Austin American-Statesman from Austin, Texas • 99

Saturday, September 2, 1989 Austin American-Statesman F1S TASTE COINS Dining out En roviovv are great buy at Ta-Lai 1 The following are restaurants featuring different kinds of cuisine that Diane Payton Gomez has reviewed. The date Is the date of the review. Baileys Good Time Food and Drink, 8519 N. Lamar 454-1388. Just like the name Implies, this casual, noisy eatery provides the setting for good food, good times and good prices.

Almost everything on the extensive menu Is priced well under $10. Shrimp stir-fry with vegetables In a glnger-soy sauce, vegetarian or meat-laced quiche (changes dally), crispy chicken filled chi-mlchanga and fresh grilled shrimp are a few of the many entrees offered. (Oct. 1, 1988) 'A Chez Fred Grille, 13376' Research 335-7770. A wide variety of breads and pastries are baked fresh dally.

The food prices are reasonable with an option of full or smaller orders of dinners to choose from. Fresh seafood, hearty soups, create-your-own sandwiches, salads, omelettes and 'entrees such as our favorite, marsala chicken with artichokes and mush-i rooms. (Jan. 7, 1989) Cross-Town Bar-B-Q, 211 Central Elgin, 1-285-4588. This Is a place for serious barbecue lovers.

The dining room Is tiny (seating for 25 when we were there) and the decor Is sort of, well, uh never mind. However, some of the best barbecue In the state with prices to match make Cross-Town a worthwhile place to visit. A three-meat platter with all the fixings (bread, potato salad and beans) Is only $5.50 and has about a pound of pork ribs, brisket and sausage. Much of Cross-Town's busk ness Is to go with prices ranging from: for sausage to $6 for beef brisket. Take your own beer and don't dress up.

(March 4, 1989) Hunan Chinese Restaurant, 1940 W. William Cannon 443-8848. "All the oriental favorites' are at Hunan from hot and sour soup to shrimp with walnuts. Most recently we tried the whole fish with spicy brown sauce (fried trout In a garlicky, gingery, mildly spicy sauce), happy family (beef, pork, shrimp and scallops with lots of vegles swathed In a traditional Chinese brown sauce) and crispy duck (hacked duck marinated, steamed to de-fat and deep fried). We especially recommend the pork-filled dumplings and three delight with sizzling rice soup.

(Oct. 8, 1988) Magic Time Machine, 600 E. Riverside Drive, 444-3537. The Magic Time Machine still features Fun House- style dining and waiters who delve Into slapstick comedy, but the restaurant's Image has changed to focus on good food as much as entertainment. Besides all the Machine's standbys of prime rib, lots of steaks (rlbeye, T-bone, sirloin or filet mlgnon) and shrimp (fried or steamed), there's chicken (marinated or with mushroom sauce), pasta Alfredo and a fresh seafood catch of the day (our swordflsh tasted like It had just hopped out of the water).

All-you-can-eat salad bar (In a car) and changing homemade soup specials make for a belt-busting meal. (June 3, 1989) Old 8an Francisco Steak House, 8709 N. Interstate 35, 835-9200. You can't beat butter-tender, aged beef steaks like Old San Francisco Steak House fixes. In addition to beef, a selection of seafood, rack of lamb and chicken Oscar are also available.

We especially liked the piping hot, miniature loaves of bread served with a large block of Swiss cheese. A saloon setting bedecked In boisterous red and live entertainment In the form of two grand pianos and a girl In a red velvet swing add fun to the meal. (Dec. 24, 1988) 'A Passage to India, 3023 Guadalupe 477-7766. The restaurant offers a dining experience like no other restaurant In town.

Prices are lower than when the restaurant first opened three years ago. Feast on grilled chicken tandoorl, shrimp In yogurt marinade, lamb in a fruity sauce, puffy bread laced with potato and peas, lentil soup tinged with coriander, delicately seasoned saffron rice and savory spinach blended with homemade cheese. (Dec. 10, 1988) 'A Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, 3010 Guadalupe 477-7884. If you're feeling extravagant, visit Ruth's Chris Steakhouse for the ultimate steak experience.

Only U.S. prime beef is used and each steak is served sizzling In butter. Fresh seafood, pork, veal and lamb chops also available. My favorite appetizer at Ruth's Chris is the shrimp re-moulade. Save room for some creamy cheesecake in a pecan crust and topped with fresh strawberries.

(Sept. 24,1988) U.R. Cooks, 9012 Research Blvd. (Southeast corner U.S. 183 and Burnet Road), 837-8085.

