Pickles and Tea Blog

Last Saturday, I had two cooking demos at the Freer and Sackler Galleries in downtown D.C. as part of their Lunar New Year family day celebrations.

The weather forecast predicted snow (they were actually right!) and I was expecting maybe 5 people to show up at my events.

Boy was I wrong. Despite the steady snow, we had a full house at both sessions!

Prepping for a cooking demo (and even more so a class) is hard work and requires attention to detail, which I sometimes lack. During the first session, I made hot and sour soup. I knew I was going to forget something, and I did—the eggs. However, I just laughed it off and went through the motions. Everyone still loved the soup!

Just in case you’re wondering, hot and sour soup is not a traditional Lunar New Year dish. But it’s perfect for the cold, wintry weather we’ve been having. And the more I researched, the more appropriate the soup seemed to be for Lunar New Year.

Soup is often part of a Chinese meal and during New Year, soup is even more poignant—it’s a wish for the coming year to be better than the last. No matter how tough the past year might have been, soup calls for a fresh, new beginning. During an everyday meal. soup is served on the side to “wash down” the main meal. At New Year, perhaps, it’s meant to wash away the bad luck of the previous year.

Hot and sour soup also comprises many “lucky” ingredients. In Chinese culture, lucky ingredients are foods that sound like auspicious words, for example: luck, prosperity, good fortune, etc. Or they may look like money or gold—gold bars, ingots, green dollars, etc.

The ingredient list for my hot and sour soup is pretty lengthy–you won’t find as many ingredients in your run-of-the-mill hot and sour soup. I’ve been told that Taiwanese versions of this soup (and my recipe comes from a Taiwanese grandmother) tend to be chockfull of ingredients, an Asian minestrone if you will.

Here are ingredients and their symbolic meanings, which may vary depending on who you ask.

Dried mushrooms welcome spring and represent a new beginning, and fulfill wishes from east to west.

Dried lily buds, also called golden needles, represent 100 years of harmonious union as well as wealth.

Dried wood ear mushrooms symbolize longevity.

Bamboo shoots in Mandarin (竹笋, zhúsǔn) sound like “wishing everything will be well.” The cone-shaped winter shoots are also symbols of wealth, longevity and strength.

Fresh tofu isn’t eaten at the new year because the color white represents death. So if you’re really superstitious, substitute with fried tofu instead which represent blessings to the house.

Carrot coins would make a great addition as well, although they’re not in my soup. They symbolize gold coins, the equivalent of wealth and prosperity.

Making hot and sour at home is quick and simple, and tastes so much better than the watery slop you sometimes get at restaurants.

And when the snow is falling thick and fast, a piping hot bowl of hot and sour soup is sure to hit the spot.

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Hot and Sour Soup (Suan La Tang)

You can easily turn this dish vegetarian by leaving out the pork strips and switch to a vegetable stock, or simply use water. And don’t worry about leaving out the “lucky” ingredients if you can’t find them. The soup will still taste great!

Makes: 8 to 10 first-course servings
Time: 45 minutes

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 ounces pork loin or chop, slivered (optional)
Soy sauce
8 cups chicken or pork stock or water
1/3 cup white vinegar, or to taste
2 teaspoons ground white pepper
1/2 cup (3/4 ounce) dried wood ear mushrooms, soaked, cleaned, and chopped
1/4 cup (about 1 ounce) dried lily buds, soaked, and ends snipped off
4 medium dried black mushrooms, rehydrated, stemmed, and sliced (1/2 cup)
1/2 cup bamboo shoots cut into matchsticks
6 ounces medium or firm tofu, cut into 1/4” x 1/4” x 2”
1/4 cup cornstarch dissolved in 1/2 cup water
2 eggs, beaten
Sesame oil to taste
Chopped green onions
Chopped cilantro

1. Swirl the oil into a small skillet and heat over medium-high heat. Stir in the pork and add a splash of soy sauce for color. Stir and cook for about 1 minute and set aside.
2. In a large saucepan, combine the stock, 1/3 cup soy sauce, vinegar, and white pepper. Add the wood ear mushrooms, lily buds, black mushrooms, bamboo shoots, tofu, and pork. Bring to a boil over high heat. When the soup starts to boil, reduce the heat to medium. Stir the cornstarch slurry and pour slowly into the soup, stirring constantly until it thickens, 1 to 2 minutes.
3. When the soup returns to a boil, turn off the heat. Moving in a circular motion around the pot, pour the egg into the soup through the tines of a fork or a pair of chopsticks to help it flow in a slow, steady stream. The egg should form wispy strands not one lumpy mass. Gently stir in one direction to integrate the egg into the soup.
4. Taste and adjust seasonings if desired. Drizzle with sesame oil and garnish with green onions and cilantro.