What was going on when I was born?

VACATIONS often spell disaster even for the most disciplined of diners. Confronted three times a day with calorie-laden restaurant menus, many throw caution to the winds and come home five or more pounds heavier and sometimes with raised serum cholesterol and blood pressure to boot. Even those who try to make sensible choices are often foiled by the chef, who may add a tablespoon or two of butter to an otherwise leansounding fish or chicken dish, or spike the cold vegetable soup with a generous dollop of sour cream, or drown the low-calorie salad in an oily dressing. And it's usually impossible to tell from the menu - especially menus written in a foreign language - exactly how a dish is prepared. Breaded and fried or sauteed in butter or oil? In a fatty cheese or cream sauce? Seasoned with salty anchovies? Doused with a rich gravy? Topped with whipped cream? Even those who choose wisely often end up eating more than they really want because they suffer from the ''I'm-paying-for-it-anyway, I-might-as-well-eat-it'' syndrome.

-------------------------------------------------------------------- Robert Farrar Capon, an Episcopal priest and food writer, is the author of ''Supper of the Lamb'' (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich). By ROBERT FARRAR CAPON THERE are four things that summer's heat causes to flourish: a refrigerator with more food after dinner than before; cooked pasta in countless shapes but short supply; the scrap of steak that sits solitary in plastic wrap; and company that arrives unannounced. Put them all together and they spell leftover cookery: to some a curse, but to those with the wisdom to resist vain repetition a sovereign deliverance from the bondage of recipes into the freedom of invention. God does nothing twice: He makes no two snowflakes alike and never sends the same high tide again. And man, in His image, goes ill unless he goes with the flow of change. Only fools try to repeat a party; any gravy that is not doctored the second time around becomes inexorably worse.

In the Broadway column in the Weekend section last Friday, the lyricist for ''Jean,'' a new musical that Michael Bennett may direct next spring, was reported incorrectly. The lyricist is Christopher Adler.

Cyrus R. Vance, the former Secretary of State, has sharply criticized the Reagan Administration's decision to sell arms to China as ''needlessly provocative.'' Mr. Vance, who was in Moscow just before the new policy was announced, said that the proposed arms deal has ''virtually removed any influence we have left over the Soviet Union.'' ''We played the China card in no-trump,'' he said in an interview Monday, ''and there is not much left.''

SALMON was once a cheap fish, as prevalent as chicken today. It was so plentiful that servants in Colonial America had clauses in their contracts stipulating that they could not be served salmon more than a certain number of times a week. Two centuries before, Elizabethan servants had objected to too many oysters. No wonder you can't get help these days. Only in the last 25 years, because of dwindling numbers, has salmon climbed the culinary scale to become a luxury. At elegant spring and summer dinner parties it appears garnished with truffles and lobster sauce or in brilliant aspic jellies on the buffet table. In New England poached salmon, fresh green peas and boiled new potatoes are the traditional Fourth of July treat. Salmon steaks are served with hollandaise sauce or cold with cucumber salad. One of the most popular dishes on the menus of New York restaurants this summer is raw salmon, cut paper thin and served with a mustard dill sauce - or even plain, nouvelle-cuisine style, with nothing but lemon and freshly ground pepper.

IT was 1953, and Paris was inexpensive and romantic, and it was possible then, as it had been possible in Hemingway's time, to make writing not only a vocation but an entire way of life. And so a group of young Americans went to Paris, where they wrote and drank and played tennis and sat up all night at cafes, and where they started a little magazine that ran on talent and enthusiasm and a youthful joie de vivre. That was many years ago, and The Paris Review is now celebrating its silver anniversary with a special birthday issue, which includes a previously unpublished essay on ''The Art of Writing Short Stories'' by Ernest Hemingway, an interview with Rebecca West, an unpublished ghost story by William Faulkner, poetry by John Ashbery, Robert Creeley, James Dickey, John Hollander, Anne Sexton and Philip Levine, as well as an acerbic letter to the editor from Martha Gellhorn that takes on Lillian Hellman and Stephen Spender for their statements about her and her former husband, Ernest Hemingway. A birthday party is also planned for this summer.

The New York State Senate today gave final approval by a wide margin to a $5.6 billion statewide transportation package aimed primarily at improving the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's subway, bus and commuter rail lines. The five-year program, approved by a vote of 53 to 5, would also provide funds for the repair of upstate highways and bridges. It was passed by the Assembly last night by a vote of 95 to 49. The capital improvement package approved today includes $100 million in operating aid for the M.T.A. That aid will enable the authority to limit to 15 cents the increase expected July 2 in the 60-cent bus and subway fare.

International An accord among French leftists led to the appointment of four Communists to the 44-member Cabinet of President Francois Mitterrand in the wake of the Socialist Party's sweeping legislative election triumphs. The four posts are not politically sensitive. In return, the Communist Party has agreed to support some Socialist policies in foreign and domestic areas that it had opposed. (Page A1, Columns 1-2.) The offer to sell U.S. arms to China was denounced by Cyrus R. Vance, a Secretary of State in the Carter Administration, as ''needlessly provocative.'' In an interview, Mr. Vance said that the new policy of the Reagan Administration ''has substantially diminished'' any influence the United States had over the Soviet Union. (A1:1.)

