Old rules for wine no longer apply.

Byline: FOOD DUDE By Lewis Taylor The Register-Guard

Isn't it funny how you can sit down in a busy restaurant filled with waiters, hostesses and other diners and enjoy complete anonymity?

Recently, Food Dude went to a family-style dinner at a local restaurant that was the exact opposite kind of experience. We met the waitress and chatted up the other diners - even the chef came out and took a bow. By the end of the meal we were exchanging contact information with the other people at our table and beaming each other baby pictures on our cell phones.

Food Dude doesn't have a little tyke at home yet, so I sent a photo of my new 58-pound pumpkin to the guy next to me. He didn't seem too impressed.

I'm not sure I want every meal out to be such a social affair, but we had a blast. It didn't hurt that the food was great and we drove away with fond memories of a fine meal with lots of good conversation. The next morning I awoke to find a photo of a stranger's wife and baby girl on my phone.

If you've got a dining experience (or a baby picture) to share or just want to know how to keep salad greens fresh for your next picnic, write to the Food Dude at the address at the end of the column.

Dear Food Dude: While sampling several pinot noirs at a wine tasting recently, we noticed that the '96 vintage pinot went much better with the lamb while the '93 was more agreeable when pared with the salad greens. We had no idea that there could be such a difference between vintages of the same grape, and it got us wondering: When fine restaurants suggest food and wine parings, have they really sampled the specific dish with a variety of wines to find just the right combination? Up until now, we always just figured it was a "red wine with beef, white wine with chicken" kind of deal.

- S.P.

Dear S.P.: Brook Fuller, wine buyer for Marche restaurant and Marche Provisions, says that old rule about white with chicken, red with beef is more dated than Mr. T's mohawk.

Typically, he says, many chicken and fish dishes were cooked with white wine and beef entrees were prepared with red wine, which made wine pairings a snap.

"The world of food and wine is a lot more complex these days," he says. "You need to look at how the dish is accessorized with the sauce or with whatever preparation is used. (Look at) whether it's grilled or coated in herbs. What gives the dish its flavor."

Fuller, who has successfully paired both fish and red meats with both cabernet sauvignons and sauvignon blancs, doesn't believe in hard and fast rules. And while it's impossible for servers to sample all 350 wines in the Marche cellar, he says most waiters and waitresses worth their salt have tasted enough wine to have an idea of what to recommend. Marche hosts a bi-weekly wine seminar for servers to keep them up to speed.

Fuller says most waiters at fine restaurants will be able to make an educated recommendation based on what they're serving. And if you don't have faith in your waitron, you can always ask to speak to the resident wine expert. Fuller says he's more than happy to help diners navigate the wine menu.

Dear Food Dude: What's the deal with different onions? Many of my recipes call for yellow onions or red or white ones. Is it just the recipe writer's desire to boss you around your own kitchen, or is there a reason for using a specific one? I usually use yellow onions for everything cooked - they seem fine to me.

- Denise N.

Dear Denise: You know how Food Dude feels about pushy cookbook writers who try to tell me what to do. The punk rocker in me wants to fight the power and make up my own recipe.

The only problem is, whenever I get all D.I.Y. in the kitchen, I usually end up paying for it.

In this case, I don't think you're going to pay the price for using only one kind of onion. Neither does Mark Stern, the owner and head chef of Carte Blanche Soup Cart and Caterers. But he does encourage you to expand your onion horizons. If not because he told you so, because you might find you like certain onions with certain foods more than others.

"Different onions definitely have different applications," says Stern, who makes a mean French onion soup from scratch with mild yellow onions. "You can use them in similar applications, but not as a substitute for each other."

By choosing to use yellow onions, you've picked the most versatile onion there is. Yellow onions are full flavored and can stand up to lots of cooking.

But red onions have their place, too. They are great grilled and can easily be eaten raw, which is why you often find them sitting on top of the hamburger you ordered.

That said, there's a reason Stern doesn't use red onions for his soup. Milder in flavor, red onions tend to lose their kick when cooked for a long period of time. Yellow onions hold up better under fire, and you'll probably get them on your burger if you order grilled onions. Stern chooses yellow for onion rings, too. He says white onions are fairly close in terms of flavor and application, but have largely fallen out of favor.

According to the National Onion Association, only about 5 percent of U.S.-grown onions are white, 87 percent are yellow and 8 percent are red.

Beyond the distinctions of red, white and yellow, there are other differences between onions. Sweet yellow onions such as Walla Walla, Maui and Vidalia impart a far different flavor than mild yellow onions and can almost be eaten like an apple. Also, Stern says there's a big difference between supermarket onions and the locally grown ones you'll find at a farmers' market, which tend to be more bold and flavorful.

The NOA classifies many of the apple-sweet onions as spring/summer fresh onions and puts the tougher more savory onions in the category of fall/winter storage onions. Available March through August, spring/summer onions are ideal for salads and lightly cooked dishes, the association says. Storage onions can be found from August through April and are better for dishes that require longer cooking times.

Beyond that, you can branch out into all sorts of other onions, including scallions, shallots, pearl onions and even some new specialty varieties.

Stern says you can also experiment with new ways of cooking onions, such as caramelizing them. This involves slow cooking the onions until they are coated with their own sugars. One of Stern's favorite onion treats is a caramelized onion tart with Gruyere cheese.

Talk to the Food Dude at www.registerguard.com/blogs/index.php/fooddude. Or, send mail to Food Dude, The Register Guard, P.O. Box 10188, Eugene, OR 97440-2168.