Term of Endearment: Soupy?

I want a soup man. That's right, a man who will make me soup. :)
This is a picture of "The Original Soupman" made famous by Seinfield. I ate there as my last meal in NYC. For $12, I had a bowl of soup (crab bisque), apple, piece of chocolate, bottled water and a chicken panini. YUM-O!

I long for soup in the cold weather. Soup on a cold day really has the ability to hit the spot. It satisfies me to a tee! Today I made a soup that combines Eastern and Western soup "philosophies". Asian people prefer watery soups whereas Western soups are a lot thicker and stew-like. I made a soup today that uses Asian ingredients, but cooked Western style.

Alie's Winter Soup

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of chicken broth
1 cup of cold water
3 tsp of corn starch
2 cloves of garlic
1 giant king oyster mushroom, julienned
2 large shitake mushrooms, chopped into tiny bite size pieces
1/2 of a bar of fried fish cake (totally optional), sliced
7 large dried scallops (this is the money right here, baby!)
1/2 cup of squash, chopped into tiny bite size pieces
1 tsp of white cooking wine
1 bunch of vermacelli, cooked

Directions:

Additional prep work:
You need to cook the vermacelli noodles and dried scallops before putting it in the soup. In a pot of boiling water, put in vermacelli noodles and dried scallops. Cook for 10 minutes. Drain water into a strainer.

Let's get on with the soup!

Turn the stove to a med-high heat. In a pot, add a tsp of olive oil and when the oil heats up, add in chopped garlic. When the garlic is infused, add in shitake and king oyster mushrooms. Keep stirring. Add in fish cake slices, dried scallops and squash. Keep stirring. Add in white cooking wine. At this point, the ingredients are almost cooked. Add in chicken broth. Keep stirring. Add cold water mixed with corn starch into the pot. Keep stirring. Finally, add in vermacelli noodles. Keep stirring! Turn to a low-medium heat and keep it simmering for 10 minutes.