Chinese Soups
By Rhonda Parkinson, About.com Guide, http://chinesefood.about.com/

Given the ingenuity of Chinese cooks, it should come as no surprise that there is an amazing variety of Chinese soup.

However, there are two major categories.

1. Thin Soups: Thin soups are made with a clear broth, and cooked quickly, with the meat and/or vegetables added near the final stages of cooking, depending on their individual cooking times. Just as in the case of dashi, the Japanese clear broth, it is important never to overcook the broth for Chinese thin soups. On the other hand, you don't want to overcook the vegetables: the idea is to cook them just enough so that they will still preserve their distinctive flavor.
2. Thick Soups: By contrast, the ingredients for thick soups are all added together at once. The soup is cooked more slowly, giving the ingredients time to blend together. Cornstarch or tapioca starch is often added near the end of the cooking process as a thickener.

Hot and Sour Soup is an example of a thick soup. A number of ingredients such as shredded pork and dried Chinese mushrooms (in northern China it is traditionally made with fresh chicken's blood) are simmered together to form a thick broth, perfect for those cold Mongolian winter nights. Another example is Shark's Fin Soup. Recipes for the famous banquet dish call for it to be made with a thick or "gourmet" stock (see below).

Meanwhile, in Ken Hom's Chinese Cookery, the author points out that Chicken and Spinach soup is an excellent example of a thin soup. The vegetable (in this case, spinach) is blanched first, reducing the amount of time it will need to be cooked in the soup. Similarly, the chicken is also blanched ahead of time.

It's all in the stock...

As with French cuisine, the secret of a good Chinese soup lies in the stock. What is stock? Basically, it's a liquid broth in which meat, bones, and sometimes vegetables have been simmered over a long period of time, imparting their flavor to the heated broth. Chicken is the meat of choice for preparing Chinese stock, although pork is also used, particularly in addition to chicken. (Beef is thought to add too strong a flavor). The Chinese place such importance on their stock that they have two categories. A primary or first class chicken stock is made by simmering a whole chicken, while a second class stock uses only the bones. There is also gourmet stock, a truly superior broth made with chicken, pork ribs and other pork bones, ham, and sometimes duck. It is used to create banquet dishes such as Shark's Fin soup.

Besides not using beef, Chinese stock also differs from French stock (known as fonds de cuisine) in the lack of spices. While a recipe for French chicken stock might call for a pinch of thyme or a few garlic cloves, the Chinese believe spicing masks the flavor of the chicken or pork. Seasonings are added later, depending on what the individual recipe calls for.

There are three basic traditional soup stocks in Chinese cuisine:

• White broth: Made from lightly blanched pork bones that have been boiled for several hours, creating a white milky broth. This broth has a rich mouthfeel, and is often used in ramen soups.
• Shandong broth: A dark tan broth made from Jinhua ham and chicken. This rich and umami broth is used in the creation of many expensive soups such as shark fin soup.
• Chicken: The basic broth used in creating most Chinese soups. The basic broth is sometimes fortified with licorice root, wolfberry, and other Chinese herbs.

Thick or thin...Which Soup Should I serve?

There's no hard and fast rules, but the following guidelines can help you decide whether a thin or thick soup is called for:

• Serve a thin soup as a beverage replacement  Contrary to popular belief, the Chinese don't normally drink tea during a meal. Tea is enjoyed afterward in a relaxing atmosphere. Besides encouraging conversation, it helps promote digestion. Water or soft drinks aren't served, as the Chinese believe it is unhealthy to serve cold drinks with a meal. A thin soup makes an appetizing substitute. 
• Serve a thick soup for lunch or dinner Thick soups make a great one-dish meal, particularly for lunch. Many are quite filling, nearly crossing the line from soup to stew. Thick soups may be served at dinner; as noted above, Shark's Fin Soup is a popular banquet dish, and Hot and Sour Soup goes well with Mu Shu Pork. However, normally you wouldn't serve a thick soup at a meal that has several other dishes.
• During a banquet, serve a thin soup between courses.  Similar to a sorbet, thin soups can cleanse the palate and prepare it for the next course.

Soup Customs in China

Soup is not regarded in China as a meal or as an occasional comfort food, as is true in many cultures. Rather, as in France, soup plays a formal, distinctive, and variable role in every meal but breakfast...but it is further used medicinally to doctor the ill, depending on one's yin-yang balance.

Li Yü, Ch'ing dynasty poet and essayist, said this about soup:

"As long as there is rice, there should be soup. The relationship between soup and rice is like that between water and a boat. When a boat is stranded on a sandy bank only water can wash it back to the river; rice goes down better with soup. I would go so far as to say that it would be better to go without all main dishes than to have no soup."

Soups for everyday meals are often simple broths made from meat bones and vegetables or pickles. Designed to help one digest food, these are often served with the meal (acting as the beverage) or toward the end of the meal, even poured over that customary last bowl of rice. They're never served first--because you'd be filled up too fast--and they're always served by bringing small bowls of it to the table.

By contrast, if the soup is slightly thickened (usually with cornstarch) and contains some fine ingredients--like hot and sour soup--it will be served as a course in itself toward the beginning of the meal. And it's brought to the table in a big bowl--ladled out to everyone there--so you know for sure it's a main course. It is specifically designed to stimulate the appetite for the rest of the meal.

However, these thickened soups can also aspire higher--leaping over everyday status to banquet status to the degree that they contain precious foods. Soups that feature the precious shark's fin or bird nest, for example, will be moved to the middle of the meal, symbolizing their role as centerpiece of the meal. Otherwise, light soups will be served in small cups throughout the banquet as palate cleansers between courses and to signify the end of a series of courses.

And what about soup's role as a tonic? These soups, which usually combine long-simmered foods and medicinal herbs, are designed to balance the yin (cooling) and yang (heating) forces that affect the body. Thus a Chinese grandmother might demand to look into the eyes and at the tongue of her grandson to deduce his nature that day: if he was "wet and cold," she'd create a yang soup, such as chrysanthmum flowers and sugar to soothe and warm him. If he was "hot," she'd give him a yin soup, such as winter melon soup--or a sweet dessert soup of poached pears, honey, and lemon balm to cool and cleanse him.

All foods, in fact, are classified according to their yin/yang properties: For example, oranges, winter melon, pork, and dried figs are YIN--meaning they can reduce inflammation and help lower fevers. Whereas ginseng, quail, dried longans fruit, azuki beans, and medicinal roots and berries are YANG--meaning they can promote blood formation and circulation and improve vitality. A word to the wise--the elderly should beware yin foods...and embrace yang ones.

Tonic soups include:

• Peanut soup (fa sung woo), for longevity.
• Soup made from the roots of peanuts is given to pubescent boys to make them grow tall.
• Sweet potato and lotus seed soup (fan shu leen zee tong), which helps constipation and removes toxins from the body.
• Walnut soup (hup tul woo), a snack and dessert soup using, is said to nourish the brain and promote long life. It contains toasted walnuts (brain shaped), rice flour, and brown candy.
• Green mung bean soup (look dul sah) is a tonic for acne, rash, and other skin problems--it cools the body of heat inflammations and is good in the summer.
• Sweetened red bean soup (hoong dul sah) for wintertime to warm the body.
• Chayote carrot soup (hup cheung qwa hoong law bock tong) is good for the elderly because it cleanses toxins but without cooling the body.

Finally, sweet soups serve as Chinese desserts--including not only yin poached pears, honey, and lemon balm, but also azuki bean soup, almond puree soup, tapioca in coconut milk soup, and steamed peaches and honey date soup.