Chinese Soup:
Remembering some of the dishes that I enjoyed as a child (with my family) on special occasions when we patronized our Chinese restaurant, one of those was the traditional Chinese “egg drop” soup – a hearty and delicious appetizer. I really enjoyed the sour flavor, firm mushrooms and shoots. I still enjoy the flavor.

While soup is often an appetizer, this portion was for me a complete entree (main course). Paired with a pale “hoppy” beer, your stomach is sure to be pleased.

This recipe is a home version of that soup; and it serves about 4 persons.

Ingredients the recipe requires are:
1.50 L (1.59 quarts) vegetable broth
3 small tomatoes (Roma)
200 grams (7 ounces) chopped mushrooms with stems on
½ of one romaine-lettuce shoot (head)
300 grams (10.5 ounces) of drained (from can) bamboo shoots
2 eggs
(1 teaspoon) Chinese 5 Spices
Soy sauce (or a few pinches of salt)

Procedure:

Prep your mushrooms. Most authentic, are a Chinese dehydrated variety. Those are the kind, which require soaking. Soak them in room temperature water for 20-25 minutes (or as the mushroom packaging recommends) before doing anything else.
I used some drained, canned mushrooms, and this worked more than adequately.
If using traditional shrooms, slice them into strips.

Again, you can use a variety of edible mushroom; and so you don’t need to hydrate necessarily a more exotic variety.
Combined with the bamboo shoots (out of the can), you’re set to go.

Wash and drain your lettuce. Pat it dry, or spin dry. Then cut it into strips (or chop as you prefer).

Dice your tomatoes. Roma tomatoes work very well, as you do not have as much juice in them. I diced them as they are. No need to juice or de-seed.

In a soup pot, heat your vegetable broth. Once it starts to bubble/boil, reduce heat to “low” heat (just above simmer), and add your chopped vegetables. Then put the lid on it. “Simmer” for a good 25-30 minutes, on low heat. While that’s cooking, the next step is to:
In a mixing bowl, whisk your 2 eggs – adding some salt and pepper before frying. Then, fry your eggs in a pan (as you would a pancake batter into a flat form). After cooking the eggs, transfer them to a plate, allow to cool; and then cut your egg into strips also.
Add the egg strips to your simmering soup in the pot.

To your soup, add 1 teaspoon Chinese 5-Spices. “Chinese 5-Spices” contains a blended combination of the following spices: cinnamon, star-anise, fennel, clove, ginger, licorice, and peppers.

After cooking time is done, serve your soup in small soup bowls and add soy sauce in measure as you prefer. In the absence of soy sauce, I found that some pinches of sea salt (even Kosher salt) are more than adequate.

Delicious! Enjoy.