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Pad See Ew Muu & Pepsi

Bangkok, Thailand – It’s been said that Rieslings and Gewurztraminers, with their slight sweetness, are good general pairings with Thai food.  I haven’t seen any in the street stall coolers lately, but I can usually get an ice-cold Pepsi or Coca-Cola. And, call me pedestrian, cola really is a good match for spicy Thai food.  Now there isn’t much love for multinational corporations pushing high-fructose corn syrup these days and for good reason. Still I can’t deny how much I like the stuff with salty, spicy or greasy foods, the sweetness and carbonation cutting through heavier flavors. An appreciation that may have started long ago when my parents would allow us to have pizza and soda on their nights out, a big deal in a household where soda and sugar cereals weren’t kept around.  In New York, I tried to transform my propensity for soda into something a bit more adult by keeping around China Cola, somewhat of an indie brand of the stuff, for pizza or Thai takeout nights. Free of high-fructose corn syrup and infused with spices like cardamom, cloves and szechuan peony root, it has a slightly more complex character, herbal, more spiced and less sweet, than the bigger brands, yet it still gratifies the basic desire for that combination of caramel-y sweetness and effervescence.  As far as I know, you cannot find these fancier colas in Thailand so I’ve had to come to terms with big soda.  It hasn’t been that hard.  It’s great to have around when you or a friend is in chili pain.  (So is rice, milk, which would be hard to find at most stalls and hole-in-the-wall restaurants, and beer.) And up against a wonderfully oily plate of pad see ew muu (fried noodles with pork), soy salty and laced with chili heat, a sweet cola poured bubbling over ice plays the perfect companion.