Are questions about food and/or beverage pairings on topic?
I am planning a small dinner party later this week, and had some questions about whether or not certain dishes would go well together. Would these be appropriate questions for the site? It seems to have some overlap with the nutrition scope question asked here.
While creating this question I additionally started wondering about pairing recommendations. This could either be food or beverage based - would these be on topic? See the three questions below:
- Is soup a good side dish for pizza?
- What are some good side dishes for pizza that are not salad?
- What is a good wine to have with a Margarita pizza?
My gut says that 1. and 2. involve cooking while 3. is more broadly gastronomical and may be off-topic, but I want to hear others' opinions.
1 answer
Yes, I think they could be with some conditions.
Questions about pairing wine with food are no good fit in my opinion. My opinion here is based on the fact that even wine experts often aren't able to distinguish wines from each other properly. So I think that these types of questions and answers would be primarily opinion-based.
For pairing food, I think that it should be more specific. So instead of asking what are good side dishes for pizza, it would be better to ask what ingredients (and possible dishes out of these ingredients) are a good fit as side dish for a pizza margherita. Food pairing follows scientific methods so it's probable that answers aren't primarily opinion-based and can actually help one to discover new combinations or dishes.
A short introduction to food pairing can be found here which also shows some fascinating combinations. (For example salami and grapes, steak and lobster or avocado and chocolate.)
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