Kabayaki sauce recipe supplements?!

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White wine vinegar will ruin everything. If mirin could not be found, you could use sake instead. If sake is not available, dry sherry will be a mediocre substitute.

Added:
Mirin is an overly sweet, low grade sake with lower alcohol content. Both mirin and sake got that same unique sweet aroma of fermented rice. Dry sherry is only a mediocre substitute because it simply can not duplicate that unique, sweet aroma.

The only other rice wines that contained this unique aroma: Chinese unfiltered (cloudy white in color) fermented white glutenous rice wine. This is not a good substitute simply because it is MUCH harder to find than sake or mirin. Chinese fermented glutenous rice (a different product http://www.cultural-china.com/chinaWH/ht… ), also got this unique aroma. This product is also not a good substitute. The sweet fermented rice aroma it contained is a little too potent making it hard to control.

PS: Shaoxing wine and gin both got a very unique strong aroma of their own. Using them as a substitute is like using garlic as a substitute for chives.

Here are some suggested substitutes for rice wine:

Pale Dry Sherry – available at liquor stores, this is the most commonly recommended substitute for rice wine. It comes closest in flavor to Shaoxing rice wine (also spelled Shao-hsing or Shaohsing), an amber colored wine made with glutinous rice, wheat yeast and spring water. Since rice wine can be hard to find, many recipes will only have dry sherry in the ingredients list, not even giving rice wine as an option.

Gin – While Shaoxing rice wine is commonly recommended because of its consistent high quality, there are many types of rice wines in China. Gin comes closer in flavor to the white rice wines than dry sherry. Feel free to give it a try if you like.

Other Possibilities

Dry White Wine – While the flavor is not the same, it makes an acceptable substitute for Chinese rice wine in marinades.
Non-alcoholic

Apple juice or white grape juice – The acid in the juice acts as a tenderizer, making it an acceptable substitute for rice wine in stir-fry marinades. Again, the flavor won’t be quite the same.
What to Avoid

Cooking wine – Sold in local supermarkets, cooking wines are overly salted and have a different flavor than Chinese rice wine.
Chinese Rice Wine Vinegars – these are vinegars, not wines.
What About Sake?
Commonly referred to as the Japanese version of rice wine (although it actually has more in common with brewing beer), Sake has a very different flavor than Chinese rice wine. However, some cooks prefer it. It really comes down to personal preference – feel free to give it a try if you like.

http://chinesefood.about.com/od/cookingf…