Hot and sour soup is my all time favorite at the Chinese restaurant. I see the egg drop and I always pass right on by (to me it is just chicken broth with a dribble of egg in it) and home in on the hot and sour soup. I love the mushrooms and the bamboo shoots and that little bit of kick it has. It is a perfect soup for winter because of that little bit of spicy kick.
You and Raw shares a recipe for making it and I tried it the other day and it is delicious. I made one change which was where she called for hot sauce which I always think of as either Tabasco or Louisiana Hot Sauce I used Huy Fong Vietnamese Chili Garlic Sauce ( a little goes a long way) because I love it in any dish that calls for hot sauce. It is what I use in soups, stews, casseroles or any other dish that I want to have a nice kick to it.
It is good in barbeque sauce (store bought or homemade) to give meats a nice kick too. Everything else I kept the same and the recipe is fantastic. If you like the hot and sour soup when you go out for Chinese food try this recipe and enjoy it at home. You can have a couple of bowls of soup and skip the rest of dinner when you make it at home which would be really hard to do at a Chinese buffet. I know I could never just have soup there.