Sweet Wine Rice Soup

This is a classic sweet soup from Shanghai, traditionally served to welcome a guest, usually accompanied with the excellent Dragon Well tea from nearby Hangzhou, or as a popular afternoon snack. It has evolved into a sweet that appears as the last course of a meal—whether simple or bountiful—and though once found only in Shanghai restaurants, it is now a standard sweet in the restaurants of Hong Kong as well.

It is served in two variations. In the first, a gently boiled, just-set eg