Din Tai Fung Shaoshing wine chicken

Today I visit the Din Tai Fung in Pavillian KL Mall for my lunch. Din Tai Fung is a Chinese restaurant from Taiwan that specializes in Chinese Huaiyang cuisine, they are known internationally for their paper-thin wrapped xiaolongbao with 18 folds.

After looking at their menu, I decided to try their Shaoshing wine chicken which cost RM25.50 after including the 6% Service tax. I also order a bowl of rice to eat with it.

For those who don't know what Shaoshing wine is, it is a traditional Chinese wine made by fermenting glutinous rice, water and wheat-based yeast.

Shaoshing wine chicken dish is also known as Drunken chicken, it is a way of preparing chicken using alcoholic beverages. There are 2 versions for it, serve hot and serve chill. This version I have is the chill version.

It is prepared by having the whole chicken first steamed then chopped up into pieces appropriately sized for picking up by chopsticks. The steamed meat, along with its juice, is cooked with scallions, ginger and salt. After the chicken is cooked it is marinated in liquor, sherry or a distilled liquor, like whiskey, overnight in the refrigerator. The chicken is served chilled, often as an appetizer. Besides the liquor-flavoured meat, another feature of the dish is the liquor-flavoured gelatin that results from the chilled mixture of the alcohol and the cooking juices.

Normally Shaoshing wine chicken are eaten alone as an appetiser but since it is me alone, I eat it as a main dish.