I can relate in Gen Z slang / FRI 6-30-23 / Dancing duo of the early 1900s / "Waiting to Exhale" or "Bridget Jones's Diary," dismissively / Dining option where bow ties might be expected / Endangered predator of the Southwest / Certain modern investment informally

Constructor: Carly Schuna

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: IDLI (48D: Steamed rice cake) —

Idli or idly [...] (plural: idlis) is a type of savoury rice cake, originating from South India, popular as a breakfast food in Southern India and in Sri Lanka. The cakes are made by steaming a batter consisting of fermented black lentils (de-husked) and rice. The fermentation process breaks down the starches so that they are more readily metabolised by the body. [...] To make Idli, four parts uncooked rice (idli rice or parboiled rice) to one part whole white lentil (black gram, Vigna mungo) are soaked separately for at least four hours to six hours or overnight. Optionally spices such as fenugreek seeds can be added at the time of soaking for additional flavour. Once done soaking, the lentils are ground to a fine paste and the rice is separately coarsely ground, then they are combined. Next, the mixture is left to ferment overnight during which its volume will more than double. After fermentation some of the batter may be kept as a starter culture for the next batch. The finished idli batter is put into greased moulds of an idli tray or "tree" for steaming. The perforated molds allow the idlis to be cooked evenly. The tree holds the trays above the level of boiling water in a pot, and the pot is covered until the idlis are done (about 10–25 minutes, depending on size). A more traditional method is to use leaves instead of moulds. (wikipedia)

This one is trying really hard to be "fresh." Really hard. I appreciate the effort. I do. It's just that the phrasing on that central answer felt off. It has big "I need to make this 15 letters" energy. My daughter is Gen Z and my students are currently all Gen Z (and have been for year now) and "mood" is absolutely ordinary slang, but the phrase I usually here is that something is "a mood" or (more often) "a whole mood." Sometimes in texts or social media posts you just get stand-alone "mood," which concisely conveys the entire "I can relate" sentiment. But "THAT IS SUCH A MOOD," while it's totally comprehensible as is, just feels ... I dunno, too formal? Not even a contraction on "THAT IS"? When you go for something that's super-current, sticking the landing feels important. When I google (in quot. marks) "THAT IS SUCH A MOOD," one of the first hits is the NYT's own crossword blog, and yes, google knows me, and knows that I am a crossword person, and probably knows my favorite drinks and songs and what I had for dinner last night and blood type, but still, if a phrase is perfect, it generally won't return crossword sites on the first page of hits. As for "HELL TO THE NO," it's corny and dated, but I liked it (19A: "As frickin' if!"). I threw that across the grid with a prayer, thinking "lol that's probably not right," so when it was, I was happy. I like "I MEAN, REALLY!" the best of all the colloquial phrases, because it is both current and right on the money, phrasing-wise (48A: "Surely you know that's ludicrous"). I was (much) less happy with CHICK LIT, a stupid derogatory term that I know about but have actually never heard (most everyone I know is a huge reader and it's actually pretty rare for someone to talk shit about an entire category of book, esp. books by and about women (I should add that most everyone I know is a woman)). CHICK LIT also just doesn't have the snap and crackle (and currency) of CHICK FLICK, which is what I wanted when I first read the clue (both titles being most famous as movies, not books—though they were certainly famous books as well) (14A: "Waiting to Exhale" or "Bridget Jones's Diary," dismissively).