News from the Grace Rush kitchen out Cincinnati way: The dark Martha Ann fruitcake, which built the business, has a new honey-gold sister, white fruitcake by name.

One glorious month in the Far West on the hunt for good things to pass on to gourmets. First stop Seattle, to visit Samuel Martin, importer of men's topcoats.

Dark red, clear as crystal, it pours from the bottle, a smooth, velvety syrup with a glistening look. Ribena by name, made from pure black currant juice and sugar, not a thing else.

Honey in comb for a summer breakfast treat. Crash in with the fork, spill out the white clover sweetness, a bee's content distilled with a trace of the basswood bloom.

Lindt Swiss Chocolate returns to America, the first shipment here since before the war. Back in a variety of kinds: semisweet milk, extra bitter, chocolate with marrons, with hazelnuts, with mocha.

New Orleans, Queen City of the Mississippi. Sip a Ramos gin fizz, dull circs forgotten, bury disappointments in a heady Sazerac.

Rain or shine, spring's in the bones. Undeniable evidence at Ye Olde Herb Shoppe, 46 Dey Street, New York. Here are spring tonics for sale, the old-fashioned kinds made of bark, seed, and berry to turn into teas to quicken the blood....

Bring on the ham, a ham super-elegant, pearly pink the meat, and richly perfect in the mouth, with the taste of the smoke in each juicy fiber.

In general, as you go north, almost anywhere in Europe or the United States, the climate becomes consistently and perceptibly colder practically county by county, sometimes mile by mile.