South Africa struggles to build a nuclear industry A2 Brezhnev says U.S. is evading new arms talks A3 U.S. provided aid for Indonesian commandos who stormed plane A3 Around the World A4 U.S. denies inappropriate activity by diplomats ousted by Zambia A5 Iranians intensify search for Bani-Sadr A6 Belsieged town is an intractable issue in the Lebanese crisis A7 Excerpts from speech by Iraq's President A10 Mrs. Kirkpatrick tackling U.N. job with a new zest A11 Government/Politics Detroiters vote on $96 million tax increase A15 G.O.P. leader seeks pact with political action groups A17 Congressional report assails land scheme for MX missile A17 Carol Bellamy sees waste of $154 million on subway cars B2 Goldin opens campaign for re- election as City Comptroller B3 Justice Dept. urged to reject Council redistricting B3 Panel on federalism focuses on sharing the Federal budget B8 General Around the Nation A14 Chicagoan, 29, leads drive to mark Roosevelt centennial A14 State made a co-defendant in suit against city jail conditions B3 After 10 years, a housing project in East Harlem is not done B3 Nine are honored in capital for public service B8 Obituaries Alfred Frankenstein, San Fran- cisco music and art critic B4 Harold F. Linder, banker and for- mer Ambassador to Canada B4 Living Section Food A leftover primer: meals that come in from the cold C1 Salmon, a summer luxury C1 Illusion and reality in food photography C3 For Berlin, a world of food C4 From pastime to passion: A husband takes over the kitchen C6 A food symposium labels the American diet unsatisfactory C8 Don't throw those bouquets, cook them C13 Living The Paris Review marks its 25th, three years late C1 Personal Health: Wise eating on vacation C1 Metropolitan Diary C2 Kitchen Equipment C2 60-Minute Gourmet C3 Best Buys C9 Reagan aide backs birth-control education C12 Wine Talk C15 Discoveries C16 New Yorkers, etc. C16 Recalling what the family never knew C16 Arts/Entertainment Airto Moreira presents his new jazz-fusion septet C17 Jazzman Ornette Coleman finds ''rhythm is the oxygen'' C17 Mazumdar's ''Oscar Remem- bered,'' about Wilde, staged C18 Royal Ballet's ''Swan Lake'' C19 Andrea Palladio's architectural drawings at National Gallery C19 Ann Corio's memoir of burlesque is back on Broadway C20 Marina Warner's ''Joan of Arc'' is reviewed C22 Keio Nosaka gives recital on the Japanese koto C22 ''60 Minutes'' correspondents to add daily ''Up to the Minute'' C23 ''And the Band Played On,'' dis- arming English film on PBS C23 Sports At Manhattan College, grades come before games B8 Quick ending at resumption of longest game: Pawtucket in 33 B9 McEnroe fined $1,500 and warned of suspension at Wimbledon B9 Outlook pessimistic as Moffett calls owners, players together B9 Veitch works toward another re- vival at Calumet B9 Miss Rinaldi, 14, becomes young- est ever to win at Wimbledon B11 Red Smith on John McEnroe's behavior B11 Racing board to take firm stance at hearings on race-fixing B11 Kalule and Baez known only as Astrodome ''opponents'' B12 Cosmos' indoor team lacks for- eign stars B12 Features/Notes Notes on People A19 About New York B2 Going Out Guide C21 News Analysis M.A. Farber on investigation of the slayings in Atlanta A21 Editorials/Letters/Op-Ed Editorials A22 Socialist France Still inflated Thin ice in Central Park Jack Rosenthal: home guns Letters A22 James Reston: thunder on the Potomac A23 Russell Baker: cheshire cat geog- raphy A23 Edmund Janko: teacher, student and book A23 Steven M. Umin: another Stewart, please A23

The Senate Finance Committee, driving to finish by tomorrow its drafting of a tax-relief bill, today approved eight types of special tax breaks for individuals and businesses, including an easing of the ''marriage penalty'' paid by some two-earner couples. The committee also approved its second special tax reduction for savings in two days. It voted to authorize tax-deductible contributions of up to $1,000 a year to individual retirement accounts by employees who have heretofore been ineligible for such accounts because they are covered by a company pension plan. Yesterday the committee, responding to pleas for help from thrift institutions, approved the creation of tax-exempt, one-year savings certificates that could be issued by banks and savings institutions for one year, starting Oct. 1, 1981. Such certificates could ease the problems of the savings and loan industry, according to industry experts. (D1.)

The Consumer Price Index rose 0.7 percent last month, indicating that inflation is continuing to ease. Most of the rise was a result of the housing component, reflecting high mortgage and housing prices. The C.P.I. has registered an annual inflation rate of less than 10 percent for three straight months, the first time this happened since spring 1978. (Page A1.) Consumer prices rose 0.5 percent for the New York-northeastern New Jersey area. (A16.) The Senate Finance Committee approved tax breaks for individuals and businesses in eight categories. The ''marriage penalty'' paid by some working couples was targeted for relief. The panel also voted to extend special tax treatment of individual retirement accounts to employees covered by a company pension plan. (A1.)

A late buying surge yesterday sent the Dow Jones industrial average ahead 12.46 points, to 1,006.66, its first finish above the 1,000 hurdle since last Wednesday. Advancing issues on the New York Stock Exchange outpaced losers by a 9-to-5 ratio, thus reversing the ragged market breadth of the three previous sessions. Trading volume of 51.8 million shares was up sharply from Monday's 41.8 million shares. As a result, the commission-oriented brokerage stocks shared honors with selected energy, computer, transportation and photography issues.