Oh, maybe just a taste

THROUGH flickering candlelight, the gastronomically curious chart a course through the maze of offerings. To the left, bite-size passion fruit cannoli, litchi pate de fruit and lemon macarons; to the right, towers of mini frosted cupcakes. The crowd juggles Champagne flutes and wine glasses as it waits to sample tiny caramel-filled profiteroles with bitter chocolate sauce. In the next room, a line forms for a crumb of aged pecorino, Fiscalini cheddar and Humboldt Fog.

Scanning the well-dressed crowd, it's not easy to tell: Is this a food festival? A social event?

No, it's a tasting.

OK, it's also a benefit preview of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" at the Geffen Playhouse. But it's hard not to feel as if the promise of bites of cheese and mini-desserts and tastes of wine are what really has sold out a revival production on a Sunday night.

These days, everyone wants to taste, and everything's a tasting.

Last week, you could attend a chocolate cake tasting in Culver City or a tutored tea tasting in Pasadena. This evening there's a Champagne tasting at Monsieur Marcel Gourmet Market, an Italian wine tasting at Enoteca Drago in Beverly Hills and wines that scored 95-plus at Moe's in Brentwood. Later this week you can even taste foie gras and Sauternes at the Miele appliance showroom in Beverly Hills.

Remember when people smoked cigars? Now they taste them. In the Old Bank District in downtown Los Angeles, the 2nd St. Cigars & Gallery regularly hosts cigar tastings in its combined art gallery and gentleman's smoking retreat.

Naturally, wine shops are getting in on the act. In San Francisco's new Vino Venue tasting bar in the Mission district, automated wine tasting stations dispense 1-ounce pours of more than 100 wines, paid for with a "tasting card" that works like a debit card. Mission Wines in South Pasadena recently remodeled to include a sit-down tasting bar that opens onto the front window. For about $10, groups or solo adventurers can sample flights of what proprietor Chris Meeske is featuring each week. In Dallas, a year-old wine shop, Grand Tastings, designed to look like a winery tasting room, is built specifically around tastings.

Why eat when you can taste? We don't take the time for a conversation any more; we chat or instant message. So why bother drinking, smoking or sitting down for a civilized meal? We even have a West Hollywood restaurant called -- what else -- Taste.