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Perfect match

Simon Tam

The Thai dish of raw prawn 'sashimi' relies on pristinely fresh seafood taken from the cleanest of waters. The dipping sauce should be a rounded blend of typical Thai seasonings: fish sauce as its base, fresh lime juice for the high notes and to exaggerate the sweetness of the prawns, and the remaining ingredients to fill in the spaces. Some cooks highlight the sauce by adding palm sugar but that's unusual. The best drink with this dish needs to be quietly assertive and go with all the different flavours, but the balance of the sauce is key.

Plunkett Gewurztraminer 2007, Strathbogie Ranges, Victoria, Australia

This complex, creamy wine sits well between the common rose petal flavours of unripe gewurztraminer grapes and the ripe lychee richness. Gewurztraminer has been called 'spicy', a misnomer that came about because its lychee perfume was so exotic to European tasters. This wine hits all the flavour notes and gives good support for the raw prawns. There is plenty of zingy acidity to sit alongside the shellfish and the wine's complex fruit depth and breath is good with the demanding and hugely stimulating dipping sauce. The fruity gewurztraminer is also great with crisp Thai chicken wings.

HK$178 from Kedington (tel: 2898 9323)

Mateus Rose, Douro, Portugal

An agitated reader once suggested I was paid by the distributor to mention this wine in these pages. If several others also feel this way, I'd be happy to spend a few minutes with you on a comparative blind wine tasting. This remains one of the best roses money can buy. It has plenty of fruit, balance and length - classic quality parameters. It's a perfect match with Thai sashimi prawns. The sweet cherry fruit wraps around the prawn's sweetness and the two caress each other. The gentle nature of the wine matches harmoniously rather than challenge the undulating flavours of the dipping sauce.

HK$98 from ParknShop (tel: 2606 8588)

Antinori Montenisa Franciacorta Brut, Lombardy, Italy

This Franciacorta is a stunning sparkling wine. It's made by yet another of the many divisions of the Antinori family. The wine is classy with all the aromas and tastes you'd expect from a 'traditional method' bubbly. It's easy to enjoy yet sufficiently demanding that you'll find many stimulating flavours and complex supporting structure. This is the perfect match with raw Thai prawns because it's complex enough to stand up to the dipping sauce, yet the fruity richness and fairy floss-like bubbles are the perfect playmate with the fresh prawns. This Franciacorta is a complete all-rounder for your next party.

HK$252 from Maxxium (tel: 2845 5995)

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