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Wine With. . . Pad Thai
by Paul Lukacs and Marguerite Thomas
The season of decadent holiday feasting has mostly faded into distant memory, and now as winter is finally closing in around us, what we want to eat is comfort food. Soups. Stews. Lasagna. Pad Thai. Wait-Pad Thai? Yes indeed: rich, flavorful, and warming to body and soul, this noodle-based meal, which is by far the most popular dish exported from Thailand, has become one of the all-time universal comfort foods.
There is no single list of ingredients for Pad Thai, but certain components are ubiquitous. Glass or rice noodles supply the seductive texture. The characteristic depth and contrast of flavors depend in part on fish sauce and, usually, tamarind. Almost always there are peanuts, garlic, and cilantro. Dried shrimp often appears too, along with slivers of tofu, bits of bean sprout, and dried red pepper. After that, one adds vegetables, meats and/or fish at will, plus a squeeze of lime over it all. In Bangkok, where it is said to have originated, Pad Thai is street food, prepared and served from food carts around the city. Here, most of us eat it in Thai restaurants, although we could prepare it at home as there are plenty of delicious-sounding recipes on the Internet and in Asian cookbooks. (About a year ago, a reporter for the New York Times interviewed top chefs in the Big Apple, asking them what dish they were most apt to whip up at home for their own kids. A surprising number of them answered: Pad Thai!) As for us, we like to order takeout Pad Thai from our local Thai restaurant, then bring it home and open up a bottle of wine to have with it.
We've always found this a tricky dish to match with wine, though, since it's usually slightly spicy as well as pretty darned sweet (a Thai acquaintance tells us that it is much sweeter in the US than in most other places). We generally play it safe with Gewurztraminer, which is widely hailed as the perfect partner for Thai food; but a few nights ago we decided to test this theory by trying a dozen or so other wines as well with our takeout orders of shrimp and pork Pad Thai. Well, guess what? An Alsatian Gerwurz was indeed a winning match, with its edge of sweetness, its soft, plump texture, and its layers of flavor. These were the qualities shared (to some degree at least) by all the wines that worked harmoniously with the dish: a measure of sweet fruitiness, notable weightiness on the palate, and enough depth of flavor to handle the multiplicity of tastes in the Pad Thai. Extremely delicate wines, and those with a single-minded flavor profile (a couple of Sauvignon Blancs, for example) were overwhelmed by the Pad Thai, while big whoop-de-doo wines full of oak or tannins swamped it.
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Chateau St. Jean, Sonoma County (California) Pinot Noir 2005
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$20 |
This young Pinot Noir's juicy fruit conveyed a hint of sweetness, allowing it to marry nicely with the dish. It clearly outperformed a subtler, more austere red Burgundy that simply got lost amidst all the tangled flavors in the noodles.
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Clos la Chance, Central Coast (California) 'Pink-Throated Brilliant' Rosé 2005
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$14 |
A blend of primarily Grenache and Syrah, this Rhône-styled rosé is fleshier than most of its French cousins. That weight allowed it to hold up to the somewhat sweet Pad Thai, and so unlike many of the wines we tried, not lose its focus or appeal. Incidentally, 'pink-throated brilliant' refers to the rare hummingbird whose picture adorns the label, not the wine.
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Mad Fish, Western Australia (Australia) Riesling 2005
(Imported by Bluewater Wine Company)
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$15 |
Dry but exuberant, this citrus-driven Riesling from Down Under had just enough fresh, bright fruit flavor to enhance the surprisingly full-flavored Pad Thai. We squeezed a wedge of lime on the dish to add verve, but found that a sip of this wine did much the same thing.
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Domaines Schlumberger, Alsace (France) Gewurztraminer 'Fleur' 2004
(Imported by Maison Marques & Domaines) |
$27 |
On its own, this fleshy, off-dry Gewurztraminer seemed to teeter just on the edge of being out of balance. When paired with this particular dish, however, it worked brilliantly, all the varietal's exotic flavors coming into vivid focus. Gewurz and Asian food has become something of a cliché, but that's because the combination often works very, very well.
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Villa Maria, Hawkes Bay (New Zealand) Unoaked Chardonnay 'Private Bin' 2006
(Imported by Vineyard Brands)
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$15 |
Unlike an oak-influenced Chardonnay we tried (which seemed ponderous), this unwooded version tasted lively and fresh, cleansing our palates for both another bite and another sip. Its youth was a definite advantage, as was its fairly full body, which allowed it to more than hold its own with the food.
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