Japanese whisky and food

Whisky may have become firmly entrenched in the after-dinner slot in the Western world but Japan has always been more open to the idea of drinking it with a meal. In fact, the Japanese are much more open-minded about the drinks they enjoy with food and you’ll often find beer, sake and whisky on the table at the same time. It certainly maximises the opportunities of finding a good food and drink match.

Happily, the Western view that whisky is simply too strong and high in alcohol to be enjoyed with food is finally being challenged, as diners seek out new and more adventurous food and drink pairings. Drinking whisky with food may not be sustainable throughout a meal but with certain dishes, the spirit can offer as many intriguing flavour complexities as wine, sometimes making a better match with ingredients such as cheese and seafood.

Taste tests have also shown that whisky complements bold Asian flavours in particular. You might initially think that a typical Japanese dish like sushi is too subtle for a powerful drink like whisky? Well although the raw fish doesn’t impart much flavour, when you consider the sweet and sour element of vinegary rice, the malty depth of soy sauce, the briny notes of nori seaweed and the heat from wasabi or pickled ginger, sushi becomes a complex food package that needs a drink to stand up to it.

But it’s not about simply offering a robustness to take on the bold flavours inherent in Asian cuisine. Whisky also has the subtle complexity to combine with those less obvious tastes and flavours on the palate and that’s why Japanese whisky has a style well suited to food. Japanese whiskies are respected for their balance and finesse, meaning they can harmonise more easily with a dish while still providing a steady foundation of flavour.

The salinity detected in many whiskies can work with seafood-based dishes and that seaweed element, whilst any savoury maltiness chimes particularly well with miso or soy sauce. This could be down to ‘umami’, the lesser-known fifth taste alongside sweet, sour, bitter and salty. Caused by high levels of glutamic acid, umami roughly translates as ‘deliciousness’, and creates a meaty and intensely moreish sensation in the mouth that could be mistaken for texture. This idea of mouth feel is another factor to consider when pairing whisky and food. There are typically many different textures in Japanese food and whiskies can vary in their textual quality too, being oily or waxy.

To test the validity of the pairing concept, Number One Drinks Company recently held a whisky and food tasting at London’s upmarket Japanese restaurant, Roka, to try a selection of bite-sized dishes with a range of six single malts; three from Hanyu and three from Karuizawa.

As the whiskies were all cask strength, from 56% to 62.8%, dilution with water was needed to bring down the alcohol and open up the flavours. Starting with the red miso soup, its savoury flavours echoed the meaty elements of the Karuizawa 1988 but was perhaps too liquid to make a truly great combination whereas the lighter character of the Karuizawa 1992 paired successfully with the delicate flavours and textures of tuna tataki.

For whisky writer Dave Broom, Hanyu’s King of Diamonds whisky proved the best all-round food match: “It was excellent with the silky texture of some pork and scallop dumplings and the black cod. It then became deep and fragrant with the lamb chops.” The sweetness and spice of the King of Spades 1986 also made it a versatile accompaniment. We all agreed that food-wise, the lamb chops worked best with the whole range of whiskies. For all concerned, it was an intriguing exercise.

Kate Ennis is a freelance journalist and the drinks editor of Food & Travel. She also regularly writes for Square Meal, Fresh, and Whisky Magazine.

Image credit: Anton Cherednichenko

Which wines and beers match best with Chinese food

With Chinese New Year coming up this weekend you may be planning a trip to a Chinese restaurant or planning a Chinese meal at home. But which wine to serve?

I’ve talked to Chinese chefs and food writers about their own personal preferences and you’d be surprised how many of them reach for a full bodied red rather than the floral whites that are usually recommended. My own personal failsafe recommendation if you want to pick just one wine is a fruity rosé - the Merlot based ones from Bordeaux such as Château de Sours are perfect.

Better still treat a Chinese meal like any Western meal and serve a lighter wine with the lighter dishes and a more robust one with more robust dishes such as glazed ribs or dishes in black bean sauce

• Delicate dishes such as dim sum and steamed or stir-fried vegetable dishes

Champagne or sparkling wine is the ideal answer with dim sum - both the steamed and deep fried variety, especially when stuffed with shellfish. It also goes well with lighter stir fries and steamed fish and vegetable and with the more delicate flavours of Cantonese food.

A clean minerally citrussy Sauvignon Blanc (rather than a grassy, herbaceous one is also a good match with seafood - just as it is in other cuisines - and dry Rieslings such as those from Germany, Austria and Alsace work well with these kinds of dishes too.

• Sweet-sour dishes

This is where off-dry wines score best and why fruity rosé works so well. Even those who don’t like White Zinfandel concede that it’s in its natural element with these types of dishes. Aromatic whites such as Riesling, Pinot Gris and Austrian Grüner Veltliner are good matches as is Argentinian Torrontes. And if you’re feeling extravagant ‘rich’ Champagnes like Roederer’s and Veuve Clicquot’s also handle sweetness well.

• Duck

The wine-friendliest dish of all in the Chinese repertoire, fabulous with lighter reds such as Beaujolais (or the very similar Australian Tarrango) and Pinot Noir as well as more intensely flavoured Merlots (including Merlot-dominated blends from Bordeaux) and lush Australian Shiraz. (The latter two wines benefit from a couple of years of bottle age to mellow the tannins)

Duck is also in my view the best partner for Gewürztraminer which can overwhelm some of the more delicate elements of a typical Chinese meal.

