Spicy Chicken Sandwich and (not)homebrew blonde ale

Had a bit of a brewing day last Saturday in which I brought some friends over and we bottled one batch, made another batch , and probably drank 1/4 of a previous batch of homebrew beer.

To get ready for this I threw together some light sandwiches. i used pan seared chicken with a dash of hot sauce, greens, a light italian cheese and a bit of mustard on the top. For bread we tried both baguette and English muffins, with the winner being the former. The sandwiches were great. I was especially happy with the balance between the ingredients, rather than being overwhelming each ingredient melded with the rest. Also I was happy with the versatility of the dish, I could easily substitute any one of the ingredients, for instance a different cheese, out for something else and have a new, tasty, easy dish.

The pairing was also nice. I was drinking a homebrewed session ale, light, hoppy, with a nice cistrus cascade hop flavor to it. The light bitterness worked well against the mild spice in the sandwich and the greens. We also tried a Brooklyn Lager against the sandwich. The sandwich highlighted the complexities in the malt, which was quite nice, and the foods spice provided a linkage to the spicy hops in the beer. On the whole, I would say the Brooklyn lager was the more skillful pairing, bringing out more of the flavors in the food and the beer, but also adding some heft to the meal. On the other hand the homebrew was solid, and kept the feel of the meal quite light, which might be preferable. Overall an excellent culinary experience.

-Eric

T.Y. Harbor

I decided to try out T.Y. Harbor last week. The place is on Tennozu Isle, is "contemporary American", and they have their own beer. I was expecting some really fine food, but on the whole I was somewhat disappointed. Not painfully disappointed, but the food and the beer were fairly blah-, especially for the price. The view was quite nice though, and the service was fine.


I see this alot with "branded" restaurant chains. These companies use classic business strategy: standardize a core product in this case a core menu,  then modify the brand with a different name, different decorations, nice location, and other "branding" elements. All industries do this, from cars ( create a standard car, modify frame, seats etc) to accounting firms. In the food industry what this leads to is generally bland food at a high price. Of course it does not have to be this way, but the trend is for companies to pay more attention to "branding" elements rather than actual food quality.

I tried the seasonal, wheat, pale ale, amber, and dark. They were all drinkable, and probably quite accessible but lacked the depth that I am used to. The wheat was the best, the PA was a bit ugly. Food wise the bread, cesar salad, seared shrimp, pizza, and wings. None of it was unpalatable or poorly made, but it was all just standard and uninteresting. If I want that Ill make it myself.

Baird & spicy pizza

Today on the blog I pair a few beers from Baird Brewing with a spicy pizza. The phenomenon of how spice and beer interact has really intrigued me ever since I had some great mexican and a bottle of 90min IPA. So after getting some great hot sauce from a friend back in the states I promptly decided to use it on some pizza.

Beer and pizza are a fantastic match up for many reasons. First off roasted malt and pizza have similar flavors, baked bread, a slight sweetness. Then you have the spices in the pizza playing with the hops in the beer. Finally pizza can get a bit heavy, and beer is happy to wash away those heavy flavors with its carbonation. This is not complicated, most college students already know this simply by instinct.

My thinking was that I would try two beers from Baird Brewing. Their flagship, Rising Sun Pale Ale and a favorite Angry Boy Brown Ale. American brown ales are usually thought of as a good counterpart to pizza and I figured that since it was a fairly light pizza (just cheese, and a light sauce of tomatoes, onion, garlic, and mushrooms) the Pale Ale might also work well (BA Review). I also thought that the hot sauce would be fairly mild and work well with the bitterness, especially in the brown ale.

Unfortunately, the hot sauce was really far too hot. The heat was tasty, and not without depth, however it was a bit much for the beers. To be honest I am not sure if anything could have paired with hot sauce this hot, maybe a very malty and very bitter DIPA. What I ended up with was two beers who's subtitles were washed out by the heat. Oh well, lesson learned next time less hot sauce.