Flavor

What sacrifices we make for the sake of speed. Take oats. Look at those fallacious flakes that pass for modern oatmeal. Even the noble look of the weighty Friend on the label can't disguise the anemia of a processed product that has all the appeal of culinary dust. Quickness is its one asset, and for that we have given up flavor, chewiness, aroma and much of the pleasure inherent in a grain that has been providing comfort and health since prehistoric times. The only commonly available oatmeal retaining any quality of oats has been dubbed "old- fashioned," as if flavor had somehow become passe.

At its simplest, wine-making is just the business of crushing grapes and letting the yeast from the grape skin ferment the juice. Fermentation turns the sugar in the grape into alcohol and produces a bunch of other flavors at the same time. Sometimes the wine tastes just like the kind of grape juice it was made from. Sometimes it tastes more complicated - other flavors are induced when the newly created alcohol comes into contact with the grape's natural flavors. But where do the flavors of the grape come from?

The statue of an Egyptian goddess greets customers in the dusty doorway. She is one of a roomful of antiques at Liberties, a restaurant and bar that duplicates one of this historic (Northern Liberties) neighborhood's early taverns. Liberties' ceiling is copper and tin. The floor is mostly mosaic tile, the sort you still find in the bathrooms of unrestored Victorian rowhouses. The mirror behind the long, curving wooden bar is clouded and, hence, kind to the reflections of aging customers.

No matter what your music flavor, Philly has it. In Old City tonight, the sound is Latin, with Jay Rockwell at Brasil's; it's Caribbean in West Philly, with Rookie, Roger Culture and Ross at Pegasus. Manayunk has hip-hop for you Saturday, when Sat-One gets on the turntables at Grape Street Pub, and then again Sunday, at Chemistry with Doc B. Along the waterfront Sunday, the house beats are spun by Richie Rich and John Gill at Chrome. And Wednesday, be sure to get to South Fourth Street for "Tigerhook Session IV" at Fluid.

The second annual Artosphere, Arkansas' six-week arts and nature festival, will have a distinct Philadelphia-area flavor. Andrea Packard, director of the List Gallery at Swarthmore College, will present her artwork during the opening ceremony on Green Day, April 22. She also will discuss a visual arts exhibition, Garden as Muse. Corrado Rovaris, music director of the Opera Company of Philadelphia, and David Hayes, music director of the Philadelphia Singers, will lead the Artosphere Festival Orchestra.

Every year, right around the time the flies come out, hard-core serial grillers are relentlessly grilling or smoking just about anything they can get their hands on. While we often associate grilled foods with the tastes of the marinades, rubs or salsas that accompany them, the ingredient that's in almost anything cooked outdoors is the flavor of smoke. When we grill with coals, hardwoods or smoking chips, we add smoke to the recipe. Grilling over coals or wood is one of the few cooking processes that leave a specific flavor postmark and tell you exactly how it was sent.

The idea isn't revolutionary: The Vietnamese have long grilled food on sugar cane. But Seasoned Skewers take the game to another level. We had great success grilling cubes of pork, apples and onions on the honey-bourbon-flavored sticks. (Also in garlic-herb, citrus-rosemary, and Thai coconut-lime.) Tender times three Calphalon, whose pots we love, is launching a line of gadgets: peelers, can openers, graters, seed removers, zesters, and this nifty three-way tenderizer. It has three separate surface textures, for pounding cutlets, steaks or tough cuts you'll stew or braise - and a soft-touch handle to ward off blisters.

Serving a meal with a south-of-the-border accent captures a sense of celebration - sensual, colorful and bursting with flavor. The richness of Mexican cuisine has developed over centuries. It is a dramatic blend of the original Indian fare and the strong influences of the Spanish. The preeminent agricultural contribution that the early natives called maize, and we know as corn, still plays a significant role. Grains, as well as legumes, are staples, with meat used sparingly.

Fresh herbs are at their most abundant and affordable during these waning days of summer. So, yes, use them with abandon. Chop and sprinkle on grilled fish, mince and rub on lamb, tuck whole sprigs in glasses of iced tea and lemonade. But the onset of autumn doesn't have to signal the end of herbal enjoyment. Now's the time to preserve your herbs for use later in roasts, stews, even cocktails. Herbs are extremely easy to "put by. " No sterilized jars and pots of hot water needed.

2012 Suzuki Kizashi Sport GTS AWD: And now for something really different. Price: $26,404. Conventional wisdom: They still import Suzukis? Marketer's pitch: Suzuki lets others do their bragging. The website points out that Motor Trend seemed to love it, saying, "From a style standpoint, the Kizashi succeeds inside and out" and it's also "light and flickable around a good hairpin or two. " Reality: Despite positive reviews from big names in the automotive world, I'd have to say different is not always better.

