A Big Gastronomic Pairing
Beerbeer was invited to Brussels for food and beer pairing. An eleven course meal that really quite satisfying. We were pampered with non-stop of beer and food that really filled up my belly enough to sustain till next day breakfast. Each course are paired with a recommended beer to go with the food, it’s exciting as this is the first time I attending a food pairing review.
Brussels Summer Fruit Salad paired with König Ludwig Weissbier
Salad may not be my favourite, but adding water melon and cucumber sure make it very refreshing. With light taste of olive oil, olives and nice feta cheese, the salad actually taste quite good. I would have prefer to pair it with lager beer rather then strong aroma weissbier.
Prawn Bisque paired with König Ludwig Weissbier
Bisque is a soup from french origin. This prawn bisque is really nice. Can taste the prawn aroma in the soup, very strong and lovely. I love this soup a lot as it’s quite comfort as well. Pairing it with König Ludwig Weissbier is a good choice. I love the sweetness of the malt blend nicely with prawn sweetness.
Potato Skin paired with König Ludwig Weissbier
Oven baked potato with ingredient inside top with cheese. It look more heavy in taste but is actually quite mild. A bit dry on the potato skin but combine with the filling and the cheese it have a nice balance blend. Could work even nicer with some sauce. As for this I would also go with lager beer rather then weissbier.
Grilled Baby Beef Ribs paired with Franziskaner Weissbier Dunkel
The ribs cooked in medium well. Quite tender and juicy. Although they have some mustard and other sauce to go with. The dish is good on it’s owned. This dish can sure paired with a nice beer. Although the recommended beer are dunkel weiss, I would have prefer something less sweet and less aroma to give the beef grease linger in the mouth. I guess dunkel is chosen to mix the roasted malt aroma and the charred grill beef taste as a blend. For me the beer come in too sweet for the pairing and take away some of the beef grease aroma.
Pork & Kidney pie paired with Leffe Brune
This dish have a good mixture of ingredient inside including kidney, but is a bit dry, could have been more juicier to make the blend well. The aroma of the taste is quite well balance but again I think the beer come in too strong for this dish, if it’s a steak & kidney pie maybe this beer will work better. Leffe Brune have the cherry roasted sweetness in the beer. It can be too strong and sweet to wash all the food taste.
Blind Finches paired with Leffe Blonde
This is something interesting, I like the whole combination of it. The patty wrap with bacon give this totally awesome flavour with it’s reach sauce. Pairing with Leffe Blonde is a good choice, even with brune will work as well. Could have go nicely with weissbier as well. This is a nice beer food.
Roast Pork paired with Stella Artois
I think this is the German style roast pork, something like our siew yok but have different kind of style in spices and ingredient. Nice portion of fats and lean meat, with crunchy skin crust and juicy oily pork fat swirling in the mouth. Stella is a good pairing with this dish, even weissbier would be a good choice. As this is a good beer food as well. Always blend well with alcohol, as it’s saltiness will blend well with beer sweetness. Is a favourite to pair with red wine as well.
Chicken Waterzooi paired with Hoegaarden / König Ludwig Weissbier
This dish sure come at the right time. Is very comforting in taste and texture. Is like a salad broth with stew chicken. Light in flavour but still very delicious in taste. The recommend beer work well here. Is nice to start this dish as sharing starter as well.
Mussels Hoegaarden / Mariniere paired with Hoegaarden
How can you not eat mussels at a Belgium outlet… haha. The mussels is nicely cooked and the broth or soup is very sweet with seafood essences. Just like saltiness with seafood sweetness. Hoegaarden paired nicely with it, as the like citrus aroma of the beer blend nicely with it. Lager beer will do justice to this dish as well.
The Big One
This is the main event, it make all the dish before look like a skimpy whimp. This is the biggest hot dog I every see. Look at the 500ml bottle behind then you’ll know how big is this. Weighing around 2 pounds with the length of 1 feet, this humungous hot dog is sure something 3-4 person can share. The sausages is really pack with meat, even a small slice of it can really give you the solid taste in the sausage. I think this dish is best paired with weissbier because of it’s full meaty extravaganza.
Pork Knuckle paired with Warsteiner
The crunchy skin with well done meat inside is full with meaty taste. Strong pork taste which can easily blend with beer. I find it a bit too dry but the sauce that comes with it nicely blend up the whole dish. I would prefer a weissbier more the lager on this dish. As the aroma of weissbier will bring up the meat taste more.
Our table is full with beers glasses. Is not easy to drink all the beer and eat all the food. Is too satisfying to have such a delight in the food and beer pairing. Thanks to Brussels to organise this special media section which I really pay respect. Thanks to the chef for making such a delicious meal and the management from Brussels to organise it. With this I cheers to a job well done. Cheers!
