Call A Spade A Spade, Dammit

On more than one occasion, I've unsuccessful searched for rice wine vinegar - it's been listed as an ingredient in several recipes, but I can't find it at my regular grocery store. In the past, I'd use half rice wine and half rice vinegar, thinking this might cover my bases.

A few recipes ago, I decided to look rice wine vinegar up on the internet to see if it actually exists. Lazy as I am, I took the first answer I found at ochef.com as gospel. It's a site that claims to have the answers to life's vexing cooking questions, so I believed the voice of cooking reason when it confidently explained the differences between rice vinegar and rice wine vinegar and wondering how it was possible one couldn't find it at their local grocery store.

Today, I decided to trek out to an Asian supermarket here in town. They had to have it, right? Wrong. Couldn't find it on the shelf anywhere and they had almost a whole aisle dedicated to vinegars of all sorts. I even double checked the shelf stickers to make sure I wasn't missing it because I don't read any 'ese' languages, and some of the products didn't use any English.

Nothing.

So as I was checking out with my other selections, I asked the friendly Asian girl running the register. To her knowledge, rice wine vinegar doesn't exist.

When I got home, I made another, more extensive pass on the Internet. Most 'authorities' agree: rice vinegar and rice wine vinegar are one in the same. Then why the heck are all these recipes calling for rice wine vinegar if it doesn't exist?? What's the point? UGH!

As if I don't have enough aggravations in the kitchen.