Celebrate Chinese New Year in style with drink suggestions from Stuart Walton
The Chinese year of the rat is upon us. Chinese people don't go in for anniversaries much - I have Chinese friends who have no idea when their parents' birthdays are - but what unites all, from mainland China to Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and the expatriate communities worldwide, is the impulse to celebrate the first new moon of the year.
Many Chinese have a physiological intolerance of alcohol that causes facial flushing and disorientation after only very small amounts. It might come as some surprise, then, to hear that there is quite a diversity of alcohol products made in China.
Tsingtao beer is a light, hoppy, Pilsener-type lager (4.5% ABV) originally established by a German company in the resort town of Qingdao in the early years of the last century. There is also the slightly headier Zhu Jiang beer at (£1.09, 330ml, 5.3%) a similar lager (5.3%), with a sweetish, grassy aftertaste.
Beer makes a decent enough aperitif before eating, but it doesn't go especially well with Chinese dishes, particularly with the seafood. A closer match is the brown rice wine known as shaoxing, which is very dry, and has a faintly acerbic, grainy finish. A lot of shaoxing on sale in the supermarkets is specifically produced as a culinary ingredient, for sloshing into the wok while you're stir-frying. These are generally labelled ‘cooking wine', and should only be used for that purpose.
The New Loon Fung supermarket (42-44 Gerrard Street, in London's Chinatown) has Hua Tiao shaoxing (£5.89, 64cl bottle, 18% ABV), which is several cuts above the everyday standard. Flavoured wines are also popular. Loon Fung also has the extravagantly perfumed chrysanthemum rice wine (£4.49, 75cl, 14%), and the sweetly tempting Taiwan lychee wine (£4.69, 60cl, £14%).
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