Pairings for dummies

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New food products introduced at the Summer Fancy Food Show 2010 in New York City on June 29 expanded the concept of wine and food pairings with on product guides to help ‘dummies' pair and plan perfect bites.

The products went beyond wine to include crackers and cheese (Daelia's Biscuits), honey for grill, tea and cheese (Savannah Bee Company) and chocolate for wine (Brix Chocolate).

Perhaps this trend will elevate your palate, make quicker better tasting decisions while strolling the endless supermarket isles or inspire you to learn more about flavor combinations and how to best pair your favorite dishes.

It could be the case that the information on the box is more interesting than the taste of the product, if that is the case there are various online guides via blogs, vlogs, smartphone apps (Superb Guide to Chinese Cuisine & Wine Pairing: http://www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/jsp/interactive/wine-dining-guide.jsp).

A great resource is FoodPairing.be. You can select any product and it maps out all the flavors that will go well with it ranging from sea products to cereals, and also gives replacements.

For instance vanilla bourbon can go well with American bourbon whiskey, arrack (palm), asparagus, basmati rice, black rice, black olives, oaky Chardonnay, cold smoked salmon, Columbian coffee Arabica, clementine peel oil, mango, popcorn, roasted sesame, rye sourdough, strawberry, soy sauce.

If that is a bit intimidating, try dialing it back with the June released e-book The Complete Idiot's Guide to Wine and Food Pairing (Kindle $9.99/€ and inside you can find wild ways to pair your guilty snacking pleasures from chips (dry Champagne) to gummy bears (Moscato d'Asti) even peanut M&Ms (Tawny port).

Or with AsianPalate.com's five basic food flavours and wine pairing concepts: http://www.asianpalate.com/asian-food-wine/pairing-concepts