The Blanche de Bruges, incidentally the "only bottle-conditioned wheat beer imported to America" (ref. Belgian Experts website listed) is one of my favorites for a couple of reasons.

First I should say I am a HUGE Belgian beer fan, and I am well on my way to tasting through a good percentage of their many, many many beers. The first time I tried the Blanche de Bruges was in a bar in Brussels, and I was rather disappointed. I felt it was light, too light, and I didn't feel it had much perfume.

The trick is that I had just eaten a bit of hard, bland cheese, and my tastebuds were too affected by this taste to recognize the flavors in the Blanche de Bruges. I gave up on this beer for a while, until the next time I tried it and fell in love with it, in the US.

We are lucky these days in the US in that many stores are starting to sell more than a couple of varieties of Belgian beers; try "Beverages and More" in Silicon Valley; they have an impressive array of Belgian brews. However, that is still not the case in most restaurants. To my surprise, the next time I saw the Blanche de Bruges was on the menu of the Straights Cafe, in San Francisco (you may read my review of this restaurant in the Restaurants category of Epinions). I was having a filet of salmon with ginger and coconut, and I decided to go for that white beer and see how it faired with it.

Incredible. Just fantastic: The Blanche de Bruges has a few aromas to it; most people will mention the coriander, pepper, citrus (more orange than lemon) flavors. BUT: What I noticed right away while eating and drinking, was the wonderfully aromatic ginger flavor shining through that beer when paired with my coconut ginger dish. It seemed to be the perfect combination" Cool, light, subtly crisp and exotically ginger-citrus flavored. It held up its own against the sweet flavors of the meal. This little beer was making the grade that night! I ended up trying it with several other dishes, with Thai dishes, Vietnamese and Indonesian dishes. I think any of these cuisines, when spiced up with just a bit of ginger, of lemon and/or coconut, will be enhanced by a little bottle (or 2, or 3 -- it's a light beer) of Blanche de Bruges.

So, if you're cooking a SouthAsian dish one of these days and need to have beer on your menu, AND if you're lucky enough to have a store selling the Blanche de Bruges, run and get it! :)





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