Meadows at Twilight : Food and Music Meet in Symphonic Convergence in O.C.

Even if you can almost see the July 4 fireworks from your backyard, this year you’ve decided you need something a bit more grand. So you figure you’ll head out to Irvine Meadows, where the fireworks are only a few yards away, the picnic can range from hot dogs to haute cuisine, and the tunes come not from your boombox but from a live symphony orchestra.

But maybe you’re new to this outdoor summer concert stuff. You want to lay on a swell feast, but what to bring? And how to stash and carry it? And, once the baton goes up, what are you going to be hearing and seeing up there, anyway? What’s the etiquette, the protocol? What do you look and listen for, and where should you sit? Suddenly a thick rule book materializes in your mind’s eye.

Relax. At Irvine Meadows, feeding the body with top-notch chow and feeding the soul with music is a cinch. Let a few insiders tell you how:

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All the concerts in the Pacific Symphony’s summer series start at 8 p.m. The gates to the amphitheater grounds open at 6. That means you can spread out a fairly showy repast and take your time with it instead of bolting down a couple of Whoppers. Louis Spisto, the orchestra’s vice president and executive director, says that nearly 40% of the people who attend the concerts bring their own food (symphony concerts are the only ones at Irvine Meadows at which picnicking is allowed).

One of these people is Betsy Moulton of Costa Mesa, a retired cooking teacher and caterer. As often as they can, she and her husband and friends arrive early, find a cozy grassy spot, spread out the blankets and let the eating begin.

But, she says, “it takes planning. If you’d asked me 15 years ago what I’d bring, I’d say linen tablecloths and candelabra and elegant stuff like that. But these days I’ve done a complete about-face, because I don’t want to schlep all that. Now, if I can possibly bring disposable things, I do. You can dump it before you leave and you don’t have to deal with it at your seat, and you have less to carry out later.”

Want a tablecloth? Sure, Moulton says. Make it disposable plastic. Wine? Absolutely. But she likes reds that don’t need chilling. Ice gets heavy. She also favors prepared foods that can be bought at delicatessens, many restaurants and some markets.

“A nice thing to do if you want to go the salad route is composed salads, with all the ingredients divided into neat sections in the package. They can be an entire meal all in one dish.

“Probably my favorite food is French picnic food--pa^tes, cheeses, pickles, good olives--but I’d suggest tasting it, making a trial run, before you buy it for your picnic.”

Tim and Diane Lux of Costa Mesa, subscribers to the summer concert series, dine with other season ticket holders in a fenced area on the flat green lawn at the top of the hill adjacent to the stage. One of their favorite concert foods, Tim Lux says, is homemade bruschetta--”toasted French bread with a little olive oil and rubbed with garlic and tomatoes and ricotta cheese and basil. We’re big garlic fans.”

Often, however, when time is short, the Luxes pick up such staples as barbecued chicken and several kinds of fresh salads and pasta salads from restaurants that prepare takeout items.

“We’ll call ahead, drive there, load up the cooler full of food and then pick up our guests,” Tim Lux says. “We’ve also done sushi and other fun things like that. Also, each of the concerts kind of has a different theme, so we’ve gotten creative with that. With the Fourth of July concert, for instance, we might have certain desserts that are red, white and blue.”

“I usually plan for bread, cheese, wine, fruit and a finger food like chicken, and enough of it that I can share with my friends,” says frequent concert-goer Pat Kirkbride of Anaheim Hills. “A friend of mine makes chicken fritters that can be eaten cold, and that’s one of my favorites. It’s kind of become a tradition with us. And we always bring a bottle of good wine.

“We don’t worry about keeping things hot or cold, because even if we pick up something on the way to the concert that’s hot, like chicken, it’ll stay hot long enough to enjoy, and you can still snack on it [during] the concert later, when it’s cold.”

Catherine Hanley of Orange and her husband, Rudy, plan for that snack time. “I recommend taking a carafe or a thermos of coffee or some other beverage, and cookies or biscotti for intermission,” she says. “Also, if you don’t want to eat dessert right after you finish dinner before the concert, you can have it during intermission.”

But how do you get all that great chow from your car to the amphitheater without calling in a moving company? Veteran concert-goers have developed a few tricks.

Pat Kirkbride says she usually is able to contain her food in a small cooler, which she fills partially with ice if the wine needs chilling. It can be stowed easily underneath the amphitheater’s bench seats, she says.

Tim Lux works with a division of labor. “We’ve got two picnic baskets with Styrofoam inserts that act as coolers. We need the two baskets by the time we pack our plates and tablecloth and silverware and everything. Also, we have these little wine cooler sacks. We just give each of the guys one of the picnic baskets, and the ladies carry the wine, and as long as you don’t lose the ladies, you’re in for a fun evening.”

For the Hanleys, getting all their food and picnic gear in and out of the concerts has been a problem in the past. Lugging “a couple of picnic baskets and extra thermoses” up the winding hill has been less than enjoyable.

“But now we’ve decided to get the same kinds of rolling racks people put their luggage on, and put bungee cords around the baskets and just wheel them around,” Catherine Hanley says.

Want to get even more high-tech? Pyrex now makes casseroles that can be carried in insulated bags that are fitted with either heating and cooling elements (chill one in the freezer, heat the other in the microwave). And for the wine (or any beverage in standard-sized bottles or cans) there’s a product called Rapid Ice. It’s a kind of sleeve that can be chilled in the freezer, and it fits over the bottle or can and keeps the contents cold.

Things to leave at home: folding chairs, tables and barbecues. They’re not allowed past the front gate.