Hot water that is! Have you ever ordered something in a restaurant, or made a special request, where the other diners with you looked at you like you had three heads? Well, that was me today when the coffee-or-tea question came around after lunch and I requested hot water. I explained the rationae behind the trend that started with my family. My father started ordering hot water about 20 years ago as he hates tea and quit drinking coffee, but still wanted to drink something hot. Hot water became the natural answer, and the rest of us slowly started to follow his lead. It is now becoming more popular around the world (and has always been a mainstay in Asia), but he never used to know what he’d get when placing his hot water request at a restaurant. I recall in Brussels on one trip he received a finger bowl of hot water – who knows what was going through that waiter’s head? Sometimes, when ordering a pot of hot water, he received a pot of hot water, but no glass to pour it. Another time in Paris, there was no way of communicating the request, so in my high school French, I ordered tea without the tea and that seemed to work. Yesterday, however, in Yardley, PA, I introduced my colleagues to this new concept of hot water. Will they be ordering it their next time out to lunch? I don’t think so, but perhaps some of you will now like it hot! -Alexandra Young, associate publisher and vice president