When I hear or see the word "pairing" it always makes me think of those fancy schmancy restaurants with the extremely long wine list.
The person in the fancy schmancy "wine" clothes comes over to your table (they have a fancy schmancy name but I can never remember what it is) and talk about your possible dinner choices and what wine would pair nicely with each possibility.
I think the same could be said about the cheese person. I actually found out they have a name as well and it's "cheese monger." Thank you Jeopardy! for that. They know a lot about cheese, just like that wine person, and will help you out with pairing a cheese that will go nicely with that frankfurter you'll be throwing on the grill later.
I'm much more familiar with pairing donuts. Most of the time it's an easy choice and doesn't need much direction. Donuts always go nicely with a cup of coffee or tea. Oh, and milk, of course. Duh.
I was faced with a little pairing dilemma yesterday. Knowing that a donut would help me recover from "the cold that will not die" I bought one, ok, I bought three but intended on sharing with Petey.
I'd already eaten breakfast and it was a bit too early for lunch so I felt I should wait. That wasn't the problem, though. I wanted to eat that chocolate covered sweet thing at noon but . . . along side a sandwich? That just didn't seem right. Have cereal for lunch when that's what I had for breakfast? hmmmm What to do, what to do?
It didn't take me long to figure it out. I had some yogurt with granola for lunch with a side of . . . you guessed it - that donut that had been staring at me for oh, so long.
They paired nicely.
Who needs fancy schmancy.
PS - Sommelier (I Googled it)