From Eat Drink Man Woman · 1994 · Pairing
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.
Before you start
Rinse and steep the tea leaves and warm the Shaoxing gently just above body temperature — have both ready to pour as the banquet opens the film.
Cook-along start: before the movie
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.
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.
Ingredients
Method
- 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.
Substitutions
- Shaoxing for drinking: use drinkable Shaoxing or huadiao rice wine if you can find it. Avoid warming salted "Shaoxing cooking wine" as a beverage; it belongs in the wok, not in the cup.
- No Shaoxing: dry amontillado sherry gives a similar nutty warmth. For an alcohol-free table, make the tea service the whole ritual and skip the wine rather than trying to fake it.
- Loose-leaf tea: good tea bags are fine for a busy party. Oolong is richer with the braises; jasmine is lighter and more floral with steamed fish and dumplings.