Hot and sour soup

Hot and sour soup can refer to soups from several Asian culinary traditions. In all cases the soup contains ingredients to make it both spicy and sour.

North America

United States

In American Chinese cuisine hot and sour soup is almost vegetarian. However, many restaurants prepare the soup using chicken broth or add thin pieces of pork. Common key ingredients include bamboo shoots, sesame oil, wood ear, cloud ear fungus, day lily buds, vinegar, and chili oil. [ [http://chinesefood.about.com/od/chinesesouprecipes/r/hotsoursoup.htm Chinesefood.about.com Hot and Sour soup recipe] ] Other ingredients include button mushrooms and small slices of tofu skin. It is comparatively thicker than the Chinese cuisine versions.

East Asia

China

"Hot and sour soup" is a Chinese soup claimed variously by Mandarin and Sichuan cuisines as a regional dish. The Chinese hot and sour soup can be either vegetarian or meat-based, and often contains ingredients such as day lily buds, wood ear fungus, bamboo shoots, and tofu, in a broth that is flavored with pork blood. [http://books.google.com/books?id=0K4RCTFXFTkC&pg=PA82&dq=%22sour+soup%22+%22pork+blood%22&sig=ACfU3U3aP1NBYkOoPiI-d8C4kBzzQ8elHA] It is typically made hot (spicy) by red peppers or white pepper, and sour by vinegar.

outheast Asia

Cambodia

"Samlor machu pacong" , a Cambodian sour soup flavored with lemon, chilis, prawns and/or shrimp. One of the most popular sour soups in Cambodia, it is eaten largely on special occasions.

Philippines

Though technically not a "hot and sour soup", "Sinigang", a typical Filipino soup flavored with "sampalok", guava [ http://www.filipinofoodstore.com/recipes/sinigang-na-bangus-sa-bayabas.html ] , or "kamyas".

Thailand

"Tom yum", a Thai soup flavored with lemon grass, tamarind, lime, galangal and chilis

Vietnam

"Canh chua" (literally "sour soup"), a sour soup indigenous to the Mekong River region of southern Vietnam, is similar to the aforementioned Cambodian soup. It is typically made with fish from the Mekong River or shrimp, pineapple, tomatoes (and sometimes also other vegetables), and bean sprouts, and flavored with tamarind and the lemony-scented herb "ngò ôm" ("Limnophila aromatica"). When made in style of a hot pot, "canh chua" is called "lẩu canh chua".

References

ee also

*American Chinese cuisine
*Cambodian cuisine
*Filipino cuisine
*Thai cuisine
*Vietnamese cuisine