A clear chicken or pork stock-based soup thickened with cornstarch, acidified with Chinkiang black vinegar, and seasoned with white pepper and Sichuan pepper — containing silken tofu, wood ear mushrooms, dried lily flowers, bamboo shoots, and egg flowers (beaten egg dropped into the simmering soup and stirred into threads). Dunlop's version in *Every Grain of Rice* is a precise restoration of the restaurant standard — its sourness from Chinkiang vinegar (darker, more complex than rice vinegar) and its specific texture (cornstarch-thickened to a light, silk-like consistency) distinguish it from the Western-adapted versions.
**The thickening:** Suan la tang is thickened with cornstarch — 2–3 tablespoons dissolved in cold water, added to the simmering stock in a thin stream while stirring. The result: a light, slightly viscous consistency that is the specific character of this soup. Too thin: no body, the flavours feel diluted. Too thick: gluey, heavy, the egg flowers lose their delicacy. **The vinegar:** Chinkiang black vinegar (zhenjiang cu) — Chinese black rice vinegar, with a significantly more complex, slightly sweet, deeply flavoured character compared to rice vinegar. Added off heat or at the very end of cooking — the volatile aromatic compounds in Chinkiang vinegar evaporate at sustained heat, leaving only the acid without the aromatic complexity. **The egg flowers (dan hua):** Beat 1 egg lightly. With the soup at a gentle, barely perceptible simmer, pour the beaten egg in a thin, continuous stream while stirring the soup gently in one direction. The egg sets immediately into long, delicate threads — 'egg flowers.' If the soup is at a vigorous boil when the egg is added: it scrambles into large, chunky pieces. At the correct bare-simmer temperature: fine, delicate threads. Decisive moment: The vinegar addition — at the very end, off heat or with the heat off. The quantity of Chinkiang vinegar determines the soup's sourness, which should be assertive and immediately perceptible from the first spoonful. Add half the quantity, taste, add more. The correct balance: the sourness is the dominant register, followed immediately by the white pepper's heat, with the savouriness of the stock as the foundation.
Fuchsia Dunlop, *Land of Plenty* (2001); *Every Grain of Rice* (2012); *Land of Fish and Rice* (2016); *The Food of Sichuan* (2019)