• Powerful dishes with sticky sauces

Such as glazed ribs or crab in black bean sauce. Here fruity reds again come into play. When leading Chinese Food writer Ken Hom introduced a range of varietal wines to go with Chinese food a couple of years ago he picked a Mourvèdre and a Grenache, both big wines but without excessive tannins. Ripe fruity reds certainly tend to deal best with the hotter, spicier dishes like Szechuan beef

If you prefer a white wine consultant and MW Peter McCombie who has worked with a number of oriental restaurants favours rich waxy Pinot Gris from Alsace, Oregon or New Zealand which he has found works with tricky-to-match customers such as eel and black beans. He put together the list at London’s fashionable Bar Shu

Another Chinese restaurant where the wine list is exceptionally well thought out is Hakkasan where buyer Christine Parkinson pairs all the wines she considers with food before she puts them on her list

Which beers match best
I haven’t done as much research on beer as I have on wine with Chinese food but I’ve found that light wheat beers such as witbiers and Bavarian weissbiers generally work well with Chinese-style snacks such as prawn dumplings and spring rolls and can also handle sweet and sour flavours.

Belgian ‘brune’ beers like Leffe Brune are a good match for duck with hoisin sauce. Dishes like glazed ribs or beef in black bean sauce also pair well with brown ales and Belgian triple beers.

And what about tea?
The Chinese drink tea all day long, just as we would drink water says Edward Eisler of specialist importers Jing Tea and that obviously includes meals too. With lighter foods he recommends a green tea like Dragonwell or jasmine tea like Jasmine Silver Needle. Fried or heavier foods go well with aged teas like Puerh while rich and sticky dishes like ribs benefit from a dark high-fired Oolong tea such as Great Red Cloak.

Image credit: Cats Coming

From vodka to mead

A great dinner last night organised jointly by the London and Krakow convivia of Slow Food who laid on a lavish Polish feast at Marylebone Cheese shop La Fromagerie. The Poles had sent over an impressive contingent including a talented young chef Artur Moroz who runs a restaurant called Bulaj on the Baltic cost and has made a study of Polish culinary history, many of whose traditions have been lost. A Polish-born Londoner Ewa Spohn, who devised the menu with Moroz, is spearheading a drive to revive them.

The food was fascinating - generous and richly flavoured. First there were soups - Polish meals apparently always begin with a soup. I hadn’t realised there were four to try so only managed a shot of a curious but refreshing sour pickled cucumber soup. There were sweet soups as well, one made with honey vodka (Krupnik)

Next there were lavish platters of charcuterie and fish -coarsely cut sausages, tender, smoky hams and smoked pork tenderloin, a soft pat that tasted a bit like haslet, smoked salmon and eel and sweet, salty herrings served with onions and a welcome, contrasting condiment of horseradish and cranberry. The flavours were strong, salty and smoky which made you see why vodka - equally strong and cleansing was the perfect accompaniment.

Hot dishes included a crayfish and chanterelle stew, wonderful soft, light ‘pierozki’, classic Polish dumplings filled with cheese and potato, served with melted butter and sunflower seeds, braised rolls of beef stuffed with bacon, pickled cucumber (perfect with my accompanying beer) and onion and cabbage leaves stuffed with buckwheat. Another great condiment here - cooked beetroot with pear.

Finally there was a splendid chocolate gateau with a crunchy texture of poppyseeds served with an extraordinary sweet, intense mead made from autumn honey, infused with meadow herbs and aged for over 10 years in barrels - a quite remarkable drink. And more honey vodka, again with a bitter-sweet taste of herbs and plants.

Although wine was served it was a meal in which it was entirely superfluous. Chef Moroz believes that wine isn’t a good accompaniment for Polish food and he’s right. The two beers I tried, Kozlak and Zwye (I think, though the labels were hard to decipher), were spot on: fresh, unpasteurised and full of flavour they matched the food quite perfectly.

With the growing Polish community in London it can only be a matter of time before we have easy access to these first class artisanal products and, hopefully, a new generation of Polish restaurants. The charming Polish couple opposite me recommended the Polish Cultural Centre in King Street, Hammersmith, Patio in Goldhawk Road, Shepherd’s Bush, Daquise in Thurloe Stree, South Kensington and Baltic at Blackfriars Road in Southwark. Or simply go to Krakow for the real thing.

Photo by Yan Krukau

Best beers for Christmas

How many of you will be putting beer on the table at Christmas? Not that many, I suspect, but if you can bring yourself to break with tradition you could be in for a treat. Most supermarkets now carry a sufficiently wide range for you to be able to serve a different beer with each course, should you be so minded. And here’s how to do it:

• As an aperitif or with the smoked salmon I suggest a good quality pilsner or a fragrant cloudy witbier like Hoegaarden or a Bavarian weissbier

• With turkey I’d go for a blonde beer like Leffe, a strong Belgian ale such as Duvel or an American IPA such as Goose Island IPA

• With the pudding - or Christmas cake - you could try a stout or a porter such as Meantime’s (the strong, dark, bitter flavour of the beer will be a great contrast to the sweet, sticky dried fruits) and with the cheese, especially the Stilton, I recommend a vintage ale such as J.W.Lees Harvest ale or other barley wine

There are a number of seasonal beers around such as Young’s fruity, spicy Christmas Pudding Ale but I suggest you again drink those with the cheese or enjoy them on their own rather than pairing them with Christmas pudding, as the name perhaps suggests. The sweet, spicy pudding will knock out the same flavours in the beer leaving you with a dry thin-tasting drink.

For more seasonal beer drinking ideas, check out these posts: 

• Which beer to drink on New Year’s Eve?
• 5 great beer pairings for roast turkey

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