beat 3 eggs and pour very slowly into the soup. Keep stirring the soup
> : while pouring the eggs. Then add in the vinegar and pepper and any
> : other materials. If you have meat slices, prepare them as in meat-slice
> : recipes before adding into the soup.
>
> : ***** End quoted recipe
>
> : I usually put in Chinese "long" cabbage (aka celery cabbage -- what I
> : grew up knowing as "Chinese cabbage") sliced thin, cubes of firm tofu,
> : sliced or chunked mushrooms, lily buds (from the Asian market), and
> : sliced pork that I've marinated in soy sauce. (If I consumed alcohol
> : I'd add some dry sherry to the marinade.) I use the dark, flavorful,
> : more fatty pork which is sold in the Asian market as "pork shoulder
> : butt." That dry white stuff that Anglos eat isn't really food, to my
> : taste. It's more like a construction product. ;-)
>
> : I prefer the flavor of tofu which I buy in Asian markets -- preferably
> : taken out of a big plastic bucket and dropped into a plastic baggie,
> : which is then tied, but that's hard to find anymore. ;-) Nowadays most
> : of it is sold in plastic tubs with lids or those square plastic boxes
> : with clear plastic top. The kind one finds in Whole Foods and the like
> : doesn't have the good sour edge to the flavor, and the texture is often
> : too grainy. I like to age mine a bit to get a little more of the good
> : flavor.
>
> : "Taste powder" is MSG (aji no moto). I grew up with a tin of it in the
> : cupboard. My father used it in Chinese cooking, and I never developed a
> : reaction to it until I was an adult. Nowadays it gives me migraines, so
> : I never use it.
>
> : For "soy sauce" I use "light soy" from the Asian market. There's a
> : brand I like which is less than $2 per liter. "Dark soy" and "mushroom
> : soy" and many other kinds of soy are different, and you don't want them
> : in this recipe.
>
> : I always use a meat stock, for a fuller flavor. For me, pork.
>
> : This is about the right spiciness for me. I don't like really spicy
> : food, but this is good. Black pepper is a different kind of hot (to my
> : tongue) than all those chillies.
>
> : I find sour-hot soup is wonderful in cold weather, particularly if one
> : has a cold. :-)
>
> : Eat it in good health!
>
> : Priscilla
>
> thanks Priscilla,
>
> have you ever tried it without the cornsarch? It would seem to me that
> with the eggs it might not need so much thickening. In the restaurant
> where I have had this soup there generally are no eggs, hence my thought.
> I may well be used to it rather thinner than this recipe sounds.
>
> Of sourse, I am eating New York Hot and Sour soup, which may well vary
> from the Chinese version, as do so many dishes, includign all those
> chicken dishes which we get with bneleses chicken, while , from what I
> gahter, teh chinese prefer bone-in hacked chicken and like to
> suck onthe bones for flavor.

When we lived in NY we used to get Teriyaki chicken sticks. The kids loved
them. I don't think they're authentic at all. Is Teriyaki even Chinese? I
thought it was Japanese but I could be wrong.