Party Platter planning Part 2

By Taylor Melton
Translated by Anna Yang

Last month's issue gave an overview of meats and cheeses and how to build a tasty meat-and-cheese board.

Once you've got everything picked out, all you need is the wine. Be sure to offer at least one red and one white wine to suit everyone's tastes. Dry white wines and full-bodied red wines pair well with cheese, with the latter wine also going well with meat. For specific recommendations, visit your local wine shop, tell the sommelier the meats and cheeses you'll be serving, and they'll happily give you recommendations.

Using last month's guidelines, the following platter was assembled with the recommended wines from the experts at Terroir Wine.

Cheese: Fresh Mozzarella (Dida Creamery), Old Dutch Gouda (Finga's Fine Foods), Pecorino Romano (Finga's Fine Foods) *Optional: Blue Stilton (Finga's Fine Foods)

Meat: Prosciutto (Belling's Deli & Bar) and German Salami (Finga's Fine Foods)

White wine: Dry Riesling from Alsace - Fonne Tradition 2010 (Terroir Wine)
Sauvignon Blanc from South Africa - Arendsig SB Blok A10 (Terroir Wine)
Sauterne - Chateau Jany 2013 *include if blue cheese is present (Terroir Wine)

Red wine: Spanish Rioja - Urbion 2010 (Terroir Wine)
Bordeaux from France - Chantemerle 2007 (Terroir Wine)

We want to contrast fresh and aged cheeses. Fresh Mozzarella is great in the summer and goes beautifully with sweet spreads. Stracchino (Dida Creamery) is an excellent alternative to the Mozzarella. Gouda is one of the most popular cheeses in the world so an Old Dutch Gouda, which has aged longer and has a caramel sweetness, is a good choice; Emmentaler (Finga's Fine Foods) is an nice alternative, but lacks the same sweetness. The salty, hard cheese Pecorino Romano rounds out an overall selection that includes three different flavors (milky, sweet, salty, plus the optional blue cheese) and three different varieties and milks.

Prosciutto's delicate texture and sweetness is a terrific complement to the Pecorino Romano, and the German Salami's smokiness offers great flavor combination when enjoyed with Old Dutch Gouda.

and fruity Sauvignon Blancs are recommended for light cheeses like Mozzarella. Full-bodied red wines like Spanish Rioja and French Bordeaux pair great with the salami and aged cheeses. For blue cheeses, a sweet wine like Sauterne is suggested.

See business listings in this magazine for information regarding Finga's Fine Foods (Dining), Belling's Deli & Bar (Dining) and Terroir Wine (Nightlife).

Dida Creamery
0936-121-338
100, WuQuan W 2nd St, West Dist
Hours: 10 am-6 pm (closed Sun)