Mi Jiu - traditional rice wine

Last week my mum made some rice wine. It was lovely to see her working at it, I couldn't help much (more like it was "get your clumsy hands away from my stuff boy! tsk!" in a loving kinda way actually). My grandmother made it once every month. The Hakka (or Khek) dialect group like to make their own and the women expecially drink lots of it. It nourishes the body and builds the lost 'chi' women have to endure with multiple child birth... it's an ancient china thing, y'know bearing 10 over children.

I watched in amazement and listened intently to my mum telling me stories about how the hakka made rice wine. She didn't have clay urns like it was supposed to, or else i'd have a really really traditional looking set of shots haha.

Did you know, during the course of making rice wine, one's mind should be focused and to not speak ill of anything or anyone, or else it will destroy the taste of the wine?



It's been about 10 days now, I can smell the sweet fermentation. I'm excited!

boy will i miss all my mum when i'm back in Sydney...