Next head across the Brooklyn Bridge to stroll the deliciously breezy Brooklyn Heights Promenade, catch an outdoor Shakespeare performance in Brooklyn's vast green Prospect Park, and scoop up a butter pecan sundae at the waterfront Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory (1 Water St), housed in a 1920s fireboat house.

BBC: Summer in the city: New York

The cookie to emerge from my auditions this year is a tri-color butter cookie: a layer of red, green and white dough rolled and sliced into a gorgeous swirl.

NPR: Pursuit of the Perfect Christmas Cookie

The corn should be seven feet (2m) high, waving above our heads, green and laden with fat heavy cobs, like the ones you eat slathered in butter.

BBC: US crops tell story of future world food prices

The meal didn't begin auspiciously: bland, almost tasteless Sicilian green olives and bread delivered rather stagily in a brown paper bag, albeit with beautifully creamy butter.

WSJ: Bruce Palling on Food: Why Dabbous Is London's Hottest Hot Spot