Winter Melon Soup with Smoky Ham

I fell for this soothing Cantonese soup years ago at an upscale restaurant in Chinatown in San Francisco. When I was seated, the waiter presented me with the customary cup of soup and a menu. I was relieved to discover that instead of egg drop soup, he had brought me winter melon soup—rich chicken broth with chunks of silky, almost translucent winter melon floating in it. Though the winter melon didn’t have much flavor of its own, it absorbed the flavor of the rich broth and had a soft, soo