Egg Drop Rice Wine

Egg Drop Rice Wine

　　Rice wine, also known as fermented glutinous rice wine, is something rural women in Hubei are skilled at making. It is said that Xiaogan produces the best. Xiaogan rice wine was especially famous during the Ming Dynasty and has a history of over 500 years to date. Made from high-quality glutinous rice, it uses the traditional “small starter” as a fermentation agent, and is fermented and stored at an appropriate temperature. In the early days, there were only clear broth rice wine and raw rice wine, but now there are increasingly more varieties. In the late Qing Dynasty, “Lu Pai Xing” opened for business in Wuhan, specializing in thick soup rice wine, and gained quite a reputation. Later, some small glutinous rice balls were added, or eggs were cracked on the spot and mixed in to make egg drop rice wine—yellow and white blending together, sweet and smooth, delicious to taste. Paired with a “happy snake” (a sesame-glutinous rice ball), the experience takes on yet another wonderfully unique flavor.