The Fine Points of Human Civilization
Despite common wisdom, artfully pairing wine with food has been a big deal in Western Civilization for hundreds of years. There are those who say that French food, as wonderful as it may be on its own, or served, God forbid, with wines from hell, was developed largely to showcase those of the region, particularly those of Bordeaux.
IMO, this is mostly pedantry. I eat (and serve to my guests) fish and seafood exclusively, and I’ve yet to find a wine, red or white, that doesn’t pair adequately. Of course, I could merely be showing off my vast culinary ignorance, not that I care.
Here’s a pairing that seems particularly in vogue in the U.S., though its impact is largely regional; it seems to predominate Texas and the other states in the southern and the central part of the country.
It’s kind of like my devil-may-care approach to serving sauteed shrimp and scallops with whatever happens to be on sale at Trader Joe’s: what could go wrong?
Craig,
” I could merely be showing off my vast culinary ignorance ”
Far be it from me to be so impolite as to wholeheartedly agree with your statement, but if you really don’t care what you drink or eat, why should anyone else ? 🙂
As for your exclusive seafood diet, in particular shrimp and scallops, that’s a little more alarming.
The fashionable rise in seafood consumption is depleting ocean life and habitats alarmingly, and really isn’t sustainable.
As Humans we are very experienced with tertiary animal production, but the oceans are very different. Our knowledge is relatively small and the ability to satisfy our voracious appetite has dramatically increased with rapid advances in technology.
The result is massive environmental damage to the oceans and ocean life.
We are expert at rehabilitating land surface, but the oceans are a very matter different, more complex and infinitely more delicate.
“tertiary animal production” … Please explain.
Cameron,
“tertiary animal production” a term literally meaning animals farmed by graduates of Agricultural Universities (farmers, not the livestock).
More commonly applied to any animal farming incorporating a high level of knowledge, technology and sophisticated support services including advanced mechanization, computerization etc.