Suan La Tang (Hot and Sour Soup) Recipe
Suan La Tang, which literally means “Sour Hot Soup” (but is more commonly known as Hot and Sour Soup) comes from the Sichuan and Beijing/Mandarin regional cuisine styles. It is absolutely one of my favourite soups of all time! For me, it’s up there with a good pumpkin soup or (fake) shark fin soup.
(C) Jan Zeschky
Suan La Tang Recipe
2 cans chicken broth (or about 1 Litre of Chicken Stock)
1 cup of water
5 Chinese mushrooms, sliced
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
1/2 cup sliced bamboo shoots (available from good oriental/Chinese supermarkets)
1/2 cup sliced water chestnuts (available from oriental/Chinese supermarkets)
1/2 or 1 cup of firm tofu, diced
1 egg, lightly beaten
Cornstarch to act as a thickening agent (optional)
1. Bring the chicken broth to a boil, and let it gently simmer for 2-3 minutes.
3. Turn down the heat. Add the soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, sugar, and white pepper
4. Add the bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, and tofu
5. Bring the soup to a boil
6. Slowly stir in the corn starch, to your taste (optional)
6. Quickly stir in the egg
7. Remove the soup from the heat and continue to stir to break up the egg strands
Serve. To make it taste better, add pepper and add a small amount of black vinegar to your soup bowl.
My verdict:
We absolutely loved it! I think it could be better by adding brandy, but I was really happy with the results. The only thing that was missing was that it wasn’t hot as in chilli hot. I’m not sure what to add in there though, but I’m sure I’ll think of something. If you have any ideas, please let me know! 
Medal: Gold
This looks like it could be a good soup, but it should not be called hot and sour soup. It does not have anything to make it hot or sour, and is not like any hot and sour soup you can find in China.
You wrote “5 chinese mushrooms” in the list of ingredients, but you forgot to add them to the soup in the cooking description…