Serving Wines, East and West, with Chinese Food

The first time I ever drank alcohol was when I was ten or eleven years old, growing up in Sun Tak Yuen, and an uncle offered me a sip of a white rice wine. It burned my throat. The first time I had wine with food was later, after I went to Hong Kong, when I tried a sip of the strong spirit known as ng ga pei. I did not like it. Not long after that, I tried various rice wines of different ages and breeding, and because I was not used to them, I generally found them not to my taste.