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Matching the Hot-Sour-Salty-Sweet Foods of Asia
By Randal Caparoso© See Randy's Blog
September 2004
 The U.S. has gone far beyond the point where Asian influenced food is found only in ethnic restaurants. It's in our homes, our supermarkets, bookstores and televisions; and American culinary schools are now turning out legions of chefs who apply the concepts of Asian cooking everywhere they go. And I mean everywhere: it's no longer surprising to find Chinese style spring rolls in "regional" American restaurants, Thai style curries in "French" restaurants, and Japanese style marinades or even sushi in steakhouses and seafood eateries!
Wine, of course, is a product indigenous to European culture and gastronomy. Since wine is not natural or traditional in Asian settings, the combination may be problematic. But it is not an impossible one. What it takes is a little more imagination. It also takes a special effort to understand the problematics because nothing in the world will discourage everyday consumers from wanting to enjoy wine with Asian foods, natural or not.
While Asian food is not a classic wine match, Asian style cooking is classic and traditional in its right, and in different ways from European cuisines. There are differences in ingredients, of course, but also differences in the sense of balance and harmony in the cooking style. Whereas, say, classic Italian cooking relies on a certain purity and freshness of ingredients, and French cooking on depth of flavor in sauces and natural stocks, in Asia the emphasis is on the balancing and contrasting of tastes and textures. A perfect introduction to this approach can be found in Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid's excellent (and beautifully photographed) book called Hot Sour Salty Sweet, a "Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia." According to Alford and Duguid,
"The basic (Southeast Asian) palate is hot, sour, salty, sweet, and sometimes bitter. If you order a green papaya salad from a street vendor in Thailand, the last thing the vendor will do before serving the salad is to give you a small spoonful of the salad, asking for your opinion. If you'd like it hotter, more chiles will be added; if you want it saltier, more fish sauce; more sour, lime juice will be added; sweeter, more palm sugar...And while this balancing act takes place in an individual dish like a green papaya salad, it also shapes a meal, determining what dishes should be served alongside others..." Not that this emphasis on contrast, balance, and varying textures is exclusive to Southeast Asian or Chinese cooking. In Germany, for instance, there is a lot of balancing of sweet, sour, salty, and fatty/meaty textures (sauerkraut, wurst, sauerbrauten, etc.); which is why the Germans are more apt to drink off-dry to medium sweet Rieslings (if not beer) with their foods, as opposed to the bone dry styles of wines predominant in France, Italy and Spain. Not surprisingly, many of today's food and wine consultants strongly recommend German Rieslings or beer with Southeast Asian and Chinese foods as well. The natural sugar/acid balance of Rieslings is quite compatible with the hot, sour, salty, sweet elements of Asian foods; and beer provides fluid qualities with mildly bitter undertones that add further to the equation. It's a question of harmony and balance. If it works for German foods, it certainly works in Asian food settings.
The trick to matching wine with Asian style cooking is to start with the premise that we need wines that emphasize a balance, as opposed to sheer power, of taste sensations. This is why the classic "power" wines of the world - made from grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay - are not easily matched with Asian foods. Although there is nothing wrong with intensity, the difficulty with these types of wines is that they tend to be high in alcohol, low in acid, and (in the case of Cabernet) excessively hard and palate drying in tannin.
Although strong oak qualities are also associated with powerful wines, oak in itself is not the problem because there are many barrel fermented or oak aged wines that are perfectly smooth, moderately scaled, crisply balanced, and therefore Asian food compatible. The operative terms when it comes to food flexibility in a wine are always harmony and balance; which naturally are more likely to be found in moderately (as opposed to aggressively) oaked wines.
With or without oak, the best wines for Asian foods are those with levels of alcohol and tannin that are in scale with a degree of fruitiness, natural acidity, and sometimes (not always) a judicious amount of residual sugar. It is a question of a wine's harmony and balance within the context of hot, sour, salty and sweet food sensations.
From Albarino to Zweigelt, and from Pinotage to Pinot Noir, there is an abundance of wines around the world that achieve varying degrees of qualities that end up compatible with Asian food styles. So without going in to an encyclopedic depth, here are some comments on some of the more curious, and surprising, matches we have found to work:
Asian Foods & German Riesling (Halbtrocken to Kabinett Level Sweetness)
Quintessential German style Riesling Kabinetts - penetratingly scented, juicy rich, light and fine as silk, with a whispering sweetness balanced by perceptible acidity - are usually the first wines cited for Asian foods. Think of how you might make a healthy stir fry - balancing thin strips of meat with at least equal amounts of crisp vegetables, a trace of an oil balanced with soy, lemon or rice vinegar, salt and cracked pepper, a touch of a chili sauce or multi-spice seasonings, and served with fragrant jasmine rice. You can't go wrong when you figure in a fragrant, deftly balanced German Riesling.
It may be understandable why someone would say that Asian cooking is not good for wine. Badly balanced cooking - and badly balanced wine, for that matter - is not good for anyone. But when principles of harmony and balance are executed in a dish, in a wine, and in your choice of selection, then you've got yourself quite a dramatic match!
Asian Foods & Viognier
White wines made from the Viognier grape are actually an unorthodox choice for Asian style foods for two reasons - they tend to be low in acid and full in alcohol, somewhat like Chardonnay. But unlike Chardonnay, Viogniers tend to be extremely fragrant - billowing with exotic fruit and honeysuckle-like perfumes, and suggestions of violet and white pepper. The finer styles of California grown Viognier are amplified by plush, mouthwatering, almost sweet (even if the wine is technically dry), dense and silken textured flavors.
