"tsingtao" news and stories

With the Year of the Rabbit right around the corner, it's the perfect time to break out the chopsticks and dive into some delicious Chinese food. But which Asian beers best complement your pile of pot stickers? Here, find beers paired with some of our favorite dishes from KitchenDaily's Chinese New Year menu and other standbys -- General Tso's and wonton soup, anyone?

Black Bass with Chili Sauce and Scallions
The crispy entree's spicy-sweet heat (fans of General Tso's chicken take note!) is best matched with a prickly, thirst-slaking pilsner such as Tsingtao, which boasts a bit of lingering malt sweetness. The low, 4.8 percent ABV means you can easily kick back two or three. Tsingtao would also snuggle up nicely with a hot-and-sour soup.

Pork and Scallion Dumplings
These plump, juicy specimens are best served with a beer that'll cut through the rich and fatty juices. I like the Sapporo Premium Beer, a fizzy and food-friendly Japanese brew that closes light and crisp. Sapporo won't rock your world on its own, but it's a fine addition to a dinner table.

For many Americans, the idea of Chinese beer may seem as far-out as Chinese democracy (the movement or the Guns N' Roses album). Some countries -- Ireland and Germany, for example -- we heavily associate with beer drinking, and others, like China, we do not. Even at Asian restaurants, less discriminating drinkers can be hard-pressed to determine the country of origin of different Eastern beers on the menu. Maybe I was just a "dumb American," but when I was younger, I didn't put much thought into the difference between my Sapporos and my Tsingtaos.

Well, for the record, Tsingtao is by far the most prevalent Chinese beer in the U.S., (Sapporo, of course, is from Japan) and the marketing minds down at the Tsingtao Brewery believe they've found the perfect event to help hammer that point home: Chinese New Year, which begins today.

To celebrate the "Year of the Ox," Tsingtao enlisted the help of certified Chinese Master Chef Martin Yan to create four Chinese dishes that utilize either Tsingtao Lager or Tsingtao Pure Draft as an ingredient. Personally, though, I'm more about drinking beer than cooking with it, so I was happy to see Chef Yan also took a crack at two beer cocktails.

You can see all of the recipes (as well as some additional Chinese New Year celebration tips) on Tsingtao's website here or find the mixing instructions for Chef Yan's Ginger Beer Fizz beer mixed drink after the jump...