Traditionally, wine has a long history of being served as an accompaniment to food, and local cuisines would be paired naturally with locally produced wines. Now, that all works fine if you're eating lamb in Bordeaux, but what if you'd like some wine to go with your fried pigeon, vegetarian stirfry and/or Indian curries right here in Hong Kong?
With the aim of breaking down what he calls the "old establishment" of wine, Chinese-American Gregory Lok has created a YouTube series of shows called "Wine vs. Food" that puts a humorous spin on food and wine pairing. Each show sees two wine vendors go head-to-head in a battle for the audience members' vote on who made the best wine pairings.
The loser has more to lose than just a few bottles of wine. In fact, in the past two episodes alone, they've already had to do some pretty awful things like drink the judges' leftover wine from a giant slosh bucket and eat Fear Factor-esque foods like fried pigeon heads and "the hottest stuffed chili in Hong Kong" (a chili within a chili sizzling in hot sauce, over hot sauce!).
"Wine vs. Food is a great way for folks to meet each other while learning about wines," said Greg, whose website name Winehappy.com basically sums up his attitude towards wine. "I think most wine experts would agree with me that our moods affect the way we taste wine, and the way I like to experience wine is happily and with a lot of people."
The first two episodes of Wine vs. Food can now be seen on their dedicated YouTube channel. If you like what you see, be sure to keep an eye out for the second show by Greg called "Wino 101" launching in mid-February, where questions from the "Wine vs. Food" audience will be presented to wine experts to answer in less than 60 seconds.
On a side note, when asked what it would take to get him eating fried pigeon heads or stuffed chilis (preferably on camera), Greg was bold enough to say, "When the Wine vs. Food Facebook fan page reaches 1,000 fans, I'll personally eat anything that our viewers vote for. That includes snake testicles with a slosh of rice wine."
You said it, Greg... (readers: you know what to do)!
