Winner of Bravo’s “The Fashion Show” last summer, designer Anna McCraney is selling many of the Annabelle designs you saw last year now at the Flea. Sourced from African stores in the neighborhood, the traditional fabrics have been worked into sexy, modern cuts. McCraney’s designs seem even more timely this year with the smash hit Fela on Broadway. One look at this show, Tony winner for best costumes, and you will see both the strong influence African culture has had on fashion (Marc by Marc Jacobs and Balenciaga come to mind) and wonder why we don’t see more of it.

And at this point in the season, the collection is on sale! Think of Annabelle as the perfect party dress for a crazy-hot night.

Annabelle clothing, $25 and up on sale, at the Fort Greene Brooklyn Flea on Saturdays.

But when in airport hell, this cheeky carry-on throws it right back at ‘em when you have to pay that baggage fee. Next time you’re in the security line, take your quart-size, clear plastic bag full of 3-oz-or-less gels and liquids out of Flight 001’s Safety Dopp Case ($32), which parodies the genre with lines like “Please stow all babies under your seat.” At least it will provide some levity if you’re forced to throw away that souvenir snow globe.

Safety Dopp Case, $32 at flight001.com.

A welcome addition to a street that’s already rife with Asian food places, Xi’an Famous Foods ups the ante by upping the spice content, a lot. One bite of cold buckwheat noodles ($5, item A3), above, and you may start to cry – for a good reason. The amount of fresh horseradish is intense, counterbalanced by cilantro, bean sprouts and sesame oil. As with the fat, hand-pulled noodles that go into many of the dishes here, the buckwheat noodles are made fresh every day.

That “Spicy & Tingly Lamb Face Salad” ($8.75, item E3), meanwhile, comes in a silky, cool broth that adds a bass note of umami to the super-tender chunks of curried, cumin-inflected lamb, basically the beef cheeks of Xi’an’s cuisine. The salad itself is a crunchy mix of celery, zucchini slivers, more bean sprouts and more cilantro. You don’t often see lamb and cumin in Chinese food, but you do here because Xi’an in western China sits on the ancient trade route between China and the Middle East, where Middle Eastern ingredients met Chinese technique.

If this sounds like the kind of place Anthony Bourdain would patronize, he has – the Flushing, Queens branch. But don’t come to Xi’an on St. Mark’s expecting fancy digs: there are only a few seats and stiff competition for them. This is basically a take-out shop where “plating” involves various Styrofoam containers. (The dishes in the photos are mine.) Though it looks like a fast-food joint, Xi’an makes everything with care, so expect to wait 20 minutes while a staff of three people moves, well, as fast as three people can serve a crowd.

All in all this an excellent addition to the neighborhood, providing an anchor of authenticity among the faux-Asian places that have plagued the NYU area for years. Hopefully other local Chinese places, some of which, like Grand Sichuan, have gone down in quality recently, will get the message: Make it fresh, authentic and spicy.

Xi’an Famous Foods
81 St. Mark’s Place, between First and Second Avenues
xianfoods.com

Turns out I must not be alone, because many patrons of the Waverly Inn have followed chef John DeLucie here to the Lion. Mick Jagger caused a stir on a recent night there, and now the flashbulbs of paparazzi outside the door greet anyone vaguely famous-looking. Alas, the Lion’s democratic touch that enraptured Jay Cheshes at Time Out is already fast disappearing, and you may find waits of two hours or more now for one of those walk-in tables in the front room.

But a plate of biscuits can go a long way, as it did the other night when we finally snagged a seat at the bar. Famished after the wait, we were immediately calmed by those biscuits, which reappear here as flaky onion biscuits. They’re not exactly the same as the Waverly Inn’s, but they’re perhaps an improvement on the original.

Though the A-list tables are in the back room, there’s a lot to recommend the bar as well, particularly if you get here early, when a quietly glamorous, Gold Coast neighborhood crowd lingers in the clubby, olde New York interior with its exposed beams, oak paneled bar and vintage prints on the wall. Later the scene is a motley mix of chic media types like Vogue’s Filipa Fino and an annoying off-duty Hamptons crowd, including one banker type who gave a lively retelling of his previous night at Scores. (And no, they do not serve Red Bull here, so please don’t ask.) The art-filled back room is much more buttoned down, with the huge skylight of erstwhile Village restaurant still bathing a moneyed downtown crowd in flattering evening light.

The brief but effective cocktail menu is a mix of classics like the blood and sand ($14) and new concoctions like “the Factory” ($14), made with gin, blackberry liquor, champagne and fresh blackberries. Home bartenders, take note: blackberries are a fantastic seasonal addition to summer cocktails. And if you’re looking for blackberry cocktails in Brooklyn, there’s a similarly delicious one at Henry Public right now.

