You know, we had somewhat of a revelation one evening.
Your uncle always likes to have wine at dinner. During my time there, we accidentally spilled many a good glass of wine at the table. And then I suddenly realized why people in the west drink their wine with such tall glasses, and why people in the east drink their wine in small cups. It has to do with the eating style.
In the west, everyone gets their own plate, their own portion of food, everything is served at each personal spot. The wine glass has also developed to be taller and more elegant in order to be a part of the table's decoration.
In the east, however, the tradition is to have a table full of sundry dishes that sit in the center of the table. Each person gets his or her own bowl of rice, but everyone still serves themselves from all the dishes in the middle. And what we realized is how practical it is to have short, stabler cups in which to serve wine rather than those tall, lofty glasses when the style of dining involves X number of arms and long chopsticks constantly extending across the middle of the table.
Whatever the real reasons, the logic behind this one seems pretty sound to me.
2 comments:
Does white wine go well with Chinese food? My mom drinks a lot of white wine, which is best served slightly chilled. Part of the reason, then, that it is better to serve white wine in a stemmed glass is to give you something to hold on to, without your body heat warming the wine. Although red wines are generally also served in stem glasses, you'll find plenty of glasses minus the stem in the U.S. (Kristen has some, for example). It's actually nice, because then you can use your hand to warm the red wine slightly, which is the desired temperature (or so I've been told. Connoisseurs tend to disagree on that).
Hmm, not sure, and as you know, I don't drink. But that's an interesting point on the temperature of white wine.
As far as drinking wine in Chinese cuisine, I think it's primarily rice wine. Beyond that, I think I am not the one to ask for details :) .
Also, another thing I thought of regarding temperature. I think you would often pick up the wine cup along the top on the very edge anyway, so I question whether it would make a difference since your hand wouldn't necessarily be around the body of wine, so to speak.
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