Since my cook curry, drink wine experiment went horribly wrong on Monday, I’m working on a list of what alcohol best accompanies Indian food.
I had the grand unveiling planned for today, but the combination of irrate client, stressed out boss and looming deadline have derailed my plans.
In India we never drink alcohol during the meal. Just lots of it beforehand.
There’s a real “arrive, drink, eat and bugger off” mentality at dinner parties. Most of the drinking happens before the meal and people tend to leave almost immediately after they’ve eaten. So dinner is served quite late.
Scotch dominates bar drinks and wine is terribly fashionable these days. If you’re eating lunch, beer is the main tipple.
Anyway, it’s quite different since I’ve moved. Mostly whatever wine is on offer and lots of Cobra (Indian) or Cusquena beer.
Tbc cop tomorrow as they say in the big bad PR world…
8 Comments
Hi–
There is an Indian sommelier in San Francisco who swears by curries with Syrah, especially Sula, an Indian producer. Can you find that brand there? I’ve tried it, and with certain curries it actually stands up quite nicely. Sula also makes a good white, though the varietal is escaping me right now.
nice posts.
Amanda
Shiraz or Syrah is a variety of grape not a brand
I prefer a strong Belgian beer like Duvel (www.duvel.be) with Indian curries.
Hi Amanda - I think you meant Sula is a brand. It’s funny you mention it, I know the family in India that owns the company really well. They are also based in Calcutta, where I’m from.
More later…
I tried Sula wines in India and they were good. Chateau Indage is another up and coming winery.
You know pair wine with Indian food is a real dilemma. I have heard that the recently released book “What to drink with what you eat” by Andrew Dornenburg et al has some suggestions.
In my experience crisp beers go well with fish fry and kababs etc. Do share your observations.
I know some people do say a red like syrah or zin, with a bit of spice, can match well with a curry or other spicy food. But for me, I like a crisp white like a sauvignon blanc, or one with a bit of sweetness like a riesling. In this posting, I suggest a riesling that went very well with a vindaloo dish I made.
http://cookingchat.blogspot.com/2006/11/ode-to-indian-food.html
So sorry guys, I got terribly drunk at two Bond parties on Thursday and couldn’t bear to think let alone write about alcohol yesterday. So this is still work in progress.
The consumer lovelies from my office come over for a live Indian cooking demo tomorrow so what better way to finalise my recommendations that to use them as guinea pigs?
Do pls drop by soon to check the results okay?
oh my my…. this is a lovely site:) how did i miss this for this long!!! wow… beautiful pics, presentation….
cheers
supriya
mmm… i like your site! i ended up here from beck’s and posh.
that’s really interesting about the drinking and socializing BEFORE eating! i always wondered why the extremely popular indian restaurant by my house is PACKED at 9 and 10 o’clock at night but when i go at 7 or 8 (which is what i consider to be dinnertime) it’s nearly empty.