Flavor

"Plain as vanilla?" Not any longer. What was once synonymous with boring is suddenly soaring.The seemingly conflicting trends toward lighter, healthier foods on the one hand, and the return to homey, comfort foods on the other, have harmonized to make this once invisible flavoring a shining star in its own right.Not only have manufacturers of low-fat goods discovered that the addition of vanilla can help compensate for the loss of fat, but commercial food makers in general are finding that consumers welcome the nostalgic simplicity of vanilla at a time when multiple combinations like raspberry-kiwi-pineapple abound.

Food that recalls childhood memories -- yet packs sophisticated flavor -- is hot right now (Exhibit A: cupcakes). The cool version you'll want to sink your teeth into in the heat of summer? Grown-up ice pops. Infuse familiar strawberry with a bite of basil. Use espresso powder to deepen the flavor of the chocolate pop you remember from the ice-cream truck. Hook up fresh melon with vodka and melon liqueur. Add bits of cut-up fruit to make your pops pretty. While these pops taste grown-up, you still can enjoy the childlike ease of experimenting with them during these long, hot days.

We don't think twice about adding ginger to gingerbread -- it's a key flavor. But what about brisket, biscotti or butter? If you use ginger only in its powered form, once a year for holiday baking, you're missing out.Since the dawn of New American and global cuisines, North American chefs and cookbook authors have embraced all forms of ginger as essential flavorings for a variety of dishes. Fresh, crystallized and ground ginger ranks right up with garlic, lemons and pepper on their list of pantry staples.

Things are definitely getting nuttier in the kitchen these days, what with all the pecans, peanuts, walnuts, macadamia nuts, almonds, pistachios, cashews and hazelnuts showing up in everything from salads to seafood.Nuts are showing up with grilled chicken in a salad of pears and baby greens, as a crust for a savory smoked salmon cheesecake, or with bananas, raisins and brown sugar in a quick bread.Fusion cooking, which blends ethnic and regional ingredients and techniques, and the popularity of Thai flavors, are part of nuts' new appeal, said Denis Manneville, owner of Weber's on Boston in Canton, where nuts frequently can be found on the menu.

Halloween night, most caldrons will be filled with candy. But the ones on the stove might be filled with bones (cue creepy music). The holiday aside, in this era of nose-to-tail dining, adding "bones" to the shopping list doesn't seem unusual — nor should it. Dogs know what humans should: Bones are nutritious and delicious. Cooking with bones is as old as cooking itself. In the "appetizers and snacks" section of "Le Guide Culinaire," published in 1903, the famed French chef Auguste Escoffier included a simple recipe for grilled sirloin bones: "Sprinkle them with cayenne," he advised.

Healthy eaters long ago embraced spray-on butter, but will they do the same for spray-on bacon? Renowned chef David Burke is betting consumers will. He is the inventor of the David Burke Flavor Sprays marketed as containing zero calories, zero fat, zero cholesterol and zero carbohydrates. The flavorings, approved by the Food and Drug Administration, fall under three categories: classic, exotic, and sweet and sinful. The offerings range from smoked bacon to chocolate fudge and are being billed as an alternative for those desiring to shed pounds but hesitant to surrender taste.

Along with the smells of ripe tomatoes and perfect peaches, wood smoke is an integral part of summer's sweet perfume. It lends depth to the flavor of chicken, sweetens the taste of pork and helps give steak its sizzle. It's so delicious that some restaurants even build their menus around it. But until fairly recently, it was pretty difficult to get that bouquet in your backyard. Now all that has changed. Cooking with real wood flavor has become so easy you can do it every day. You can't just go lighting any old logs you find.

The jars of honey arrayed on Jim Zink's kitchen counter taste of the trees and flowers on his 26-acre farm. They range in color from pale gold to deep red-brown. And each honey has a distinct taste, from the light sweetness of locust honey to the rich molasseslike flavor of buckwheat honey. He likes to use the darker honeys for baking and the lighter ones to flavor tea or toast. Zink, one of Maryland's 898 beekeepers, wouldn't dream of using supermarket honey, which he considers blander and less varied than the local stuff.

From: Tuscany, Italy Price: $14 Serve with: Clams, oysters This complex but moderately priced Italian white wine shows the distinctly nutty character of vernaccia, with a strong underlying flavor of minerals. Fruit flavors don't predominate in this severely dry but satisfying wine, but they are present: citrus, pear and a hint of coconut. This is another fine selection from Angelini Wines — an importer to watch.