Chinese food and wine
When you mix cheap red wine with take-out Chinese food, you get something harmonious and ghettolicious all at the same time. That's the great thing about living in New York. Sure the rent-to-square-feet ratio would make any logical adult cry, but that's not the point. The point is that cabernet sauvignon can live next door to beef and broccoli. Wine and Chinese food don't really go hand-in-hand. I'm not experienced enough with wine to really suggest what goes well with your sweet and sour pork or whatever. The best way to go is to probably just wing it. I mean you're eating $5 dollar food that's a bastardized version of the real thing, who cares if you're drinking a bastardized version of the real thing?
Recently I also learned that I suck at doing that swirling thing oenophiles like to do with their wines. You know what I mean, like when they swirl it around the glass and then smell it. I tried it and it just doesn't work as well, but I practice it often. There was some progress and I felt hopeful until one of the season finale episodes of Top Chef. And there she was, Dana Cowin, swirling her wine in the air. She didn't even have to put her glass on the table to do it. I'm weak sauce.
But along with the cheap wine, Steph and I had some 'Chicken with Spinach'. It was uh... very ordinary. Basically 90% of the container was spinach. Which is good for someone like me who doesn't eat too much vegetables. It's good to get 'em while it's possible. As a dish though, it should be called spinach with a scant offering of chicken. That would be more truthful but wouldn't sell as well. At $6 dollars, it's actually a decent price for spinach because in Chinatown restaurants, a vegetable dish is almost always a ripoff.
And then we have the king of Chinese take-out cuisine - General Tso's Chicken. This version was very mediocre. The breading was thick and the sauce was goopy. I think that's what this dish is supposed to taste like? But I've actually had General Tso's Chicken where the pieces of chicken actually had crunch. Crazy, I know! Most of the time the chicken is soft and you get full on breading. The pork fried rice that accompanied the chicken was also very mediocre. Again, I liked it.
This is the thing, the dishes on their own? They weren't good. But I just love take-out food so much and ate so much of it during college that it's now built into my DNA to love this stuff. Even bad General Tso's Chicken is alright with me. In a way, this is kind of like pizza. Most of the time, pizza is pretty tasty. You gotta really really screw it up to make it terrible.
I'm not sure if wine goes better with cheap take-out food or if it's better with coke/orange drink/purple. But it makes me feel good that I'm sorta drinking the same beverage as someone else eating a farm-to-table meal. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Almost enough to forget how the other half lives.
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@kim,
Seriously, I think MSG could probably save the world. The world just doesn't know it yet...
Danny
October 4, 2010 11:11 am
Rookie mistake. The fact of the matter is that the only wine suitable with cheap takeout Chinese is that which comes from a box. My preferred is from TJ's. The wine you chose seems too classy! :p
Nicholas
September 30, 2010 2:08 pm
haha well the wine I got was like $8.99 from the store across the corner from the takeout place. And that's the lowest price they got for wines. Obviously some TJ $3 wine would be very appropo. haha, the wine would then cost less than the general tsos
Danny
September 30, 2010 2:10 pm
Chinese take out is like a guilty pleasure. You don't want to admit ordering it in the wee hour, but you know you crave that mediocre quality anyway. When I was an omnivore X years ago, I was living on campus and was sick like a dog. I've had it with cafeteria food (probably what made me sick) and ganged up my friends and had a feast on a local Chinese take out (in Upstate NY). Yea, it's not going to be authentic, but that smell of MSG and steaming rice probably cured my sickness.
kim
September 30, 2010 2:13 pm