Mouthing Off | What to drink with a meal? Wine, beer, soft drinks, juice, milk tea, nut milk – why I can never decide, unless there’s kombucha on the menu
- Wine makes Andrew Sun flush, beer makes him bloat, soft drinks and fruit juices are too sugary, bubble tea’s a choking hazard, water looks cheap…
- Lately he’s been ordering kombucha when it’s on a drinks menu – it’s supposedly good for his gut and light on calories
Some people have trouble deciding what appetiser and main course to order at restaurants. My problem is the drinks list. I never know what to drink with my meal.
To be clear, my indecision is quite different from the oenophile who can’t choose between a reasonably priced New World pinot noir that goes with almost anything or splurge on a complex and full bodied Bordeaux that will cost more than the dinner itself.
I am, admittedly, a lightweight, so a lot of times I don’t actually feel like alcohol. In the summer, all types of booze make me sweat even harder. Worse, my Asian flush gets more pronounced, which is a bit awkward on a workday. Not only is it extremely uncomfortable, but it is mildly embarrassing to have glowing red ears after only a couple of drinks.
When I do want to pair something with food, my utter ignorance in wine and spirits means I usually go with the tried-and-true option of “a glass of house red, please”.
For a while, liquor brands tried to promote the idea of pairing food with whisky, cognac and baijiu, which, to me, is insane. Hard liquor, even one sip, usually deadens your taste buds to all other flavours, so how can it work with food? Perhaps if you have to eat really awful food then, yeah, paint-thinning booze is the way to go.