Wine and Dumplings: An Overlooked Match?

Travel Blog  •  Julia Ross  •  04.13.09 | 12:34 PM ET

Photo by Bernt Rostad via Flickr (Creative Commons)

When I’m out for Chinese food, I don’t think twice about my drink order: it’s almost always a Tsingtao. But cooking school owner/author Jen Lin-Liu says beer doesn’t have to be the default accompaniment every time you pick up chopsticks.

For a piece in the New York Times, she recently convened a group of Chinese tasters and found that semisweet Rieslings were the best all-around choice for spicy dishes with strong flavors, while a Pinot noir paired well with twice-cooked pork.

Food blogger Diana Kuan has her own take on the issue. She’s in agreement on the Riesling, but also recommends Spanish Tempranillo for mildly spicy Sichuanese food. I’m tempted to try both next time I get take out from Washington DC’s City Lights.

I have to add that the funniest line in the Times article is the throw-away comment at the end about mixing Sprite with Chinese wine. I actually saw a Chinese colleague do this once, in Shanghai several years ago, with a glass of the awful but ubiquitous Great Wall wine. Sadly, it probably improved the taste.

Tags: Beer, Wine and Cocktails, Food, Restaurants, Asia, China, North America, United States, Washington, D.C., Shrinking Planet

Julia Ross is a Washington, DC-based writer and frequent contributor to World Hum. She has lived in China and Taiwan, where she was a Fulbright scholar and Mandarin student. Her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Time, Christian Science Monitor, Plenty and other publications. Her essay, Six Degrees of Vietnam, was shortlisted for "The Best American Travel Writing 2009."


5 Comments for Wine and Dumplings: An Overlooked Match?

Diana 04.13.09 | 11:31 PM ET

It’s also interesting when Chinese supermarkets often have 2-for-1 specials…as in, wrapping together a bottle of wine and a bottle of Sprite.

Love2SeeNewThings 04.14.09 | 1:48 PM ET

I’m in awe that wine and Chinese food is a whole new concept.  I’ve found a while ago that any wine that goes well with an Italian noodle dish does fairly well with Lo Mein, Pan Fried Noodles and Pad Thai.  Regardless of the way we look at it - noodles are still noodles, right?

Jenny 04.14.09 | 6:15 PM ET

I’m in the wine business here in Sonoma, California - Diana - you’re comment cracked me and my colleagues up! Thanks for the visual and the laugh :O)

Julia Ross 04.14.09 | 6:38 PM ET

yes, thanks for that update Diana ! Very funny.  Haven’t been in mainland China for a while, so wasn’t sure if the trend still held. Sounds like it’s going strong.

Megan Eaves 05.08.09 | 8:21 AM ET

An interesting revelation for those dining on Chinese food in the West. But what about we storied expats who have little to no access to foreign wines? I recently found a liquor shop in the small city where I live in which I can buy a small selection of imported wines, and believe me, cheap carmenere has never tasted so good! Nonetheless, you would never - I repeat, never - find something like that at an average or even upscale restaurant in China. Chinese wines, unfortunately, suck, while their supply of fresh local lagers is seemingly endless. This means that in the long run, I’m still going to be enjoying my dumplings not with Tsingtao but Redrock, Yanjing or Sendo Pijiu - the stuff of locals!

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