Soup in the Chinese Kitchen

[eatingwitheddie]

I lust after Wonton. Never order Hot & Sour though I enjoy it. And get Sizzling Rice Soup every time I run across it.

Do you have a favorite Chinese soup or know of a restaurant that serves particularly great soup?

[=Mark]

I love Hot & Sour soup and often judge a Chinese restaurant by it. I hate when they add too much cornstarch and turn it into Hot & Sour pudding.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Are we talking sichuan style H & S or the old fashioned Cantonese stuff? And I think there is nothing better then a wonton noodle soup with roast duck or hacked spare ribs. Yummy.

[afoodnut]

From a flavor/taste/texture standpoint, I savor chicken or crab corn soups. Good wor wonton soup is exquisite. Any sizzling soup gets my attention.

But I must admit that I have an extreme, if eccentric, fondness for hot and sour soup. I rarely find a version of it in restaurants that tastes as good as the one I make, but ordering it in restaurants has resulted in wonderful experiences. It was one of the first foods my daughter tasted as an infant (she is now a teenager), and she was in love with it immediately. To this day, whenever we eat in a Chinese restaurant, she orders it . But when she was a two year old, and wanted hot and sour soup, the result was, more often than not, a visit to the kitchen, and cooing and clucking from every person working in the restaurant, who had to see, meet, and entertain this child (not Chinese) who ate hot and sour soup.

afn

[Bux]

A favorite soup? No, not even a favorite type of soup. I have to ask if you're including all sorts of soups from those intended to be shared to those noodle and dumpling soups that always seem to be served as a large single serving. I'm very partial to having one of the latter as lunch. I like all the noodles soups with homemade noodles at Marco Polo on Baxter south of Canal. I like their seafood noodle soup and any of the chicken, beef or pork with mushroom noodles soups.

A new place recently opened close to me on Grand Street just east of the old DiPalo's--Shanghai Village. I haven't tried too many of their dishes, but they seem to be of above average quality so far and, as I mentioned they're closer to home. They seem to have good Shanghai noodle soups with fat noodles. I've also liked their shredded pork and preserved cabbage and their shredded pork and Szechuan cabbage soups. The first time I had shredded pork and preserved cabbage soup, it was by accident. I thought I had ordered shredded pork and fresh cabbage soup, but ate what I was served and found that it didn't take long to get used to the taste and learned to enjoy it quickly. As simple a noodle soup as it is, I find it varies more than hot and sour soup does from chef to chef. It's become a favorite, but I don't know that it's the favorite.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Are you saying, that in your opinion, Marco Polo, has the best noodle soup in Chinatown?

[Jinmyo]

I love hot and sour but, like Ed, lust after wonton soup. The tender curves of the dumplings cupping the broth...

[azlee]

I lust after Wonton. Never order Hot & Sour though I enjoy it. And get Sizzling Rice Soup every time I run across it.

Do you have a favorite Chinese soup or know of a restaurant that serves particularly great soup?

Sizzling Rice Soup is one of my most favorite. Have ordered it in restaurants around the country. Some versions were more of a brown stock/sauce but I have had it where it more resembled a chicken soup. What is the most typical version, either of those, or none of the above?

Really, the best part is the sizzling rice part.

Where can I find it in NYC?

Thanks

[Bux]

Are you saying, that in your opinion, Marco Polo, has the best noodle soup in Chinatown?

No. I haven't visited enough to even be sure it's better than average. I'm not even sure the soup is up to par, but I like the noodles--if you pay for the fresh ones--and they give you a good amount of meat or seafood for your money. I enjoy their simple soups very much.

[Jason Perlow]

Velvet Chicken with Corn Soup. Order it almost every time when we do takeout.

When eating at a serious Chinese restaurant I like to order hot and sour, or if they have it, a water spinach with chicken soup or a pork with preserved vegetables soup.

[Jinmyo]

or if they have it, a water spinach with chicken soup

Wah. I've never seen this on a menu. And love it so make it.

But then ong choy (water spinach) stir-fried with silken tofu often overpowers making the soup.

[Jason Perlow]

Although you don't really see it on menus anymore, I really like subgum wonton soup with FRIED wontons.

Something very early seventies about it tht I just love.

[Jinmyo]

Ooooh. Love fried wontons. But in a soup? Nosir. Lose the angelic wings waving in the broth that way.

[Jason Perlow]

Well, you have to eat them IMMEDIATELY after putting them in the broth.

