A more common substitute for Shaoxing cooking wine

If you can get it, sherry is usually a good bet but since you can't, I've used just regular white wine before as a substitute when you're cooking a dish but you just need to be a little less liberal as you might be with rice wine as I find the flavour tends to be a little stronger.

Another alternative is Sake, but I'm assuming that if you can't get rice wine, you'll struggle to find Sake.

For white wine, try:

• chicken broth/stock
• vegetable stock
• white grape juice
• ginger ale
• canned mushroom liquid
• diluted white wine or cider vinegar

For red wine, try:

• beef or chicken broth/stock
• diluted red wine vinegar
• red grape juice
• tomato juice
• canned mushroom liquid

A great list of substitutions for cooking with various alcoholic ingredients may be found here.