Summer survival food

On those days when it's about 400 degrees in the shade, even inside the house with the fans on, and you can feel your eyeballs searing and burning even just by glancing out the window, I always feel that I want to stretch out in a cool, damp, underground cave, one that contains a nice deep rock pool, and hibernate in there until summer's over.
However, this isn't really possible, what with the need to go to work and all. To get through the December and January Season Of Scorchment, therefore, I need a survival strategy of ways to keep refreshed, hydrated, cool and calm on those horrible hot days...and those sticky mosquito-filled nights. Yay for summer.
Iced Tea
The first thing I always do at the start of summer is buy a box of plain billy tea (I use 'King' brand), which keeps me going all season with fresh iced tea. The easiest way to do it, for me, is to boil a saucepan of water, then tip in two teaspoons of tea and whatever flavourings you might feel like. I usually just squeeze a lemon into the pan and then throw in the empty lemon halves as well, but I've also used lime, orange, rose, ginger, rosemary, hibiscus, grapefruit and mint on other occasions. Let the lot boil for a minute and then just turn off the heat and go do something else. Later, when you feel like it, come back to the cooled pan and strain the lot into a jug. Dilute it with water if it looks a bit strong. Stir in some sugar to taste. (Do this when the tea is cool, not hot, so you don't add too much sugar...sweetness always comes out more when hot). Leave the jug in the fridge and when you pour yourself a glass, over ice cubes, you can rip up some mint leaves or get some citrus slices into the glass as well.
Lemons
I go through a bag of lemons a week in summer. I love them in lemon pasta (lemon rind + lemon juice + flat-leaf parsley + olive oil + garlic + salt and pepper stirred through linguine), squeezed over lamb chops with rosemary, juiced into a salad dressing, in my iced tea, juiced into a cold glass of water, in tabouleh, and just about everything else. Half a small pawpaw, seeded and slashed into cubes, with a lemon squeezed over it is just about the best breakfast ever when it's hot.
Tomatoes
With basil and a splash of olive oil, I have them on toast for breakfast. Stuffed and roasted, they are a great lunch straight from the fridge. I also often just chop them up into a bowl, throw in whatever other leftover vegetables or salad items are in the fridge, splash it with balsamic and it's a salad to go with some chicken or an omelette.
Natural yoghurt
For dessert with some fruit, or with a tiny shred of minced garlic and spooned over sliced Lebanese cucumbers. A cooling Moroccan-influenced side dish to have with lamb.
Mint
Goes great with the yoghurt, the tabouleh, the lemons...I love mint ripped into shreds and sprinkled over some cold watermelon cubes, with a few drops of rosewater.
Water
And more water! I went through a bad stage a few years ago when I never drank enough water. Now, if I'm home during the day, or sitting at my desk at work all day, I fill a 1.5 litre bottle and nurse it. Get bored? Take a sip...and drinking water all day stops you from eating too much in summer, which has to be a good thing!
Chili
In hot countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, the food is full of strong flavours, spices and chili. I used to think this was just as stupid as wearing long dark-coloured robes in 45-degree heat (ie: Arab nations), until I learned that the robes absorb and deflect the heat, and the chili promotes sweating which cools the body down. In summer I love a bowl of chili ramen, which is sometimes as simple as putting a few sliced vegetables, some instant noodles, stock powder and kecap manis into a bowl, pouring in some boiling water and adding a squirt of hot chili sauce. When I have more time or am less screamingly hungry, I tend to do it properly with fried garlic and ginger, perhaps some galangal, real stock, silken tofu, shallots, and if I've been to the holy Mecca of the Burlington's butcher, even some slices of Chinese barbeque pork. Aah...Burlington's. For quite some time, my favourite birthday treat has been to take myself off on an "alone day": I drive into the Valley and visit Maiocchi, Principessa and the other outlets on Ann Street, then treat myself to a bowl of noodles at Super Bowl, washed down with lots of tea (while reading my book of course), and then a tour of Burlington's, Yuen's, and that little arcade off Wickham St that has the little shop that sells dried ocean creatures. I come home loaded down with goodies, full of ramen and happy.