Most people love to throw dinner parties for their friends and family. But, they may avoid serving wine because they do not know exactly what to serve. Do you serve red or white with fish? Will Merlot be okay if you are serving a Mexican dish? Do not stress over it - there are some basic wine rules you can follow. The number one rule of thumb when choosing wine is "red wine with red meat, white wine with white meat." This is not always true, but it generally works quite well when you are unsure. One exception is chicken. The meat is white, but a nice fruity red wine goes well with it. The same can be said for tuna or salmon, so you do not have to always follow the rule of not serving red wine with fish. The second rule is the rule of complements. It is okay to match sweet seafood such as lobster with a sweet white wine. The next rule is the opposites attract. While you usually want to match like flavors, sometimes a contrast, such as a White Bordeaux with bluefish can be wonderful. Outside of the basic rules, there are certain things you can look for and certain things you can avoid depending on what you are serving.

Here are some hints as to what to serve with particular types of food. Salads and AppetizersYou should avoid serving wine during your salad, as vinegar and wine do not mix well. best quality sweet wineBut, if you are having an appetizer, you need to consider the ingredients in the appetizer to help you choose your wine. best type of wine on a dietIf you are having a cheese tray, the type of cheese will help you determine the wine. buy canadian ice wine in ukFor example, cheddar is best with dry reds, Merlots, and Cabernet Sauvignon. red wine brands mPinot Noir goes best with Swiss. buy usa wines in australia

Camembert and brie are great with a Chardonnay. The cheese we tend to think of as Italian such as parmigiano, romano, and reggiano go well with Italian dry red wines like Chianti and Barlol. best wine for a dietIf you are serving something a fried appetizer, consider serving a crisp, fruity white or red wine to help cut the oily flavor.Beef, Steak and LambDo you remember the "red wine with red meat" rule? That one is great to use when serving beef, steak, and lamb. Choose a dry red wine like Cabernet Sauvignon or a burgundy like Pinot Noir. You can also consider serving an Italian red such as Barolo or Chianti.Fish and SeafoodTo be safe, stick with a dry, crisp white wine. Sauvignon Blanc goes well with white fish while Sancerre and Muscadet go well with oysters. If you want to be different, try a fruity red wine (without tannins). But, use caution when serving red, especially if you are serving white, delicate fish.

Cabernets with tannins combined with fish can leave a metallic taste in your mouth. Poultry, Pork and VealFor the most part, you want to follow the "white meat, white wine" rule with these. White chardonnays and Pinot Blancs are great. If you want to serve red with chicken, remember to choose a wine that is fruity like a Merlot or Zinfandel.Turkey Think back to Thanksgiving. Do you remember how well your cranberry sauce went with the turkey? The same rule applies here. For turkey, since it has both white and dark meat, you want something fruity and tart such as a Beaujolais for red or a Riesling for white.Spicy FoodsIf you are planning on service something spicy like Thai or Indian food, a sparkling wine works best. Avoid wines with tannins and look for something fruity. And, make sure the wine is well chilled. Cold wine goes well with spicy foods.DessertThe best thing to serve with a delicious dessert is a dessert wine. In fact, you can skip the dessert part and just serve a dessert wine to your guests.

These are sweet wines often sold in smaller bottles as you don't drink as much dessert wine as you do regular wine. Wines such as Sauternes, Beerenauslese, Bermet and Cammandaria will make a great end to any evening.The most important rule about what wine to serve is to avoid being snobby about wine. There are no right answers, only basic rules to go by and even those, as you have seen, can be changed. Do not be afraid to experiment with different tastes. Chances are if you do not act like there is anything wrong with the wine you are serving, your guests will not either. Users Reading this article are also interested in: What Wine Goes With What Food, by M Slater Wine Food Pairings, by Deniseclarke Proper Food and Wine Pairings, by Michael S. Brown Top Searches on Wine Guide: • Wine And Food Pairings • Wine And Cheese Pairings About The Author, Jason Connors Jason Connors is a wine lover providing valuable tips and advice on wine cellar design, wine making, and wine basics.

Read his recent report on "What To Look For in a Wine Cooling System". The Right Wine Basket Wine Tasting In Northamptonshire Wine Trails: Rhode Island A Surprising Wine Travel Destination Learning To Talk About Wine Riedel Wine Glasses - Greatest Wine Glass - Wine Gift Online 097 Greatest Wine Glass - Wine Gifts - Riedel Wine Glasses 453 How to Pair the Best Wines and Food Wine Gifts and Wine Accessories 101 Fine Wine Italian Style: The Beauty Of Italian Wine. Good Tasting Dry Wine The University Of California And Early Wine Research Why Buy Organic Wine? Wining And Dining: Tips For Cooking With Wine Wine Gift for Loved Ones Celebrity Winemakers And Their Wines How to Choose the Right Wine, with these Helpful Tips » More on Wine GuideIn the course of our exhaustive explorations of the Absolute Best of everything there is to eat in this food-obsessed city, we’ve covered the best dim sum, the best restaurants in the Chinatowns of Manhattan and Sunset Park, the best dumplings, and the best version of that most sacred and Royal Chinese dish of all, Peking duck.

