Sha tang is a thick, sticky soup common in China, flavored with protein such as chicken or pheasant, and thickened with millet rice or barley. It is flavored with black pepper, salt, soy sauce, and other spices, and is often served with side dishes for breakfast. Its name may have originated from a misunderstanding by the Qianlong Emperor.
Sha tang is a kind of soup that is common in China, especially in Jiangsu and Shandong provinces. It is usually distinguished by its thick, sticky texture and cloudy appearance due to the starchy grains mixed in. The soup is usually flavored primarily with some type of protein such as chicken or pheasant. Sha tang is often enjoyed as part of a breakfast meal in Jiangsu’s Xuzhou city, where soup shops abound to offer people bowls of hot soup to start their day.
An interesting, though uncertain, account of what the Chinese soup was called involved the Qianlong Emperor, who ruled the Qing dynasty in the 18th century. During his reign, he visited the city of Xuzhou and was offered soup for breakfast, after which he asked the chef what the dish was called. The chef misunderstood the emperor’s question as a statement and, in reference to the kingship, he immediately named the soup “sha tang”, which is literally translated as “what soup”.
Traditionally, the main ingredient for sha tang would be a pheasant, probably for use by chickens after hunting expeditions. Millet rice is also a traditional ingredient used to thicken soup, probably boiled at the same time as the soup to release the starch from the rice. Over time, the pheasant was replaced with chicken and millet rice with barley, wheat and even a mixture of different types of cereals. To make the soup thicker and stickier, chunks of eel meat, seaweed, and beans can also be included. Pork knuckles can also be boiled into the soup and removed after cooking, as these pork parts are very fatty and can give the soup a richer texture and flavor. Bamboo shoots can also be added into soup.
Spices also abound in a pot of sha tang, but black pepper is the soup’s main flavoring, along with a little salt and soy sauce. Other spices include cardamom, onion and ginger, sometimes even cinnamon. In many soup shops, all the ingredients are placed in a large pot and simmered over a fire for an extended time, sometimes more than five hours before the soup is served, in order to create a flavorful broth. The soup is then individually ladled into a bowl, mixed with a raw egg and a final drizzle of sesame oil. Sha tang is usually not eaten on its own, but with different side dishes such as dumplings, steamed vegetables and fried dough pieces reminiscent of Spanish churros.
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