​One of my favourite things to make at home is the Rotisserie Chicken Ramen from Lucky Peach 101 Easy Asian Recipes. We buy a rotisserie chicken quite regularly; what we don't use right away we pull off in pieces to store in the freezer, which then come in handy for future salads, soups, sandwiches and snacks.

This recipe uses the leftover carcass to make an incredibly delicious and soothing ramen broth, incorporating scallions, ginger, bacon, carrot, and dried shiitake mushrooms. It's a two-hour-plus recipe, but it's more about checking in on the thing on occasion and making occasional tweaks; I find it calming and almost meditative. Bonus points are definitely given for our home smelling AMAZING for hours afterwards.

When it came time for putting together our ramen bowls, after adding some snap peas, nori, egg, noodles (obvs), fish sauce, soy sauce, and chili crisp (A MUST!), we were having a day away from wine and opted to go with Athletic Brewing's Run Wild Non-Alcoholic IPA. Here in Vancouver, it's widely available; I picked it up at our local Buy-Low Foods.

It's delicious! For those who don't like their hoppy beers overly pine-y or austere, you needn't worry. The hops are mostly Citra and Mosaic, expressing as ultra-citrusy with some flecks of tarragon and a good dash of white pepper on the finish. The malt component is perfectly integrated to give the beer some decent weight, body and soul, and it doesn't lend any sweetness. It's SO well-balanced and integrated.

With that salty, chicken-y broth, it was a perfect adversary, washing everything down easy and keeping the palate refreshed. A home run, indeed.
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We were at the Vancouver location of Everything Wine, saw this Barrels And Drums Alcohol-Free Chardonnay, and decided to give it a whirl. I can't find a ton of information on the wine (or the brand) online, though I did find a tech sheet in German, so there's that.

So I think the wine is from Germany, and the 4.3 grams of residual sugar sounds about right. It's sweet. And not overly wine-y. Honestly, I probably couldn't differentiate it from Welch's white grape juice.

I know.

There IS a lot of green grape in there, and (very) ripe mango with a squeeze of blood orange. I'd LOVE to see some acid in there; it would make it more lively and delicious. I dunno, if the sweetness were attractive to some (and I'm sure it is), I'd definitely go for spicy Thai curries, Nashville Hot Chicken, or (my personal choice) Jalapeño-Flavoured Miss Vickie's Potato Chips.