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Thai food, known for its complex blend of exotic spices and heat, pairs surprisingly well with wine, especially a number of white wine varietals. To find a complementary wine pairing for any Thai meal, start by identifying the main ingredient of the dish and follow a few simple tips to ensure a perfect match.
What Ingredients in Thai Food Pair with Wine
Thai food has a variety of spices that are commonly seen throughout recipes. Ingredients like lemongrass, chilies, turmeric, tamarind, kaffir lime, ginger, and coconut milk are staples in most Thai cooking. Powerful flavors like garlic, shallots, and fish sauce are also seen in many Thai dishes. Those spices and powerful flavors are often offset by fresh fruit flavors including mango, pineapple, and apricot.
Pairing Wine with Thai Curries
Some of the most popular dishes in Thailand include some type of curry element. Red and green curries are two of the more popular choices, each with varying levels of heat. When pairing wine with a curry based dish, remember that wines that are on the sweeter side will help cut the heat from the chili peppers in the meal.
Green curry is probably the spiciest of Thai curries and should be paired with a sweet wine, one that will not only cut the heat, but will stand up to the bold flavors in the dish. One pairing suggestion for green curries is a Champagne or sparkling wine. Bubbles in wine work well to counterbalance spicy foods.
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This is both a holiday suggestion and a hope! While channel surfing earlier this week, I chanced upon a rather nifty documentary on the ‘Wine
Train’ — a ride through the vine-laden valleys of Napa in California. The carriages looked like a cross between the Orient Express and a modern first class bogey and the kitchens appeared to be fabulous.
The star attraction, of course, was wine. Much of Napa’s best was there on offer for tasting and buying. The sight of miles and miles of green and serene vineyards stretching onto the Californian horizon only increased the temptation to taste and buy apparently! That made me wonder where else such train rides were available.
Delving into the net I found a few others in the same mould as the Napa train, notably in the happening South American wine destination of Chile. According to what I could gather, after a short bus ride to the railhead at San Fernandez, the guests board a train whose vintage carriages are named after the grapes that have catapulted Chile to the near-top of the New World wine list — Carmenere, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.
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Beautiful article to read
PRINCETON, NJ -- Despite some anecdotal reports of a surge in drinking accompanying the economic recession, Gallup's annual update on alcohol consumption finds little change in Americans' drinking habits. The percentage of U.S. adults who consume alcohol is fairly steady at 64%, and there has been little change in self-reported drinking volume.
According to the June 14-17 Gallup Poll, the prevalence of drinking in the U.S. adult population is essentially unchanged compared with a year ago. Sixty-four percent of Americans tell Gallup they "have occasion to use alcoholic beverages." This falls within the narrow 62% to 66% range seen over the past decade.
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