Culinary Fireworks, Classic And Cool

YES, there will be potato salad on Friday, Independence Day. Served in every state of the Union, eaten standing up, sitting down, from paper plates, from china, in the bright sun, under shade trees, by lakes, rivers and swimming pools.

It will be made from many kinds of potatoes and will contain an almost infinite list of ingredients. But despite regional, personal and just plain ornery variations, there is one absolute: potato salad will be there.

''The Fourth without potato salad?'' Eileen Weinberg responded to a reporter's rhetorical question. ''You must be kidding.''

Ms. Weinberg, who owns Good and Plenty, a takeout and catering shop at 410 West 43d Street in Manhattan, regularly has several potato salads on hand: typically sweet potato and scallion, a classic mustard vinaigrette potato salad, and a potato and mayonnaise combination spiked with jalapenos and lemon zest.

All sell out daily, but this week, the kitchen is making eight times the usual amounts. ''If you're invited to a party Friday, what else do you take?'' Ms. Weinberg asked, as if there were only one answer.

John Martin Taylor -- Hoppin' John, as he calls himself, his cookbook store and his cooking school in Charleston, S.C. -- says he has been eating potato salad on the Fourth for more than 45 years.