Early July Soundbites

Summer reads can be frustrating. On one level you want something as light and airy as a beach breeze, but when confronted with many of the so-called Bestsellers littering the shelves, their inept writing and predictable storylines invariably disappoint. A sort of magician in bridging that gap is Joyce Carol Oates, always profound and deeply elegant in her prose yet frequently sensationalistic in her grisly subject matter. My Sister, My Love, her latest and like, 200th, novel is a fictional account of the JonBenet Ramsay media frenzy, largely told from her mentally-challenged brother's point of view. Cafe Drake loved every word, even the oddity of a related "teen literature" novella plunked dead in center of the book.

Meet the new Martha Stewart of the East: former housewife, now cooking goddess with an Asian and European fan base bordering on the fanatical, Harumi Kurihara is infinitely more likable than her Western counterpart. Cafe Drake is developing the same rabid obsession seizing much of the planet, and we're steadily cooking our way through her new recipe book Harumi's Japanese Cooking (actually only Harumi's second volume to be published in America). If Food Network doesn't give this woman a primetime slot - complete with subtitles - then the channel is in as much trouble as we suspect.

Nopales, or thick paddles cactus leaves, are a staple throughout most Mexican households, appearing with great frequency in virtually every region of the country's kitchens. Yes you could buy them fresh and whole at most Latin food markets, but why bother with extensive prep work when they're perfect and delicious straight from a jar. Salty and slightly tangy, with a texture akin to okra, Cafe Drake is slipping nopales into everything this summer, from salads as above, to beef stews and omelets.