Chinese Wonton soup

I don't find that stories of my childhood relating to food are as extravagant as other cooks. I am honored to stem from a traditional southern family and specifically my great grandmother who was an awesome cook. Other then that, my most vivid memory relating to food was constantly craving Chinese. When my father asked where I wanted to eat on my birthdays or other random occasions I always replied enthusiastically "Chinese food!" I was satisfied with a cheap Americanized buffet of egg rolls, fried rice, cashew chicken...and especially Wonton Soup. However, we sometimes went to substantially nice sit down restaurants in the heart of Arlington, Texas that made awesome Wonton Soup. I was lucky enough to go back a couple of years ago to the same restaurant and eat the same wonton soup. They make it just as delicious. So simple, the broth producing clean flavors, the wontons stuffed with delicious pork.

When my mother moved me to Denver for a year in high school there was a restaurant on Broadway called 'Imperial', just right by my house. I would constantly order take out, even if it was just there shrimp wonton soup that I found amazing and like nothing I've eaten.

I started cooking wonton soup a few years ago. My view is that it is a gourmet peasants dish: meaning it is cheap, easy to make, but fit for a king. Gourmet has a wonderful wonton soup recipe w/boy choy: Here.
I still use this recipe as a guideline though I have it in memory. When I cooked it a few days ago I used the broth I had left over from steaming the duck in my previous post. The recipe is fairly simple but maybe a little time consuming if you aren't used to making wontons. I've actually heard someone say that this was just too much work for a soup, which almost offends me because any soup that takes less then an hour is probably not worth its salt. It is also so easy to experiment with the stuffing in the wontons. I have used chunks of shrimp or prawns before instead of ground pork.

A word about the ingredients: You should be able to find wonton wrappers in your local supermarket. I have not yet been adventurous enough to make my own, but maybe one day. I also found bok choy in my very small rural supermarket. This is literally a Chinese cabbage. It was studied by the Ming dynasty for its medicinal qualities. The Koreans picked it up and started using it as a main ingredient in kimchi. It adds a needed crisp texture to soups, but be careful because after a day of being cooked it is very soggy and chewy.