Shaoxing Cooking Wine (also called "yellow wine" and pronounced 'sheow-sheen') is a  traditional Chinese wine made by fermenting glutinous rice with water and a wheat-based yeast. Shaoxing has a mild, clear, amber hue, with a distinctive an aromatic smell, and slightly sweet and briny flavor. Cooking with Shaoxing wine is comparable to cooking with a dry sherry or saké.

Straight up Shaoxing doesn't taste very exciting, but using it in a marinade, dressing or as a deglaze in the wok, it adds a burst of flavour.  It is the secret ingredient of all Chinese cooking!