Chinese food, with its diverse flavors and textures, is a global culinary favorite. From savory stir-fries to comforting soups and crispy delights, the cuisine offers something for everyone. But have you ever considered pairing your favorite Chinese dishes with cider? This might sound unconventional, but the right cider can beautifully complement and elevate your dining experience. Let’s explore some exciting cider pairings for popular Chinese food dishes, moving beyond the usual beverage choices and diving into a world of flavor discovery.
Wonton Soup: A Delicate Start with Nashi Orchard’s Hukari Asian Pear Perry
Wonton soup, a light and comforting appetizer, features delicate flavors of savory broth, soft dumplings, and often subtle hints of bok choy. Whether you enjoy vegetarian wontons or the traditional pork and shrimp filling, the soup’s gentle profile calls for a cider that mirrors its lightness. Nashi Orchard’s Hukari Asian Pear Perry is an excellent choice. Its subtle sweetness, combined with citrus, floral, and honeyed notes, enhances the soup’s delicate flavors without overpowering them. This pairing creates a harmonious start to your Chinese food journey, refreshing the palate and preparing it for the courses to come.
General Tso’s Tofu and Broccoli: Balancing Boldness with Eden’s Peak Bloom
General Tso’s, a hugely popular dish in American-Chinese cuisine, is known for its bold, sweet, and slightly spicy sauce and satisfying deep-fried crunch, whether you choose chicken or tofu. To stand up to these robust flavors, you need a cider with character and effervescence. Eden’s Peak Bloom, a semi-dry cider with lively bubbles, is the ideal partner. Its ripe apple flavors and noticeable minerality cut through the richness of the General Tso’s sauce, while its semi-dry nature complements the sweetness without being cloying. This pairing offers a delightful balance, making each bite and sip equally enjoyable.
Hot Pot: Spice and Umami Meet Stormalong’s IPC (India Pale Cider)
Hot pot is a communal and customizable dining experience, featuring a simmering broth filled with a variety of ingredients, from vegetables like bok choy and green onions to noodles and meats. The broth itself is often rich in umami and spice, demanding a beverage that can cleanse the palate and provide a refreshing contrast. Surprisingly, a hoppy cider, like Stormalong’s collaboration with Exhibit A Brewing IPC (India Pale Cider), works wonderfully. The cider’s hazy, crisp, and citrusy notes act as a counterpoint to the savory and spicy elements of the hot pot, waking up your taste buds between each flavorful bite. This unexpected pairing is a testament to cider’s versatility.
Sweet-and-Sour Chicken: Complementing Flavors with Thor’s Hard Cider Arctic Rosé
Sweet and sour chicken, a quintessential American-Chinese dish, presents a delightful mix of crispy chicken, juicy pineapple, and crunchy bell peppers, all coated in a tangy sauce. To enhance this dish’s inherent complexity, a complementary cider is key. Thor’s Hard Cider Arctic Rosé, a rosé cider crafted with wine grapes and Dolgo crab apples, mirrors the sweet and tart notes of the dish. Its balanced sweet-and-tart profile echoes the sweet and sour sauce, creating a harmonious pairing that amplifies the flavors of the chicken and the cider alike.
Ma Po Tofu: Tempering the Heat with Stem Cider’s Le Chêne
Ma Po Tofu, a Sichuan specialty, is known for its fiery and complex flavors, deriving heat from Szechuan peppercorns and chili oil, balanced by silken tofu and peanuts. Pairing cider with spicy food requires careful consideration to avoid overwhelming the palate. Stem Cider’s Le Chêne, a barrel-aged cider, offers a sophisticated solution. Its vanilla and toast notes, imparted from barrel aging, gently temper the dish’s spiciness, creating a smoother and more nuanced flavor experience. The cider’s depth and complexity stand up to the boldness of the Ma Po Tofu, resulting in a well-rounded and intriguing pairing.
Vegetable Fried Rice: Cutting Through Richness with Wayside Cider’s Hunt the Fox
Fried rice, a versatile and satisfying dish, comes in countless variations. Whether you prefer a version loaded with pineapple, shrimp, tofu, or classic vegetables, fried rice often has a certain richness and unctuousness. To balance this richness, a cider with high acidity and a bold character is recommended. Wayside Cider’s Hunt the Fox, a funky and high-acid cider, is an excellent choice. Its robust acidity cuts through the richness of the fried rice, cleansing the palate and preventing flavor fatigue. For those who prefer a sparkling cider, a funky sparkler would also work well, especially with less spicy fried rice variations.
Fortune Cookie: A Sweet Ending with Woodchuck’s Mimosa Cider
No Chinese food experience is complete without a fortune cookie. These iconic treats, often subtly flavored with orange and almond, provide a sweet and light end to the meal. To complement this sweet finish, a mimosa cider, like Woodchuck’s Mimosa, is a perfect match. Mimosa ciders combine the tartness of orange juice with the crispness of hard cider, echoing the citrus notes sometimes found in fortune cookies. For a more adventurous option, Graft’s Lost Tropic, which includes tangerine and passion fruit in addition to orange, offers an even more complex and tropical twist. Either way, a mimosa cider provides a celebratory and refreshing conclusion to your Chinese food and cider pairing adventure.
Exploring cider pairings with Chinese food opens up a new dimension of flavor appreciation. Whether you are cooking at home or ordering takeout, consider these cider suggestions to elevate your next Chinese food meal. Cheers to delicious discoveries and happy pairings!
