Chinese Food and Wine

[Craig Camp]

A cuisine that dates back thousands of years and a beverage that dates back thousands of years -- it seems only natural in the meeting of East and West that the great wines of the West and grand edibles of the East, especially those of China, meet and greet. That's what a group of close Chinese friends figured, and acted on.

[Rieslingfan]

Not a German Riesling in the lot. Pffft!

But seriously, we have a group on the East Coast that met several times at a Boston Chinatown restaurant. Lots of wines worked well with the varied cuisine. But nothing was as generally satisfying as Riesling with just a hint of residual sugar (e.g. kabinett or perhaps spatlese halbtrocken).

[Brad Ballinger]

I'm with David on this one. My first choice for wine is riesling more often than not. And beer. And tea.

[Craig Camp]

It is amazing that riesling was not included. California prejudice? German wines not available in San Francisco?

[Rieslingfan]

Certainly not an availability problem. One of the best German wine retailers is in the bay area (Dee Vine).

[Craig Camp]

Certainly not an availability problem. One of the best German wine retailers is in the bay area (Dee Vine).

Than it has to be attitude. How can you ignore riesling (domestic or otherwise) when almost every wine and food pairing resource on the planet will list riesling and guwurztraminer as the recommended wines for Oriental food in general?

Isn't this the SF newspaper with the famed wine and food section and facility?

[Carolyn Tillie]

Even more ludicrous was this quote:

They began by going to the best Chinese restaurants in the city. "When we ran out of restaurants in the Bay Area, we went to Vancouver," a mecca for Chinese dining in North America, Cheng says.

The Slanted Door, while having declined somewhat in past years, still maintains the highest quality wine list and has promoted the pairing of wines from all over the world with Oriental food.

Who is this Olivia Wu anyway????

BTW, I prefer a less-sweet Gewurtz with my spicy Asian and I shop at DeeVine all the time! So there.

[live2eat]

That's not hard to believe. Vancouver BC has some of the best chinese food in North America. Not to say SF is poor (it is indeed excellent), but a natural next step would be north to Vancouver (which some have nicknamed "Hongcouver" ), especially if you're on the west coast and you seem to byo as this group seems to do.

On a slightly related note, would anyone care to opine on Japanese cuisine and Western wine pairings?

[Carolyn Tillie]

That's not hard to believe.  Vancouver BC has some of the best chinese food in North America.  Not to say SF is poor (it is indeed excellent), but a natural next step would be north to Vancouver (which some have nicknamed "Hongcouver"  ), especially if you're on the west coast and you seem to byo as this group seems to do. 

On a slightly related note, would anyone care to opine on Japanese cuisine and Western wine pairings?

Oh, I realize that Vancouver has excellent Chinese food. I was having difficulty with the line, "when we ran out of restaurants in the Bay Area."

It made it sound like they only gave SF a week or two before heading up north and that the article didn't mention The Slanted Door.

And with Japanese, I also go in for the Alsatian-style Gewurtz (less sugar) as well as Pinot Noirs from the Stags Leap and Carneros districts of Napa.

Edited January 22, 2004 by Carolyn Tillie (log)

[John W.]

On a slightly related note, would anyone care to opine on Japanese cuisine and Western wine pairings?

Red Burgundy. The umami flavors present in soy etc. mesh as well as it gets with the flavor profile and structure of a good Burgundy.

I'm referring to the bulk of the cuisine. Of course sushi/sahimi is a different story.

[live2eat]

While wine seems a natural companion to a lot of food, it (for some reason) never occured to me to have wine with sashimi. Anybody have a favorite wine or three that they like with their sashimi? Sushi too....

[John W.]

I've been part of Kistler verticals at Sushi-Ran in Sausalito. Didn't work (but it was fun). Drank Cinq Cepages 1997 with killer sushi in Tokyo. Certainly didn't work. (but also was fun). There are wines out that there that would pair fine, I just don't see how you can get around sake or beer being the best match for sushi. But chicken heart yakitori? Bust out the Chambolle.

Edited January 22, 2004 by John W. (log)

[Carolyn Tillie]

While wine seems a natural companion to a lot of food, it (for some reason) never occured to me to have wine with sashimi. Anybody have a favorite wine or three that they like with their sashimi? Sushi too....

I've got a great relationship with my sushi chef. He doesn't care that I don't drink his sake because I always give him a glass of my Gewurtz.

Gee, do I sound like a broken record here?

[Rieslingfan]

My absolute favorite match with sushi/sashimi is barely off dry German Riesling. I look for wines noted as halbtrocken on the label. The maximum residual sugar is 18 g/l which (combined with the acids) makes them relatively dry & a great foil for the fishy.

All time favorite was the 1998 Muller-Catoir Haardter Burgergarten Riesling Spatlese Halbtrocken with sashimi.

[liamdc]

Riesling--and an occasional gewurtz--is all I drink with Chinese food anymore. Good cheap options include the Fetzer (Cali) gewurtz and the Hogue (Wash. state) johannisburg riesling. But the '02 German kabinetts go wonderfully with Chinese as well. One of my favorite from the current crop is the 2002 Dr.H. Thanisch Bernkasteler Badstube Riesling Kabinett. My local retailer sells it for just under $20 a bottle, which is good value among the better Germans.

[Pan]

In northern China, it's very common to drink beer with the meal. During my trip to China in 1987, I found that in the Beijing area, I was often presented with a bowl of beer and not a few places didn't have tea (a problem for someone who's essentially non-beer-drinking like me). But what about rice wine? What other alcoholic drinks are traditional with meals in China? And isn't there some tradition of making wine or liqueur from grapes in China?

Craig, please feel free to spin off any of these topics and move this post as you consider appropriate.

Edited January 22, 2004 by Pan (log)

[stephenc]

Haha. Chinese people don't drink wine with their food.

It's usually either the local Chinese beer, or Heineken.

Interesting article nonetheless

[herbacidal]

Stephen's right. Chinese that drink will drink beer with their food.

There was an emerging wine industry in China as of 1997.

Cantonese (as observed by me), other than beer will drink:

red wine, cognac, scotch

[Boris_A]

I strongly recommend 'Côte de Jura'($15). These are high acidity Chardonnays and Chignins vinificated on a oxydised method, not unlike Jerez. It's the only white wine I know served at room temperature. They are pretty unknown outside of France expect the expensive 'Vin Jaune' variety.

It's mabe a bit oversophisticated, but it works. At least to my taste.