Food-o-File
Upcoming food and wine festivals, updates on local culinary news.
By Virginia B. Wood, Fri., Oct. 27, 2000
Food & Wine Fests
Food and wine festivals are certainly the hot thing this weekend. In San Antonio, they kicked off the first-ever New World Wine and Food Festival at La Mansion del Rio (112 College Street, 800/292-7300). The event runs from Thursday, Oct. 26 through Sunday, Oct. 29, with gala tasting parties, vineyard luncheons, cooking classes, wine seminars, cookbook signings, and a fabulous Día de Los Muertos Sunday brunch. Outstanding chefs and vintners from Texas, Spain, Mexico, and Latin and South America will be on hand to present their wines and signature dishes. This sounds like a fascinating event we wish we'd heard about sooner. At this late date, many of the scheduled events are probably already sold out, but it still may be possible to get reservations for individual events such as big tasting-dinners on Friday and Saturday nights and/or the vineyard luncheons at noon on Friday, Oct. 27, at either Spicewood Vineyards (1423 Burnet County Road #409, 830/693-5328) or Becker Vineyards (Jenschke Lane, off Hwy. 290 W. near Stonewall, 830/644-2681). Call 210/518-1000 or 800/292-7300 for information and reservations.
The friendly folks in Fredericksburg are celebrating the foods and wines of the Texas Hill Country at the 10th Annual Fredericksburg Food & Wine Fest this weekend, Oct 28-29. Spend Saturday in the downtown Marketplatz from noon till 7pm where there will be wine tastings from 22 Texas wineries, samples from more than 40 Texas food vendors, cooking demonstrations by Hill Country chefs Steve Howard of the Navajo Grill, John and Monica Wilkinson of The Nest, and Laura Howe of Gallops on the River, wine and food pairing seminars presented by Todd Smajstrla of Lincoln Street Wine Market, a silent auction, and plenty of live music. General admission for Saturday's event is $20 for adults, $5 for minors under 21, and free for kids under 12. The newest event in the fest lineup is the Sunday Jazz Brunch at Oberhellman Vineyards at noon on Oct. 29. For $50, guests will receive a picnic basket catered by Gallops on the River and a wine glass for sampling wines. Additional food stations will be set up on the vineyard grounds offering fruits, cheeses, and sweets. Our latest information is that there are only a few reservations available for the picnic, so call 830/997-8515 immediately if you're interested.
Biopiracy Examined
Environmental activist author Vandana Shiva is scheduled to speak in Austin at 7pm on Friday, Oct. 27, at the LBJ Auditorium at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the corner of Dean Keeton and Red River. Dr. Shiva is the guest of the Coalition Against the Rice-Tec Patent (CARTP) and UT Students for Nonviolence. The focus of her lecture will be to alert people concerning the implications of a Texas corporation's (Rice-Tec of Alvin) patented claim to a strain of basmati rice which has, until now, been cultivated and shared for thousands of generations among South Asian communities as part of their sustenance and cultural heritage. Shiva and the coalition members hope to convince agribusiness giant Rice-Tec to disavow the patent they've been granted on the particular variety of basmati rice so as not to deny an entire people free access to a staple grain that has for centuries been their birthright. Shiva abandoned a career as a physicist in the Indian nuclear industry to join the struggle of South Asian peoples against the domination of their food supplies by foreign corporations. She lectures worldwide about what she considers to be biopiracy.