This noisy, bustling steakhouse sizzles like a party in full swing. Ail steaks from the 14-ounce filet mlgnon to the 26-ounce T-bone are priced at $12.95, plus you get all-you-can-eat salad, potatoes and garlic toast (split a steak with someone and pay an additional $4.95 for the extra set of fixings). They'll cook your steak for you for an extra dollar, but shouldering alongside the crowd to flip slabs of beef on the giant grills Is part of the U.R. Cooks experience and the fun. Clever gimmicks aside, the real success of U.R.

Cooks Is due to the fact' that the quality of the beef Is superb. Chicken and shrimp are also available. (Feb. 18, 1989) tLlm -i. Staff photo by Tom Lankes buffets range from $4.25 to $5.95.

The two vegetable dishes were fine, but the lo mein (soft noodles) was bland. The stir-fried vegetables, which included broccoli, cauliflower, water chestnuts and RIVERSIDE DOLLAR 44156BBA CINEMA IAITMVEMM MTOWNLAKE PtAZMR) WEEKEND AT BEANIES (Pail) KARATE KID IN (PQ) 1 ot---jt- a -TOW Ta-Lai's economical lunch and dinner mustard, but strangely enough, instead of plum sauce our waitress brought a little dish of hoisin sauce. "Plum sauce," she said, setting it on the table. sulfide (rotten eggs), sulphur dioxide (burnt match), ethyl acetate (rotten banana or acetone), acetal-dehyde (pungent rotten wood). Most all of these occur in badly made or handled wines and while not poisonous in the amounts normally encountered in wines, their presence renders the wine, at best, less pleasant.

Now stick your nose in a glass of wine and sniff. Ask yourself what scents you find there. Sniff again and find a few more. What a surprise! Before, it just smelled like wine and now we can describe it. At least, Barbara Schlosser tells us we can, and we can thank her for that.

Barbara further tells us, "All humans are born with roughly the same sense of smell. Yet a wine-maker or wine 'expert' might distinguish several hundred different aromas whereas a novice might distinguish only eight or ten. The difference between the two is practice and vocabulary." So improve your sensory capabilities. Open a few bottles and sniff. Bob Lowe writes about wine every week in Time Out.

Write to him in care of the American-Statesman, Box670 Austin 78767, orcaUhimat 472-9133. 1 "I Dining out TA LAI Address: 2007 E. Riverside Drive Telephone: 447-1520 Lunch hours: 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 11:30 a.m.

to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday Dinner hours: 5-10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 5 to 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday Smoking: Separate section Accessible: not accessible to wheelchairs Reservations: accepted Credit: Visa, MasterCard and American Express Rating: cabbage, were more flavorful, but rather oily. For the meat entrees, we had? sweet-and-sour pork, lemon chicken, orange-flavor chicken, moo goo gai pan, fried chicken and pepper steak.

Except for the hard-. crusted, dried-out pork that was served with a gluey red (and I do mean red) sweet-and-sour all the meat entrees tasted like they 3 had recently arrived from the kit- i chen to the steaming table. Here's what made Ta-Lai well '-i worth $5.95: lemon chicken (lighter, fresher-tasting crust than the pork and in a smoother, lemony red sauce); orange-flavor chicken (tangy-sweet and spicy); moo goo gai pan (bits of chicken tossed with carrots, snowpeas, cabbage, bam- boo shoots and mushrooms); fried chicken (crispy and tender) and" pepper steak (savory bits of beef in a sauce seasoned with black beans, onion and bell pepper). Diane Payton Gomez's weekly restaurant review is based on her a experience during an anonymous, visit. Additional information may be obtained later by telephone.

trie ShowsttX CULT FAVORITE Bill snd Tsd's ExcoM Advonturt Black Conwdy HEATHERS Another Black Comedy WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S ST111 JamM Bond 007 LICENCE TO KILL BOX OFFICE 0PEN8 TODAY AT 11:45 AM MOVIES 12 A ROUNDROCK APPONDABLE AOMtBOtON PTMCI6 AOULTB 4.7S CtNUMEN S.7S ALL SEATB 82.78 FOM ALL SHOWS AND MOVW8 BEFOM 00 PM TIME8 FOPi TODAY ONLY" GENEHACKMAN sV rfl'1187 rsi jLjJ.ji tiirj NO PASSES Ol SUFBtSAVHtS I THE mm S3 Parenthood steve martin fis Kjm HOOCH E3 WlnlTJlSlL. PASStfJSAVBS 10 OBBl BB 745 LETHAL WEAPON SbarOo 7J0-9J0 DOUBLE FEATURE "STAR TREK PO AT tM-MS PLUS 'INDIANA JONES P0 11 A1 12aO-ft1S-10S lATBlleni CASUAltlES of mm Cheetah "LORDS Of THT DEErPOIS 1:18 Only I fi-35 i F.M. 1825 M1777j When it comes to tasting, it's a matter of sense uffets By Diane Peyton Gomez Special to the American-Statesman Perhaps it's a combination of so many Chinese restaurants in town coupled with a sluggish economy, but lately I've noticed more and more Chinese restaurants offering all-you-can-eat buffets. Ta-Lai Chinese Restaurant, for example, has a complete written menu. But it also advertises lunch and dinner buffets, seven days a week, ranging in price from $4.25 to $5.95 (children half-price).