Traditionalists like me will love DeLucie’s food. John DeLucie is definitely the man in charge here, frequently stepping out of the open kitchen to greet friends and familiar faces and cuing the staff to accommodate them. Meanwhile, the kitchen is putting out classic salads, corn soup, lobster pot pie and steaks – food that’s reassuring without being predictable, with creative twists here and there and excellent quality throughout.

Malpec oysters ($18 for a half dozen), perfectly shucked and slurped down from a pool of brine on the half shell, will take you back to olde New York oyster houses of yore, in taste and atmosphere if not in price. And if you’re looking for another bar snack, do not skip the herbed French fries ($8). Crispy, light, and laced with herbs and salt, they were the accompaniment of choice with a martini.

We didn’t expect much from the chicken, because why should you? This formerly dull menu item, however, has gotten the special treatment from a number of good chefs, including Stephen Lyle, who used to helm the kitchen at Village Restaurant in this space. So oddly, DeLucie’s succulent Amish chicken ($25), sauced in rich stock with the sweet, tangy edge of reduced vinegar and surrounded by tender mushrooms, baby leeks and corn, made us nostalgic for the old days here at Village. Fortunately we could drown our nostalgia in more upscale comfort food like the addictive spinach casserole ($8), topped with crispy breadcrumbs and mixed with a liberal amount of butter.

The fabulous burger “special blend” ($18) is like an upper-class bacon cheeseburger. Substitute pork belly and smoked cheddar for the usual ingredients and you’ve got an amazing burger on your hands, perfectly cooked to order between a squishy bun. It’s so rich it’s hard to finish, but as the patrons in the back room of The Lion could tell you, you can never be too rich.

All this eating took place as we fended off bar-goers angling for our seats: “Are you leaving soon?” But, though this was not always the case at the Waverly Inn, the friendly and attentive bartender here created an oasis of civility in the midst of it all.

The only question is how long will it take for the place to calm down and settle into itself – it’s like judging the amount of time it will take to aerate a bottle of  wine. Wait too long and it turns to vinegar; dive right in and you might get something a little too riotous. Perhaps the only solution is to keep going back to the Lion – it’ll be an entertaining ride in the meantime.

The Lion
62 West 9th Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues
212-353-8400‎

Great individual style, mixing neutral grays with a pop of coral on the lips and turquoise-framed sunglasses. An artfully-draped sheer paisley scarf can fend off the AC inside. You can find bright, saturated lipstick shades from the new Tom Ford beauty line.

I love these long-pants rompers that have really started to catch on this summer. When it feels like July in St. Barth’s outside, you might as well dress as if you’re in St. Barth’s.

A dapper summer cotton suit with fedora.

As Eric Wilson pointed out in the NYT, rolled cuffs are the male styling trick of the summer – here with plaid shirt and straw fedora.

A cool print of trees in earth tones on a silk dress.

Black for summertime, off the shoulder-style. Top knots are practical and pretty in hot weather.

And one of the most important accessories of the summer: the black bra, often exposed by this season’s myriad racer-back tank tops and tank dresses inspired by Alexander Wang.

More rolled cuffs! And a great casual work outfit of a gingham shirt paired with a preppy belt and Converse shoes.

A sharp nautical-stripe dress.

Another interesting trend this summer: there are many, many more flats than heels on the streets. Rarely do you see the towering platform stilettos of fashion week on everyday, well-dressed women – even work shoes are often flat sandals, as evidenced here.

A breezy calico sundress beats the heat, paired here with a contrasting gold belt.

Metallics are popping up for daytime – as with this silver embellished black tee.

An enormous floppy black-and-white hat fends of the rays.

Now that peas are in season in the Northeast and available at the Union Square Greenmarket, there’s no reason to fall back on the frozen kind. Pick up a pint of fresh shelled peas and you can easily make this simple but elegant first course.

Recipe: Chilled Pea and Mint Soup

2 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp. cumin
4 c. chicken broth
1 pint fresh shelled peas
1 handful mint leaves, plus more for garnish
salt and freshly ground black pepper
fleur de sel
crème fraîche for garnish

In a medium saucepan, saute the onion and garlic in olive oil over moderate heat until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the cumin and stir for a minute more. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Pour in the shelled peas and simmer over moderate heat until peas are very tender, about 8 minutes. Take the mixture off the heat and let it cool.

In a food processor or blender, puree the soup together with the mint in batches. Add salt and pepper to taste. Chill the soup for at least 3 hours or overnight.

