Hot and Sour Soup

This soup has a lot of different flavors in it. The spicy comes from freshly ground white pepper, and the sour comes from black vinegar. For heath benefits, add ginger and serve this soup for colds. This soup seems to have every family's own recipe. Everybody claims that their soup is the best. Some use wood ear fungus and pork. Some don't. To make this soup vegetarian, leave the meat out and use vegetable stock. Try different recipes for hot and sour soup, then come up with your own like mine here.

Ingredients:
4 oz medium-firm tofu
1 chicken breast, thinly shredded
2 tbs cornstarch
5 dried shitake mushrooms
1 tsp salt
1 tbs cooking wine: dry sherry or Shaoxing wine
2 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs freshly ground white pepper
2 tbs black Chinese vinegar or balsamic vinegar
5 cups homemade chicken stock
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup can shredded bamboo shoots, rinsed and drained
3 green onions, chopped

Directions:
Soak dried mushrooms in warm water for 30 minutes. Then drain and squeeze out any excess water. Remove and discard the stems and shred the caps. Reserve 1 cup of soaking mushroom water.
Combine chicken, salt, and half of the cooking wine and half of the cornstarch. Set aside.
Cut bean curd the same size as the bamboo shoots and the dried mushrooms. Set aside.

Bring the stock to a boil in a pan or a large clay pot if serving in that clay pot. Add the chicken and stir to separate the meat. Then add the bean curd, mushrooms and the bamboo shoots. Return to a boil. Slowly pour in the beaten eggs, whisking in the eggs clockwise to form the thin threads.
Combine the remaining cornstarch with 1/4 cup of water. Pour into the soup and simmer until thick. Sprinkle with white pepper and chopped scallions.