Food and Wine- Together
Priya Singh
http://www.lilliputenterprises.com

Pairing food and wine can turn out to be an exhausting and frustrating exercise. But only if you stick to the rules. The old rules of pairing red wines with red meat and white wine with white meat or fish are as outdated as your grandma’s knickers.

As we all know food and wine pairings are highly subjective and most of the time unless one has knowledge of the many different wines available it is very difficult to orchestrate a pairing. You can’t just take a bottle of Cabernet and pair it with steak now days!

The problem with these old rules is that they just don’t take into consideration the complexity of today’s multi-ethnic food available a few blocks from your apartment. Especially in cosmopolitan cities like New York, Los Angeles and Miami where right down the street you can find a Cuban restaurant or a Mexican restaurant, walk further and you can order a thaali -a South Indian plate consisting mostly of vegetables, lentils and yoghurt.

Not to forget the dozens of new wine labels that are coming up almost every month from Australia, South Africa, Chile, Argentina and even India! No wonder the average consumer is completely befuddled with the choices available.

There a few things that should be taken into consideration. One of them is harmony. The wine should not over power the food nor should the food over power the wine. They should both be in harmony with each other.

Another factor that is key, is to find a wine that can be drunk just by itself and also be able to accompany a meal. The perfect match would obviously bring out the qualities of both the food as well as the wine.

In almost every city there are restaurants or small groups that conduct wine tastings or give wine classes. I would definitely join one or the other. It really does open up your world! And slowly as you start learning more and meeting more people interested in the same you will find the world of wine and food to be less mysterious than it had appeared before.

Have fun!