These 10 food and drink combinations are so heavenly you’ll cry

If you think people who pair their food and drinks are snobs who “hold their pinkies up when they drink tea,” think again.

There have been proven facts about how some food goes better with certain types of drinks in terms of health benefits, enhanced flavours or simply looking good in appearance.

We already have this perception of food combinations in the back of our mind, such as preparing wine together with our signature meat dishes for a candlelit dinner.

Food combinations are quite subjective to each individual’s taste, but food lovers enjoy this part the most – selecting drinks with similar characteristics to the food or bringing contrast between both.

A good pairing will allow you to experience a delicious and satisfying meal while an extremely contrasting combination will overpower the taste buds or worse. So here are 10 best combinations of food and drink that you need to know and try.

Steak and red wine
Red wine is the perfect match made for beef, they’re almost inseparable. Whether it’s the association with grand, romantic dinners or for how delicious it will turn out to be, you still don’t know the actual reason. Tannins in red wines produce a rough taste and high-protein steaks help to balance that feel, creating a great tasty combination. If you’re serving an older wine, you can try to keep your steak simple to avoid overwhelming the wine.

Pasta with white wine
If you’ve noticed, some pasta’ recipe includes white wine in the pasta sauce. This combination suits well and most whites go best with cream or oil-based sauces. You won’t feel as sick savouring the strong powerful taste of cream sauces while taking sips of white wine in between.

Desserts and Muscat
Muscat, or more commonly known as Moscato (Italian name) is a dessert wine. Moscato wine is known for its sweetness and light taste, with popular flavours such as peach, orange and nectarine. It’s actually white wine that’s slightly fizzy, refreshing and low in alcohol content.

Korean BBQ with soju
The traditional way to enjoy Korean BBQ is to go with soju – flavorful meats with stomach-churning rice wine. It will make you feel as though it’s less sinful eating the barbeque when you juggle down cups and cups of soju. This clear and slightly sweet Korean alcoholic beverage makes it easier to eat more (oops!) and what better way to enjoy a night out with your best buds?

Teppanyaki with sake
Similar to Koreans, the Japanese enjoy their tradition of Teppanyaki with sake. With all the oil and heavily grilled meats, sake makes a good choice for a drink. Another reason of this pairing is due to the weather, with the Japanese drinking sake with their grilled meats on cold winter days. (similar to how we like steamboats during rainy days)

Seafood with champagne
Champagne is one of the most versatile drinks for food unless it’s desserts or steak. Champagne consists high levels of acidity and surprisingly, low amounts of sugar. These two factors make it complementing to pair with high-calorie seafood without overpowering the other. Now you know why restaurants often do champagne and seafood tasting sessions!

Pork or cheeses with tequila
If you think Tequila is only used as a shot to get happy on, here’s something else you can try. Pairing it with pork dishes or cheeses is awesome – according to the Mexicans. Pairing tequila with food is similar to pairing food with wine, it involves looking at characteristics like acidity and freshness to “cut through the fat,” and to break down meats.

Beer with anything
There comes beer – the ultimate alcohol beverage. There are tons of beer, ranging from stout to lager and wheat. It’s almost impossible to find a beer that doesn’t go well with your food. You could easily pair beer with your favourite Zhi Char dish or 瓜子, or even western cuisine such as pizza. Or maybe you like to pair your beer with liquors, such as Jagger bombs or submarines.

Mooncake with tea
If you’re a fan of mooncakes, you’ll need a lot of tea to make sure you can continue chowing down more mooncakes. Teas also help you to digest the high-calorie contents and make your mooncake binging session smoother. Whenever you eat mooncake with a sip of tea, you’ll go “Ahhh…” It’s that satisfying.

Bakwa with F&N orange
This is like the authentic CNY thing to do.  Feast on BBQ pork and gulp down bubbly orange juice, because orange and bakwa are the symbolic representation of CNY food.

This article was first published on goodyfeed.com