"When pairing with Chinese food, you're looking for wines that are spicy, soft, and on the richer side. Chinese food is a generous cuisine, bringing expressive and muscular wines is important. For Mapo tofu, you're looking for spice and energy to match the dish. Red wines from the Douro in Portugal would play well with this dish. Mushu pork has a crunchy and fresh tone. Cabernet Francs from the Loire Valley, Cote de Beaune Reds, and Austrian Blaufrankisch would be a good fit, offering bright fruit and a fresh nature. Peking duck needs some richness and sweetness. Try rich and bold California Cabernets or Grenaches from the Languedoc Roussillon. Experience this dish with a mature Maury (fortified wine from Roussillon)—a great combination."— Adrien Falcon, Bouley (NYC)

A BYOB restaurant is a beautiful thing; it's also fun to get takeout and be able to open wine from your own collection or favorite wine shop. But if Chinese food is on the menu, which bottles should you pop? Depends on if you're eating Mapo tofu or Peking duck, dan dan noodles, dumplings, or delicate seafood preparations. We asked 14 sommeliers for their wine pairing advice. What's the most delicious wine to pair with Chinese food? Here's what they had to say.

This is a light, virtuous version of takeout lo mein that starts with a simple rainbow of vegetables: carrots, snow peas, Napa cabbage, shiitake mushrooms, and green onions. You can cut these up however you want (you can even buy shredded carrots for ease), but in my version I use a vegetable peeler to cut strips of the carrots, cut the snow peas into matchsticks by hand (the only fiddly part—you could just halve them), and shred up the cabbage, mushrooms, and green onions.

Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a wide nonstick skillet over high heat until shimmering. Add mushrooms and cabbage and season lightly with salt. Cook, stirring and tossing frequently, until barely cooked through but still bright, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl. Add 1 more teaspoon oil to wok and return to high heat until lightly smoking. Add carrot and snow peas and season lightly with salt. Cook, stirring and tossing frequently, until barely cooked through but still bright, about 3 minutes. Transfer to bowl with mushrooms and cabbage.

Now, you're just ten minutes away from dinner. Flash stir fry the veggies in a skillet. Then add freshly grated garlic and ginger and pre-cooked lo mein noodles. Once the garlic and ginger are fragrant and the noodles and veggies have a peek here become tangled together, just add soy sauce. Then, get your chopsticks ready, and dig in.

Add remaining teaspoon oil and reduce heat to medium-high. Add garlic, ginger, and scallions and cook, stirring constantly until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Add noodles and toss to coat. Return vegetables to wok. Add soy sauce. Add sesame seeds and cilantro. Cook, tossing constantly, until noodles and vegetables are coated in sauce. Transfer to a plate and serve immediately.

Want to make your pasta and stir-fried healthier? Just reverse the ratios, packing in more vegetables and sauce, using noodles and grain-based foods as a garnish. This version uses bok choy and chives in a fermented black bean sauce with just a few chow fun noodles.

I've had noodles on the brain (in my noodle, if you will), ever since I read Shao Zhi Zhong's fabulous series on how to cook Chinese noodles. The arrival of my Wok Mon home wok kit served as the perfect catalyst for some recipe testing.

Next, I empty the wok, reheat it with some more oil (making sure to get it smoking hot!), and add thinly sliced shiitake mushrooms. Mushrooms contain a ton of water and empty space in their spongy flesh, so you've got to cook them long enough to let that flesh break down, concentrating their flavor. They're ready when they've stopped steaming and exuding moisture and instead are sizzling and browning.

Shao's recipe suggests you cook the noodles for three minutes, then shock them under cold running water. This works just fine, but I prefer to take the easier route: I blanch them until just tender (about a minute), then transfer them to a bowl and toss with a little oil to keep the noodles separated. The residual heat from the water will keep cooking them until they're perfectly al dente and ready to stir-fry a few minutes later.

The Portuguese soup of caldo verde (literally "green broth") is about as simple as it gets when it comes to vegetable soups, yet its simplicity is the key to its comforting success. At its most basic, starchy potatoes are simply simmered with onions and kale until the kale is tender and flavorful, the onions have melted into the broth, and the potatoes completely disintegrate, thickening the soup into a rich, thick stew. Some really good olive oil drizzled over the top, and you've got a great, filling lunch or dinner. Here, the cauliflower gets charred, taking on a meaty taste, and the addition of chipotle chiles echoes that smokiness.

"For Chinese food, acidity in wine is the key! With spicier food like Szechuan cuisine, I love off-dry Riesling. Especially from the Mosel valley in Germany. The sweetness and cold temperature of the wine will cool off your palate and the crisp acidity will cleanse your mouth and get you ready to eat more! For something fatty with a bit of sweetness like Peking duck, I've found that drier styles of Riesling are great or Chenin Blanc from the Loire valley."&mdash Joe Campanale, L'Apicio, Anfora (NYC)