ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, April 17, 1997               TAG: 9704170017
SECTION: EDITORIAL                PAGE: A-16 EDITION: METRO 

FOOD FASHIONS AND (GULP!) A WORLDLIER ROANOKE

Food is in, and - surprise, surprise - Western Virginia is not out in the dark.

FOOD for thought, something to sink your teeth into. To chew over. To mull:

Food is getting trendier.

The evidence is apparent even in Roanoke, which, we are proud to say, has never been a slave to fashion of any kind. But look around: the bread bakeries and bagel shops dotting neighborhoods, the chutneys and pestos crowding grocery shelves, the cheeses and butter bubbling atop main courses on dinner tables in restaurants and homes.

These, we thought, were all signs that the culinary pleasures of more sophisticated - probably more decadent - urban centers (big cities) finally had lapped up into the backwaters of Western Virginia.

But these things are cutting edge, folks. A slightly dulled cutting edge, maybe - we have yet to see a whole fish in black bean sauce with its eyes fixed steadfastly upon diners. (Which is not to suggest this isn't being served anywhere in the Roanoke Valley, merely not anywhere that we eat.) And we still know of no Thai restaurant in the vicinity.

But a Christian Science Monitor report on food trends - "a burgeoning topic of conversation," food writer Ruth Mossok Johnston relates, "as Americans become more sophisticated about cuisine in other cultures" - reveals little that is still exotic in Roanoke.

Sun-dried tomatoes, tinned pates; we've got 'em. Bakery breads, bread machines; they're here - everywhere, in fact. "Real butter, real flavors, real cheese, and even real meat;" these aren't back, but only because they never really left.

To what does the valley owe such style? A more diverse ethnic population, in part. Good marketing. And telecommunications: Television chefs have spread across cable channels like whipped butter on a warm muffin, and the Internet has more than 600 Web sites devoted to cooking. Thus, the world grows smaller, and wider at the same time.

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