WINE WITH INDONESIAN FOOD

What do you drink with spicy and herbal? To answer this question, WINELIFE lugged thirteen bottles of wine to Maureen Tan's cooking school Anak Bungsu. During a tasting of Indonesian dishes, the aromatic, fresh and low-alcohol wines turned out to be the first to run out. 
Text: Marjolein Schuman, courtesy of Karin Leeuwenhoek / Image Maureen Tan, Karin Leeuwenhoek, Marjolein Schuman

We are in Maureen Tan's kitchen on a November afternoon of severe weather. Code yellow has been issued, the strong wind and rain have been defied, only dangerously delicious smells waft inside. While Karin Leeuwenhoek poses as sommelier and pours the first glass for lunch - champagne, of course - Maureen starts finishing the Balinese sambal matah which we taste first today. 

'There are over 200 varieties of sambal in Indonesia, most of which come from the island of Java,' Maureen says as she finely chops the shallots and adds them to the other fresh ingredients. 'This one contains lemongrass, lime leaf, garlic, chilli, ginger flower and trassi, which is fermented shrimp paste.' Add some more coconut oil and the raw sambal is spooned as a topping on betel leaves deep-fried in tempura batter. Selamat makan, Tasty food. The flavours, smells and colours - pink through trassi and ginger flower - take us straight to Indonesia. The crispy leaf has something bitter and with the fresh, chopped plant on top, it is a sensation in the mouth. Sour, sweet and salty at the same time, and mildly spicy. 

A NICE COOL GLASS OF WHITE

Maureen restrained herself with the chillies because of the wines. 'Four lombokjes are in it and in two I took out the seeds. That gives enough spice to test with the wine without blowing it over.' We are already drinking sparkling wine as an aperitif. 'The bubbles should have a refreshing and cooling effect and so should the acids in the wine,' says Karin. 'That has to do with the pH value. That of acids is very low and the pH of peppers is actually high, so you get a dampening effect. And then you also have pure temperature. If you chill the wine nicely, it immediately contrasts with hot food.' 

REFRESHING EFFECT

Back to the beginning for a moment. We met Maureen over the summer at a get-together of her cookbook publisher and got talking about wine. That the mouth sometimes needs to be quenched is one thing, but there are other interesting effects of a pairing to come up with. 'I notice that people find it difficult to pair Indonesian food with wine, especially with all those different ingredients,' Maureen said. 'They do very easily grab that fresh bottle of Riesling, but of course there are many more wines.' 

It was the birth of the idea for a joint tasting. With for WINELIFE the task of scoring chance bottles, and for Maureen to prepare exciting dishes from her two cookbooks. The deal was struck after still sounding out what she herself likes to drink. Maureen: 'Pinot Gris and Riesling, but I also like a Chenin Blanc with food. A bit fuller, a bit butterier can also go with many dishes.'

You can read the whole article in WINELIFE 87, which you can order here without shipping costs!

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