White lightning.(THE STRAGGLER)(baijiu)

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I SEE that the highest grades of Chinese baijiu ("white liquor"--it's pronounced bye-jee-oh) were retailing at over $3,000 a bottle this Lunar New Year. It is good to know that all the T-bonds we have been shipping over there are having their coupons put to use.

This particular extravagance probably seems baffling to non-Chinese who have had some slight acquaintance with baijiu. General opinion among round-eyes is that while the stuff is probably very efficacious at stripping the rust off bolts, it is not fit for human consumption.

What do they know, these barbarous dilettantes? I have been drinking baijiu for 30 years, and have got a taste for it. We have a good selection in the cocktail cabinet here, replenished at intervals from a shop in Manhattan's Chinatown. I'll allow that it took me a while to see the virtues of baijiu. I'll even allow, if pressed, that the principal one of those virtues is a very quick buzz. Mrs. Straggler drinks the stuff, though, and our Chinese friends drink it, so I have gotten used to it by way of social obligation.

To be perfectly honest about it, I am not sure I can distinguish one type of baijiu from another. The invaluable Wikipedia lists 20 varieties, most of whose names I recognize, but I should fail dismally on a blind tasting test. I think I might be able to pick out Yuk Bing Siu, which I used to drink by the tumbler in my reckless Hong Kong days, and which has a peculiar texture. As well it might if Wikipedia is to be believed: "After distillation, pork fat is stored with the liquor but removed before bottling. Its name probably derives from the brewing process: In Cantonese, yuk ('jade') is a homophone of 'meat,' and bing means 'ice,' which describes the appearance of the pork fat floating in the liquor." Like everything that Chinese people ingest, baijiu comes with a catalog of instructions from whoever introduces you to it--promised health benefits, proper times and seasons for use, correct accompanying items and events, history, geography, and so on. No wonder Asian kids ace the SAT. I can never hold much of the data in my mind for long, but I do like the buzz.

There is a widespread impression in lands beyond the Wall that the Chinese are not great drinkers. This is quite wrong, though as always in that "world within the world" there are regional variations. Mrs. Straggler's home district in the northeast (a Chinese person never says "Manchuria") was opened up to regular Chinese settlement only late in the last dynasty. The soil is very fertile, but there was no transport infrastructure. Nineteenth-century travelers saw stills everywhere. H. E. M. James, passing through in the 1880s, explains the logic:

 
   The distilleries were really formidable places, with strong brick 
   walls, 18 feet high, surmounted by terre-plein and parapet all 
   complete, the gate fortified, and at each angle flanking towers 
   armed with small carronades.... The doors and doorframes are of 
   sheet iron, ornamented with massive studs.... These distilleries 
   represent the capital and wealth of the district, which can only 
   export its surplus grain in the form of liquor, owing to its 
   ...