Does the soup contain anything else other than broth and egg shreds? Anything green for example?

Jim

don't they usually use scallions? maybe a little ginger?

Trix, check out my pictorial of when I made egg drop soup earlier this year. The only thing I can think of is the scallions.

Here is a link that might be useful: How to make Egg Drop Soup (pics)

One of the distinctive flavors in Thai cooking (especially soups) is the use of fish sauce (instead of soy sauce). The flavors of fish sauces vary much more widely than the different types of soy sauces - some are extremely strong and some of very mild. I was only able to reproduce a Thai soup when I found the right fish sauce. The naturally fermented fish sauce is stronger and you need to use less, but there is no substitute for it.

Sesame oil is more common in Japanese soups than in Thai, but they might be using galangal and Kafir lime leaves. You can substitute regular ginger and regular lime leaves (or lime zest) for those ingredients.

I don't associate egg drop soup with Thai cuisine, and so the restaurant might be a combination Thai/Chinese, meaning that it is run by Chinese who find that calling the restaurant "Thai" attracts more customers. There is a similar situation with "Indian" restaurants owned and operated by Pakistanis who call their restaurants "Indian" in order to attract customers. That doesn't mean that their food is not good - just that it is probably less authentic and possibly "fusion", which can be good.

Lars

Here is a link that might be useful: Thai fish sauce

Jim, the soup has chopped chives,but not alot.

Marys, I don't know if it has ginger or not. I can't taste ginger in it.

gardengrl, I do pretty much as you do(but I most of the time use canned stock.) I always add chives or chopped green onions and sometimes a little whole kernel corn that I freeze just for that purpose.

Lars, you are probably right. I am sure it is not a true Thai restaurant but we just love it. Egg drop soup is one of my favorites and it is so good.

Thank you. I will try it with a little ginger and then some fish sauce and see what happens.

Thanks again.

The broth, which I guess is chicken broth, undoubtedly was made with ingredients which were strained out. These ingredients most likely included onion, garlic, chives or garlic chives. I would bet on garlic chives, a typically Asian ingredient. The chives you see in the served dish were added as a garnish.

Lars' suggestion of fish sauce (nuoc mam) is a consideration too, although nuoc mam is mainly Vietnamese and not onion or garlic flavored so far as I know.

A lot is unknown here. Maybe ask the restaurant. That could lead to an interesting conversation. :-)

Jim

I had egg drop soup the last time I ate Chinese out. It was one of the best ones I have ever eaten. There was a definite hint of sesame oil in it. It had a distinct "nutty" flavor.
Lisa

You said it had chopped chives - I'm willing to bet that's where the garlic flavor comes from. There's a variety of chives called garlic chives, which has a very strong flavor that's like a mix of garlic and chives. It doesn't take much. Once, a Vietnamese man brought a clump of garlic chives to the nursery I work at, and offered to give it to us. He called it something different, and said they use it in cooking and love it. I wish I could remember his name for it, but that was too long ago.

It's easy to grow - too easy. It re-seeds aggressively, and before you know it, you can have it growing everywhere.

Sally

I wonder if maybe the Thai version has lemon grass in it? That might be what you are tasting.

Ann

Kathy... I'm trying your egg drop soup tomorrow... though I'll use Swanson's for the broth. If there's pig feet juice in there, I don't want to know about it!

As soon as I hit submit, I realized my typo.

I meant chicken feet juice... though truth be told, I woudn't want pig feet juice either!

My first thought was garlic chives also. The ones that I grow are very mild tasting and just give you the essence of garlic. I can't imagine lemon grass or kafir lime or sesame oil giving the faint taste of garlic. I do think that you can have fun experimenting with all these things, though. They all taste good together.

Guess, I'm a little late to join in with this thread.

Garlic in an asian soup stock? It's unlikely. We put garlic in just about anything but not in stock. Chives, however, is a different story. Chives and onions are common in stock and so is ginger.

Sally, the garlic chives the VNmese man brought to you, was it Cu Kieu?

I agree, lemon grass and kafir lime are usually not in egg drop soup. These 2 ingredients are in Thai's sweet and sour soup.

Jim is right, fish sauce or nuoc mam is Vietnamese and not Thai's. If anyone wants to buy, try to look for the bottle that has the 3 crabs (3 Con Cua). Second choice is the bottle with the squid. Both of these are popular among us and they're both of high quality. Once opened, the bottle does not need to be refrigerated.