So consider this a kind of wide-angle, drone’s-eye view on the rest of the city’s sprawling, ever-changing Chinese-food scene. Here are the best Chinese restaurants in New York for a nourishing bowl of noodles, a fiery Sichuan fix in midtown, and the annual big-money, banquet-style splurge. 1. Hao Noodle and Tea by Madam Zhu’s Kitchen401 Sixth Ave., nr. Sure, the name is a mouthful, but take a bite of the pastry-thin scallion pancakes, or the painstakingly constructed dan dan noodles, or Zhu Rong’s wonderful “family recipe” for Chongqing tomato stew, and you’ll see why certain overenthused critics are declaring this to be the finest Chinese restaurant to arrive on our fair shores since the great General Tso invasion of the 1970s. Unlike the proprietor of your average carryout joint down the street, Madam Zhu recruits her cooks from her string of successful restaurants in Shanghai, Sichuan, and Beijing. Everything on the dynamic, seasonally attuned menu is good (you’ll find recommended dishes on the current winter menu for “moderate cold” and “heavy snow”), but pay attention to the noodle, soup, and dumpling sections, which read like a carefully curated, Bourdain-style tour of the markets and noodle dens of modern China.

2. Mission Chinese171 E. Broadway, nr. The totemic dishes at the center of Danny Bowien’s fiery Sichuan vision (e.g., thrice-cooked bacon, heritage-pork mapo tofu) are still worth a special trip, but the addition of the talented executive chef Angela Dimayuga and a larger, more permanent venue have raised this restaurant up into the growing pantheon of New York’s next-generation Chinese destinations. 3. Lake Pavilion60-15 Main St., at Horace Harding Expressway, Flushing; The key to this bustling Cantonese seafood palace is demand, which leads to freshness, which leads to an endless array of variety. Up to five kinds of crab are available — depending on the season — but if you happen to have $60 in your pocket, try the Dungeness monsters, which arrive at your table more or less direct from places like the chilly waters of Alaska. 4. Little Pepper18-24 College Point Blvd., College Point; The cooking at this bright, classic, deceptively sophisticated little College Point destination is a blessed relief from the over-oiled, over-spiced, one-note Sichuan menus that have been proliferating, lately, all over this Sichuan mad town.

5. Fung Tu22 Orchard St., nr. The term “Chinese fusion” used to be a joke in grand dining circles, but thanks to the creations of a new generation of practitioners like Jonathan Wu, nobody’s laughing anymore. Visit this Orchard Street restaurant for the pork-belly egg roll, the General Tso’s lobster, and the whole steamed fish touched with chili oil and a hint of tangerine peel. Café China13 E. 37th St., nr. There are almost too many Sichuan options to count in midtown these days, but none is quite as satisfying, or as elegant, as this carefully styled, Michelin-starred, real-life mom-and-pop shop (he’s from Shanghai, she’s from Harbin) in the shadow of the Empire State Building. Decoy529-1/2 Hudson St., nr. Eddie Schoenfeld and his chef partner, Joe Ng, operate several worthy ventures around town, but for our money, this West Village Peking duck atelier is the finest. Only 25 perfectly cooked birds are prepared every evening, but pay attention to the housemade hoisin, and those impeccable pancakes.

Dumpling Galaxy42-35 Main St., Flushing; There are a billion dumplings in the naked city, but for serious scholars of the genre, there’s no better one-stop destination than Helen You’s commodious sit-down destination in the Arcadia Mall. The menu boasts more than 100 varieties, many filled with nontraditional ingredients like octopus, cod roe, and pumpkin. Hakkasan311 W. 43rd St., nr. We weren’t big fans of this lavish, London-based chain when it first opened. But the Peking duck is one of the best in town, and our father, who is a scholar in such matters, says that it’s the place to take your high-end Chinese friends and clients for a slap-up banquet feast — provided, of course, they’re paying. Han Dynasty90 Third Ave., nr. We specify the original New York branch of this fast-growing Philly chain, and not the newer, blander UWS outlet. Lunchtime is our preferred hour to visit, when the packed, little room fills up with the smell of coriander and ma-la pepper.