Match of the week

Cold sesame noodles and weissbier

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on June 11 2012 at 08:55

Thanks to my friend Signe Johansen of Scandilicious I finally got to Koya in Frith Street the other day - London’s food bloggers most popular noodle haunt and the winner of last year’s Observer Food Monthly’s Best Cheap Eats award.

It was a hot day (unusually for this summer) so cold noodles appealed and I had this amazing dish of Zaru Gomadare, thick udon noodles with a sesame sauce, cucumber salad and turnip pickle. That seemed a big ask for any wine to tackle (although a trusty Grüner Veltliner would probably have coped) so I picked the weissbier that was on offer - which embarrassingly I failed to note at the time. No matter - any similar German or German-style beer would be an equally good pairing

Its citrus and banana notes and slight touch of sweetness were perfect with the sesame sauce which I’m still wondering how to amalgamate with the noodles for my next visit. (Unable to dunk the thick slithery noodles in the sauce like any self-respecting Japanese I ended up pouring it over them and making the most ungodly mess.)

They also have a decent sake list so I’m guessing that sake would have been a good pairing too.

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