I totally lost my appetite in the past few days, so I don't even feel like eating for lunch although I am feeling extremely hungry. On that night, we went for buffet dinner in a restaurant. I was surprised when the hot and sour soup 'opened' my appetite to eat again! Impressive! So, I looked for a friend for receipe. I remember she boiled this soup for me before and it tastes really well.


Caption: hot and sour coup

Ingredient list: 1 piece of tofu, an ounces or two pork tenderloin, some bamboo shoots, some black fungus (slice 3-4 chinese mushrooms into small pieces), some dried lily buds or lotus petals.

You only need to spend approximately 45 minutes to boil this soup.

Firstly, slice the tofu into smaller size, and slice the pork tenderloin before marinading it (I would suggest to marinade the pork for half an hour). To do this, you need 1 teaspoon of soy sauce, half a teaspoon of sesame oil, and 1 teaspoon of cornstarch. For two person, you need 6 cups of water. Pour them into a pot. Then, soak the sliced pork tenderloin and lily buds (or lotus petals, or both) into the water. You also need to add 1 can of Campbell's chicken broth's soup. Don't forget to include 1 teaspoon of salt, granulated sugar (add more if necessary) and 2 tablespoons of soy sauce. Okay, this is important. When boiling the soup for 10 minutes, add in 2 tablespoons of red rice vinegar, 2 tablespoons of white rice vinegar (red wine vinegar is fine), and 1 teaspoon of sesame oil. 5 minutes later (time elapsed: 15 minutes), add 1 tablespoon of cornstarch (please disolve the cornstarch in a 1/4 cup of water), along with a beaten egg, some finely chopped green onions. Add some white / brown pepper into the soup (make sure not more than 1 tablespoon) and some hot chili oil. She added: "However, the chili oil is optional". Remember to NOT boil the soup for more than 20 minutes.

Hot and sour soup is also very good at warming a person's body during the winter. Try it out and tell me how it tastes!