Kids Eat Free! (Adults, Too)

Common sense dictates that precious little in life comes free. There’s advice, especially the unwanted variety, junk mail, tips on stocks and horses and clerical blessings to name a few of the few.

Food also is free--sometimes. In Japan, it is possible to supplement one’s daily calorie intake on the vast array of edible samples displayed in the food section of any major department store. In Orange County, free food can be found in markets, at bars during happy hour, at promotions and, on occasion, even in restaurants.

Here is a short list describing how and where to navigate these opportunities--keeping in mind a bit of free advice not to abuse the privilege.

Markets

Larger supermarket chains such as Lucky or Ralphs sometimes allow vendors to hand out product samples to a willing public. This is also practiced regularly at Price Club, though I cannot remember tasting anything there I would voluntarily taste again.

Two upscale markets have built a huge client base using samples and tastings as their calling card. Farmers Market and Bristol Farms are two of the handsomest markets in the area. Neither qualifies as the cheapest.

Farmers Market in Newport Beach is on the lower level of Fashion Island’s swank Atrium Court. Executive chef Louie Jocson intermittently puts out spreads promoting his cooking classes and catering services. He also supervises tastings of such luxury items as international cheeses, hot salsas, boutique olive oils and various breads to dip in them.

On weekends, there is a truly vast selection of samples: designer jams including apple-pear and onion confit, yellow seedless watermelon and delicious focaccia. The Mission Viejo and San Juan Capistrano locations actually grill outside, giving away anything from mahi-mahi in papaya sauce to seafood and spicy lamb sausages. I’ve sampled Stilton cheese, Parma ham and fresh juices at Farmers Market and usually end up buying most of the items I taste.

401 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach. (714) 760-0403.

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Bristol Farms started the yuppie mega-market craze in the Southland. Today, there is a new Long Beach location, and plans are afoot to open a branch in Orange County soon.

This company isn’t as liberal with sampling as it once was, but there is still an enlightened policy permitting customers a taste of the market’s prepared foods, which include composed salads, hot deli items and various cooked meats, if one is requested.

On a recent visit to the Long Beach store, I encountered a Torani Italian syrup promotion at the door, sampled double mushroom agnolotti and a salad called chicken Mediterranean at the deli counter, had two huge hunks of Cajun meatloaf drenched with Jezebel sauce in the meat department, and nibbled on various fruits and pastries throughout the store.

That wasn’t all. There were also samples of medium cheddar cheese, in cubes, being advertised at $5.99 per pound, and the inevitable free gourmet coffee, a Bristol Farms trademark, at the coffee counter. I had two cups.

2080 Bellflower Blvd., Long Beach. (562) 430-4134.

Ethnic Restaurants

Certain cuisines have a tradition of small plates and side dishes to accompany the main courses. Korean food is never eaten without the side dishes pan’chan. Middle Eastern fare is always preceded by mezze, sumptuous appetizers.

Pharoah, in Orange, bills itself as a gourmet Egyptian restaurant. Owner Selim Selim is from Cairo, and his specialties include lamb and kofta kabobs, rice-stuffed grape leaves and a spate of vegetarian dishes.

Sit down here and you are greeted with a trio of complimentary appetizers: wonderful cabbage salad made with olive oil, vinegar and mint; a baked eggplant dish redolent of parsley and garlic, and the famous Egyptian breakfast food foul mudammas--stewed brown beans. Add a basket of Pharoah’s pita bread and who needs the main course? Selim, it goes without saying, expects that you will order one.

1841 E. Chapman Ave., Orange. (714) 633-8570.

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Korean cuisine is more substantial than that of neighboring Japan, more persistently rustic and fiery than that of China. At Garden Grove’s Soft Tofu Restaurant, you dine on silken tofu laden with beef and oysters cooked in iron skillets, but equally pleasing are the accompanying side dishes. Soft Tofu Restaurant lays out a bountiful spread of these delicacies: boiled spinach with a fermented soy dressing, hot chile bamboo shoot, tiny fish in red chile sauce, assorted pickled cabbages and a tangy, marinated kelp. There is also a free dessert. That would be chikkei, a sugar rice-based drink.

9542 Chapman Ave., Garden Grove. (714) 539-4511.

Hotels

Many hotels offer breakfast buffets or wine, cheese and tea service in the afternoon. There’s no charge; the food offerings are built into the price of the rooms. Sometimes non-guests are allowed to partake. “We don’t usually keep track,” one desk clerk confided. Besides, she shrugged, “If somebody is that hungry, I let him eat anyway.”

Best Western Regency Inn in Huntington Beach offers a Continental breakfast in the lobby. It’s a small lobby, so you can hardly partake of your toast, juice drinks, doughnut holes and coffee. The coffee’s good, for the record. Room rates begin at $59 plus tax, Monday through Thursday.

19360 Beach Blvd., Huntington Beach. (714) 962-4244.

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At the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point, rooms are a tad higher--starting at $425 per night--but for those who can afford to stay on the concierge level, money is rarely an issue. If that is no problem, the five daily food presentations pampering the guests here can be gloriously memorable.

We’re talking luxury, from the fresh baked muffins and croissants served during breakfast on through to the cordial and chocolate service in late evening. Lunch might be a cold buffet stocked with pa^tes, cheeses and fresh fruits.

During afternoon tea, there are homemade cookies, scones and other goodies. Once I feasted on real caviar and all the trimmings at an evening hors d’oeuvres service, which included hot lobster canapes and similarly tony fare. Visit a friend staying on this level, and the staff undoubtedly will welcome you to join in. It’s probably not a good idea to show up too often.

1 Ritz-Carlton Drive, Dana Point. (714) 240-2000.

Happy Hour

When it comes to playing Freddy the Freeloader, the American institution we call happy hour is the Real Deal, though etiquette demands that you spring for a drink or two, particularly when you’re with friends.

The cavernous Costa Mesa sports bar Legends has about the most generous happy hour spread I know of that is completely free. According to one waitress, “the only place the drink policy is enforced is at tables outside the bar area.” If you do order a drink between 4 and 7 p.m., the happy-hour schedule here, you pay only $1.50 for American draft beer and $2.25 for well drinks. Such a deal.

Good food, too. Legends rotates snacks including pizza, sliced fresh turkey with mustard and mayo, still-hot homemade potato chips, tortilla chips, salsas, Caesar salad, macaroni salad, potato salad and a relish tray stocked with carrot wedges, cucumber slices, cut broccoli, cauliflower and unctuous ranch dressing to dip them in. Whew! Come on taco night (Wednesdays) , and there are free beef and chicken tacos to go with that Bohemia.

580 Anton Blvd., Costa Mesa. (714) 966-5338.

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Then there are our many Mexican restaurants, which really pull out the stops after office hours. At the dependably festive, tropically themed Acapulco restaurant in Laguna Niguel, the kitchen is proud of its new line of healthier Mexican dishes, a few of which work their way into the happy-hour buffet.

Many of these dishes are prepared with a minimum of fat and salt, in response to a now-infamous report issued by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. So when you have that $3.95 pitcher of beer or giant, $2.50 margarita, you can chow down on the bean-stuffed flautas, chili-bean dip, three salsas and various other finger foods with confidence. But go light on the deep-fried chimichangas and fried Buffalo chicken wings.

Like all the appetizers, this advice is free.

30100 Town Center Drive, Laguna Niguel. (714) 495-3372.