It’s been brought to my attention that I was remiss in my last post - all this talk about my favorite food, and no mention of what to drink with it!

I’m here today to put this to rights.

Now, food and wine pairing is rather a touchy subject, and one that I find somewhat intimidating to write about. Despite the traditional ‘marriages’ of oysters and Chablis, steak and Cabernet (or Malbec, in my neck of the woods), the exercise of matching food and wine is fundamentally subjective. As people discover wine for the first time, especially young people,  they care far less for convention than for what they’ve been turned on to, and what they love to eat. When I was working in retail and people asked what wine to pair with X dish, more often than not my response was “well, what wine do you like?”

In that spirit, this will be relatively brief, and more about my own tastes than studied pairings.

As far as what to drink with spicy food, (for the purposes of this analysis, let’s imagine a plate of Thai Curry in front of us) I believe that there are basically two ways one can go. In simple terms - either something sweet to balance the burn, or bone-dry to cut right through it. In either case, I prefer COLD wine - sparkling, white, or rosé.

(Of course, while this may not be the proper forum to mention it, there is always beer. The most classic of alcoholic thirst quenchers and fire extinguishers, the most reliable, and certainly the most accessible, you will never go wrong with a beer or 3 to calm the fire. I’d say a nice light lager, but it’s up to you.)

If you noticed the photo at the bottom of my last post (I got some amusing mixed feedback about the pic) you may have noticed the champagne flutes in the foreground. This exemplifies my current favorite - a dry sparkler cleanses the palate under any circumstances, so even better when your mouth is on fire! Ideally Extra Brut or Brut Nature (meaning little or no residual sugar in the wine) the dryness will cool the embers on your tongue and the bubbles will help clean it off nicely.

On the opposite end of the spectrum you have off-dry white wines such as Riesling or Gewurztraminer, typically from Germany or Alsace (in the northeast of France). Off-dry means not completely dry, but not sweet enough to be a proper desert wine, and from my experience this is the category that is most commonly recommended as an accompaniment for spicy fare. A good sweet wine is balanced by a zesty acidity, and some of the best ones out there are also blessed with unique minerality. The sugar and acidity may not decrease the burn much, but they will provide equilibrium and allow you to treasure the heat if you’re feeling masochistic.

The same spirit can be applied to any pairing. It is fascinating to explore which wine goes best with which dish, to discover the manifold flavors that can be drawn out of one glass - and there is surely no better way to expand your palate and deepen your understanding of flavor. A fun and relatively inexpensive way to do this at home is simple: pick up a bottle of wine that you’ve been curious about, as well as your favorite meats and cheeses. Sample them together - alternate a taste of wine with a nibble of each edible. Observe how the flavors evolve, and how your perception changes with each morsel.

For me, much of the joy of dining creatively is the pleasure of coming up with an imaginative and appropriate union of food and wine. For a chef, sommelier, or daring diner, there’s nothing quite like taking a bite, then a sip, and experiencing perfect harmony on the palate.

June 22nd, 2008 | gastronomia, vino | 3 comments

I think it’s time I confessed it: I am an addict. Not booze, not drugs… my current vice is SPICE.

I’m not talking about dunes and sandworms here, it’s a scorched palate and breath of fire that I crave. And it’s in shockingly low supply here in Mendoza, Argentina.

Most North Americans, when they think of South American food, associate it with lots of spice. The truth of the matter (sad, for us food obsessed expats) is that THIS far south…. not so much.

I have a theory that it’s latitudinal, with heat decreasing in reverse correlation with distance from the equator;  there is as little heat in typical Argentine cuisine as there is in… German schnitzel. (Which there also happens to be a hell of a lot of here, under the pseudonym ‘milanesa.’)

(Brief geeky tangent: Mendoza’s latitude is 33S. For comparison: New York City is 40N, Paris - 48N. At 40S, you’re almost in Patagonia. Major points go to whoever can tell me which major North American city is at 33N… just don’t publicly disprove my theory. And it doesn’t count if you use Google Earth.)

Now, food wise, what the Argentines do well, they do VERY well. The meat here is incomparable, as are the empanadas (especially when you find really good ones). There is yummy fresh pasta, and I’ve never known anybody to put as much love into a sandwhich as Mendocinos (except for possibly Uruguayans). Furthermore, as a life-long salt fiend I love to watch the asador (grill master) coat each cut of beef with salt before throwing it on the parilla (grill). My friends (and my doctor) can all vouch for this.

However, the seasoning options just about end there. Call me what you will - ‘food snob’ is one I’ve heard more than a couple of times, as is ’spoiled brat’ - but I’ve been overindulged by culinary variety for far too long. I grew up in one of the most diverse parts of the American “melting pot”, spent a year living in Northern Italy’s culinary capital, and then to top it all off spent years working in the New York City restaurant scene.

What can I say - I’m a product of my experience. For better or worse, my experience contains a lot of ‘ese’ - Chinese, Japanese… also Mexican, Thai, and Indian. I never knew how much I loved all of these things until I was faced with their absence. Now that there’s no Thai delivery and take-out sushi in my life, I cook with chili peppers every chance I get. When I go to Buenos Aires for the weekend, I take the opportunity to torture my taste buds as much as possible.

Not really the best policy for somebody who makes a living from tasting wine, but I already admitted to having a problem. In this case, rather than recovery, acceptance is the first step towards gratification.

To best profit from the more varied culinary scene in Argentina’s capital, I stuff as much ethnic food into my mouth as possible. (I even made my parents meet me for Moroccan food on their very first night in Buenos Aires!) Recently my top choice has been Vietnamese - not actually something I had much exposure to before coming here. Thank you to Sudestada, a spectacular southeast Asian fusion restaurant in Palermo (blending primarily Vietnamese and Thai) I learned what I’ve been missing. I will honestly say that Sudestada is currently my favorite restaurant in the world.

Here on the home front I stick with the aforementioned Argentine classics: more meat than is good for me, and empanadas from the one place in town with ‘carne picante’ that actually burns. I’ve started frequenting Mendoza’s central market which has not only an impressive selection of meats and cheeses, but also vegetable stands that carry technicolored chili peppers. Despite the limited resources I have at my disposal, I manage to stoke the flames of my addiction.

June 18th, 2008 | gastronomia, vita | 6 comments