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Rice wine (cooking wine)

米酒

dispels cold活血（民間）灒酒去腥引出鑊氣香

Fermented rice wine for the kitchen, in Cantonese soup work usually Shaoxing wine, splashed against the hot wok after frying fish or added by the spoonful at the end of a pork liver soup. The alcohol lifts fishy notes, carries the wok aroma (鑊氣) and rounds out the broth.

TCM properties

Nature · warming　Flavour · pungent、sweet

Traditional food therapy

In Cantonese food therapy a splash of rice wine is held to dispel cold and, in folk usage, to move the blood, alongside its kitchen role of masking fishiness.

Cautions: read first

Pregnant women should avoid alcohol; when wine is splashed into a quick-boiled soup (灒酒), the alcohol does not necessarily cook off completely.
Leave it out of soups for children.
People with gout should note that alcohol pushes up uric acid.
Anyone on medication should watch for interactions with alcohol.

Preparation

Splash it down the side of the hot wok (灒酒, a splash of wine onto the hot metal) after pan-frying fish, or add a little at the end of a pork liver soup.