To serve, pour the soup into teacups and garnish each with a dollop of crème fraîche, a pinch of fleur de del and a mint leaf.

Serves 4-6.

Ninth Ward is the latest bar that aspires to take us away, this time to New Orleans, though once you arrive, you may think you boarded the wrong plane. As far as the controversial name goes, “Ninth Ward” is really not the same as “Ground Zero.” This New Orleans neighborhood has a rich history of jazz and Creole culture that came about way before Hurricane Katrina. (Watch Treme for the full story.) But the similarities between the actual Ninth Ward and this new bar end at the name and the cocktail list.

There’s Sazerac on the cocktail menu, required knowledge for every bartender in New Orleans, and blessedly, they have Abita on tap here. (There is no food menu yet.) But the decor is a style that could be called “standard exotic,” if Home Depot ever sells a kit for this. Though the backlit shutters could hark from the set of A Streetcar Named Desire, the rustic beams, dark interior, faux lanterns and antique knickknacks behind wire-paneled cabinets look a lot like the interior of Macao Trading Co. or Mayahuel. Since most of us have never went to Macao in the 1940s, however, it’s easier to believe that things actually looked like that in this Portuguese province of China. But like many New Yorkers, I have been to New Orleans, and bars in the Ninth Ward look more like the beat-up Chicken Box in Yankee Nantucket than this swanky, dark cocktail lounge. In fact, the main problem is that the Ninth Ward is way too nice. If it had about thirty more years of wear and tear, sagging steps, Saints memorabilia, Mardi Gras beads and a kick-ass horn player performing for a $10 cover, it would be much more authentic.

And yet, if you don’t need the fantasy of going to Louisiana, Ninth Ward is a fine bar to hang out in for a drink or two. It’s true that the wait staff is a little out of it – our server could not even answer the question “What wines do you have by the glass?” But it’s nice to crawl into this dark den out of the blazing heat and put back an Abita or two while bluesy Stones and Sly Johnson play on the stereo, and the back garden, with its cast-iron fountain that actually does look like it came from New Orleans, is a hidden gem.

A “destination bar”? Ninth Ward may not inspire you to make a special trip there, but it’s an OK place to go when you want to get away…somewhere.

Ninth Ward
180 Second Avenue between 11th and 12th Streets
212-979-9273
ninthwardnyc.com

One of the best uses for homemade hummus is this sandwich, based on the delicious version from Something Natural in Nantucket. Though you’ll be hard-pressed to find the same wonderful Portuguese bread off the island, you can use fresh multi-grain bread for a healthy lunch that fits into a low-cal, low-salt diet. This sandwich almost like a salad between two pieces of bread, and as such, it’s a lot easier to take to the beach or the park. You may want to wrap the sandwich in waxed paper and cut it in half – or just enjoy the messiness.

Something Natural’s Hummus and Sprouts Sandwich

For the hummus
1 can low-sodium chickpeas, drained, liquid reserved
1/4 c. tahini
2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. ground cumin
juice of 1/2 lemon

Put all the ingredients except the chickpea liquid into a food processor and process until minced. Slowly add the liquid until it becomes a puree; don’t add too much liquid because it will have to hold its shape in a sandwich. The final product should be slightly nubbly, not a slick paste.

To fine-tune the seasoning, refrigerate the hummus for at least an hour and then taste it. Finish with more lemon juice.

For the sandwich
1/2 large carrot, peeled
1/3 cucumber
1/2 tomato
1/2 c. alfalfa sprouts
2 slices whole grain bread
1/2 c. hummus

Using a mandoline, julienne the carrot into 1/8-inch strips and thinly slice the cucumber. Slice the tomato and wash and pat dry the alfalfa sprouts, pulling them apart to create volume.

Spread the hummus on one slice of bread and top with the hummus, cucumber, carrots and tomato. Cut it in half with a large bread knife and serve.

Makes 1 sandwich.

The Something Natural original

If you have silk pants or a silk jumper, now is the time – they feel light as air, even in extreme heat. These red, white and navy striped pants make a vivid statement on a hot day.

Peachy-nude colors have been big in accessories and cosmetics since spring, and now they’re starting to cross over to clothing. This is a great neutral for August-September. Think of it as a precursor to fall’s camel coats predominant on the runway at the Chloe show in Paris. Also: great hair and retro ’70s glasses.

Another nude dress, this time paired with gladiators.

Sandals are getting accessorized with buckled canvas covers like these.

A scarf or headwrap is a cool, boho way to dress up an updo this summer.

Plaid still looks fresh in the form of a traditional menswear shirt for women.

Hello kitty…. An outfit with a sense of humor.

Ligne 6 by Maison Martin Margiela, available on lagarconne.com.