In a perfect world, we would eat every meal at a nice restaurant. A sommelier would pick out the perfect wine to pair with our gourmet meal, and we could even take a nap afterwards. But it's not a perfect world. We still want to drink wine with our meals, though, even if the meals are more junk food than gourmet food.
Our first adventure into pairing wine with junk food led us to try crispy egg rolls -- Sundays are made for Chinese take-out and pajamas -- with a bottle of Rancho Ponte Pinot Grigio leftover from our visit to the winery. We wagered the crisp, slightly sweet Pinot Grigio would be a nice complement to the crunchy vegetable egg roll.
We highly overestimated our wine pairing ability. The wine wasn't bad with the egg roll, but it wasn't good either. The saltiness of the soy sauce brought out the sweetness in the wine almost too much. The one positive was that the clean, crisp flavor of the wine did cut the greasiness of the egg roll. White was the way to go, but a heavier one would have been better.
In the next installment of this feature, we will ask the experts to assist us in our wine and junk food pairing. They may look at us funny when we ask which wine goes with potato chips or pumpkin pie, but seriously, who eats steak every day? We're lucky if we have enough energy to boil water.