Match of the week

Vietnamese fish sauce chicken wings and tamarind whiskey sour

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on August 2 2010 at 09:57

It might seem perverse to pick out a cocktail match during a week of drinking stellar wines in Oregon wine country but I’m saving my new thoughts on wine pairing with Pinot Noir for a more wide-ranging piece. And this is a great cocktail pairing

I came across it at one of Portland’s hottest restaurants Pok Pok which serves Thai street food and is famous for its Vietnamese Fish Sauce wings which were inspired by owner Andy Ricker’s trips to Thailand.

I’d been recommended the tamarind whisky sour (below, right) and it proved spot on, its fruity tartness perfectly offsetting the sweet and sourness of the wings. I can’t think of a wine that would have done that. Even Pinot Noir . . .

You can buy tamarind paste from Asian grocers. There’s a recipe for the Pok Pok whiskey sour here. I reckon it would be pretty good throughout a Thai meal.

Incidentally the drink on the left is a strawberry fruit vinegar, one of a range the restaurant offers. It also had a pleasing tartness which was really refreshing with the food. Coincidentally Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recently posted a recipe for one in the Guardian. You simply top them up with fizzy water or soda.

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