Taiwan Beer
Ahhh Taiwan Beer….. In the motherland, they usually only serve these cold, in the tall bottles with a small glass for each person at the table. You know, Asian style. Taiwan beer is a golden colored, light bodied lager that is very slightly sweet from the malt profile. The beer has no perceptible bitterness and finishes clean with almost no aftertaste, accentuated by it’s high carbonation. The style is very common in Asian beers, but I’m partial to the drinkability of this one, although it is not commonly found stateside. Luckily for me, Los Angeles boasts enough cultural diversity to do most countries proud. So, naturally, Asian markets in parts of town with high concentrations of Taiwanese nationals and immigrants (i.e. San Gabriel, Rowland Heights) occasionally carry these beers. Whenever my mom is in town to visit, we make the obligatory Asian grocery shopping trip and pick up a case of tall-boys along with enough Taiwanese foods and ingredients to sustain a small country through a natural disaster.
This is the perfect beer to pair with Taiwanese home-style foods, which feature a lot of fresh vegetables simply stir-fried with garlic, salt and pepper, and thin soy sauce-based braising liquids for the proteins. Everything, of course, served with steamed rice. With more bitter greens, the beer does have a slight metallic taste that I can do without. However, it is perfect for the meats that are braised in soy-sauce bases, like pork shanks, Taiwanese-style pork meatloaf with pickled cucumbers, or roasted duck wings.
Curious about the food? Check out Din Tai Fung for good taiwanese style dumplings or Nice Time Deli for simple Taiwanese foods and street vendor-type foods. Just be sure to swing by one of the Asian markets and pick up some Taiwan Beer too!
[...] soup, if paired with beer, is typically paired with a light lager that is most commonplace in Asian countries. The night that we had this dinner we had Jer’s [...]