Hot and Sour Soup

Wholly inauthentic, but remarkable tasty.  Excellent when you have a cold. (translation: if you add enough seasonings, it's quite a kick in the pants)

Ingredients:
1/2 pound of shitake mushrooms, cleaned and thinly sliced
Can of bean sprouts
Small can of stem mushrooms (2 would have been better)
1/2 package of firm tofu, sliced into thin-ish strips
Small bunch green onions - chop and separate whites from greens
2 cloves garlic, diced
6 cups water, at least

We probably started with 2-3 tablespoons for all the following seasonings, but at the end we added more to taste:
Ginger (we used powder because I'm not a fan of fresh, but if you like fresh, I'd estimate 3-4 thin slices)
Soy sauce
Sesame oil
Red pepper flakes
Rice vinegar

Optional: (we put it in because it was in the fridge and we figured, why not?)
1 cup of fresh, shredded cabbage
2 tbsp fish sauce (the kind you get in the international food aisle by the Thai curries)
Pepper to taste

Directions:
Saute the whites of the onions with the garlic and optional cabbage with sesame oil.  When it gets dry and needs extra liquid, add the ginger, soy sauce, red pepper flakes, vinegar and some optional fish sauce with a little water.  After a few minutes, add the rest of the water and the bean sprouts.  Once it's at a good simmer/ low boil, add the tofu and mushrooms.  As soon as it comes back up to a low boil, turn off the heat and let it cool, adding extra seasonings to taste.  Once it's cool enough to eat, garnish each serving with a few extra drops of sesame oil and the greens of the onions.