Hot and Sour Chicken Soup

1. Combine the chicken broth, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, ginger and garlic in a large sauce pan over medium-high heat.
2. Add in the soy sauce and red chili flakes and bring to a boil.
3. Let the soup simmer on low heat.
4. In another bowl, add the chicken strips along with the sesame oil and set aside.
5. In another small bowl, mix together the vinegar and cornstarch and set aside.
6. Increase the heat of soup until it reaches a boil. Add the sesame oil greased chicken in the soup.
7. Pour the beaten eggs in the soup and stir until you see thin white strands forming.
8. Follow up with cornstarch and vinegar mixture and let the soup simmer over medium heat for another 8 minutes. The soup should have a thick consistency by now.
9. Garnish with chopped green chilies and serve in a large bowl and.
10. Enjoy spicy, hot, and sour chick soup with some crackers on the side! 

Trivia

1. The color cycle of chilies and peppers first starts off as green, then turns yellow and then finally red.
2. There is a hotness scale of chili peppers called the Scovile scale.
3. There over 60 kinds of chili peppers that vary according to their region and hotness level.
4. There is a soup for almost every kind of vegetable and meat.
5. There are also red chili flavored dark chocolates and ice cream as well.
6. Chinese people consider soup an effective way to digest their food and usually take it after their main meal.

The famous classical composer Ludwig Van Beethoven is known to have said “Whoever tells a lie is not pure of heart, and such a person cannot cook a clean soup”. Apparently he loved soup a lot.