Viva “68 gives insight

to foed of

the future

ATTENDING food and wine shows like Viva *88 and the
Vancouver Playhouse’s International Wine Festival is like

touring Europe in a Formula One racing car.

The tastebuds get dizzy from
sensory double-shifting and the
stomach gets a little queasy from
speed of consumption, but overall
it’s an exhilarating drive through
the diverse gastronomic cultures
available on-the current restaurant
speedway.

At Viva, I sampled everything
from gourmet Ice Age glacier ice
to peach schnapps. In between was
a shoulder-to-shoulder jostle be-
tween the show's 230 food and
beverage booths that allowed for
nibbles, bites and gargles of all
manner of food and beverage.

It is easy, for the uninitiated, to
go hungry at such food festivals
when the length of free sample
line-ups out-distances the length of
individual patience.

table hopping

But once sufficiently smitten
with free-sample mania, people
will pursue any and all handouts .
with an astonishing... -
singlemindedness. They. will grap-
ple, eyes glazed; tummies rumbl-
ing, for the proferred square or.
eye-dropper sample regardless of
personal desire. .

Viva organizers billed the prac-
tice as ‘‘grazing’’, but, to me, it
looked more like the shameless
gourmandising in which I en-
thusiastically indulged.

Apart from the cheeses, chips,

- breads, crackers, jams, ice creams,
yogurts and sausages consumed in
‘the first few laps around Viva’s
perimeter, i sampled an interesting
‘Mongolian Food Experience

(683-4822) barbeciie dish from the.

Gastown restatirant’s booth.
,. The meal was'a Chinese-style -
meat and oriental-vegeiable stir.

-fry, but had the hot-peppered bite

that must have fuelled those
notorious Mongolian hordes of
yore. An accompanying standout
was the Mongolian green onion
cake. It was a delicious fried, -

unleavened bread, soft and full of ~

air pockets and chopped green
onions. Bo

_ Oh yes, there was also a side-
dollop of patented Genghis Khan
red-pepper sauce. The concoction

brought to mind hot Mongolian
desert winds as | mopped perspira-
tion from my forehead and tried to
shake an unpleasant ringing from
my cars.

The whole quick-fry meal gave
amplc indication that Mongolian
food is yet another interesting
cuisine that has taken hold in the
fertile culinary ground of Van-
couver.

_ On the liquid end of Viva '88, I
observed a heartening move within
the food industry toward natural,
unsweetened juices such as tradi-
tional apple and introduction of
more exotic flavors such as passion
fruit and guava.

This popular aspiration to a
higher fruit consciousness has not
been lost on distillers. A veritable
babbling brook of juice and fruit-
spiked alcoholic beverages, ranging
from peach vodka to rootbeer
schnapps, is now sect to flood the
market — refreshment for those
who frequent tanning pariors.

Non-edible products of interest
included a Vacu-Vin Wine Saver
system and a Wineabase computer
software wine information system.

The former, which is made in
Holland, consists of a simple hand
pump and rubber check-valve cork
system that is used to pump out
excess air from partially drunk
wine bottles and thereby prevent
air spoiling the remaining wine.

A one-pump, two-stopper set
retails for about $30.

The latter provides 1,000 wine
descriptions and maps of the
world’s wine producing countries
on software designed for 640K
IBM PC’s and compatible com-
puters,

It retails for $129.95 — for the
viticulturist who has everything.

In the Vancouver Trade and
Convention Centre’s adjacent wine
festival, the glory of the Van-
couver Playhouse’s annua! salute
to Chardonnays, Champagnes,
Cabernets, Beaujolais, Fume
Blancs, Gerwurztraminers, Pinot
Noirs, Ports and Rieslings remains
undiminished for those interested
in wine and its myriad charac-

‘teristics and varieties.

But taste and perception, along

The Finest of Greek Cooking
March SPECIAL |
GREEK PLATTER ror two °15,.95

_ Greek Salad, Kalamari, Meatballs, Dolmades, Spanakopita
* Souvlaki, Satziki, Homous, Moussaka, Pita Bread

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We cater to groups.

s 2422 MARINE DRIVE, WEST VANCOUVER

24. briday, March EL, 198x

North shore Noes

eee ;

at

NEWS photo Mike Wakefield

a refreshing chubarh (wineophiles
be still), grape and fioney concoc-
tion (White Swan, $8.45) froin
Alberta's Lewis Brothers winery.

