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

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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 |

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