Creating a Concept for Pairing of Thai Street Foods with Sparkling Wines
Thanuddhanusilp, Niramon (2022)
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-202204276268
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-202204276268
Tiivistelmä
This research-based thesis aims to create a concept for pairing of Thai street foods with sparkling wines. This concept will be used in the “Chiangmai cottage in the northern Thailand by the Taeng River” (CTT). CTT is a hostel in the Thai-European style building situated in a hilly tropical forest. Thai food focusing on the Thai street food especially one dish meal, the sparkling wine, and the pairing food with wine are the background study for this thesis.
The research started with the semi-structured interview of wine experts from five ALKO shops in the Helsinki metropolitan area to get the short list of sparkling wines for pairing with Thai street food, Pad Thai. The chosen method for developing and studying the pairing of Thai street foods with sparkling wines was the sensory evaluation. The summary of thirty sparkling wines’ characteristics from the semi-structured interview were utilized in the sensory evaluation that included the Focus group interview, the Hedonic scales, and the Ranking test. These preference tests supported results of the focus group interview.
One of the main results of this thesis was to find out three key characteristics amongst the thirty suggested sparkling wines from the semi-structured interview that made them to match with Pad Thai, stir-fried rice noodles. These key characteristics were medium dry to medium sweet sweetness, medium (-) to medium (+) acidity and medium alcohol content. Due to limited budget, only five sparkling wines were selected with these key characteristics in the sensory evaluation. Thai street foods and sparkling wines complemented each other. However, they enhanced the tastes on different levels of the focus group participants’ preferences. The preference test results confirmed this finding.
In conclusion sparkling wines with medium acidity, alcohol and sweetness are versatile for pairing with wide range of Thai street foods from sweet to savory and spicy dishes. There are positive interaction of Thai street foods and sparkling wines. For future research, an interesting topic is to study the pairing of Thai street foods with sparkling wines and wines in general by different characteristics of the focus group. Furthermore, the number of participants in the preference tests like the Hedonic scale and the Ranking test should be bigger than in this study, fifty or more within the limitations of the available resources.
Keywords: food and wine pairing, hostel, sensory, sparkling wine, Thailand, Thai street food
The research started with the semi-structured interview of wine experts from five ALKO shops in the Helsinki metropolitan area to get the short list of sparkling wines for pairing with Thai street food, Pad Thai. The chosen method for developing and studying the pairing of Thai street foods with sparkling wines was the sensory evaluation. The summary of thirty sparkling wines’ characteristics from the semi-structured interview were utilized in the sensory evaluation that included the Focus group interview, the Hedonic scales, and the Ranking test. These preference tests supported results of the focus group interview.
One of the main results of this thesis was to find out three key characteristics amongst the thirty suggested sparkling wines from the semi-structured interview that made them to match with Pad Thai, stir-fried rice noodles. These key characteristics were medium dry to medium sweet sweetness, medium (-) to medium (+) acidity and medium alcohol content. Due to limited budget, only five sparkling wines were selected with these key characteristics in the sensory evaluation. Thai street foods and sparkling wines complemented each other. However, they enhanced the tastes on different levels of the focus group participants’ preferences. The preference test results confirmed this finding.
In conclusion sparkling wines with medium acidity, alcohol and sweetness are versatile for pairing with wide range of Thai street foods from sweet to savory and spicy dishes. There are positive interaction of Thai street foods and sparkling wines. For future research, an interesting topic is to study the pairing of Thai street foods with sparkling wines and wines in general by different characteristics of the focus group. Furthermore, the number of participants in the preference tests like the Hedonic scale and the Ranking test should be bigger than in this study, fifty or more within the limitations of the available resources.
Keywords: food and wine pairing, hostel, sensory, sparkling wine, Thailand, Thai street food