Food-o-File

Great Wine News

Austin Community College Culinary Program Director Brian Hay is understandably proud of this great bit of news. Beginning in the spring semester of 2003, ACC will offer the International Sommelier Guild's Wine Fundamentals Certificate Level 1 and 2 prerequisite courses designed to prepare students for their prestigious Sommelier Diploma Program. The ISG courses are available at one culinary school program in each selected city and offer accreditation for sommeliers through direct instruction, providing in-depth education regarding all the world' s wine regions and their components. Once students have completed the two rigorous 12-week programs and passed strict exams, they are eligible to be among the 24 students accepted into the Sommelier Diploma Program per class, per year. The program runs another 23 weeks and culminates in an intense 13-hour, five-part exam. Successful graduates of this program will be able to discern the grapes used to produce wines, as well as the climate and soil content of vineyards where the grapes are grown. The internationally regarded ISG program offers graduates job marketability with a global scope, teaching the business principles necessary for success, i.e. purchasing for profit, wine management, food and wine pairing, menu design, cellaring, and service techniques. Having the ISG program available at ACC should enhance job possibilities for local students and generate a pool of more wine-savvy employees for local restaurateurs while providing better, more knowledgeable wine service at restaurant tables all over town -- everybody wins. For more information about ISG course descriptions, fees, and registration procedures, contact Joseph Miller or Jose Paradela at 866/412-0464 or go to www.internationalsommelier.com.

Holiday Tamales

There's still time to order holiday tamales from your favorite Mexican restaurants. All these folks would appreciate 24 to 48 hours' notice on orders and suggest you check their holiday closing schedules when placing your order. Rather than taking off a week during the holidays, the folks at Güero's Taco Bar (1412 S. Congress, 447-7688) will only close Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day this year, and they'd like your tamale order in advance. At both Curra's Grill (614 E. Oltorf, 444-0012; 6801 Burnet Rd., 451-2560) locations, they'll be offering their regular pork, chicken, veggie, bean, and sweet tamales, plus special-order fillings of salmon, crab, chicken mole, organic vegetables, and black beans, and Boggy Creek Farm smoke-dried tomato and panela cheese. They'll ship tamales nationwide (www.tamalandia.com) and will be taking orders until Dec. 20. El Meson (5808 Burleson Rd., 416-0749) will celebrate the Mexican holiday of Las Posadas during December by preparing tamales from the various regions of Mexico, such as tamales norteños, tamales oaxacaquenos, and tamales veracruzanos. All of the specialty tamales can be ordered to take home with 48 hours notice. Fans of "San Antonio-style" tamales can order them at Nueva Onda (2218 College Ave., 447-5063) in pork, jalapeño, chicken, bean, and jalapeño bean flavors but place those orders as soon as possible. At Botanitas (6400 S. First, 441-2424), they'll be selling their homemade tamales filled with pork, black beans and cheese, or chicken and their award-winning tomatillo sauce. Orders should be picked up by Dec. 23. And the ladies at Las Manitas (211 Congress, 472-9357) remind us that their chicken, pork, bean and jalapeño, vegetarian, and poblano and cheese tamales are available with 48 hours notice.