Thompson, who owns a wine importing company called The Wine Republic, donated four white wines, one pinot noir rosé blend, and three red wines from the New and Old World that retailed from 170 yuan to 520 yuan, or $25 to $75, in Beijing. Tony Cenicola/The New York Timesįor the occasion, Mr. Pairing wine with Chinese flavors such as Sichuan peppercorns can be challenging. The upside is that because pairing wine with Chinese cuisine is a relatively new concept, “it’s a blank slate,” said Mr. For example, a touch of sugar goes into almost every savory Chinese dish.” “In Chinese cooking,” she continued, “the dishes are already balanced and complete in themselves. In Western cooking, she said, “you can almost think of the wine as a sauce that goes with the dish.” “Chinese restaurants are told what to purchase by the local distributor, who might be making decisions based on sales margins rather than a concerted effort to find the best pairing.”Īnother challenge in pairing wines with Chinese cuisine is the complexity of sauces and ingredients that go into the dishes, said Fongyee Walker, who owns the Beijing wine consultancy Dragon Phoenix Wines with her husband, Edward Ragg.
“The young nature of the local wine market is what inhibits creative wine pairings,” said Gabriel Suk, the senior representative in Asia for the Chicago-based wine auction house Hart Davis Hart. But some wine experts say that those wines clash with the spice and complex flavors of Sichuanese food and are too heavy to go with the delicate seafood dishes of Cantonese cuisine. Burgundies, costly bottles of Lafite, and anything labeled Bordeaux are often served at lavish Chinese meals meant to impress important guests. But even as wine lists have emerged at restaurants in Beijing and Shanghai, some wine experts argue that little thought has gone into putting those wine lists together.
0 kommentar(er)
