WINES FOR SUSHI
For Mike and Marli and the rest of you sushi-loving folks:
Even though sake, which is Japanese rice wine, is the spirit of choice with sushi in Japan, folks here tend to favor beer or, increasingly, wine when sushi is on the docket for dinner.
If a connoisseur of the highest level paired your sushi with a beverage, that drink most likely would be green tea. Make that the top green tea, sencha – and make that sencha, straight, no accents. If you try sencha with sushi, you’ll understand why it’s the perfect companion.
But you want to know about wine with sushi. Fair enough. One of the best sushi-spirit partnerships I ever had came at Masa, that temple of sublime sushi at the Time-Warner building in New York. I was dining with Jim Peterson, who not only writes the most technically precise cookbooks in print, he’s got one Olympic-caliber palate. He suggested we have a bottle of sparkling wine from the Loire Valley in France with our sushi. Its mineral-y characteristics, he said, cleanse and refresh. He was right.
Though it’s not always easy to find Loire Valley sparklers, some light, mineral-y proseccos from northern Italy serve a similar purpose. So if you’re doing a range of sushi, various rolls, various fishes, try one of the widely available prosecco around – from the producers Bortolotti, Bisol, Zardetto, Mionetto. I also favor albarinos, a dry, also mineral-y white wine , from Spain. Look for Burgans, Ducado de Altan, Martin Codax.
Now, if you’re like a lot of enthusiastic sushi-eaters, you’re big into the multi-faceted rolls with lots of spicy, big-flavor elements. If that’s your ticket, you might want a wine with a little extra fruit: Try the Casata Montfort Traminer from Trentino, Italy; the Marquis Philips Holly’s Blend (a mix of white-wine grapes) from southeastern Australia; the Domaine Bott-Geyl Pinot D’Alsace from Alsace, France; the Selbach “Fish Label” Dry Riesling from Germany.
That’s a good selection of starter-sushi wines. (All these bottles, by the way, are under $20.) Now all you sushi fanatics out there: Tell me what you drink with sushi. Wine? If so, what do you favor? Beer? Get specific, too.
Cheers,
Andy
2.11.07
Even though sake, which is Japanese rice wine, is the spirit of choice with sushi in Japan, folks here tend to favor beer or, increasingly, wine when sushi is on the docket for dinner.
If a connoisseur of the highest level paired your sushi with a beverage, that drink most likely would be green tea. Make that the top green tea, sencha – and make that sencha, straight, no accents. If you try sencha with sushi, you’ll understand why it’s the perfect companion.
But you want to know about wine with sushi. Fair enough. One of the best sushi-spirit partnerships I ever had came at Masa, that temple of sublime sushi at the Time-Warner building in New York. I was dining with Jim Peterson, who not only writes the most technically precise cookbooks in print, he’s got one Olympic-caliber palate. He suggested we have a bottle of sparkling wine from the Loire Valley in France with our sushi. Its mineral-y characteristics, he said, cleanse and refresh. He was right.
Though it’s not always easy to find Loire Valley sparklers, some light, mineral-y proseccos from northern Italy serve a similar purpose. So if you’re doing a range of sushi, various rolls, various fishes, try one of the widely available prosecco around – from the producers Bortolotti, Bisol, Zardetto, Mionetto. I also favor albarinos, a dry, also mineral-y white wine , from Spain. Look for Burgans, Ducado de Altan, Martin Codax.
Now, if you’re like a lot of enthusiastic sushi-eaters, you’re big into the multi-faceted rolls with lots of spicy, big-flavor elements. If that’s your ticket, you might want a wine with a little extra fruit: Try the Casata Montfort Traminer from Trentino, Italy; the Marquis Philips Holly’s Blend (a mix of white-wine grapes) from southeastern Australia; the Domaine Bott-Geyl Pinot D’Alsace from Alsace, France; the Selbach “Fish Label” Dry Riesling from Germany.
That’s a good selection of starter-sushi wines. (All these bottles, by the way, are under $20.) Now all you sushi fanatics out there: Tell me what you drink with sushi. Wine? If so, what do you favor? Beer? Get specific, too.
Cheers,
Andy
2.11.07
posted by Andrea Clurfeld at 7:16 AM
3 Comments:
Just want to tell Andrea we are all tired of her reviews. I have eaten in many of the establishments that she chooses to destroy and I think is is terrible. Many of these restaurants have owner that have put all their hard earned money, time away from their families and friends only to have her destroy their food, wait staff, lighting, chairs and anything she can talk about. What qualifications or experiences does she have. After she does her damage does she ever go back to see any changes (not that anyone would want her back) I for one have never read a repeat article. I also could care less what she says and would never not try a restaurant on her advice. Someone last weekend said to me that even her bad reviews are advertising and I think everyone in the monmouth and ocean county areas really don't care either.
Andrea, We want to tell YOU that we appreciate that you write for people like us and not the restaurants who incite people to protest when you give honest critiques. Unlike "ANONYMOUS" we are proud to sign our names and tell you we have used your reviews for years and find them very helpful when we eat out. Also your recipes, which even our teenagers like!!!! Keep the honest reviews coming and don't cave in to special interests like 'ANONYMOUS". Our only "critique" of you is that you took too long to write about how bad Bistro Downtown is since we went without you and found it's worse then OB Diner!!!
'anonymous' sounds like a restaurateur given a bad review. I have been a follower of food (and wine) critics - going back to Ruth Reichl's days at the Times - Andrea is nicer and civil than a lot of food critics around, past and present. Ever heard of Adrian Gill?
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