amamus1

When I grew up in a small rural town in the south of Hunan province (my parents were German medical missionaries), we always had traditional German breakfasts, oatmeal (wormy and buggy), milk from our two cows as long as we had them (otherwise soy milk), or eggs and toast. So, I was never exposed to Chinese breakfasts. When I went to visit my childhood haunts a few years ago with the area finally opened to Westerners, we stayed at "3-star" hotels that had never seen any Western visitors. For breakfast the two of us were served congee and trimmings, an assortment of about 20 dim sum, plus fruit. Heaven! Why do most tourists insist on a Western breakfast? Now my wife and I are on different schedules for breakfast. So I make Chinese breakfasts for myself after she has left for work. Congee, preserved eggs, pickled radish, etc. Godfrey

I think "rice wine" and "wine rice" are used interchangeably, although the only recipes I have found in cookbooks and on the web call it rice wine. I suppose it may depend on what part of the product is being used. For the cake, it would probably be more accurate to call it wine rice. Since I am new to this group, I may be about to mention a subtopic that has been covered before. I was recently introduced to a book by A. Zee, "Swallowing Clouds." In a breezy and often humorous style, he teaches the reader how to read a Chinese menu and in the process shows the etymology of Chinese characters, how to decode characters by breaking them into radicals, how food integrates into Chinese life and culture, etc. Since as a kid I attended a German school, I learned very little about written Chinese but enough to make this book fascinating, fun, and useful. (I believe Zee is a physics professor raised in Brazil in a Cantonese-speaking family.)

The process for making the rice wine is quite simple: 1. Cook/steam the sweet (glutinous) rice as you normally would and let it cool to room temperature. 2. In the meantime crush the wine ball and dissolve it in 1/2 cup of lukewarm water to activate the yeast. (Since it's a living yeast, heat would kill it.) 3. When the rice has reached room temperature, stir in the yeast. If the rice is firm enough to hold its shape, make a 1" diameter hole in the center for the liquid to begin to accumulate. I have at times omitted the hole without too much harmful effect. Cover with a cloth to keep out flies and fruit flies that are attracted by the wine. 4. Begin to check progress next day, but it will continue to "work" and increase in alcoholic content for at least 3 or 4 days. The sweet rice wine (with or without the solids) can be used as the "broth" for various sweet desserts or as a sweetening agent in other dishes. (I have never measured the alcoholic content.) In our area in China, this dish was an indispensable part of New Year's and Lantern Festival celebrations when it was often used as the broth for sesame-filled rice balls. Chinese specialties are often highly localized. My hometown (Xinning) was near the southern edge of Hunan province, only about 120 km north of Guilin. So it's quite possible that the elusive sweet cakes were not known outside the immediate area. I don't remember the name for the cakes, but the rice wine is called jiu niang.

I was born (1932) and raised in China as a German, and immigrated to the US at the age of 15. I have many delicious food memories and have been able to recreate most of them in my kitchen here. There is one item that eludes me. I have tried and failed many times, and have not found any source to help me with this. Here is the background. I start by making sweet fermented rice wine using the wine yeast balls that can be obtained in most Chinese groceries. (If any one is interested in the process, I'll be glad to describe it.) The product of this fermentation in about 2-5 days is a sweet rice "soup" with a low alcohol content. Since no sweetener is used, the sweetness, as well as the alcohol, are created by the yeast. This step is easy. In the next step, the rice is strained from the liquid, and I assume that the rice is formed into round cakes and then, "magically," the cakes become covered with a sweet white bloom, almost a crust, and the inside is moist and sweet and delicious with just a hint of alcoholic residue. So far, my every attempt has ended up as moldy, vile garbage. I am searching for that "magic" process. Any suggestions?