Sitting down to a meal has potential to be more than just part of the day's routine. It can be an experience filled with friends, fun and learning - and it can last hours.

Like visiting a museum, amusement park or historical site, food and beverage have become just as much of a tourist attraction.

Within the past few years, New York tourism has placed a special emphasis on what is called culinary tourism by promoting the different regions of the state and the products native to each area.

Meg Vanek, executive director at the Cayuga County Office of Tourism, said when people visit an area, they will likely want to try the food of the area.

“You go to Boston and you try Boston baked beans; in the South you'd try something fried,” she said.

But, culinary tourism doesn't include just the food served at restaurants, Vanek said. It can also encompass U-picks at farms, farm markets and the beverages of a region. For years, wine has been an obvious attraction to the Finger Lakes'what's new, however, is the idea of promoting it as such.

Tourists don't travel to simply have just one glass of wine and go home, she said. Instead wineries will offer tastings of several varieties and take time to explain the tastes of each.

“People want to see where the grapes are grown,” Vanek said. “They want to spend the afternoon. The Cayuga Wine Trail does a meet-the-winemaker event, which people like. We're lucky that most of our wineries are small enough that they can do that. It's a big draw.”

The idea behind culinary tourism is that an establishment gives visitors a good reason to include it on their itinerary.

“Owen Orchards is a great example,” Vanek said. “They offer wagon rides out to the trees to pick, you can see cider being made fresh and then they use that cider to make their cider doughnuts. It's all New York state products, and a place like that has the potential to keep people in the area for the afternoon.”

The longer tourists stay, the better it is for all local businesses, because it brings money into the area, she said.

On the restaurant end, it's attractive to tourists when local products are used in the meals. Chefs might also give presentations, walking people through the preparation of the meal with the added bonus of eating the finished product. Places like the Aurora Inn, Pumpkin Hill Bistro and Elderberry Pond are examples of places that would interest out-of-towners, Vanek said. These places use ingredients produced locally, which gives visitors the experience to enjoy the tastes native to the Finger Lakes.

Elderberry Pond for instance grows all the produce used in the restaurant, owner Merby Lego said.

“What's funny, is the potatoes are one thing people always comment on when they leave,” Lego said. “Who would have thought the potatoes? It's a great area to grow potatoes. Our carrots are another thing that get comments. Not to say they don't like our sea bass or steaks, but the one thing that strikes them as being out of the ordianry is our produce, a lot of it goes right from field to table.”

Lego said Eldeberry Pond tends to get a lot of tourists, partly because its listed in brochures, but also because of a 2005 write up in Gourmet magazine. When visitors find their way to the restaurant, Lego said she spends a fair amount of time talking with them about how the food was grown, explaining the idea of sustainable agrigulture and making the meal a learning experience.

“Coming here is also visiting a farm as well as a restaurant,” Lego said. “We try to draw attention to wahat is unique about this area. We have things here that you can't get in New York City - you can't get a potato just dug from the ground in New York City.”

The chefs at Elderbery Pond prepare dishes that do not mask the fresh taste of the produce, she said. Not a lot of sauces, or “goop” as Lego called it, are used.

“You can taste the vegetables,” she said. “The term terroir is used with wine a lot, meaning you can taste the earth the grapes were grown on. We like to think that about our produce.”

Cooking with fresh vegetables can be tricky, Lego said. It is appealing to tourists to come to Elderberry Pond and experience the fresh taste as well as being able to see the fields where it was grown right from the restaurant window.

In the state's effort to promote certain locations as tourist attractions, the New York State Ag and Markets has been trying to expand culinary experiences for visitors and has made grants available for this purpose, Vanek said.

Elderberry Pond has recently been notified that they have received a grant to promote their cooking and growing techniques Lego's husband Leo said. Likely to begin in April - they are closed January and February, and only weekends in March - visitors will be able to tour the farm, participate in chef demonstrations preparing the food and then sit to eat the dish. They also plan to hold apple tastings in the fall.

But grants are also available for groups, like the one the Cayuga County Office of Tourism is part of with a number of other counties.

“We applied for a grant for a program Food, Farms and Fun for 2007,” Vanek said. “It's a trail along Routes 5 and 20 with markets and restaurants along the way from Skaneateles to Batavia.”

It should shed light on places that are often overlooked, she said.

“In Livingston County they make Barilla pasta and Monk's Bread,” she said. “You can actually visit the monastery where it's made.”

The New York Wine and Culinary Center in Canandaigua is another resource the state has commissioned to promote culinary tourism, Vanek said. The center is a representation of culinary attractions throughout the state, where people can taste and experience what makes each region unique.

“We are so lucky that it's only an hour away,” she said.

Staff writer Laura Boyce can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 236 or at laura.boyce@lee.net