Grizzly Growler

Matching Asian cuisine with wine is tricky. Typically you would pair spicy Chinese food with a reisling or a Gewurztraminer. However, I can save you a lot of hassle right now.

Forge the wine, or better yet, sip the wine as an aperitif or with appetizers.

If you’re going to do Asian food, especially spicy Asian food, stick with beer.

I decided to do a little taste test last night. I make a mean Pad Thai from scratch. None of that boxed stuff at my house.

My Pad Thai has lot of green flavors, (cilantro and green onions) some residual sweetness and heat from the sauce (mashed up tamarind pulp, fish sauce, cayenne pepper and sugar) and nuttiness. (peanuts)

Finding a wine to match Pad Thai is a nightmare.

After sampling some real saisons from Belgium, some with delightful green flavors like apple, grass or tropical fruit, I thought a nice saison would be a perfect match.

You can find both of these locally. The first is an American, Belgian-style saison from North Coast Brewing Co. in California. La Merle is a bold, spicy and tasty American version of the Belgian farmhouse ale.

Higher in hops than most Belgian saisons, this beer had intense tropical fruit flavors on the nose and in the finish, which complemented the Pad Thai perfectly.

If I added heat to the Pad Thai in the form of a red chili sauce, the heat would explode in intensity after a sip of La Merle. This is because increased hops intensify spicy heat. Big IPAs are generally not good for really spicy food, but they will cut clean through heavy, rich dishes and sauces.

Foret, from the Brasserie Dupont, is Belgium’s first certified organic beer. It clean, dry and perfectly suited to Asian cuisine. I can’t wait to try some with sushi. Intense yeasty flavors in the beer accentuated sweet and spicy flavors in the Pad Thai, while the beer withstood a healthy addition of red chili sauce. The bready, yeasty characteristics helped dampen the heat.

Green flavors in the beer added nicely to the tang of cilantro and green onions, while the dryness of the finish was perfectly suited to the sweet pink shrimp.

Incidentally, my wife loved the Foret better than the La Merle. I have to agree when it came to the food pairing, but I’d like to try the La Merle by itself again. I was very impressed with this American interpretation of a Belgian original.

No more worrying about what kind of alcohol beverage to serve with Asian dishes. Just keep some beer on hand.

I bought both the La Merle and the Foret at the Good Food Store. Check out other Belgian ales at Worden’s Market and the Red Bird Restaurant.

Prost,

GG