sweet and sour

sweet-and-sour

1. Containing sugary and acidic ingredients blended together. I've had the same bottle of sweet-and-sour sauce in my cupboard for the last five years. These sweet-and-sour gummies are delicious, but they'll give you a stomach ache if you eat too many!
2. Cooked in or with a sauce containing blended sugar and vinegar. Usually in reference to Chinese and Chinese-style cuisine. Personally, I think the sweet-and-sour chicken is the best thing they serve here. Have you tried Sarah's sweet-and-sour dumplings? They're absolutely delicious!
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

sweet and sour

a combination of fruity sweet and sour, but not necessarily salty, flavors. (Typically referring to certain Chinese-American foods.) I prefer sweet-and-sour pork to anything else on the menu. Alice does not care for sweet-and-sour dishes, but she will usually eat whatever we serve her.
See also: and, sour, sweet
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • sweet-and-sour
  • bottle up
  • on the bottle
  • sour cherry
  • crack a bottle
  • the genie is out of the bottle
  • hit the bottle
  • have a sweet tooth
  • crack open a bottle
  • crack open a/the bottle
References in periodicals archive
From the mouth-watering sweet and sour to the tasty takeaway style curry and crispy chicken, it was faultless.
Cheap Chinese; Cash Queens
The batter was light and tasty on the prawn balls, which I dipped into the free sweet and sour sauce.
Take Out: Blue Dragon, 25 Park Road, Hartlepool
The trees used for the study were located in Fundao (Portugal) in the germplasm collection of sweet and sour cherries of the 'Direccao Regional de Agricultura da Beira Interior'.
Caracterizacao de variedades de ginjeira (Prunus cerasus L.) e cerejeira (Prunus avium L.) em cinco sistemas isoenzimaticos
Serve burgers on wholemeal baps with some hot sweet and sour sauce.
Dish of the day
The quality of the winning schemes has always produced a sweet and sour sensation: sweet because of the evident merit of the design thinking, but sour because of the vast discrepancy between the good architecture we have been able to celebrate and much of the stuff that passes for design from so many of the exhibitors at the show.
The good, the bad and the all too predictable
Sweet and sour chicken Hong Kong style pounds 4.10, king prawns with ginger and spring onion pounds 4.50, roast chicken in plum sauce pounds 4.20.
Staying In
A unit of Cadbury Schweppes, Cadbury Adams USA LLC, Parsippany, N.J., creates two new flavors of Trident sugarless gum: strawberry fusion, featuring sweet and sour strawberry flavors, and wintergreen fusion, featuring extreme and mellow wintergreen flavors.
Create your own fusion flavors
"Crisp romaine with baby spinach, chopped egg and bacon topped with tender chunks of savory chicken breast and a delicious sweet and sour bacon dressing, with only 2.5 grams of fat," they say.
Dressing down
We ordered skewered Japanese tempura battered prawns with soy sauce, Californian black pepper potato skins with guacamole and sour cream, and Chinese spring rolls served with sweet and sour dip.
Eating out: Tempted by concept; PACIFIC BLUE, Birmingham
He evaluates this skill by tasting things with his staff, especially vinaigrettes and the balancing of sweet and sour. "I think the use of salt is so important." He favors sel gris, fleur de sel, and a fine sea salt.
Daniel [Patterson]: Restaurant Elisabeth Daniel San Francisco, California
Instead, I've become inhabited by fragments, which is both sweet and sour, because fragments, as we know, finally do not make sense.
New York times. (When words don't fail)
But while price differentials between sweet and sour crudes have narrowed, Saudi Aramco has been earning more from crudes sold in east of Suez markets than from western sales.
Saudi Aramco's Marketing - Focus On East Of Suez Markets
NON-VEGETARIAN: Snickers ice cream bar (gelatin), sweet and sour dipping sauce (anchovies)
Quick Glance at Vegetarian Menu Items at Restaurant and Quick Service Chains
* Sweet and Sour Chicken: a new sweet and sour sauce coats tempura-battered chicken breast chunks, with added red and green peppers and pineapple, plus white rice and a side of broccoli.
ConAgra Makes Deep Dish Commitment To Healthy Choice Frozen Entree Line
Order: Sesame prawn toa(PS5.70), Chilli beef in black bean sauce (PS6.10), Thai king prawn sweet and sour chilli (PS7), and we shared egg fried rice (PS3.20).
Far eastern promise; The Taste Team sets out to the student centre of Cardiff in search of tastes from the Orient