A long while back I was shopping at a liquor store (in Minnesota, we get liquor and wine at liquor store, not grocery store) when the manager, who was our neighbor and was helping a yuppie type couple pick a wine, asked me what wine would pair well with Peiking duck. To help my neighbor, I thought hard for awhile and told them, dark BEER. You could see the dejection shown on the young couple's faces.
Really, I didn't know how to pair a certain type of western or Chinese wine with a particular Chinese food or dish. To this day, it continues to be an intriguing subject for me. Since we have such a vast collective knowledge among our classmates, I would like to throw a brick and hopefully draw in some jades.
A disclaimer. I am not a connoisseur of food or wine of any kind; whether Chinese, French, Italian or Japanese, or Thai for that matter. Heck, I cannot even claimed to have had a dish prepared by a Chinese royal chef or any French or Italian dish by a 5-star chef from New York, Chicago, Milan or Paris. As for wine, I can hardly distinguish among the different wines produced in Napa or Sonoma alone, not to mention those outrageous varieties from Italy, France or Spain.
The Italian and French are known for their arts of food and wine pairng, where one compliments the other. I know no such arts in any Chinese cuisine. For one thing, the Chinese wines are fundamentally different from European wines both in ingredients and processes. And as far as I know (I might be utterly ignorant), Chinese drink liquor or wine simply to get intoxicated or loosened up so the brain becomes less inhibited (we have way too much taboo along with our rich culture) that the genius of beautiful poems, paintings and calligraphies can spout out freely; or, like in the martial art novels, that the welled up energy can be maximally released. It seems to me, the enhencement of food with wine or wine with food is the least of our concern or interest. Either the food is great or the wine is great, but never a praise of the combination of food AND wine.
In a way, I wonder if it really makes sense to try to pair western wines with Chinese food, since China is not a grapes growing land. If we had grapes in China, with our ancesters' unmatched cleverness, I would bet we would have had the most wonderful wines to go with any of the countless wonderful regional dishes.
So, where are we? Again, in today's global competition for food prestige, if Chinese wants to claim a seat at the head table, we have to come up with some wines that compliment the food. And the wines may become significant national revenue. A good idea, don't you think? Sorry, I got carried away again, as usual.
Please share your experience or opinion, so we can all learn something in food and wine - Chinese style. I am itching to try any recommendation.
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3 comments:
酒 in Mandarin is alcoholic beverage. Wine in English is alcoholic beverage made from the fermentation of grape juice. So the correct translation of wine is 葡萄酒. Beer is not wine. Brandy & whisky are not wines either, they are liquor. Sake, 紹與酒, & 紅露酒 are 米酒, so strictly speaking they are not wine either, they are just alcoholic beverage. 中國酒大部分是米酒, 水果酒 or 蒸餾酒. (茅台, 高梁).
If we keep the above info in mind, we will not confuse beer, brandy or whisky with wine. Alcohol beverage is the weakest link in Chinese food. In Chinese poem, 酒 is mentioned frequently, but you don’t know what kind of beverage it is. In fact, people don’t care, as long as it is alcoholic, it is 酒 & it serves the purpose of getting drunk. Wei Chen’s statement is right to the point: “Chinese drink liquor or wine simply to get intoxicated or loosened up so the brain becomes less inhibited … Either the food is great or the wine is great, but never a praise of the combination of food AND wine”.
In western world, wine is served during dinners. Wine usually is red or white. The general guideline is that red for meat & white for fish. Chinese dish has a lot of varieties & flavors, so it is a little bit complicate as to which wine is for which dish. Since Chinese alcoholic beverage is used mainly for the purpose other than matching up the flavor of food, it is up to the westerners to find out for themselves. So far there is no consensus among connoisseurs. However, most people tend to agree on the following:
1. Most fish dishes: Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay
2. All other Chinese dishes: Red Zinfandel
3. Peking Duck: Pinot Noir
4. Cod fish: Pinot Noir
Pinot Noir is a lighter colored and flavored red wine. Pinot Noir is good to pair with poultry, beef, fish, ham, lamb and pork. It also plays well with creamy sauces, spicy seasonings and may just be one of the world's most versatile food wines.
Cabernet Sauvignon tends to suppress the flavors of the Chinese dish instead of bringing the flavor out or complement each other.
The above is just some general information & guideline. Personally I don’t have a lot of experience in appreciating Chinese dish with particular wines. However, Red Zinfandel never fails me.
As to the area that grows grape in China, 山東半島 is the place, especially near 青岛 & 煙台. I am pretty sure there are already some people or companies working in that area to bring out good wine.
Good question and in depth answer. I learned a lot from both of you. I knew the meaning of 酒 in Chinese was not the same of 酒 we translated from English, but had never given a deep thought on this matter. I am one of the don't care people mentioned in Mark Lin's answer.
"In Chinese poem, 酒 is mentioned frequently, but you don’t know what kind of beverage it is. In fact, people don’t care,..."
Now I know the difference. I drink very little wine, liquor, even tea, coffee, or juice. I like to drink water the most. I always feel, from my experience in Chinese dining table, that "酒serves the purpose of getting (others)drunk." It is a punishment instead of joy. There must some people who really like to drink 酒, but most of them seem to drink it out of obligation. It is one of the Chinese 陋習. People should get rid of it.
The punishing drinking mentioned by Mark Yang is still going strong in Taiwan. I happened to be at a banquet after a golf outing last year, people at my next table got it going even before appetizers were served. You know how "guessing wine fist" gets loud and noisy with cheering crowd, you can't carry any conversation near it. (Is my translation qualified to be a candidate for reverse translation puzzle?) True, the goal of that game is to make the loser drink (cheap wine mostly.) A drunk, in addition to feeling sick, never looks dignified or graceful. In this case, wine drinking is no fun.
Back to wine and food. There is a big difference between Chinese meal and western meal. A Chinese meal normally has multiple main dishes while a westerm meal has one single entree. And the multiple main dishes tend to go opposite ways, much as all Chinese are governed by the thought of yin and yang. Hence, it is a challenge for pairing Chinese dishes to just one wine at the table. In western multi-course gourmet meal, each course has its pairing wine from appetizer all the way to dessert. In Chinese banquet, if each dish is to be paired with a different wine, I am not sure we have enough varieties to go around. In our family meal, we share all dishes among us at the table; while westerners don't share, they just spread the same entree into each plate. So, westerner meal goes mono and ours goes hetero.
In Chinese banquet, my favorite is always the first one or two courses that typically is a combination of cold cuts. And just this beginning appetizer course would be challenging enough for wine pairing, because it usually combines such wide range of delicacies that a one-size-fit-all wine is hard to find for this course.
Since we don't care much about wine pairing, many of our great dishes turn out to be, for instance, too soupy or greasy to go well with wines.
Oh, I am not criticizing our own way of cooking. I am simply saying, if we want our food to be appreciated at another level, which is to go well with wine as people in developed countries are accustomed to doing, we just may see Chinese dishes presented in different way.
Occasionally, we would have a wine tasting gathering with freinds here. It is funny to see when we were talking about various wines, we sounded like a bunch of amateurs talking about pro football.
According to wine books, Napa and Sonoma valleys area grows the world's best zinfandel. So, Mark Lin is blessed with easy access to good zinfandel. I certainly will try some of them soon.
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