As can happen with buffet-style dinners, Ta-Lai's selection of dishes included a few items suffering from open-air (dried-out food) and cooled-down syndromes. However, if you can find one entree that satisfies the palate, you've got your money's worth. Many Chinese restaurants charge more than $6 for a full order of many dishes. At Ta-Lai, we had the choice of salad-bar items, two soups, egg rolls, six meat dishes (granted, the selection was heavy on chicken, but I like chicken), two vegetable dishes, and both steamed rice and a tasty fried rice. There also was "Chinese bread," which was sort of like fried beignets without sugar.

There was egg-drop and hot-and-sour soups, plus crunchy won-ton chips for garnishing. I passed the egg-drop soup and went for the hot-and-sour soup, which was just spicy enough to induce the sniffles while still allowing the wonderful flavor to come through. Not many Chinese restaurants offer a salad bar and while the selection wasn't lavish, there was enough to satisfy with marinated cucumber slivers, potato salad (interestingly tinged with the flavor of sesame oil), a rather tired-looking pile of tossed greens, watermelon, fruit cocktail and cubes of canned pineapple. Egg rolls at least this batch weren't Ta-Lai's forte. These were leathery-skinned cylinders that didn't even come with hot mustard or plum sauce on the buffet table.

We requested some and got hot do with the sense of smell than the senses of taste." It's the honing of our olfactory sensitivity that we hope will reveal to us the wondrous complexity of the wine we drink. But that complex of scents means little if we can't put names to its elements. To demonstrate a partial range of our definitive capabilities, Barbara provided several dozen sniffing samples of those various scents normally found in varietal table wines. Included were: apple, pineapple, banana, pear, strawberry, raspberry, peach and melon, plus green pepper, allspice, coffee, eucalyptus, mint, vanilla, smoke, butterscotch and others, all to be found in the aroma of one wine or another. There was even lichee nut.

The aroma is the accumulation of sensory elements that the grape brings to the wine, manifesting as the fruit is fermented. The bouquet is the complex of scents and flavors occasioned by the processing of the wine and its later aging, bringing ut cassis, oak, cedar, tobacco in Cabernet and vanilla, butter, toast in Chardonnay. Also presented were examples of off-odors indicating bad wines and not considered to be desirable, such as acetic acid (vinegar), hydrogen sale Thursday and Friday as part of the Greater New York Numismatic Convention at the Omni Park Central Hotel. Bowers Merena will have a three-day sale, Sept. 11 to 13, at the Vista Hotel in New York's World Trade Center.

This sale will include important Canadian coinage, the finest known example of the 1921 uncirculated half dollar, many rare Newfoundland coins and a gathering of silver dollars, sovereigns and specimen sets. Also part of the sale will be colonial coinage, Mercury dime rolls, hundreds of silver dollars, and some important medals from George Washington's era. The Delaware County (Pa.) Coin Club has issued wooden 2 -cent pieces to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the town of Eddystone. The "coins" are available from club president Walter Hoffman, at 12th and Lincoln Prospect Park, Pa. 19076.

ttlktariftjMMtiijm' WARM NIGHTS ON A TXKmotfnhlmlimmmimmL SLOW MOVING TRAIN Ml jO NICOLAS CASE ITAMI'lllE'S 2 1 1 I 8 SCENES FROM THE BP K) IF CLASS STRUGGLE IN I 1 "i 1 1 BEVERLY HILLS PaaMMM 211 QuatfBlup 477.1324 Les Amis du Vin recently presented another in a series of interesting and informative meetings, promoted by host Sam Kindred of Justin Wines and Spirits, sponsor of the Austin LADV Chapter. Barbara SchlosBer, representing the IVine Trust, a consortium of California wineries, presented a "component tasting." What does wine taste like? 3ike wine of course, but, in She wine-tasting experience is composed of many subjective components. "Wine evaluation is ultimately a Subjective judgment," Barbara tells us. "Either a person likes a wine or 3ie does not. Because it is a subjective judgment, however, every taste is different.

So how does one decide what elements make a Chardonnay, Johannisberger or Cabernet? What characteristics should one look for in each specific varietal?" -I prefer to phrase those questions differently what characteristics does one find in a good Chardonnay, Johannisberger Ries--ling or Cabernet? Barbara's sen-Isory presentation was well oriented 'toward this latter approach. First was a demonstration of bal- The winej press Bob Lowe I ance in a wine. Three glasses held the same wine: the first neutral, the second dosed with sugar to bring up the "residual sugar," the third similarly touched with an acid additive. The results of tasting in sequence were obvious, but when the second and third were mixed, the resulting wine assumed the neutral balance of the original. It was balanced.

