For the first time in my life tonight I had a glass of Cabernet
Sauvignon with my Red Beans and Rice. It wasn't the first time I drank the wine and it certainly wasn't
the first time I had the dish; it's a New Orleans classic that I grew up eating. My usual drink of choice for
red beans and rice is beer, preferably an Abita Amber or Turbodog, but for some reason I wasn't in the mood. Instead
I tried the red wine and I actually enjoyed it. Now I sit and wonder - are my tastes changing?
I've always believed that cold beer was the best accompaniment for red
beans and rice was beer. The dish has a smoky and spicy flavor, so what could be better than a cold beverage like beer
to wash it down? In New Orleans, red beans are traditionally served on Mondays in restaurants, lunch joints and bars
across town. When I lived Uptown, my room mate and I would walk over to The Columns for happy hour on Monday nights to have a couple Abita Amber drafts and complimentary red beans. Drinking wine would
have been a preposterous idea! But alas, here I am with a hot bowl of red beans and a glass of Cabernet.
I do remember another turning point in my drink of choice for the hamburger,
another perfect "beer food." I was sitting at The Columns (see a trend here) having a burger on a Tuesday night along
with an Amber draft, when I suddenly realized that a glass of red wine would taste a lot better. And it did!
Ok, so none of this is really prolific, but I felt that drinking a glass
of red wine with red beans was a life-changing event worthy of a few minutes of writing. Just because I did it once
doesn't mean I'll do it again, though I really did enjoy the combination. Perhaps next time I can venture to the other
end of the spectrum and have pinot grigio. Sure, tastes change with every new flavor combination we experience.
Sometimes for the good and sometimes for the bad; fortunately this was a good one. Don't worry; things have not changed
for good. I'll still keep a cold six-pack in my fridge on Mondays, just in case I am in the mood to drink it with my
classic Creole cooking. Now, if you catch me sneaking wine into a crawfish boil, I think you may need to start planning
the intervention.
