Friday, January 30, 2009

less wining than dining

A question posed by my boyfriend has gotten me thinking about the role alcohol has in our society, at least from a culinary perspective. He wanted to know why I drank, on the extremely rare occasion that I do. Not that he doesn’t understand the appeal of alcohol, but he wanted me to think about why I do. He himself is a proudly dry individual, something I respect him for immensely. But it’s a subject we don’t often see eye to eye on.

He was more referring to sipping beverages, like wine. He and I have very different opinions on the subject. I come from a very Italian family and alcohol was often drunk at meals (by adults) and very common in my house. I’m very comfortable with it’s presence. When the wine comes out, it means I’m going to get all of the “good stories” from my relatives.

My experience with wine and alcohol is that it is an acquired taste. I don’t know anyone who specifically enjoys their first ever sip of wine. As children, when one of my cousins asked for a taste of wine, my aunts would smile knowingly and give them a sip. Their faces would screw up and eek the obligatory “blech”.

As I have not had a chance to acclimate my tastes to wine, I often find my taste for it waning after a few sips. I rarely finish a glass. I’m a very bad foodie in that respect. I just don’t have a grasp for alcohol. Not even enough to have a preference. Which considering my age is not necessarily a bad thing. I would have had to have started early indeed to have such an appreciation at my current age.

I understand the concept of beverages going with specific foods. But I’m not at all knowledgeable about it. My experience with alcohol has largely been sipping what ever has been purchased by my extended family, favorite bargain wines. I’ve never once had the opportunity to sip a beverage specifically chosen as a flavor pairing with what I’ve eaten.

But considering my limited experience with alcohol, this isn’t so surprising. I’m fairly young, haven’t been of drinking age for long (and by drinking age I don’t necessarily refer to the age at which one is legally allowed to drink but the age at which family members have say allowed me to have wine with dinner. You’re not getting my real age, folks.)

Non alcoholic flavor pairings, I have a rudimentary understanding of in that I know what I feel tastes good together. For example, I think nothing compliments food cooked with five-spice powder like a glass of soda. Five-spice is a Chinese bend containing spices that represent each of the five tastes—sweet, sour, salty, spicy, and umami or savory (like in the soy sauce commercial). I find that a soda takes you out of this blend and allows you to focus on the sweet, and then appreciate the other flavors further when you return to the food.

So to answer my feller’s question, it is not yet about taste. His opinions on alcohol being as they are, I know that he’d prefer it not eventually become about taste either. But I’d like to think as I become a little more experienced, that I learn to appreciate it.

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