Shanghai Sweet Wine Rice

This sweet rice, a favorite of Shanghai, is versatile. Not only is it the basis for other dishes, including a sweet soup, but it is also eaten as Westerners might eat a rice pudding. Its sweetness is created by mixing glutinous rice with a crushed white ball of yeast, or wine pill, which causes the rice to ferment. In Shanghai, this rice is usually made in the hot summer, when fermentation is better, so it yields a more intense flavor. It is sold in jars often labeled “fermented sweet rice