Wine Pairing Ideas For Eating In New York City’s Chinatown
It might be hard to believe, but wine is a perfect accompaniment to Chinese cuisines, and the right wine pairing can elevate your dining experience. Whether you’re in pursuit of Chinese, east Asian, southeast Asian, or south Asian cuisines, each is awash with fatty, umami, spicy, sweet, and acidic dishes that can inform your wine pairing.
Fortunately, there are some easy-to-remember tips to guide you:
Food + Wine
Salty + sweet
Salty + acid
Fatty + tannin
Fatty + acid
Spicy + sweet
Sweet + sweet
Acidic + acid
Definitely not rocket surgery. Brain science? Whatever. The goal here is to find contrasting profiles or matching profiles.
New York City’s Chinatown is home to regional Chinese restaurants, Chinese-American restaurants, Malaysian restaurants, Thai restaurants, Taiwanese restaurants, and more. You can find rich broths, umami-filled condiments, sweet and savory meats, spicy noodles, and high acid soups and vegetables. All of which are ready to find a wine pairing mate.
If you don’t know where to start, you can look for fun information on the interwebs. But the best thing you can do is find your local wine shop and ask for guidance.
It’s hard to find a wine nerd who isn’t also obsessed with food. Just give them a basic rundown of what you’ll be eating (eg. “Szechuan hot pot, lots of spicy and umami dishes”) and they’ll give you a few wine options to pair. Be open to trying new things. A wine you might not normally enjoy on its own can become intoxicating with the right food pairing.
So, here is a list of our favorite wines to pair with a broad range of Asian cuisines:
Champagne
This is such an obvious choice that I was close to omitting it. But, champagne is obvious for good reason. It’s the GOAT wine for food pairing.
Too often restricted as a special occasion wine, champagne is, indeed, the perfect wine to pair with just about everything. Refreshing bubbles, racing acidity, and a wide range of flavor profiles from granny smith apple to freshly-baked brioche, champagne is the catch-all wine to provide relief for, or support of, everything that Asian cuisine has to offer.
Soy and miso based broths? Check.
Taiwanese and Korean fried chicken? Check.
Wok fried rice, szechuan noodles, steamed xiaolongbao, rich pad thai, vegetarian pho, spicy vinadaloo? Checks all the way through.
Spare ribs, roast duck, pork belly, steamed fish, garlic spinach, mango sticky rice, fried wontons, Japanese cheesecake? More checks.
You’d have an easier time finding foods that don’t pair well with champagne.
I enjoy the value of Paul Bara or Robert Moncuit. Both producers offer some friendly-priced Grand Cru bottles.
Going with a non-vintage bottle can save a few dollars. If champagne is too rich for your blood, you can just as easily substitute with another type of traditional method bubbly, like Cava from Spain, Tokaji from Hungary, or Crémant from France.
Ultimately, there’s something fun about bringing a bottle of Grand Cru champagne to a hole-in-the-wall noodle shop. You get to be both the peasant and the king!
Riesling
Riesling is an incredible food pairing wine due to its sheer variety. France, Australia, Germany, Austria, and the U.S., among others, each produce their own distinct styles. Riesling can be bone-dry (with minerality and zippy acidity), off-dry (with a balance of acid and sweet), extremely sweet (nearing dessert wine status), or even sparkling. It drinks well young, and it ages as well as any variety out there.
The off-dry versions in particular stand up welll to the saltiness of soy sauce and the richness of umami dishes, and provide relief from spicy dishes.
Find any late-harvest riesling by J. J. Prüm (look for Auslese or Spätlese) and pair it with spicy Thai noodles, Indian curry, or Chinese soup dumplings. Other options like Dr. Loosen and Rieslingfreak provide great value with their entry level wines.
If I had to choose any wine to provide me relief in Hell, it would be a riesling. Might come in handy when you go through the Hell of eating chili-laden dishes from China, Vietnam, or Thailand.
Chenin Blanc
Chenin shares a lot of similarities with Riesling, in that it’s incredibly versatile. Young, aged, dry, sweet, sparkling – whatever you’re looking for, Chenin delivers.
Its home base is in the Loire Valley of France, but you can find beautiful versions grown everywhere from South Africa to Argentina to the U.S. What you typically get is a high-acid variety bursting with green apple, pear, quince, and citrus – perfect qualities to reset and relieve your palate when you pair it with some salty, spicy goodness.
Get your hands on a dry Chenin and pair it with soy-based noodle dishes and soups, or some crispy pork belly and pan-seared dumplings.
But don’t sleep on the sweeter, aged versions. Moulin Touchais’ 1998 is brimming with saccharine pleasures, and also provides great value for a wine with that kind of age. No need to stop in 1998. You can dig up feedback on different vintages and go hunting at wine shops all over greater New York City.
Gewürztraminer
This is a classic “love it or hate it” wine, but hot-damn does it sing with Asian cuisine.
Primarily grown in northern Italy, France, and Germany (but also gaining traction in New York’s Finger Lake region), this variety brings a kaleidoscope of flavors to the table – not unlike the food you’ll be eating in Chinatown!. The endless bouquet of flavors is what makes Gewürtraminer a controversial wine amongst drinkers, but also a perfect match to big, bold Asian flavors that would otherwise drown out a wine.
The grape’s higher tannin profile for a white wine and a classically waxy mouthfeel further solidify this overlooked variety on the list.
With tropical fruit notes like mango, lychee, and pineapple, as well as spiced notes like ginger, cinnamon, and clove (that’s ⅗ of the Chinese Five Spice bingo board), it feels like Gewürztraminer was made in a lab to pair specifically with Asian cuisines.
A great starting point is a bottle of the Domaine Zind-Humbrecht Gewürztraminer from Alsace, France.
Grüner Veltliner
I don’t know what it is about Central Europe growing grapes that pair well with Asian cuisine, but I’m not going to ask too many questions.
Grüner shines here for its refreshing acidity and perfectly matched flavor profiles of lime zest and white pepper. Find the right food pairing and Grüner’s flavor profiles are almost reminiscent of Thai basil and lemongrass.
The next time you find yourself enjoying sushi, Chinese Broccoli, bok choy, pickled cucumber salad, Thai glass noodle salad, or blistered shishito peppers, pop that bottle of Grüner.
I personally love the Polleroff Huhnergarten Grüner Veltliner from Austria. Look for the bottle with the chicken feather on it.
And there it is, folks. A by-no-means comprehensive list to get you started on your wine and Asian food pairing adventures. Once you do get started, it’s hard to go back to eating without a perfect wine pairing. And the great news is, most dim sum restaurants are BYOB!