A fourth glass held the base wine plus tannin, a bitter extract, demonstrating the effect of excess tannin transfer during fermentation or oak aging. The tannin overshadowed or destroyed the balance. While the procedures were elementary, they presented a graphic experiment, easily duplicated, and one that would certainly amuse (and perhaps confound) your friends at your next private wine tasting. The essential message of the evening was: "Wine appreciation (or evaluation) has much more to Coins crown, issued in proof only. The coins are being struck at Europe's PobjoyMint.

The Persian cat issues follow the 1988 Manx cat design, which began the series. The gold coins, in .999 fine gold, are issued in sizes of one ounce, Vi ounce, 15, 110 and 125 ounces, and in proof and uncirculated grade. Queries go to the world distributor, MTB Banking 90 Broad New York, N.Y. 10004. The Labor Day weekend signals the start of the coin-auction season, which gets under way next week at New York Bales rooms.

Christie's auction house will offer foreign and ancient coins and an array of U.S. coins and bank notes in sales at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Thursday at its galleries, 502 Park Ave. Stack's will conduct a two-day 1 -Belgian coins reflect Common Market influence BARGAIN MATINEES EVERY DAY ALL SHOWS STARTING BEFORE 6 PM DENOTES STEREO SOUND $100 ALL DAY ALL SEATS ALL SHOWS 4M8 WESTGATE BLVO Rlclwd Prior, dm WIMtr SEE NO EVIL, HEAR NO EVIL (R) B.lpllM4Chk KARATE KID III (PG13) Andrew McCarthy, Johtttiin Sttvtfnun WEEKEND AT BERNIE8 (PQ13) TIMES PUBLISHED HE FOB TOOAYONIY l-JSotMIPUU H4KVIUERD MILLENIUM 122S-24WM TOT HIGHLAND MALL BOULEVARD 451-7326.

IBVM OO ALL SEATS ALL TIMES 1l115 TiH-lftOO PO-11 RELENTLE88 12MO-4JOIO-W30R TURNER HOOCH 1 wwsiifrraniAO po LICENCE TO KILL PO-11 KARATE KID 3 1lW-4M-7404SPO UNCLE BUCK IBS Wm-tUS6SWSHM PO FIELD OF DREAM8 po M0PAC 01 LOOP 360 337-8381 I WIRED rasMH PETER PAN THE PACKAGE HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS DEAD POETS SOCIETY PQ ABY88 TJHX IOsOS PO-11 CHEETAH FRIENDS UNCLE BUCK iooo-r9030Pa Y0UNQ EINSTEIN PQ BATMAN 1M4M-7IW-SES0PO-1S Doublt FmIut INDIANA JONES A THE LAST CRUSADE PO-11 STAR TREK PARENTHOOD mm iBy Daniel Webster 'Knlght-Rldder Tribune News Service Belgium will issue gold bullion Tcoins this fall valued not in francs T.but in ECUs, the denomination based on all the currencies of the members of the Common Market. ECU symbolizes the European "integration of currencies, due to take place after 1992. The coins will be struck in four denominations, 100 ECU, contain- ing one ounce of gold, and 50, 25 and 10 ECUs. The Belgian govern-vment, which previously issued two 1987 ECU bullion coins, has authorized an edition of 100,000 of denomination. The Isle of Man introduced two new bullion coins during the Amer-ican Numismatic Association contention in Pittsburgh in August.

The coins are a gold Persian cat 1989 crown, issued in five sizes, and a silver Persian cat one-ounce HI Htm Ut IK) I UKtAI KIID I KAIL 794-8076 MILLENIUM 7-fcMPO-1l UNCLE BUCK M041Mltt Mf-IMOPa HEART OF DIXIE 1K1020-7l-ftPfl PETER PAN ItiW-idS-MOa FIELD OF DREAMS W0-7l4(40la DEAD POETS SOCIETY 1 tx-zx-tc w-rao po LETHAL WEAPON 2 1fcWMM1-7dO4llt Doublt Fmiui INDIANA JONES A THE LAST CRU8ADE 20-720 PQ-U With STAR TREK HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS 2120N.May8 388-2848 ') S( BOX OFFICE TODAY AT 11:48 AM EDDIE and the 1230-240 I cruisers 2 E3 limn iaoso Parenthood 12HW-230 CTEVt MARTIN B3 8KI0-7J0-10KXI SHIM NOrASSBOSlSAVats" the mm E3 I ATS A I em I Av 1M5-5IO-W5 I S4S-M8 Chaiahn wummmMmmmmmm0mimmmni'''nmm i 1 1 urn iioiipwmiiimomw L12L.