Mint

Since emigrating from Vietnam in the 1970s, Kia Dickinson has been generously sharing her incredible recipes with everyone she meets, including food editor Ian Knauer. This colorful mix of moist poached chicken, cabbage, carrots, and fresh herbs tossed with a wild, tongue-searing dressing is the quintessential summer salad—cool, colorful, and very fresh. When preparing this recipe, Dickinson uses the leftover poaching liquid to make rice.

What may seem like an incongruous mixture is actually a harmonious blend of ingredients and textures. There are few dishes that illustrate how the seemingly disparate flavors of sweet, sour, bitter, and salty can be successfully combined. One tip: While the melon should be chilled, the other ingredients are their most flavorful at room temperature, so combine the salad just before serving.

A slightly tart dressing and a perfectly crisp-sweet cucumber salad are wonderful foils for rich, meaty chunks of crab.

Generous handfuls of parsley and mint leaves are left whole, to hold their own alongside sweet ruffles of Bibb and thin slices of cucumber.

Although tomatoes and aromatic herbs always complement each other, tender sprigs of fresh mint seem to have a special affinity for tomatoes. In this soup the mint is a sprightly highlight that serves as a refreshing foil to the richness of the cream. Other fresh herbs, such as thyme or basil, can be substituted and the soup will still be very tasty, but you really owe it to yourself to make this recipe with mint at least once. As for the tomatoes, if it's summertime choose the ripest, freshest ones you can find (a pinch of sugar will bring out their natural sweetness); at other times of the year canned will do just fine. Serve with a basket of hot garlic bread and a tossed vegetable salad.

Serve with crusty bread.

An Indian-spiced burger that's balanced by a cooling raita (yogurt sauce).

Tossing hot vegetables with vinaigrette is the best way to get them to soak it up, and artichokes straight off the grill are no exception. Mint and capers is a combination that flatters artichokes° and somehow, with the added grill flavor, the effect is doubled here.

Roast the potatoes until the skins are crispy

This refreshing soup makes a great first course for a summer dinner party.

For a sweeter take on this cool spa drink, add 2 1/2 tablespoons sugar or agave nectar, available at Whole Foods, other natural foods stores, and at wildorganics.net.

Turkey is native to Mexico; it was a staple in the Mayan diet. I first sampled pavo en sac kol at Los Almendros in Mérida. This recipe was inspired by Rick Bayless.

Serve the compote over vanilla or strawberry ice cream, angel food cake, pancakes, or waffles.

This side dish is like the love child of a salad and a pickle. Make it ahead of time and serve it at room temperature with the Steak and Olives

Carrots are gently infused with a sweet, minty flavor.

"Anyone who has spent time in any North African country has stories about mint tea so sweet that the glass sticks to their lips," says Zadi. His version, though a strong tea, is light on the sweetening.

Moonlight-and-magnolia myths aside, this is one of the world's great libations.