Tomato, Seaweed and Eggdrop Soup

Here is a simple Chinese home-style soup... In Chinese tomatoes are called either 番茄 (Fan Eggplant) or 西紅柿 (West Red Persimmon). As you can tell, the Chinese couldn't decide on whether tomatoes were more eggplant-like or persimmon-like so both names stuck. Regardless, based on the names, most likely tomatoes were introduced to the Chinese by foreign traders via the Silk Road as the word 番人(Fan People) is often used during ancient times to describe Caucasian people who traveled to China along the Silk Road. The second name, West Red Persimmon, is pretty self explanatory...

The ingredients are simple: White People Eggplant, Purple Veggies (the Chinese actually divide seaweed into two categories: seabelt (海带in Chinese, is a tougher and thicker type of seaweed) and purple veggie (紫菜 in Chinese, is a softer type of seaweed with a purple hue), a few eggs, a little bit of dried shrimp (didn't have it today) and a little bit of chopped spring onions (didn't have it either)...

Chop the tomatoes into large chunks, beat the eggs and shred the seaweed.. When water is boiled, put in tomatoes, seaweed and dried shrimp, when it comes to boil, let it cook for a minute or two, then toss in the egg batter and stir well... add chopped spring onions and turn off heat. Season it with salt and a little bit of sesame oil. Here it is: tomato, seaweed and eggdrop soup.