8x I won’t eat this if I can’t drink that with it 

Certain wines pair better with certain dishes. Everyone also knows – hasn’t this been scientifically proven? – that a bitterballen tastes better with a cold beer alongside it. But some food and drink combinations are a little more unusual, yet an absolute must for many. Do you also recognise yourself in the combinations below?

I won’t eat this if I can’t drink that with it

I never drink milk. Except when I eat spinach. And by that I mean mashed spinach with potatoes, a boiled egg and fish fingers. If I make that but have forgotten to buy milk (which happens quite often since buying milk isn’t really part of my routine), I’ll quickly run to the supermarket. I’d much rather have a cold plate of mashed spinach with milk than a warm plate of mashed spinach without milk!

With a straw, of course

A large glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. This must, by the way, be drunk with a paper straw. Otherwise, the uitsmijter doesn’t taste right.

Normally undrinkable

Gewürztraminer with spicy food: a perfect pairing! I hardly ever drink Gewürztraminer. This white wine is incredibly intensely perfumed (the literal translation means ‘spicy grape’). Put your nose in the glass and you’ll be overwhelmed by lychee and blooming roses; it really is an in your face wine. But that very perfume is delicious with spicy Asian dishes and Indian curries.

One can’t exist without the other

I won’t eat a croissant without coffee. How you manage to get it down without coffee alongside it is a mystery to me.

Sushi etiquette

I know it’s a serious sin to drink something as vulgar as Diet Coke with sushi. I really do. But I always get so thirsty from the extreme amount of soy sauce (also completely inappropriate according to Japanese sushi-eating etiquette, I know that too) that I have no choice.

Orange juice with filet americain

It’s such a Saturday afternoon meal. I do the grocery shopping and pick up a bottle of fresh orange juice – which is quite ridiculously expensive and, when you look at the calories, just as unhealthy as Coke – and at the bakery and butcher’s in the town centre I get fresh rolls and filet americain. It’s a small butcher’s shop that only sells sandwich fillings and sausages, but it has the best filet americain ever. And then I sit at the table with the Volkskrant, orange juice and a filet roll. They belong together, and if I drink something else with it, it’s nowhere near as delicious.

It puts out the heat so nicely

I’ve stopped doing it by now, but for years a large glass of milk was the only way I could enjoy an Indonesian meal. It puts out the heat so well!

Quattro formaggi and Coke

Pizza quattro formaggi calls for Coca-Cola. Other pizzas are perfectly fine with wine, water or a beer. But four cheeses on my pizza? Don’t you dare serve it to me without Coke.

Also read: 

• These are unexpectedly delicious flavour combinations, according to top sommeliers 
• WTF is milkshake beer? We put it to the test…
• Coke with milk isn’t as disgusting as you might think