Name: Hot-and-Sour Soup (酸辣汤)
Yield: Serves 3 or 4 as an appetizer
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 2 eggs, beaten; ½ tablespoon peeled and finely chopped fresh ginger; 1 green onion, trimmed and finely diced; 3 teaspoons soy sauce, divided; 1 dried shiitake mushroom, hydrated in warm water for 30 minutes, cleaned, and sliced; 1 quart (945 ml) unsalted chicken stock or Bone Broth; 1 teaspoon XFF Chili Oil; 2 ounces (55 g) silken tofu, carefully cut into ½-inch (12 mm) cubes; 3 wood ear mushrooms, hydrated in warm water for 30 minutes and sliced; 4 ounces (115 g) pork loin, cut into ¼-inch (6 mm) thick matchsticks, roughly 1½ inches (4 cm) long; 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil; 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons (65 g) cornstarch, divided; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon white pepper powder; 3 tablespoons (45 ml) black vinegar

Preparation info

Serves
3 or 4
as an appetizer

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Xi'an Famous Foods

By Jason Wang

Published 2020

About

Hot-and-sour soup is one of those dishes in every freakin’ Chinese restaurant, and it always tastes exactly the same—sour, a little spicy, silky from cornstarch, and just a touch too salty because it’s been evaporating in a hot holding unit all day.

Still, this was one of the few American Chinese dishes my family actually enjoyed on our own, even as my dad spent all day making it at the restaurants where he worked. The home version was slightly dressed up, though. We’d use homemade