Health:- Gourmet Files : Go forthe drink

Some like it hot, some like it cold… what matters is to keep yourself hydrated.
It's so often repeated that it almost loses meaning: The advice to
drink specific drinks when the heat becomes dehydrating. I understand
that fluids need replenishing, that cold liquids are going to please
and refresh, that some foods, like khus , are inherently "cooling",
but the advice seems empty when you're wilting from the heat.
Once I was travelling long distance by car, motoring from Chandigarh
to Delhi, in the days when cars werenot air-conditioned. We left at
the crack of dawn tobeat the heat, but by about11, the dry heat and
scorching sun made the trip a nightmare. Opening the windows brought
in the loo , your hair and lips became as dry as straw; and closing
them baked you into a Marie biscuit. Midpoint, at Karnal, we stopped
because the driverwanted a cup of tea. This old saying, " Garam chai
garmi mein thandak pahunchati hai ," I have never understood. Anyway
he wanted his cuppa and we went into the restaurant. My cousin, whose
car it was, suggested I have salted nimbu pani . I would have
preferred iced water or plain nimbu pani , but he insisted. And voila,
it worked. Quite magical — half a glass down and I was feeling human
again. Irealise that heat is one thing — it causes acute discomfort,
but salt loss is quite another — it debilitates.
Iced tea wonder
A cuppa that does work forme, though, is a tall glass of iced tea. If
it's thoroughly chilled, it tastesdelightful of course, but it also
quenches thirst that no jugfuls of plain water can, however many
trowels of crushed ice havebeen added.
In my list of favourite cold summer drinks there are many criteria:
Looks (the strawberry cooler wins hands down. Though the sight of a
tall, misted glass,with chilled amber coloured tea, ice cubes
clinking, a green lime leaf floating, can give the red a run for its
money — but then it could be the association); taste (they all tie for
this one); and efficacy in beating the heat( panna and iced tea). Khus
ka sherbet ? I could live without it, but that's entirely my
idiosyncrasy because, to my mind, khus should be inhaled, in an ittar
from Kannauj or in thefresh breeze of an evaporation cooler through
pads of khus , vetiver roots, not consumed. That's like eating
Patanwala's soap. Inthe hot summer months, sometimes a muslin sachetof
vetiver roots is tossed into the earthen pot that keeps the
household's drinking water cool and, like a bouquet garni , lends a
distinctive aroma to the water.
In summer, with non-stop demands for cold drinks, keep a bottle of
sugar sherbet in the kitchen. (Boilone litre of water with onekg sugar
and simmer just until sugar dissolves. Whencool, add one tsp lime
juiceto prevent crystallisation.)

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