Provençal rosé is doing the quick fade, at least when it comes to color. Popularity of the refreshing southern French pink, in fact, has never been stronger, with a 62 percent growth in U.S. imports between 2010 and 2011, according to the French customs agency Ubifrance. "It started with the yacht crowd in the Hamptons," one distributor told me, "and spread from there. " The fashion among Provence's modern rosés, however, has been to make them as pale as possible, and the best, like Château D'Esclans, manage to achieve this without sacrificing fullness of flavor.

Kale is about as unlikely a food star as you can imagine. It's tough and fibrous. Bite a piece of raw kale and you'll practically end up with splinters between your teeth. Nevertheless, kale has become a green of the moment because, given a little special care, it's not only edible but delicious. You can cook it, of course, the lower and slower the better. But surprisingly, one of the most popular ways to use kale these days is in salads. Though kale leaves have always been found on almost every salad bar, it wasn't for reasons of edibility - it was for decoration, because this was one green so tough it would last forever without wilting.

Food Network chef Giada De Laurentiis will be signing copies of her new cookbook, Weeknights With Giada, Quick and Simple Recipes to Revamp Dinner (Clarkson Potter), at the Williams Sonoma store in King of Prussia at noon Thursday. (If you miss that appearance, try the Wegmans store in Allentown at 5 p.m. Thursday.) We chatted with her for 12 minutes on the phone - literally all her schedulers would allow. Question: How are your recipes created? Answer: We come up with themes for the shows, and I write recipes based on those.

Bold, dramatic, and invigorating, tangerine tango is dancing its way into home-decor trends in 2012 with a punch of reddish-orange panache. The hue is a vivacious alternative to last year's honeysuckle, and design experts say it's easy to incorporate. Pillows, bedspreads, and tabletop accessories in this high-impact color can add spice to any room. Or add tangerine appliances and personal electronics for an unexpected pop of color, says Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Institute, the research arm of Pantone Inc. of Carlstadt, N.J., which sets color standards for the home and fashion industries.

WELCOME to Cheap Buzz, where we eavesdrop as sommelier Marnie Old attempts to teach the joys of wine and fine spirits to Buzz, a guy with no sophistication and not much money. Here's their latest conversation: Buzz: So Marnie, Saturday is St. Patrick's Day. Are you a green-beer gal? I bet you'd look great with a green tongue. Marnie: Very funny, Buzz. I prefer Irish whiskey. It's getting more popular every year, and not just in March. People are discovering it's a milder, softer style of whiskey than scotch or bourbon.

AUSTIN, Texas - The 2012 South by Southwest Music Festival officially got under way Wednesday, with day parties all along the Texas state capital's Sixth Street strip and official showcases for up-and-coming and already-arrived bands banging on at more than 100 venues. There are more big names than ever this year in Austin - rap kingpin Jay-Z played a free show downtown on Monday before the festival began but while the SXSW film and interactive conferences, the latter a must-attend for tech and social-media geeks, were peaking.

It was a transporting bite. I had recently been to the coast of Spain, where I had devoured (for breakfast, lunch, dinner - basically whenever I could) the best shrimp I had ever tasted. It wasn't the preparation or the sauce, it was the crustacean itself: sweet, soft, creamy, head-on, lobsterlike. Which is why I was incredulous when I tasted those same qualities in my shrimp at Old City's Fork. It turns out the incredible flavor of my Spanish shrimp had nothing to do with Mediterranean waters, and everything to do with freshness.

THESE DAYS, with all the emphasis on eating fresh and local, it's not unusual for neighbors in and out of the city to take a stab at keeping bees or collecting eggs from their own free-range yard hens. What's next on the DIY frontier? Hint: it's growing in a moist and shady place and pairs well with a nice, round pinot noir. Welcome to the fabulous world of home-cultivated fungi. For mushroom lovers, and there are plenty of them out there, the notion of colonizing an army of shiitakes on a log in the back yard is downright seductive.

Fermented bean paste? Doesn't exactly scream "party in your mouth. " And yet we happily slurp it in that salty, savory soup doled out every time we sit down for sushi. And that's because miso really is a flavor bomb worth knowing. So let's start there. Miso is a broad term for pastes made from fermented cooked soybeans that are aged, sometimes for years. Miso has origins in China, but is best known for its role in Japanese cooking, where it is used in soups, sauces, marinades, glazes, and dressings.