I generally don’t order alcoholic beverages in restaurants with the exception of Mexican restaurants. At home, on fajita night, my dad always makes margaritas. There is just something nice about being buzzed and eating guac, chips, and softshell tacos.
Is this conditioning? Because my family often does this— or is this a more general phenomenon because Mexican food; by some quality yet unknown, be it texture, flavor, or smell, is uniquely well suited to being paired with alcohol?
Peanuts go so well with beer that that’s how I started eating peanuts 😂
Just you, alcohol goes well with other food too (and so it’s not unique) and while also enjoyable isn’t a prerequisite for mexican food enjoyment (I prefer agua fresca.)
I quit drinking alcohol a few years ago except for one certain Mexican restaurant because their margaritas are so good with the food.
Tequila and Mexican food is a gift to the people. 🤤
(People in places that don’t neighbor MX are missing out. If I’m ever deported, I’m gonna preach the word where I go.)
I also like some Mexican food with alcohol (or being high) but I think a lot of foods work! A nice ramen? Oh yes! A Philly cheesesteak? Fuck yes!
What do you drink with Ramen? Are we just beering here, I chili without a beer is barely a chili - am I missing out on this ramen game?
Oh I’m sure there’s better for it but I usually have something like hard lemonade and the like! I like fruity.
No it is not.
Maryland Style Steamed Crabs pair really well with beer.
Steak pairs really well with Whiskey.
Italian style Pasta Dishes pair really well with red wine.
Bacon and Eggs pair really well with Mimosa or Bloody Maries.
I think the only food that doesn’t pair well with alcohol is run of the mill chinese food.
Chinese food with baijiu.
Korean BBQ with soju.
Yakitori with sake.
Pub/bar snacks with beer.
try it with soju
Ohhhh. The Korean vodka
I don’t enjoy alcohol and eating at the same time.
Nor smoking and eating at the exact same time, before I quit.
I have a hard enough time with food in general that the change just makes the whole endeavor off-putting.
That being said, I’m also one of those people who forget to eat and don’t realize its been too long until they’re shaking and lightheaded.
I used not like food and drink together either, I would switch to water at a wedding when food was served but it waned. It mostly went away due to finger food in pubs and now a beer and good grub is heavenly.
I saw a steak and whiskey post and I cant say I could go for spirits with dinner.
Understood. I am on the other end of the spectrum in that I have to force myself not to eat,
We all have our crosses to bear.
softshell tacos.
Just fyi, those are just called tacos. They’re the default.
You mean Taco Bell lied to me!?
Seriously though a good classic street taco is amazing.
Mexican food pairs really well with lime. Margaritas have a ton of lime.
Other pairings work really well, too. Most would agree that a great full bodied red wine would goes really well with steak or lamb or other red meat.
There’s a whole body of study on which drinks pair with which foods, and which foods pair with other foods. If your local library has it, I’d recommend checking out The Flavor Bible by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page, which is a really useful reference guide for looking up an ingredient and seeing what other ingredients go well with it.
Well said, I came here to say something like this not as well.
But definitely the pairing, the lime in common
I’d also put Italian food up there as exceptionally well paired with Italian wines. Of course I like margaritas much better than Italian wines, so I rarely go there
Agreed. I love pizza with light bodied, high acid reds. And all sorts of other great Italian food and wine pairings.
So coming up, my family ate a ton of Mexican /TexMex. I being underage at the time, always got soft drinks, sweet tea (one of the good things to come from the south…), or water. Dad always got a beer, specifically Dos Equis amber.
My very first restaurant I went to as a newly 21 year old was a local TexMex spot with my now wife - ordered the burrito I’d ordered 100 other times but ordered a Dos Equis with it.
It changed my perception of the food entirely, and now it’s upsetting to me if I don’t get specifically a Dos Equis with my Mexican food - it just isn’t the same. Now wife has the same feelings and we argue over who is DD when we go out for Mexican.
Modelo is really bad with anything though, sorry gang.
