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Ethnic beverages to compliment your favorite foods

The current edition of Bon Appetit is dedicated to a very superficial and condescending review of “Ethnic” restaurants in the United States. Most of us think of “Ethnic” food as being tucked away Asian or Latino eateries where you can get a great and complete meal for under $15 and bring the kids. There are a lot of them in every region of the country.  The magazine, however features only mostly  trendy New York and Beverly Hills type spots offering Italian, French and Spanish cuisine along with some Asian and Latino spots (amazingly none of the latter from Southern California) where dinner for two will be well over $100. Hardly my kind of ethnic.

The magazine then leads you one step further down the primrose path by trying to match wines with all the foreign foods of the world. They do admit that the most basic rule is to drink the beverage indigenous to the area from which the food is derived.  Thus they suggest French Bordeaux or Cabernet for the Central French Paris area,  Burgundy or Pinot Noir for the food of the upper Rhone, Chateauneuf du Pape and Cote du Rhone for Provence, Chianti for Tuscany, Barolos for Northern Italy and Riojas for Eastern and Central Spain.

But most of the rest of the world has no wine industry, so now what do you do. Well, if you must drink wine with the food of India and China and Japan, a California Gewurztraminer, a non- oaky Sauvignon Blanc  or the recently visible Viognier may work. Spicy Zinfandel might satisfy you when eating Mexican, Thai or Vietnamese and strangely Pinot Noir seems to fit with the meaty styles of sushi and complements miso and wasabi.  

Expensive Ethnic at Crustacean in Beverly HIlls

But let’s face it, most of the restaurants we go to can’t spell those wines much less put them on the menu. What you are offered are jug reds and whites for $4 a glass that are worth 50 cents or trendy Chardonnays that go with absolutely nothing from Asia or Latin America.

With the exception of Retsina from Greece (It tastes like turpentine) go back to that obvious premise of drinking what they drink in the country from which the food comes. No one can exactly explain why this works. But it probably is that the “terra” or the soil from which the produce grows and the animals eat, tend to compliment each other. Further, over centuries the people of the region tend to develop what matches up to their tastes.

Stick with a Margarita (even if it is overpriced and wine based) or the true drink of choice with most spicy Mexican food… Beer.  Bohemia is rated among the top 5 beers in the world and there are others such as trendy Corona, Dos Equis, Pacifico and Sol.

Beer is also the choice in most of Asia. They are all remarkably good. With Thai or Indian food, choose the Singh or Singhal brand of either country.  Tsingtao  beer is found in most Chinese restaurants. Sapporo, Asahi or Kirin are the beers available in Japanese restaurants. Sake also is an obvious alternative  and surprisingly also compliments Chinese food.  Kampai!!!

For specific buying locations email me at Fredlich1@aol.com