Hand-picked for the party

Nibbles are what you give people when you don't want to cook a proper meal for them, when there are too many of them to fit round your table, and when you rather hope they'll all leave in time for you to go to the real dinner you've been invited to, with chairs, knives and forks, and proper food.

Vol au vents and salmon wheels, chunks of chicken satay, garlic mushrooms . . . these and many more exotic and imaginative morsels are now de rigueur for that little seasonal show of hospitality. Your granny may never have tasted filo pastry and might not have recognised a bowl of tabouleh or a prawn wonton if they jumped up and bit her, but prop her up with them in a corner beside the party punch and she'll soon stop brooding over steak pies past and the soggy egg sannies of yesteryear.

Undoubtedly, Marks & Spencer must take the credit for creating the party snacks market and developing it with elaborate panache year after year. But the supermarkets have not been left too far behind. Every one of them has a section stacked with celebratory bite-sized tidbits, some of which are so tiny and so twee that you sometimes secretly long for a corned beef sandwich.

Still, they do look pretty.

So, too, do the team of talented people I persuaded (with very little difficulty) to be my panel of testers this week - nine members of the BT Scottish Ensemble (granny may recall its forerunner, the Scottish Baroque Ensemble, founded by violinist Leonard Friedman in 1969) who broke off in the midst of a hectic UK tour to taste 12 party snacks from five different stores.

Right now the group are in the midst of their December concerts, premiering John Tavener's latest commission from them, Tears of Angels - by Candlelight.

It has already been performed in Aberdeen, Dundee, and Inverness and you can see it in Perth's St John's Kirk tonight, in Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall Strathclyde Suite tomorrow night, and in Edinburgh's Queen's Hall next Tuesday, an entirely appropriate pre-Christmas concoction which combines mysterious Eastern calm (Tavener) with joyful exuberance (Bach's Third and Fourth Brandenburg Concertos).

The tour unashamedly promotes their new CD on Linn Records, called Tears of the Angels, which concentrates exclusively on the delicious compositions of Tavener. Both the tour and the CD feature artistic director Clio Gould as

violin soloist, with Indian soprano Patricia Rozario.

The Ensemble's members are remarkably elegant, attractive and sociable, party animals all, the ideal team for this little task. They swooped on the platter with enthusiasm and gave me their views uninhibitedly.

ICELAND Salmon and Prawn Seafood Shells, #2.99

Eight little scallop shells filled with poached salmon and dill in white wine or prawns and chives in white wine and cream. Everyone adored these, because they were ''a bit different''. Comments ranged through ''wonderful'' to ''scrumptious'' and the only - trivial - complaint was that eating them as finger food involved sucking the mixture from the shells unless you took a spoon in your pocket.

10 out of 10

ICELAND Crispy Breaded Vegetables, #2.99

Sugar snap peas and baby sweetcorn coated in breadcrumbs with a barbecue dip and a sweet and sour sauce. Becky Low, who plays viola, is a vegetarian and was on the lookout for fodder like this. But she didn't like

them much and neither did anybody else. Violinist Edmund Coxon thought the coating too heavy, though he liked the addition of sesame seeds. Someone else said the corn was too soft. Everyone thought sugar snap peas and baby corn were much nicer naked.

2 out of 10

ASDA Chinese Selection, #3.99

A mixture of 24 vegetable spring rolls, prawn wontons,

butterfly prawns and prawn toast, which wasn't rated well at all. ''The wonton is wanting!'' quipped violinist Andrew Storey, and it was noted that there was barely any taste of chilli in the chilli vegetables. Clio remarked that the spring rolls were far from springy,

''pretty tasteless''.

3 out 10

ASDA Crispy Crumb Garlic Mushrooms, #2.49

With a garlic and herb dip, these were hailed by everyone as being among the best treats on the table. Edmund waxed quite lyrical about the succulence of the mushrooms and the crispness of the coating and Becky reckoned they were by far the best vegetarian option available. In fact, they disappeared faster than any of the other food.