My friend, you’ve clearly never had a good doner kebab at 2:30am
If there’s an afterlife, I’m skeptical it can beat that
Ahh Doner Kebab. That chain needs to make it to the states. When I was stationed in Germany I lived off that stuff…… and crystal weizen.
What chain? Doner Kebab is the name of the food, it’s served in several places, it’s like saying Hot Dog chain should make it to Europe.
hell I always thought the chain was called Doner Kebob.
The were sold out of these little yellow kiosks around Bad Kreuznach , if that helps.
In Bad Kreuznach in RLP? I know that city, it’s pretty empty most of the time. Just to be clear, Döner is a specific category of food, and you will likely find a lot of Dönerläden in Germany.
Sorry I don’t live in Germany, so I don’t know the chain, but are you sure it’s a chain and not some random restaurant? When I was in Germany I remember seeing lots of random restaurants selling Pizza + Kebab, with no apparent name, just the sign saying what they sold.
There’s no more sure sign of a good time the previous night than finding kebab salad in your pockets.
The post-liver-destruction Döner Kebab is the best. Make it with lamb and it’s gourmet.
Yes it is conditioning, not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Alcohol is a solvent that can release flavors that water cannot. Alcohol can also bond with fats enhaving our perception of flavor.
So it isn’t alcohol and Mexican in particular but alcohol and whatever spices are dissolved by alcohol.
Maybe that’s why beer tastes sweeter when I’ve been eating very spicy food?
There’s a Vietnamese restaurant in Redding, CA (or near it, can’t remember) that serves Belgian beer with the food. The right pairing makes both things better. Also pretty sure I’ve read some studies about what alcohol does to our tastebuds and general olfactory system. Can’t be bothered to look them up. Food and drink pairings are legit though. But an alcoholic beverage does not work miracles.
There’s also something to be said about a celebration where food and alcohol are served creating fun times and memories that could cause things to be remembered more fondly. Great food is great without alcohol. Great food with rot gut is no better and often worse.
I do like my fish tacos better with a beer.
There’s a Vietnamese restaurant (…) that serves Belgian beer with the food.
Another person just commented that low hop beer (certainly applies to Belgian beers) goes well with most foods, and I took that to include spicy food. Maybe I should try this - because I’m usually a big fan of hops in beer and rarely drink it directly with food.
FYI, hops isn’t a required ingredient in beer. In fact beer originally didn’t have hops. And on the market today there are a good number of very highly rated beers that contain no hops
I never made such a claim; but yours is at least debatable
I didn’t say you made that claim, which is why i started my comment with “fyi”. And on your other point, according to every authoritative source i can find about what a beer is, hops are not required. Go look up the definition. Go look up Wikipedia. Go look up the history of beer on Wikipedia. Go look up any reputable source that explains what beer is
Try weisswurst & sauerkraut paired with a Hefeweizen (mild white sausage and wheat beer).
Well, part of it is the margaritas I specific. That tangy goodness is going to match well with the general range of spices used in Mexican foods. Fajitas in specific have that bold and spice forward flavor profile that goes well with anything citrusy. Tequila has a fairly distinct flavor that mixes well with that lime and orangey mix. Most people already put lime on fajitas to begin with.
Stuff like guac is fatty enough to benefit from something like that to cut through it as well.
So you’ve essentially got a mouthful of amazing flavors that are used in Mexican food because they go well together.
Some alcoholic beverages are going to work with damn near anything. But if you tried a margarita with your meatloaf, you’d not be as impressed. Not until the fourth or fifth drink anyway.
Something like a low hop beer goes with pretty much any non dessert foods, allowing for personal preference. But you can select bears or wines that would not do well with mexican. Or select for those that would be as good as a margarita. Same with a u cuisine; the right beverage enhances the food, and vice versa.
10/10 analysis would eat again— will have the try this lip hop beer you speak of
Low hop. In my book that’s most American beers, certainly that one Mexican brand that’s exported a lot. With corn and rice iirc. SOL?
Do you just mean lagers?
