By half past ten this morning the basil on my balcony had already started to droop, and I hadn’t even had my second coffee. That’s the thing about a Sydney summer – it sneaks up faster than you plan for, and most of us are behind on water before lunch without realising it. I’ve been cooking through enough hot seasons now to know that staying hydrated isn’t really about chugging a bottle of water when you remember. It’s a handful of small habits, mostly food-based, that add up without you noticing the effort.
What I love about this time of year is that the produce practically does the job for you. Watermelon, cucumber, rockmelon, even the humble iceberg lettuce – all sitting north of ninety per cent water. So the easiest way to stay hydrated this summer isn’t a bigger drink bottle, it’s putting more of that produce on your plate without thinking of it as a separate task.
What actually counts toward hydration
We tend to picture hydration as a glass of water on a bedside table, but Healthdirect’s guidance on dehydration makes the point that fluid comes from food as well as drink, and in Australian summer that food-based fluid matters more than people think. A bowl of watermelon after lunch, a cucumber and yoghurt side with dinner, soup on a night that’s cooled off – it all counts.
I’ll be honest, I used to be sceptical of this idea, thought it sounded like something written to make people feel better about not drinking enough water. But once I started tracking it properly for a few weeks (recipe testing makes you obsessive about this sort of thing) it held up. The days I ate more raw veg and fruit were the days I felt less flat by four o’clock, regardless of how much water I’d actually poured down my throat.
The produce doing double duty right now
Cucumber, celery, tomatoes, zucchini, rockmelon, strawberries, oranges – all in season through an Australian summer and all sitting high on the water-content scale. I like slicing cucumber thin, salting it lightly and leaving it fifteen minutes before serving, because that draws out extra moisture and gives you a crunchier, juicier result than serving it straight off the board. Small thing, makes a real difference to how it eats.
If you want something that leans savoury rather than sweet, the shaved fennel and orange salad with toasted almonds is one I come back to constantly through January and February. The orange brings juice, the fennel brings crunch, and it barely needs dressing because the fruit does the work.
Building it into a routine that actually sticks
The honest problem with hydration advice is that most of it assumes you’ll remember to act on it, and by three in the afternoon in thirty-four degree heat, remembering anything feels like a big ask. What’s worked better for me is attaching water to something I’m doing anyway. Kettle on, glass of water first. Chopping herbs for dinner, water while I chop. I wrote a bit about this kind of habit-stacking in building a morning routine that actually sticks, and the same logic applies here. Attach the new habit to an old one and it stops needing willpower.
Coconut water gets a lot of attention over summer and I don’t think it deserves to be dismissed, but I also don’t think it’s essential for a walk to the corner shop on Illawarra Road and back. Sports and electrolyte drinks are marketed hard through summer, and for genuinely long, sweaty sessions in the heat they have their place. For most of us doing normal daily things in Sydney humidity, water and food-based fluid does the job just as well, and it’s a lot cheaper.
Drinks worth actually making
Plain water gets boring by week three of a heatwave, I won’t pretend otherwise. What helps is having something cold in the fridge that isn’t just water but also isn’t loaded with sugar. I make a big jug of iced honey and lemon tea, cooled and poured over ice with a few mint leaves from the balcony. It smells like nothing much until it hits the ice, and then that citrus lifts right up. I’ll also throw whole chilli flowers or a stalk of Thai basil into a jug of soda water some afternoons, mostly because I grow far too many chillies and need somewhere for them to go.
For something you can make ahead and forget about, the chia pudding with rhubarb, made the night before works nicely for this too, since chia swells with a good deal of liquid and gives you a cool, custardy breakfast that doesn’t sit heavy in the heat.
Reading your own signs, without overthinking it
I’m not a doctor and I won’t pretend to diagnose anything from a kitchen bench, but dietitians and health bodies generally point to a few practical signals worth knowing, things like darker urine, a dry mouth, or feeling foggier than usual by mid-afternoon. Nutrition Australia and Healthdirect both cover this ground properly if you want the detail, and it’s worth a read once a season rather than trying to memorise it. What I notice in myself, for what it’s worth, is that I get short-tempered before I get thirsty. My partner has learned to just hand me a glass of water rather than argue with me at five o’clock on a stinking hot day.
A pastry habit that translates well here
Training in pastry teaches you to respect ratios, and hydration is oddly similar. It’s not one big correction, it’s small consistent additions through the day. I keep a jug of water with cucumber slices on the kitchen bench where I can see it while I’m cooking, the same way I’d keep my mise en place visible so I don’t forget a step. Out of sight really does mean out of mind here.
If you’re setting up your kitchen for an easier summer generally, not just for hydration, I’d point you toward setting up a pantry for healthier weeknights, since a lot of what makes hot-weather eating easier is having the right things already in the house so you’re not standing in front of an open fridge deciding nothing looks good.
The heat will keep doing what it does through January, and honestly some days you’ll manage all of this and other days you’ll forget entirely until you’re halfway through a headache. That’s fairly normal. The point isn’t to be perfect about it, it’s to have enough small habits sitting around that at least a few of them catch you on the days you need them.
— Mei Lin, Golden Door Living kitchen