Another ingredient in Asian stock is fried onion which could give that garlic flavor but it's milder. You can find package of fried onion in any Indian section of the supermarket

Ahem...

"I would bet on garlic chives, a typically Asian ingredient."

Jim

I'm going to try garlic chives.

Thanks for your responses, I've got alot of things I can try now and next time we go I am going to ask what is in it and I will report back.

I love egg drop soup and theirs is the best.

Hee-hee-hee.... I was clueless about garlic chives. I'm not used to English terms for Asian veggies. I looked it up and AHHHHH.... The VNmese term is "He". Normally, it's added in certain noodle soup as a garnish, sautee with other veggies and meat, and in VNmese Spring Rolls.

Garlic Chives do not tend to release its flavor as well in stock. It's very distinctive if you eat AT it.

So Trixie, if you didn't see nor eat something green and it's just the taste from the stock that you have detected it, most likely it's not garlic chives.

Sorry Jim but I'm against you on this one. The reason, I don't believe it is garlic chives because you'd have to add quite alot to flavor the stock which is very uncommon. Unless, the chef/cook would puree the garlic chives which would make the soup greenish. It's unlike that is in egg drop soup broth, don't you think?

Scallions are another ingredient in soup stock. It could be scallions.

Thanks for that information, ntt hou. I have a lot to learn.

Jim

I made the soup today based on Kathy's tutorial. It was so simple and sooooo good! I was a little too generous with the salt... which is fine with me, but I wouldn't want to serve it to others like that. It's been so long since I've had any from a restaurant that I don't remember what it tastes like, but this was very good! :o)

Kathy, thanks the the pictorial!

Nuoc mam is the Vietnamese name for fish sauce, nam pla or nam la is the Thai name, aek jeot is the Korean name, é­é² is the Chinese name, and there are also Cambodian, Laotian, and Indonesian names for fish sauce. Fish sauce is by no means mainly Vietnamese, and it is basic to many SE Asian cuisines. It may have originated in Vietnam, but it is equally prevalent in Thai cuisine. The flavors vary from country to country, and I always keep both Vietnamese and Thai fish sauces on hand, because of the differences in flavor.

Thai soups often have lemongrass, as Ann suggested - at least the recipes that I have do. But then the restaurant is probably fusion and not exclusively authentic Thai in cuisine.

Lars

Lars, you are probably right about the fusion thing. I'm not sure most of us have any authentic Thai, Vietnames, Indonesian restaurants. Every ethnic restaurant we have boasts to be authentic but try this - I was in an "authentic" Thai restaurant and they had put too much fish sauce in my food so I asked for a slice of lime. They told me they don't keep lime, just lemon. I though Thai always used limes?

To add info given by Lars, fish sauce originated in Vietnam from 2 areas, Phu Quoc and Phan Thiet. Although, they continued to produce fish sauce, most fish sauce imported to the US are from Thailand.

Since the end of the Vietnam war in 1975, many Vietnamese took refuge and reside also in Thailand, Phillipines and China. That's why today, there are various version of the fish sauce (ie, fish or squid made products).

One example is the popular "Three Crabs" brand fish sauce. It is a product of Thailand and processed in Hong Kong but the manufacturer, Viet Huong, is of Vietnamese origin.

Beverly, unlike many other international food restaurants, the majority of food served in Vietnamese restaurants that you go to are quite authentic. As for seasoning, like any cook and chef, it is to his/her own taste.

If you ever visit our common noodle restaurants that serve Pho, you'd see that everyone makes it a bit differently. Sort of like hamburger places in the US. The stock is the most important ingredient in this soup and it is somewhat time consuming to make a good stock. That's why the pot tends to sit warmed up pretty much most of the day. And which constitutes in losing some of its juice via the steam. Perhaps, that's why the soup you had ended up a bit salty.

You're right about most asians use limes and that's because it is what normally grow in our asian countries. However, lemons are a bit sweeter, is it not? And many asian dishes have a sweet & sour flavor to it. Perhaps, lemons would be more suitable in the Vietnamese cuisine. It is also readily available here in the US. There's really no rules whether we use lemons or limes in the Vietnamese cuisine. It's just what is in season and available in the market.

Personally, my favorite is Meyer Lemons. It's the only lemon/lime family that my stomach would tolerate because of its low acidity content.