Even after tending bar for many years, founding the Museum of the American Cocktail, lecturing and consulting around the country (including at our own Halekulani Hotel), Dale Degroff never tires of teaching folks how to make a better mixed drink, as is evidenced in his latest book, "The Essential Cocktail: The Art of Mixing Perfect Drinks" (Clarkson Potter, hardback, $35).

Each beguilingly named drink recipe is accompanied by its background story. (Even Anglophiles might not know, for instance, that the Black Velvet, a champagne and stout concoction, was inspired by the pall of mourning that passed over Britain after the untimely death of Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, in 1861.) A number of the drinks have Hawai'i connections, including the Zombie, invented by Donn the Beachcomber, and Hilton Hawaiian Village bartender Harry Yee's Tropical Itch.

— Wanda A. Adams

TASTE OF THE HOLIDAY

THANKSGIVING IN A CREAM PUFF

Beard Papa cream puffs is offering a jump on Thanksgiving: a new hot turkey puff ($3.50) filled with an entire menu — sliced roast turkey breast, seasoned stuffing, spiced pumpkin and yams, with hot turkey gravy and cranberry sauce. You can find these through Nov. 30 at Salt Lake Shopping Center and in or near Foodland stores at Ala Moana, Hawai'i Kai, 'Ewa Beach, Pearl City and in Food Pantry on Kuhio Avenue in Waikiki. Another seasonal flavor is Bartlett pear with custard and cinnamon ($2.65).

The puffs are baked, made from a particular choux pastry recipe encased in a pie crust-type outside dough. And they're filled to order so they don't get soggy.

FINAL WORD

"(Thanksgiving) is a holiday that never gets boring or tiring. Even with a menu that features many of the same ingredient every year ... there always seems to be another way to approach it."

Barbara Fairchildren , editor-in-chief, Bon Appetit magazine, in the November issue