Xingjing Hot and Sour Soup

Xingjing Hot and Sour Soup

　　Hot and sour soup is a classic home-style soup dish. It is made by simmering ingredients such as shredded meat, tofu, and winter bamboo shoots in a clear broth. The soup is characterized by its sour, spicy, salty, savory, and fragrant flavors. It is popularly consumed after meals to refresh the palate, cut through greasiness, and aid digestion. Highly favored across the country, it has become widely popular nationwide.

　　The ingredients used in making hot and sour soup are: 30 grams of tofu, 15 grams each of cooked chicken (or ham), winter mushrooms, shredded cooked lean pork, rehydrated sea cucumber, and rehydrated squid, 1 egg, 25 grams of starch, 3 grams of chopped scallions, 10 grams of soy sauce, 30 grams of lard, 1 gram each of MSG and pepper, 6 grams of vinegar, 5 grams of salt, and 750 grams of chicken stock. Cooking method for hot and sour soup:

　　1. Cut the tofu, winter mushrooms, sea cucumber, and squid into thin shreds. Add them to the pot along with the shredded cooked meat and chicken. Pour in the chicken stock, salt, MSG, and soy sauce. Bring to a rolling boil over high heat, then thicken with a cornstarch slurry. Reduce the heat and slowly pour in the beaten egg.

　　2. Place the pepper, vinegar, chopped scallions, and a small amount of lard into the serving bowl. Once the egg ribbons float to the surface in the pot, turn the heat back up until the meat shreds start to boil. Then pour the mixture directly into the bowl.

　　The most distinctive feature of Ya'an cuisine lies in its seasoning—diverse and subtly varied. In cooking, Ya'an cuisine skillfully uses chili, pepper, Sichuan peppercorn, doubanjiang (spicy bean paste), vinegar, and sugar to season dishes. By varying the proportions of these seasonings, it creates 23 commonly used flavor profiles such as fish-fragrant, home-style, hot and sour, spicy-numbing, lychee, and “strange flavor,” 13 of which are related to spiciness and numbness. All of these flavors are rich and robust, earning the reputation of “each dish with its own unique taste, a hundred dishes with a hundred flavors.”