Oriental Pearll - HOT AND SOUR SOUP review.

I have had my share of hot and sour soups in my time. I find myself to be quite the connoisseur actually, having once lived in china town off Spadina in Toronto. I still have a favorite there. A place that claimed they had the BEST hot and sour...and they did. The broth was rich and dark and had a deep beef/chicken flavour to it, with the ABSOLUTE perfect amount of sour. (I like mine on the sour end of things) The seemingly hundreds of ingredients we were perfectly suspended in the broth. Vegetables, meat, shrimp, tofu squares, and egg whisps...threaded through eachother making it so beautiful to look at. Delicious really.
A big bowl, full of delicious ingredients, done to perfection.
Oriental Pearl in Winnipeg, where I now live, did not deliver. Well they DO deliver. Which is handy. I was shocked, because for the most part their food is good. Consistent, hot, fresh, tasty. A BIT on the saucy side...but manageable, especially if you get lots of rice. So I thought I would try their version of hot and sour soup. I say version because I swear, everyone has their own. Some restaurants make it a priority on the menu...others make it, well, like the ORIENTAL PEARL.
A thick, cherry coloured, gelatinous mess showed up at my door. There was so much corn starch that it had to be scooped and plopped out into a bowl...although a plate would have sufficed.
I felt like I was eating vinegar flavoured red jell-o with shrimp pieces and pork strips floating throughout. Yum..just like grandma's. It did have the right amount of sour to spice, oddly enough.
I have no idea how this hot mess made it out the door. It's as if they had just decided to give up on this soup....they are not sure how to make it, they will never know...and they don't care. Because for some reason it still sells.
Not to me!
Sorry O.P....I'll stick with your spicy squid.