SATURDAY SCOOPS
Guidelines will help you host a wine-tasting party

Advertiser Staff and News Services

Planning a wine-tasting party? Be sure to include both red and white wines and serve a variety. Also key is to serve the wine with food. Wine needs food to show its best side. Los Angeles Times

You choose the wines and appetizers; or ask your guests to bring a bottle that goes with the evening's theme. For tips and recipes, consult wine magazines. More good tips can be found at www.hosting-a-wine-tasting-party.com.

Stephen Baker, owner of Park Wines in Litchfield Park, Ariz., offers these guidelines:

• Include both red and white wines and perhaps a rosé among your selections. Each station can feature a primary and a secondary wine.
• Sample whites first, then reds. Whites are lighter and should precede the more robust reds.
• Always serve the wine with food. Wine needs food to show its best side.
• Serve a variety of wines. Don't do all chardonnays, for instance.
• You can serve "flights," such as several wines all from France's Rhone Valley, or a sampling of Italian wines (which include hundreds of varietals), or all California vintages.
• Offer guests at least two glasses on their tour — one for whites, one for reds.
• Keep wine samplings small so guests are not tipsy by the time they leave. Limit pourings to two or three ounces.
• Supply a dump bucket so guests can discard any wine before they move on to a new one.
• Don't let price intimidate you. Good wines come in all price ranges, and the best are the ones you like best. You can build around any budget. The fun, the interaction, is the important part.

Tour Italy through flavors of wine

Don't be intimated if you're a beginner when it comes to wine. Here's a suggested list of five wines (each under $10) for a party of 10, courtesy of Lyle Fujioka (pictured at right) of Fujioka's Wine Merchants in Market City, Kapahulu.

The theme: A quick tour of the regions of that wine-rich nation, Italy.

• Valpolicella, a red, for a taste of Veneto
• Barbera, a fruity red, from Piedmont
• Chianti, perhaps a "new wave" chianti, from Tuscany
• Primotivo, much like a California zinfandel, from Puglia
• Nero d'Avola, a sun-kissed red, from Sicily.

The food: Lucky for us, each of these goes well with the rich, fatty local palate. That's means pork — roasted, kalua, you name it. Or cheese, especially Parmigiano-Reggiano on bread. Also, chianti goes surprisingly well with olive oil and bread.

A couple of other guidelines from Fujioka:

• Don't get whacked by too much wine, especially if you're a beginner. Half a bottle per person is a reasonable amount.
• When selecting food to match a wine, do a little research. What are the favored foods in the regions where the grapes are grown?

Veggies that offer food for the soul

It's hard to resist a good joke. And that seems to be secret behind the success of "Veggie Tales," a religion-based production company that has crossed over successfully into the mainstream market, with more than 30 million videos sold.

At first glance, the stars of this lavishly animated series are Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber (voiced by the company's co-creators, Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki). But the real stars are its biblically-based stories, which emphasize honesty, kindness and forgiveness.

The company's first full-length movie, "Jonah — A VeggieTales Movie," starts out with young veggies singing on a bus ride, while Bob the Tomato drives. Bob gets two flats and the group is stranded at a restaurant where everyone squabbles. Then Junior Asparagus (Lisa Vischer) listens to the tale of Jonah, as told by the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything (Vischer and Nawrocki).

Through the story, Junior and his friends learn why compassion and second chances are important.

Extras on the two-disc DVD include a Spanish-dubbed version, DVD-ROM games and trivia games, out takes, audio commentaries, music videos and a chance to listen to the veggies hooting at early scenes in the shoot.

If you're way into Spam ...

Food donors like to have fun

Bring canned goods (Spam, anyone?) or cash to the first-ever 'Ohana Festival — 9 a.m.-5 p.m. today and tomorrow at the civic center grounds as your good deed for the weekend. It's a benefit for the Hawai'i Foodbank, which helps feed Hawai'i's hungry.

But it should be a lot of fun, too, with Xtreme inflatable rides and slides, the Oceanic Cable Fun Zone of rides, food booths, crafts, entertainment by such folks as 'Ale'a, Believe, Jordan Segundo (he's everywhere!), Simplicity and others, a pizza-eating contest and more.

Admission is free. www.ohanafestival.com.

Haydn mass to be sung at Central Union

And now for something completely different: Johann Michael Haydn's "St. Francis Mass" (full name "Missa subtitulo Sancti Francisci Seraphici") gets the full treatment at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow at Central Union Church, 1660 S. Beretania St.

Soloists Catherine Goto, Leigh Ann Braley, Kalani Brady and Christopher Kelsey and the Central Union Church Oratorio Choir and Central Sinfonia Orchestra do the honors. No‘l Lovelace conducts.

Admission is free, but donations are welcomed. 941-0957.

Fresh fruit adds nutrition, appeal to usual peanut-butter sandwich

Next time you're packing a lunch, try this combination: peanut butter, banana slices, mandarin orange slices and pineapple chunks on toasted cinnamon bread. Grate fresh ginger over the fruit, and decorate the top of the sandwich with pomegranate seeds.

This Tropical Fantasy sandwich, created by a Minnesota 12-year-old, won first place in the Most Creative Peanut Butter Sandwich Contest, sponsored by Jif.

Runner-up sandwiches were: Peanut Butter Pineapple Paradise, made with peanut butter, pineapple slices and brown sugar on a chocolate chip bagel; a Pizza Sandwich, with peanut butter, strawberry jam, banana slices, chocolate syrup and coconut on a toasted English muffin; Jack's Phat Snack, with peanut butter, ice cream, chocolate candy and crushed wafer cookies on banana bread; and a Happy Face Sandwich, with peanut putter, banana, pineapple, coconut and chocolate syrup in a pita pocket.

Free Sundays for military at Academy of Arts

Calling all active-duty military members and their families: The Honolulu Academy of Arts welcomes you to enter for free on the first Sunday of each month, beginning tomorrow.

The offer is good for all branches of the services — Coast Guard, Navy, Marine, Air Force and Army. Just show your military ID and you're in. Sunday hours are 1-5 p.m.

Regular admission is $7 general, $4 seniors 62 and older, students 13 and older and military, free for kids 12 and younger. 532-8700.

Now playing: Animations from Canada

Yes, at 4 p.m. tomorrow and 7:30 p.m. Monday and Tuesday the Doris Duke theater will host "Bob's Birthday" (1993); "The Boy Who Saw the Iceberg" (2000); "Frank the Wrabbit" (1998); "How Dinosaurs Learned to Fly" (1995); "I'm Your Man" (1996); "La Salla" (1996); "My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts" (1999), pictured above; "Village of Idiots" (1999); and "When the Day Breaks" (1999).

Admission is $5 general, $3 for academy members. 532-8768. Learn more at www.apollocinema.com/.canadianshorts.

Bishop Museum hula exhibit opens today

The exhibit continues through June 1. Take it all in at tomorrow's Family Sunday event, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., when admission will be just $3 general or $10 for a family of four (two adults, two children). There will be entertainment by Augie T., the Ka'ala Boys and Jordan Segundo; food, storytelling and more. 847-3511, 848-4191.