The wine festival, which is of-
ganized by the Vancouver
Playhouse, raises money for that
worthy cultural organization and
remains one of Vancouver's most
educational and enjoyable fund-
raising events.

TASTY MORSELS

QUEENS CROSS
NEIGHBORHOOD PUB, 2989
LONSDALE AVENUE, NORTH
VANCOUVER 980-7715

This upper Lonsdale pub has
embarked on what is an ambitious
culinary course for a neighborhood
pub.

A new menu of mini-meals
features an exotic array of snacks
off the well-trod path: Thai Sticks,
marinated chicken brochettes with
pilaf rice and a special Highlander
sauce ($3.95); Seoul Fingers, beef
brochettes, this time served with a
spicy Korean black bean sauce
($3.95); and the ever-popular
Asian standby, Papedums, a fight,
crisp chip-like snack food that is
great for dipping in all manner of
spicy sauces and concoctions.

Elsewhere on the Cross front,
the pub offers an interesting
Laundry Night every Monday.
Patrons who dread the thought of

QUEENS CROSS general manager Milos Indic presents selections from watching dryers revolve can bring
the North Vancouver pub’s exotic new tunch menu. Featured dishes in- their laundry with them to the

clude Korean and Southeast Asian specialities.

with thirst, diminish rapidly for -
the non-professional sampler with
the number of laps around the
packed testing circuit.

SEAFOOD SELECTIONS

B.B.Q Prawns /3 )5
Marinated in Tertyali Sauce, served
with Fresh Vegetables and Saffron Rice.

Salmon Filet (2-9:
Brotled, with Lemor: Butter,
Fresh Vegetables and Potatoes,

Seafood Oriental (3 7:7

Prawns, Scallops, Fresh Fisb and Vegetables
Stirfried with Soya Sauce and Presh Ginger.

Prawns Corfu (4 95°
Sauteed Prawns on a bed of Rice,
flamed with Ouxo and baked with Feta.

Lobster Talis (Market Price) —
With Clarified Butter,
Fresh vegetables and Potatoes.

MEAT & POULTRY

Rackoflamb /5 95
Whole Rack served with
our Mint Flavoured Sauce

Veal Cordon Bleu (2-95
Filled with Black Forest Ham and Swiss
Cheese, served with Madetra Sauce, _

Chicken Champagne // 95.
Deboned Chicken Breast
in Champagne Sauce.

New York Steak /4 9%
Grade A Alberta Beef, aged 21 Days, .
served with Herb Butter, .
Above with Lobster &4-95.

Above with Prawns 12.95.

Sorry but ng Coupons of Promotions with any lobser dish

Cross by 6:30 p.m. and the whole
sordid kit and kaboodle will be

I did manage to note, before ini- dispatched to professional clothes
tial glaze-over, a marvellous Late
Harvest Lexia from Australia’s
Stanley Wine Co. Lid. ($8.95) and load.

washing enthusiasts who will wash,
dry and fold the works for $2 per

MahiMahi 1/77
Avocado Butler or Cajun Style, served with Fresh
Vegetables and Potatoes.

Snapper Filec 7 95
Blackened and spiced Cajun Style, served with
Fresh Vegetables and Potatoes.

Seafood Gratineé /2 93°

" Rich Assortment of Seafood in a White Wine and

Cheest Sauce, with Saffron Rice.

Halibut Filet // 97
Herb Butter or Cajun Style, served with Presb
Vegetables and Potatoes.

Salmon Wellington /2.95
Salmon Wellington done tha Traditional Way,

(all served with Fresh Vegetables and Potatoes).

Veal Rouladen /2.15

Filled with a delightful combination of
Onton, Mushroom, Bacon and Pickel,
with a Mustard Sauce, f

Veal Schnitzel / 95
Lightly Breaded Veal served with Madeira Sauce.

' Beef Wellington /3 9
: Beef Tenderloin with Mushroom Duxeile,

wrapped in Puff Pastry.

Smalf New York Steak /2 75°
Grade A Alberta Beef, aged 21 Days,
served uth Herb Butter.

Above with Lobster 2: IT
Above with Prawns/ 6 Ja

soreasonable. Come-try our new expanded menu. ~

| Where only

your taste is expensive |

Pa TR