The art of pairing food and wine

There is something fabulously luxurious about a five-course gourmet meal served with a variety of vintage wines from all over the world. Tickle your taste buds with a flavour of wine that goes with your favourite dishes. Vivanta by Taj on Willingdon Island is running an exotic food promotion at Rice Boat, the ethnic seafood speciality restaurant overlooking the backwaters.“This is a unique concept. We are trying to popularise a food and wine pairing menu. Wine goes well not only with continental cuisine but with ethnic delicacies as well,” says Vincent Ramos, general manager, Vivanta by Taj. He happens to be a wine aficionado, too. He can take a whiff of any wine and tell you what has gone into it. “Can you smell peach and honey or roasted nuts?,” he asks as we sip sparkling Australian wine.   Roasted nuts, yes. But as we strive hard to get a whiff of peach and honey, he says, “You can distinguish each smell with practice.”The menu, indeed, is brimming with regional favourites, many re-interpreted for the contemporary palate. “Wine should never overpower the food. There should be harmony between the two. In short, wine should complement the food,” says Jayanta Das, executive assistant manager - F&B.We started the culinary journey with an appetiser, amuse-bouche or mouth amuser, a single bite-sized hors d’oeuvere. Amuse-bouche is different from the appetisers in that they are not ordered from a menu but according to the chef’s choice. The amuse-bouche for the day was oysters toasted in butter-garlic sauce. We started the five-course meal with a crunchy masala crumb fried softshell crab and delicious prawn garlic roast - the best starters that I have ever tasted. We gulped it down with a glass of fresh and delicious sparkling Australian wine, Green Point Non Vintage Brut, which was light straw yellow in colour. Flavours of white peach, honey and roasted nuts blend harmoniously to create a complex wine with a refreshing finish.This was followed by a thick and creamy crab and coconut soup. Mind you, they don’t serve any wine with the soup.A local delicacy of seafood platter - lobster ulathu, fish pollichathu and porichathu - was served next. The fish delights were served with a French wine - Pouilly fume from Loire valley, France. The wine was rich, elegant and full of finesse. Seafood, crustacean, fish and goats’ cheese match wonderfully with the classic sauvignon wine, says the GM. The main course is again an ethnic delicacy - prawn moily served with fluffy appam or rice. We chose appam. It was served again with a glass of wine. This time a red wine - El Rosal Tarapaca - from Chile. It had a deep opaque ruby colour with a garnet rim. According to Vincent, the palate is youthful with bright acidity and juicy red fruit flavours.“It’s a perfect match with white meat, grilled line fish, tuna, wild mushroom and traditional cheese,” he says.Jayanta Das corrects an age-old belief. “The traditional belief that red wine goes well with red meat and white wine with fish is not true. “A light red wine goes well with fish,” he says. Truly said, the glass of red wine complemented the appam and prawn moily.We rounded off the meal on a sweet note. Tender coconut souffle and coconut ice-cream were served with ‘Sauternes’, a sweet dessert wine well-balanced in the mouth and not overwhelmed by richness. It had pleasant touches of citrus and ripe apricot.It was indeed a marriage of food and wine. The sweetness of the wine brought a delicate balance to the desserts. The meal was truly a wholesome experience where we could also learn a lot about the art of wine pairing. The food promotion is on till Sunday.