[Degustation]

When I was growing up we usually had soup with every evening meal. There wouldn't be any other beverage on the table, as we would drink the soup at the beginning and at the end of the meal. It was expected that the children eat every grain of rice that was served in our bowls, but there were days that I wasn't that hungry (too much snacking before the meal or I just didn't really care for what was being served that evening). So it was easier to mix some soup with the rice and slurp it up, rather than trying to force down plain white rice.

Most of these are homemade soups that are never served in restaurants, but are often considered to be medicinal: watercress; dried mushrooms and tofu; winter melon; lotus root; dried bean curd; mustard green; snow fungus; ginseng and chicken; beef and white turnip.

Wonton soup was considered to be a treat (since it was time consuming to make) and was often eaten as a meal in itself with some vegetables on the side. Shark fin's soup was, of course, for special occasions because of the cost. I remember my Grandmother making us some chicken and corn soup which was considered a bit of a novelty soup - a fusion dish of the sixties. I never had sweet and sour soup until some friends had ordered it in a restaurant.

To this day, when I return home, my mom would try to make many different soups as she is convinced that I am not taking care of myself by making these "restorative" soups.

[Degustation]

Mmm.. I also like sweet soups like Red Bean Soup and Almond soup.

[Blue Heron]

My favorite Chinese soup is hot and sour. I almost always order it.

um, mamster has recently given the PNW group a heads up to check out the TDG on Monday which might include a recipe of a tasty hot & sour soup that he was able to procure after we recently enjoyed a bowl of the best we've ever had, at an unofficial lunch of PNW egulleteers.

Edited February 9, 2003 by Blue Heron (log)

[tissue]

"yien doo shien"

It's a Shanghainese soup, pork bone based (the broth is milky white) made with ham, bamboo, tofu skin knots.

[eatingwitheddie]

"yien doo shien"

It's a Shanghainese soup, pork bone based (the broth is milky white) made with ham, bamboo, tofu skin knots.

I love beancurd skin knots. I really like them Shanghai style, braised in a rich brown sauce with fresh bacon (pork belly).

[Jon Tseng]

Homemade chicken and sweetcorn, made with a big tin of creamed corn and draped in egg-white threads

I've also had some excellent "house soups" in restaurants made with pork with slices of melting fatty pork belly in the dregs - when dipped in soy sauce they're the best bit!

J

[Miss J]

For me it's wonton, though I'm fated to be disappointed. My aunt and uncle once hosted an exchange student from Hong Kong who made wonderful wontons in soup - very gingery filling, paper-thin wrappers that went all silky when cooked, light and fragrant broth with spring onions. My attempt to recreate this was okay, but badly let down by my bought wonton wrappers.

I also like hot and sour (Sichuan style).

Both of these treat soup as a specific dish, though. I have not yet experienced soup as a component of a "proper" Chinese meal, and have wondered if my favourites would alter dramatically if I did. Would I prefer "beancurd" chicken soup instead? Or maybe something light and gently sour, like soup with preserved vegetable?

Edited February 10, 2003 by Miss J (log)

[herbacidal]

When I was growing up we usually had soup with every evening meal.  There wouldn't be any other beverage on the table, as we would drink the soup at the beginning and at the end of the meal. It was expected that the children eat every grain of rice that was served in our bowls, but there were days that I wasn't that hungry (too much snacking before the meal or I just didn't really care for what was being served that evening). So it was easier to mix some soup with the rice and slurp it up, rather than trying to force down plain white rice.

Most of these are homemade soups that are never served in restaurants, but are often considered to be medicinal: watercress; dried mushrooms and tofu; winter melon; lotus root; dried bean curd; mustard green; snow fungus; ginseng and chicken; beef and white turnip.

aw baby,

you said it.

[cabrales]

My favorite soup in Chinese cuisine is shark's fin soup, taken preferably at Fook Lam Moon in Hong Kong. It comes in at least two varieties there (with crab roe and without). Its accompaniments there are fairly traditional: shredded special Chinese ham, raw bean sprouts and good quality vinegar (separate from the other accompaniments of course).

The "broth" (it is much denser, like almost a sauce) in this soup of considerable depth of flavor.

[torakris]

depending on my mood either wonton or hout and sour.

[anil]

At the onset of the weekend, I was a bit under the weather - So I headed to Fuleen on Division St. in Ctown,NYC.

A Braised black chicken and Ginseng soup, folowed by Spicy Clams with vegetable greens in a broth. The former is a cultivated palate - so be forewarned - It did the job quite well - thankyou