BEST HOKKIEN MEE WINE PAIRINGS
Mention food and wine pairing and the first thing that comes to mind is probably an artfully-presented dish, with little dabs of sauce. Plates too pretty to eat. Haute cuisine, for haute wines. But at Singapore Wine Club, we’re big believers that fine wine belongs on the table with all forms of food—from the “haut” to the “bas” (that’s French for “high” and “low” for the non-bougie). That’s why we champion Singaporean hawker food and wine pairings.
Take pairing Singaporean Hokkien mee with wine as an example. Hokkien mee is living proof that food doesn’t need to look pretty to taste amazing. Let’s face it—to the untrained eye, the dish looks and reads like a real mess. A mound of slippery noodles drenched in pork and prawn broth, with a mélange of seemingly random toppings that include pork slices, lime and squid rings, isn’t going to win any beauty contests anytime soon. But boy does it taste amazing!
Hokkien mee wine pairing definitely isn’t the easiest to pull off. The curious mix of flavours that makes the dish so unique is also precisely what makes it difficult to pair with wine. You’ve got a blend of seafood-y and meaty flavours. You’ve got a dose of heat (from the all-important chili) and acid (from the obligatory squeeze of lime), both famous “wine enemies”. And that quintessential smoky, charred flavour or “wok-hey” that characterises the best Hokkien mees in Singapore? Pick the wrong wine and you’ll end up with something acrid and bitter.
But we love a good challenge, so we’ve put in hours of research into curating the following list of the best wines with Hokkien mee. Yes, it was a tough job munching on all that crispy lard, but somebody had to do it for science!
Unoaked Sauvignon Blanc would be our top pick. The easiest and most wallet-friendly option would be a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. Asian food generally goes well with extra-fruity wines, and the distinctively explosive bouquet of a good Marlborough SB, with its passionfruit, mango and guava aromas is a great example. For something more off-the-beaten-path, try a Sauvignon Blanc from Pouilly-Fume, named for the signature flint-based soils that lend a smoky, gunpowder-esque edge to the wines, beautifully complementing a good dose of wok-hey. Either way, Sauvignon Blanc’s typically high acidity ensures your palate will be refreshed after every bite of this rich dish. Just make sure that the wine is unoaked, as liberal doses of oak can otherwise overwhelm the grape’s natural exuberant aromas and affect the pairing potential.
Chenin Blanc is another great white wine for Hokkien mee pairing. Off-dry styles are fairly commonplace, and that kiss of residual sugar can help to temper the spice of an exceptionally robust chili sauce. We particularly enjoy the examples from Vouvray and Montlouis-sur-Loire in France’s Loire Valley, which boast subtle honeyed and ripe stone fruit aromas. And as is always an important consideration with Asian food, Chenin Blanc’s naturally high acidity helps to balance out the dish’s umami flavours and prevent palate fatigue.
While red wine and Hokkien mee is definitely unorthodox, we recommend a Californian Pinot Noir pairing for the more adventurous. The trick when pairing red wines with seafood is to look for wines that are fruity and low in tannin—save your Bordeaux and Barolo for another day, as firmly-structured and savoury red wines can produce unpleasant metallic flavours when paired with seafood. Pinot Noir from California, with its cheerful red fruited aromas and velvet texture, should be a great complement for Hokkien mee whether the stock is more pork-based, or prawn-based.
Why stop at pairing wine with Hokkien mee? If you’re interested in more Singaporean hawker food wine pairings, check out our Instagram page where we recommend the best wines for hawker food and all other things Singapore!