Chinese cooking in particular - such as duck in hoisin plum sauces, chicken in gingery or citrusy syrups, and savory sauced napa cabbage, choi sum, mustard greens, and other toothsome vegetables - can be tilted towards sweetness balanced by a mild bitterness and saltiness. In Southeast Asia, fish is often coated with curries and coconut milk, strong pastes made from coriander root and peppercorns, or stuffed with scallions, fatty pork, garlic cloves and even spicy hot Serrano chilies. In these food contexts, the aggressively full, hefty, peppery qualities of Viognier are often superior to the more feeble alcohol and higher acid qualities of Riesling.
Viognier doesn't work, however, in cases where dishes are overly sweet, or numbingly hot - in other words, badly balanced Asian cooking. But when full flavored Asian dishes are prepared correctly, a good, balanced Viognier can contribute an exotic note of its own to the overall experience.
Asian Foods & Zinfandel
The jammy, lusciously raspberryish, black peppery spiced aromas and flavors of first rate California Zinfandel - especially those of moderate or at least rounded tannin structure - are a sensible if unorthodox choice with barbecued pork or beef ribs coated in sweet/spicy marinades (especially when Asian chili seasonings or sauces are used). A proper Zinfandel has the red wine tannin to handle fatty, charred meats, yet the cushion of fruitiness to enhance, rather than fight, the hot spices.
But peppery spiced Zinfandels are also surprising with aggressive forms of Southeast Asian cooking, such as grilled coriander chicken served with sweet/salty/spicy dipping sauces (nam jeem), raw beef with pepper salt, beef stir fried with spicy ginger, and hot pot dishes such as eggplant (cooked with ground pork, coriander, dried shrimp, garlic, and shallots) served with fried beef jerky. Whenever there is a presence of peppercorns, some vinegary zest, or slightly hot garlic, chile and gingery sensations, a zesty, peppery, fruity Zinfandel finds another surprising food element.
Asian Foods & Southern French Varietals & Blends (Syrah, Grenache & Mourvedre)
The entire premise of balancing Southern French varietal reds - Syrah for its floral, spicy, structural fullness, Grenache for its plush, mildly peppery red fruitiness, and Mourvedre for its dense, meaty texture - draws comparisons to the balancing of ingredients and sensations in Asian style cooking. Beef or pork ribs in sweet, salty, peppery, vinegary, spicy hot, and even downright sticky sauces tend to be problematic for Bordeaux varietals, but not so much for the Southern French.
The advantage of Southern French blends is that their tannin is moderated enough so that they don't taste so bitter in relation to sweet, sour, salty or spicy sauces, yet retain enough tannin to digest fatty meats. Then there is the factor of umami - specifically, the reaction of salt and acidity when activitated by foods high in amino acids (such as mushrooms, aged cheeses and seaweeds) - which effectively reduces bitter tastes in both wines and dishes.
In the presence of high umami ingredients, typically spicy, sweetly fruited, earth toned Southern French reds tend to taste "milder," while dishes become more savory. In fact, pure varietal Syrahs - particularly the fruit forward (as opposed to hard and tannic) styles of Australian Shiraz, and many of the new style Syrahs coming from California's Central Coast and Lodi regions - seem to help the palate achieve umami-related sensory adaptations with considerable ease. It's no surprise that the dominant style of cooking done in Australia today is pervasively Asian, and the Aussies have no problem, philosophically or sensory related, consuming their biggest Southern French varietals and blends with it!
Asian Foods & Rounder Italian Red Varietals (Dolcetto, Barbera & Sangiovese)
The range of red wines made from these grapes not only in Italy but also, now, in California is astounding. Each has its charms - Dolcetta a zesty black fruitiness, Barbera an even zestier edged, palate sticking fruitiness, and Sangiovese a mildly zesty, cherry fruit complexity - and all are marked by qualities of slightly elevated acidity, low to medium tannin, and earth related characteristics manifested in multipe ways, from burning leaves and licorice to roasted meat and leather-like nuances.
Given these structural and aroma/flavor advantages, there are few wines that perform as well with Chinese or Southeast Asian style hot pots of beef or pork; especially when punctuated by peppercorns, garlic, scallions, and the licoricey tastes of star anise, cilantro or coriander, and sacred basil. Then there is the seemingly vast range of small production Italian and California wines that utilize these varietals as blending elements - Sangiovese with Cabernet Sauvignon, Sangiovese with Tempranillo, Barbera with Nebbiolo, Zinfandel with Barbera, et al. While unorthodox, the good thing about these innovative "Italianate" wines is that they fit in with many of the unorthodox styles of fusion cooking being done all around the world.
To wit: if Asian cooking is untraditional with wine, the best wines for Asian foods may very well be the most untraditional, imaginative blends.
Into the Realm of Good Sense
There is no reason to fear wine with Asian foods as long as your choices are based upon the premise that the highest percentage chances of achieving a perfectly delicious match are found in - Crisply balanced, moderately scaled whites, or
- Sweetly fruit forward reds that are also round, smoothly textured, and (especially) spice toned.
To that, you can probably add sweetly aromatic, smoothly dry or off-dry pink wines, not to mention crisp, lively sparklers.
But when you think about it, if you can find wines to match the most difficult Asian foods, you can probably find just as many to match more of the foods we love to eat; like spicy barbecued meats, salty chips, heavy mayo salads, and multi-sensation laden cheeseburgers and hot dogs. If wine is to ever become a sensible American staple, it has to be treated like one: as part of our everyday lives and meals! |
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