Hot and sour soup is a traditional Sichuan snack, belonging to Sichuan or Hunan cuisine. Sichuan hot and sour soup is characterized by sour, spicy, salty, fresh and fragrant. It is cooked with shredded pork, tofu, winter bamboo shoots, Baoning vinegar and other ingredients in clear soup. Drinking it after meals can sober up alcohol, remove greasiness, and aid digestion. Therefore, many people miss the delicious taste of hot and sour soup when they don’t have much appetite.

Hot and sour soup can strengthen the spleen and stomach, soften the liver and kidneys, and is suitable for treating loss of appetite.

It may be the same as the "Hu spicy soup" in the Central Plains, with the addition of vinegar and starch replaced with tofu, while Tianfu's Fushu adds shredded pork and winter bamboo shoots.

It is said that spicy soup once cured the cold of Yu Qian, a famous upright official in the Ming Dynasty. "Not afraid of being broken into pieces - Yu Qian Memorial Hall" commemorative essays record: Yu Qian was the governor of Henan and Shanxi provinces and was stationed in Kaifeng. One year when he was celebrating his birthday, he happened to be on an inspection tour in Zhengzhou. According to his frugal routine, he found a "Hu Ji" restaurant and spent his birthday drinking a bowl of hot soup. This unique birthday food made Yu Qian deeply remember its delicious taste.

Once, when Yu Qian was returning from a tour of Shanxi Province, he passed by Zhengzhou. Due to the fatigue of the journey and the busy work schedule, he contracted a cold for several days and did not recover. One night, Yu Qian suddenly remembered the soup from "Hu Ji" and sent someone to buy it. When the shopkeeper of "Hu Ji" heard that the respected governor wanted to eat it, he added enough seasonings and made it carefully. Yu Qian sweated profusely after eating. The next day he was light and healthy, and his cold recovered unknowingly. Yu Qian sealed the soup with ten taels of silver to thank Shopkeeper Hu for his medical treatment, and suggested that the soup be named after Hu. From then on, the soup became "Hu Spicy Soup".

This dish has no history left behind. We only know that it is a traditional Han snack.