Asian Restaurants Have Crappy Wine Lists
The Vancouver Sun has an interesting opinion piece about the dismal state of wine lists at Asian restaurants. Asian restaurants in Vancouver (and probably pretty much everywhere else, too) have bad wine lists that don’t make sense and clearly lack deep thought or the hand of a sommelier.
Well, here’s my opinion piece: you’re being culturally insensitive.
It’s definitely true that the wine lists at most Asian restaurants aren’t very impressive. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever had wine at an Asian restaurant, and I doubt that any of the waiters could help you pick out the perfect pairing for your kung pao chicken. However, my point is that wine made from grapes isn’t part of Asian culture, so how can you expect it to be part of Asian cuisine?
Grape wine is really more of a Western phenomenon that’s only recently begun to make inroads in Asia. Perhaps a better pairing would be more traditional drinks like tea, baijiu, sake, various Chinese wines, or other beverages (depending on the cuisine served).
Heck, think of other foods that traditionally are not drunk with wine. For example, I can’t imagine eating a taco or a hamburger with wine. Who’d want to? The wine on those menus is there for those who don’t know any better.
April 30th, 2006 at 1:46 am
hi, i just started a wine website called winediary.com and your comments on wines would be a great edition you can read, write, comment and share your thoughts on all things wine. It’s free and you can keep as many notes as you like.
just a thought.
marco -
April 30th, 2006 at 5:44 pm
Daysthatendiny: This sounds like a very good bartending school you went to. Now, I dont know a whole lot about them but from little things I’ve gathered bartending schools range from frauds to good schools (like the one you went to). Is there a way to know for sure? I’m in the LA area so i’m not sure if you are familiar with stuff out here. Me and a buddy are interested in taking a class and scoring some sort of 1 day/week bartending job while we’re in grad school like you are starting out with. Let me know if you have any details.
April 30th, 2006 at 6:08 pm
Well, I don’t know anything about schools out there, though I do think that Boston Bartending has affiliates out there. You could try asking them.
Most schools appear to offer free introductory classes, so you could always try that out first. Also, ask around. A friend of a friend had taken the same class and had a more or less positive experience, so I felt a little better about going to this one.