How to pair booze with ice cream, meat pies, spicy food and pizza
Slogging down an ice cold beer goes hand-in-hand with a meat pie at the footy. But what alcoholic beverages do you pair with a dirty pizza or ice cream? We share some odd food and booze pairings.
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Slogging down an ice cold beer goes hand-in-hand with a meat pie at the footy, right?
But what tipple pairs with a dirty pizza on a Friday night on the couch, or the bowl of ice cream to follow?
Melbourne’s culinary experts have shared ways we can enjoy our guilty food pleasures with our favourite drinks.
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PIZZA
Having pizza for dinner, why not try that with a negroni?
Lucas Restaurants group bar manager John Ross-Jones, who oversees the drinks at Baby Pizza, says the classic cocktail is a perfect match for the margherita.
“It has three basic ingredients, similar to the pizza which has cheese, tomato and basil,” he says. “(The drink) has the herbal element, a sweet element. It works well.”
Hot salami pizzas are best eaten alongside a pilsner or a pinot grigio to cut through the spice.
“A pilsner works well against the grease,” John says.
Red wine drinkers should opt for a lighter style like a chianti or any Mediterranean drop with herbal notes. Avoid a bold shiraz or IPA.
MEAT PIE
Why not try a gin or whiskey with your meat pie?
Wonderpop and Deli’s Raymond Capaldi says: “You could even have a Cointreau or a spritz with a duck pie.”
“Meat pies go well with a good old malt whiskey, that’s been soaked in peat. I like my pies a bit darker … it goes great with spirits. It’s got that bitterness and sweetness with the inside of the pie and the sweet old umami taste with the peat.”
As for your dirty street pies? Make sure you get a good flavoured whiskey or gin.
“There’s not much flavour in the pastry, and it’s a bit soft and doughy,” he says.
REALLY SPICY FOOD
Intense heat in any dish calls for a refreshing drink to cut through the spice, says Lucy Liu venue manager Owen Brockfield.
“We have a beer on tap by 2 Brothers Brewery called Kung Foo Rice lager, that goes well with spicy food. It’s floral and hoppy,” he says.
Lucy Liu’s Tokyo Drift cocktail, made of blood orange liqueur, cognac, yuzu-shu, lemon juice and sugar syrup, complements most dishes at the CBD restaurant.
The general beverage-pairing rule with spicy food is to have something refreshing, acidic or sweet, which is why lagers, pale ales and pilsners or dry and sweet wines like riesling work well.
ICE CREAM AND CAKE
You don’t just pair dessert wines with desserts. OmNom Kitchen manager Ella Davidson says the trick is to pair drinks that compliment the dessert flavour profile.
“Smoother liqueurs such as amaretto go well with vanilla ice cream,” she says.
“However in this day and age we tend to try things that are contrasting and a bit different.”
“We have a salted caramel crackling espresso which is our take on the classic espresso martini but used the salted element to pair,” she says.
Cake or butter based desserts with ice cream marry nicely with muscat, while a chocolate stout works as a palate cleanser.
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