{"id":4992,"date":"2018-05-23T09:00:43","date_gmt":"2018-05-23T15:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/villasentieri.com\/?post_type=recipe&p=4992"},"modified":"2026-09-02T10:58:44","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T17:58:44","slug":"chinese-hot-and-sour-soup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/2018\/05\/23\/chinese-hot-and-sour-soup\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese Hot and Sour Soup"},"content":{"rendered":"

May 23, 2018<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

It is amazing how the culinary landscape of America has changed since I started cooking.\u00a0 That was brought home to me in a very real way when I was getting ready to cook a multi-course Asian meal for Lunar New Year a few months ago.<\/p>\n

In the early 1970s supermarkets carried only the barest minimum of \u201cethnic\u201d ingredients.\u00a0 I was attending the University of Pennsylvania and lived in West Philadelphia at the time.<\/p>\n

For most Asian ingredients I would go to Philadelphia\u2019s Chinatown.<\/p>\n

For Japanese ingredients, I would go to a small Japanese-owned market in West Philly, a few blocks from the western edge of the main University campus.\u00a0 I don’t remember a specific source for Indian or South Asian ingredients but I was able to cobble together what I needed from an array of stores.<\/p>\n

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There were also a few Asian stores in the Ninth Street Market.\u00a0 Ninth Street is\/was often referred to as the “Italian Market,” a name that was not in favor with locals at the time.\u00a0 There was one store run by a Korean couple on Ninth Street where I could source an array of Asian ingredients.\u00a0 It\u2019s also where I went when I once needed a large quantity of fresh ginger root to make West Indian Ginger Beer.\u00a0 After a few shopping trips where I bought enough ginger to supply a Chinese Restaurant for a week, one of the owners asked me, every time I went to the store, if I needed ginger!<\/p>\n

When I got serious about cooking, starting junior year in college, I made weekly trips to Ninth Street and to the Pathmark Supermarket in suburban Broomall, PA.\u00a0 Shopping in West Philly was an experience.\u00a0 Except for the University, West Philadelphia, at the time, was an impoverished area.<\/p>\n

I learned quickly how supermarkets adjust what they stock to the clientele.\u00a0 Many items that I could easily find in a suburban supermarket were not readily available in West Philadelphia.\u00a0 What was stocked was often of lesser quality, too.\u00a0 Meat is a good example.\u00a0 Some cuts were simply not available in the inner city and the quality of what was available was often inferior.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, I could easily find some items in West Philly that were hard to come by in suburban markets in the 1970s.\u00a0 Smoked ham hocks, pig tails, and turkey necks are good examples.<\/p>\n

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A background flavor note in many West Indian dishes is smoked meat; and I cooked a lot of West Indian food in college.\u00a0 Most often I would use ham hocks, but some recipes specify other cuts.\u00a0 I remember a peanut soup that I made that called for smoked pig tail.\u00a0 Sourcing it was a breeze in West Philly.<\/p>\n

Mainstream supermarkets now carry a much larger variety of \u201cethnic\u201d ingredients, including fresh produce, than was the case in the 1970s.\u00a0 I can even find smoked ham hocks and turkey necks in supermarkets in Santa Fe, though smoked pig tails are still hard to come by.\u00a0 But if a whole pig\u2019s head is needed, say, for example, to make head cheese, it is readily available in Hispanic markets.<\/p>\n

While the array of food stuffs has improved dramatically since I started cooking.\u00a0 Some things have deteriorated.<\/p>\n

I had an incredible butcher on Ninth Street.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never been able to replace the personal service, quality, and variety of what I could get there.\u00a0 I was just 19 when I started going to Ninth Street regularly.\u00a0 When I needed goat for Jamaican Curried Goat, the butcher not only had the goat but cubed it to my specifications while I watched.<\/p>\n

Down the block was a shop that sold poultry.\u00a0 I once needed a Guinea Hen for dinner.\u00a0 I selected the one I wanted from the pen.\u00a0 She was taken in the back, and came back cleaned and wrapped in butcher paper.<\/p>\n

Shopping for this year\u2019s Lunar New Year Dinner was an education.\u00a0 While I could get many basic ingredients in the supermarket, unlike the situation in the 1970s, I was unable to shop in a major city.\u00a0 This put me at a distinct disadvantage for more esoteric ingredients.\u00a0 Nonetheless, one can now make a respectable Chinese meal from ingredients available in the supermarket.\u00a0 This is an amazing change from 45 years ago!

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Chinese Hot and Sour Soup<\/h2>\n
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Make a rich chicken stock for this soup without any extraneous flavoring ingredients, though adding a few slices of ginger, to be strained out afterward, are welcome. If you have a ham bone or a piece of smoked ham, by all means add it. Though Westerners rarely seem to make stock from pork bones, you can add some when making the stock for a traditional Chinese touch.<\/div>\n
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Prep Time <\/span>20 minutes<\/span><\/span> mins<\/span><\/span><\/div>
Cook Time <\/span>20 minutes<\/span><\/span> mins<\/span><\/span><\/div>
Total Time <\/span>40 minutes<\/span><\/span> mins<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>\n
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Servings: <\/span>6<\/span> people<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Ingredients
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