NY Times Food and Drink Wednesday...

[lsanderson]

A Sip, a Smile, a Cheery Fizz
By ERIC ASIMOV

HEY, you! Yeah, you, Mr. Mucketymuck, in your black power suit and shades. You never let 'em see you sweat, right? You and your air-conditioning turned all the way up — at home, in the car, in the office, in the beach house — you like to see the others shiver. You're the man, starched and creased. While around you people wilt and melt into puddles, you're triumphant, with your big, expensive cabernet in the dark, chilly steakhouse. More

A Crab-Meat and Pesto Treat That Does Double Duty
By FLORENCE FABRICANT

POPPING open a bottle of prosecco has none of the ceremony associated with Champagne. Prosecco is not a special-occasion quaff; it's a refresher, especially on a warm summer afternoon or evening. It does offer the almost giddy delight that can be derived from sipping a sparkling wine, but its relatively low alcohol content keeps the giddiness in check. More

Recipe: Souffléed Crab-Meat

The World's Cups
By JULIA MOSKIN and KIM SEVERSON

W HEN Charlie Sahadi was growing up in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, in the 1950's, other neighborhood children set up lemonade stands on hot days. Charlie and his brother sold rose- and violet-flavored drinks at the end of their driveway instead. Their great-uncle was Ibrahim Sahadi, who came to New York from the fertile Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, and began importing Middle Eastern food to New York City in 1895. More

"Fruit syrups — mulberry, apricot, almond — are

Recipe: Greek Frappé

Recipe: Watermelon Water

Frost on the Sun: Summertime Cocktails
By PETE WELLS

IN any other season, the cocktail's job is simple: to entertain. Even the martini, the subject of endless cabalistic lore, is ultimately just a diversion. Summer cocktails, though, bear an extra burden. They must refresh.

More

A Contest Where Victory Goes to the Coolest
By PETER MEEHAN

WE sounded the call and you responded: the Dining section received hundreds of submissions in response to a notice on May 31 soliciting readers' recipes for the summer cocktail of 2006. More

Recipe: L'Alhambra

Recipe: Gingino

Recipe: The Cuke

Carnival in the Liquor Cabinet
By FLORENCE FABRICANT
JUST as a margarita is often an introduction to tequila, for most Americans the first taste of cachaça, the national spirit of Brazil, is likely to be in a caipirinha, a cocktail made by muddling lime wedges with sugar, then adding cachaça and ice. More

A Bazaar From the Hard Yankee Soil
By JULIA MOSKIN

AMERICAN chefs love to brag about their intimate relationships with food producers, but the chef Ana Sortun of Oleana restaurant, in Cambridge, Mass., went all out and married a farmer. More

Recipe: Whipped Feta With Sweet and Hot Peppers

Recipe: Persian Fried Chicken


A Crunch, for Sipping
By MARK BITTMAN

THE best bar snack I've had in New York lately was the fried hominy at Cookshop in the meatpacking district. It was an easy order the first time around, because I'm a huge fan of all forms of dried corn. I especially like the flavor of hominy (also called posole), in which corn is treated with slaked lime, or calcium hydroxide. More

Recipe: Fried Hominy

Colorful Juices to Brighten a Glass
By FLORENCE FABRICANT

Colorful Juices to Brighten a Glass

They come in bright, jewel-like colors and alluring flavors like melon, quince, black mulberry, rose and pear.

Elite Naturel juices, made in Turkey and imported by Organic Juice USA, a Long Island company, can provide a new twist for summer drinks, plain or with iced tea, in smoothies and in cocktails. None have added sweeteners, not even apple or grape concentrate, though the rose flavor is blended with apple juice. More

Whiskey's Hudson Valley Revival
By PAUL ADAMS

IN 1825, New York State had more than a thousand small distilleries, and produced a major share of the nation's whiskey. Today it has just 13, and only recently has one of them revived a local craft, producing the first traditional whiskey made in the state since Prohibition. More