Beverage

Shaoxing Wine

Shaoxing wine is the reference Chinese huangjiu: fermented glutinous rice, wheat qu, and water from the Shaoxing region of Zhejiang, aged until it is amber, nutty, and savoury-sweet. Hua diao (carved-jar) is the drinking and serious cooking style; supermarket "Shaoxing cooking wine" is often the same idea with salt added so it cannot be drunk as wine. The flavour is closer to a dry amontillado than to sake—oxidative, caramel, a little bitter. Use it in red-cooking, velveted marinades, and steamed fish with ginger. A dry sherry is the usual emergency swap; sake is the wrong neighbour. Salted cooking bottles will over-season a delicate steam if you pour as if they were drinking wine. Keep a drinking hua diao for the table and for any sauce that should taste of wine rather than of brine.

Also known as: Shaoxing Jiu