Bored with plain water and in need of nonalcoholic liquids to help me get over the post-Aspen cold that's knocked out several F&W editors this week (possibly from late-night parties at 212 House), I stopped by Green Canteen, the first restaurant to become LEED certified in New York. After a fragrant house-made ginger soda and a peanut butter-banana milk shake, I'm on the mend and ready for more drinks. Here are a few I'll make this summer, whether I'm sick or just hot:

Gingery Fuji Apple Soda (above)
Rhubarb Soda
Green Tea Soda
Almond-Tea Milk Shakes
Prune Whip Shakes

A big part of St. Louis’s transformation into a food destination is the creativity of people like Gerard Craft. In a few weeks, the F&W Best New Chef 2008 will open Niche Taste Bar, a small-plates and classic-cocktails joint, in the space that was Veruca bakeshop. He’s Tweeted Taste Bar news obsessively for the past month and yesterday announced that local mixologist Ted Kilgore will head the drinks program (One of Kilgore's best recipes is in F&W Cocktails 2008). As for the food, Craft says everything will be cooked on a hibachi or induction burner or in an immersion circulator—that’s it! There will be things on toast (spicy pork meatballs with radish and parsley) and on sticks (grilled escolar with pineapple and pepperoni). There will also be pork liver and foie gras pâté in crocks and maybe a porchetta for slicing. Craft is even smoking his own country hams. With only about 18 seats at the wooden communal table and bar, space will be tight. My advice: Get there early. It’s sure to be the hottest spot in town.

At the F&W Classic in Aspen last week, chef Traci Des Jardins announced details of her anticipated restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton Highlands Lake Tahoe, including the name—Manzanita. And other facts: opening date (December 9); number of seats (94 in the restaurant and 70-odd in the bar); some of the dishes on the California mountain menu (grilled cheese with a daily changing cheese selection, rotisserie quail with bread salad and pancetta, red-wine-braised short ribs with horseradish-mashed potatoes). We’ve loved Traci since she was an F&W Best New Chef back in 1995, but this could be her best food to date. Traci, who’s done runs in Tahoe for 20-something years, says she never cooks better than after a big day of skiing.

The team from Langham Hotels was recently in NYC to share news about their superglam new Shanghai property, The Langham, Yangtze Boutique, and the dramatic, head-to-toe renovation of their historic The Langham, London. Arguably their most exciting project: the upcoming Langham Place, Beijing Capital Airport, attached to the new Norman Foster–designed Terminal 3. When the hotel opens next year, it will have a fancy Cantonese/Sichuan restaurant called Fine China, a hip lounge called Fuel with live music and Wii competitions, and a brewery. There is already talk of rolling the concept out to other airports around the world. I never thought I would willingly want to check into an airport hotel, but I can't wait to check this one out.

Grub Street and Eater.com are all over New York City's of-the-minute food trend: haute poutine, dressed up versions of the beloved Quebecois junk food of french fries, gravy and cheese curds. The latest NYC poutine spotting comes via a Tweet by Freemans owner William Tigertt: “Forget the truffle mac & cheese @ Waverly Inn, the duck confit poutine @ Hotel Griffou is the new artery clogging crack for downtown set.” Outside Manhattan, Mary Dumont, a Food & Wine Best New Chef 2006, tops hand-cut fries with melted cheese curd and chicken velouté at Harvest in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Rob Evans, a BNC 2004, layers his duck-fat Belgian fries with cheese curds and homemade duck gravy at Duckfat in Portland, Maine.

My coworker Melissa Rubel and I are four-fifths of the way toward my goal of baking 1,000 cookies by the end of Tuesday. These cookies will be among dozens of offerings from top chefs at Philadelphia's Great Chefs Event on Wednesday night. The Great Chefs Event supports Alex's Lemonade Stand an organization that raises money and awareness for childhood cancer research and treatment. It's already sold out! That's more than 700 people clamoring for cookies. Time to get baking.

Even sweets freak Christina Tosi of NYC's Momofuku Milk Bar might go into a sugar coma after eating at the Original, a mod diner that recently opened in Portland, Oregon. Chef B.J. Smith’s menu includes wacky creations like Froot Loop pancakes topped with crème fraîche and homemade syrup, house made Pop-Tarts and sweet-and-spicy root beer cake with root beer frosting. My favorite, though, is the Voodoo Doughnut Burger (a nod to Portland's cult Voodoo Doughnut shop), which swaps the bun for a glazed doughnut.

 

I've always wondered what it's like to be an ambitious, charismatic and kleptomaniac chef. Last night I lived out my fantasy by playing The Sims 3, the newly released version of the popular life-simulation computer game The Sims, now with special features for the virtual foodie.

Using the Create-A-Sim tool, I came up with an avatar that has the above-mentioned personality traits. My Sim self reads cookbooks (such as Cooking Vol. 2: Why You Need Baking Soda), takes cooking classes at the local grocery store and practices making everything from mac and cheese to sushi, all in an effort to move up from Kitchen Scullion to Celebrated Five-Star Chef at Little Corsican Bistro.

So far, things are going pretty well in my virtual life: I’ve eaten pancakes and waffles for breakfast every day, gotten promoted twice and "acquired" new furniture for my home (OK, so I stole lamps and chairs from the bistro, but kleptomania is an acceptable mental disorder in The Sims 3). I just hope my stealing habit won't derail my culinary aspirations.

Kettle Brand's latest, greatest marketing innovation is the Create-a-Chip Kit: four small bags of unflavored chips and seven flavor packets (sweet chili, cheddar, vinegar, lemon butter, roasted tomato, sour cream and chive, and caramelized onion). We had fun concocting what we thought would be deliciously brilliant combinations, though those four bags didn't give us nearly enough chips to work with. Our best combo was simple: roasted tomato and caramelized onion. If you have your own idea of the ideal potato chip flavor, you can enter the annual Kettle Chip Challenge and submit your recipe. The kits are on sale now for $12.74 from kettlechipchallenge.com.

Chefs all over the world are creating empires comprised of both white-tablecloth flagships and casual restaurants. On my recent trip to Belfast, I discovered Northern Ireland's chef-emperor, Michael Deane. I had an exceptional lunch at his Michelin-starred Deanes, featuring pan-fried wild halibut filets held together with edible glue (a trick Deane's executive chef, Derek Creagh, picked up during a stint at England's pioneering Fat Duck). Later, I stopped by the casual wine bar for the first of its new Friday night happy hours. The space—half wine shop, half restaurant—has live music from 5 to 7 p.m. every Friday, as well as a fantastic (and free!) spread of tapas—Irish cheeses, cured meats, olives, homemade breads and spreads. It's a Northern Irish take on Italy's aperitivo, and the best dining value in Belfast.