Instructions: Slice the mushrooms and saute with oil in the soup pot (you can eliminate fat by just tossing the mushrooms in the stock without sauteing them, but they shrink something awful!). Add the stock (I used chicken, which is traditional). Most people will want the stock to have salt, but remember that the soy sauce is salty. Add the ginger, heat to a boil, and simmer gently for 20 minutes.

At some point you may wish to discard the ginger so some unsuspecting soul doesnt bite into it and get a mouthful of heat. You may wish to do the rest differently, but my wife is always in the kitchen preparing another last-minute dish, so I like to get all my ingredients together and ready.

Get five small bowls. Put the vinegar, soy sauce, ground white pepper and (optional) hot sauce in one and mix. Put the corn starch and water in the next and mix. Put the (optional) egg in the next and beat lightly. Put the green onion in the next, and the tofu and matchstick-cut bamboo shoots in the last.

A few minutes before you are ready to eat, turn the heat to medium.

Add the tofu and bamboo shoots and wait until heated. Add the soy sauce mixture, heat until boiling. Stir corn starch mixture and add to rapidly boiling soup. Boil for a long minute until it thickens.

Reduce heat.

If using egg, stir the soup in one direction until its moving pretty well. Dribble the egg in, forming long strands. Let the strands firm

(20 seconds). Add sesame oil and stir. You can float the green onions on top, or stir them in. Serve, with chili oil available for those who like it hotter.

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