Match of the week

Soft boiled eggs with anchoiade and radicchio and Bourgueil

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on March 18 2013 at 09:53

Last week’s best pairing was at a fascinating meal I had at Les 110 de Taillevent in Paris which I’ll be writing up in more detail so here’s an off-the-wall match from last night’s feast at The Unfiltered Dog - a pop up restaurant at the Real Wine Fair run by the team from Terroirs.

Basically it was a souped up egg mayonnaise - the eggs fashionably soft-boiled, the mayo made with anchoiade (anchovy paste) and accompanied by bitter radicchio leaves. A simple and very do-able starter.

By rights it shouldn’t have worked with the Domaine de la Chevalerie Bonn' Heure Bourgeuil 2010 - a light Loire red we had ordered to go with our meal but you know what? Sometimes these off-the-wall pairings work. There’s a saltiness in anchovies and a bitterness in radicchio that accentuated the very appealing fruit in the wine.

It also rubbed along fine with some other challenging dishes - scallops with XO sauce and pork belly with kimchee only faltering at the ferociously hot mustard that accompanied the salt beef. As anything except a lager would probably have done.

If I’d been thinking more about what to drink with these particular dishes rather than just ordering a bottle that appealed on an unseasonably cold night I’d have probably gone for a crisp white. But sometimes it’s fun to go off-piste.

Apologies for the rather unappetising photo. It was very dark!

If you found this post helpful and would like to support the website which is free to use it would be great if you'd make a donation towards its running costs or sign up to my regular Substack newsletter Eat This, Drink That for extra benefits.

CONTRIBUTE HERE