From Eat Drink Man Woman (1994)
Tea & Warmed Shaoxing
Serve when
Pour throughout the Sunday meal — tea for the table, a little warmed rice wine for Chef Chu — the quiet accompaniment to a banquet where the food says what the family can't.
What to drink
A Chinese family banquet doesn't run on cocktails — it runs on hot tea and, for the elders, warmed Shaoxing rice wine. That's the honest drink for this film: a fragrant oolong or jasmine to cut the richness of the braised and fried dishes, and a small cup of gently warmed Shaoxing to toast with. It's not a single on-screen pour so much as the table's whole liquid grammar — the thing that's always there, keeping the meal in rhythm.
Ingredients
Steps
- Rinse the tea leaves with a quick splash of hot water and discard it, then steep the leaves for the first proper infusion — short, and re-steep through the meal.
- Warm a small carafe of Shaoxing gently in a bowl of hot water until just above body temperature; never boil it.
- Pour tea for everyone and a small cup of warm Shaoxing for those who'd like it.
- Refill often — in a Chinese meal, an empty cup is something the host notices before you do.
What to drink
The tea resets the palate between rich dishes; the warmed rice wine loosens the table. Together they're the sound of a family dinner — the clink and refill under the conversation, present in every Sunday scene even when no one's saying much of anything.