Beer and ethnic cuisine: the perfect marriage

Every city is teeming with ethnic restaurants, from upscale to kitsch, where we’ve all spent countless evenings, or which have come to our rescue with delivery.

Talking about ethnic cuisine is, however, rather vague.

This vast category includes dishes that are as different from each other as can be. No matter how you look at them a huramaki has little in common with an empanada de atun.

Despite this enormous variety, which is enough to give anyone culinary agoraphobia, beer, thanks to its versatility, is the perfect pairing for any exotic meal, from start to finish.

But which?

For sushi I recommend light, delicate, and faintly aromatic beers with just a touch of bitterness, perfect with their gentle spicy flavors due to the use of coriander and orange zest, like in Bière Blanche (Parma from Birrificio del Ducato is an excellent example), or the skillful addition of Saison yeast (write this down: Yokai from Birra Gaia).

For Asian cuisine, especially Indian or Southeast Asian, featuring skillful blends of curry, beers with a bold aroma of hops, and with citrusy, tropical, and balsamic fragrances, are best, like the large family of IPAs (India Pale Ale, true to its name) or APAs (American Pale Ale).

For spicy dishes (really spicy), like those of Mexican cuisine, choose a beer with a relatively high alcohol content (alcohol dissolves capsaicinoids, the component responsible for the pseudo-heat of spicy foods)), but which isn’t very bitter, as this would emphasize the spiciness, like Helles Bock or Bière de Garde.