10 out of 10

ASDA Mega Party Selection Pack, #3.49

A box of 12 onion bhajis, 12 vegetable pakora, and some potato wedges. ''The pakora is absolutely gorgeous,'' said Diane Low, who plays double bass, and the potato wedges won unanimous approval. ''These bhajis are brilliant,'' added Gilliane Haddow, violist. Indian snacks are very popular in every store's party range and these were a very economical buy.

8 out of 10

TESCO 10 Mini Vol au Vents, #2.99

Little flaky cases filled, four each, with bacon and tomato, cheese mixtures with spring onion and salmon and dill. It was agreed that the pastry was light and tasted fine, but the proportion of filling was considered meagre. Cellist Ali Lawrence said she usually made her own vol au vents, which were much better, and Haddow said she usually made all her own party snacks.

4 out of 10

TESCO Chicken Drumettes, #1.99

There were eight in the box, half in Chinese-style marinade, half Mesquite style. Very tasty, these. ''Moreish,'' said Edmund, though Ali found them just slightly greasy. ''But nice.'' The marinade flavours were strong and spicy, the pieces small enough to be manageable. A slight hint of fattiness was the only moan.

8 out of 10

SOMERFIELD Pizza Spirals, #1.99

Twelve in the box, and described as being layered with a rich tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and smoked bacon. Sadly they came out worse of all the snacks offered. ''Not at all nice,'' ''don't like this,'' ''a waste of time,'' were the sort of remarks I heard. ''It looks like a Danish pastry,'' frowned Diane Low, ''but it's dry, unappetising and unattractive.''

0 out of 10

SOMERFIELD Mini Quiche Selection, #2.99

Four each of Italian-style tomato, salmon, and dill and stilton and leek, and, in contrast to the same company's pizzas, these won rave reviews. ''I don't usually like quiches at all, but these are lovely said Lawrence. The pastry was good and the filling delicious, I was told, though perhaps there could have been a

little more of it.

9 out of 10

ST MICHAEL Vegetable Puff Pastry Selection, #2.49

Four of mixed vegetable, four of spinach, and four of mushroom, but our vegetarian member found them bland. ''They need more seasoning, something to liven them up.'' Violinist Cheryl Crockett pointed out that they were all squashy and mis-shapen and although they tasted okay, they didn't look as elegant as she would normally expect from Marks & Spencer.

6 out of 10

ST MICHAEL Mini Cheese Souffles, #2.49

Twelve in the box, described as ''light textured cheese and chive souffles''. ''These are perfect,'' came a chorus. ''Light, dainty, tasty.'' ''They melt in the mouth,'' claimed double bass player Ryan Smith and no-one was about to argue with him.

10 out of 10

ST MICHAEL'S Oaked Smoked Salmon Appetisers, #6.99

The most expensive of our selection, but good value, the pack contained eight really exquisite little smoked salmon rolls filled with salmon mousse, eight triangles filled with prawn mousse and eight rings filled with cream cheese and chives. They went down pretty well, though everyone liked the rolls with salmon mousse best and found the cheesy centre too over-powering for the salmon casing.

9 out of 10

So, our three winners, with full marks, were Iceland's Seafood Shells, Asda's Garlic Mushrooms and St Michael's Mini Cheese Souffles, with Somerfield's Mini Quiche, Tesco's Chicken Drumettes and Asda's Mega pack of Indian flavours as runners up.

Which only goes to show that you have to shop around. No one outlet has a monopoly on top tastes, though Ali Lawrence maintains the St Michael label is an infallible guarantee of quality.

Though at this time of

year, with your aching feet, throbbing head, badly stretched credit cards and general state

of harassment tinged with pure panic, you may be forgiven

for grabbing a batch of any-thing reasonably edible from which ever store is nearest to you, and to blazes with find-

ing perfection.

Alternatively, you could give gran a couple of pan loaves and a pound of sliced gammon and let her do the catering for you . . .

Whatever you choose, you might note that Marks & Spencer's Oudinot Brut non vintage champagne is now down to #9.99 a bottle, which should make anything taste better.