Here are a few things I’ve been enjoying in my own life that I think would make great gifts for others. Nowadays I mostly like to give people items that are edible, ones they will actually use. I have a cupboard full of condiments that has become a cabinet of curiosities of sorts, which includes various sauces and jarred items that I have no idea how I’ll ever use. But I use harissa, honey, and anchovies almost every week, which those on the receiving end of your gift-giving hopefully will find useful (and delicious) too.
By now, everyone is familiar with harissa, the famed hot sauce that’s often associated with Tunisia. You can buy it, sold cheaply by the tube, which you squeeze out like toothpaste. But when you taste very good harissa, you won’t go back to the tube. My favorite is NYShuk’s Signature Harissa, made following an heirloom recipe by the co-owner’s North African grandmother. It’s so good, I bring it back to France with me and eat it with everything from falafel to grilled chicken. (Their powdered harissas - available as part of a set or individually - also make great, and super easy, marinades.) If you live in France, Tava Hada Pilpelta harissa, made in Marseilles, will knock your socks off. It’s quite spicy but also quite delicious.
People have a love/hate relationship with anchovies. They seem to love them or hate them. Good anchovies are nothing like the squishy ones packed in tins that smell fishy. Good anchovies aren’t cheap but are sooooo good. Just a few nights ago I was at a cocktail bar with friends in Paris and our favorite appetizer was a plate of Spanish anchovies with a pool of olive oil underneath, served with sourdough bread slices to dip into it. The best anchovies I’ve ever had are these Callol Serrats from Catalonia. I was fortunate to visit their shop, adjacent to where they pack the anchovies, and picked up several jars while I was there. (They keep for years and some say, get even better.) If you don’t believe me, also know that Chez Panisse restaurant uses them as their “house” anchovy. They’re available in the U.S. from Beaune Imports.
Honey is a big deal in France and people buy it not just for the taste, but also because each variety of honey reportedly has certain health-giving benefits. I’m in it for the flavor and my very favorite honey is buckwheat, which is super dark and leans decidedly on the bitter side. Honey is a great gift because it literally keeps forever. I drizzle buckwheat honey on my morning toast every day, along with a swipe of salted butter. In France, my favorite honey comes from Miellerie de la Côte des Légendes, in Brittany. You can either go there and buy it, or they’ll ship within France. In Canada I’ve seen buckwheat honey for sale on The John Russell Honey Company, Country Bee, and Elias websites. In the U.S., there’s Honey Pacifica and McEvoy Ranch. If there is a honey producer at your local farmers’ market, see if they have it, if you’re lucky enough to find buckwheat honey locally. And…any honey lover (such as myself) will be thrilled to have a beehive-shaped honey pot from Alessi. The lid includes a spiral-based honey server (inside) to make drizzling clean and easy. It’s also a fun design to wake up to every morning.
If you read my posts about Japan, you know I became smitten with my Japanese pajamas, called jinbei. They’re cozy and comfortable, and a lot more stylish than the sweatpants and sweatshirt I pad around the apartment in, in the morning. I kind of went on a tear when I was in Japan finding them, but you can get them at Muji and at lots of places online - such as here (France), here, and here, as well as on Etsy (search “jinbei”). I love mine and they’re the perfect upgrade in my pajama game.
I grew up carrying an L.L.Bean Boat and Tote to school, lugging all my textbooks in it. And I still use the same one in Paris today for market shopping. (In Japan, they were selling them in vintage shops for hundreds of dollars, but I’m not giving mine up.) Now you can get a micro-tote, just the right size for a change purse or key chain. They also make a key chain of the iconic Bean Boot. So cute for my myriad of French keys we all have and a wonderful stocking stuffer, wherever you keep your keys.
When Wirecutter asked me about my favorite kitchen tools, I mentioned this little 1/2-quart All-Clad saucepan. I always thought little pots and pan were silly (silly me!) until I realized I could use them not just for melting butter, but also for reheating small amounts of chocolate or caramel sauce, or soft boiling a few eggs for breakfast. The mini saucepan also doesn’t take up a lot of room in the dishwasher. I bought the All-Clad one since it matches my other cookware, but Made In also produces a 3/4-quart saucepan, which is a bit larger but is also well made.
Another favorite tool mentioned were my kitchen scissors, made in Spain by Pallarès Solsona. I’ve seen them for sale at Flotsam and Fork and Fred’s; they seem to be only sold in sets at Ciselier and are out of stock at Bernal Cutlery, but you can check back with them. Good scissors are life-changing and since using these, it doesn’t feel right to use other kinds of scissors. I’d originally bought a pair for Romain at La Trésorerie in Paris for him to use in his studio, and ended up coveting them so much, I got my own pair. (If you do come to Paris, La Trésorerie is a great store to explore for kitchenware, although I’m not sure if they still sell the scissors.)
I’ve eaten a lot of chocolates in the last few years while doing research for this book. But rarely have I swooned as hard as I did when I tasted these chocolate-covered halvah bonbons, a collaboration between Seed+Mill and Dandelion chocolate. They’re the best of several different worlds, in one neat bite. (Disclosure: I have a few shares of Dandelion stock.) But you won’t want to share these - but please do. They’re worth spreading the word, and the love, about. Another great present is a gift box of Seed+Mill tahini and halvah.
I don’t know about you, but whenever I ask people what they want for dinner, or where they want to go, they reply, “I don’t know. Where do you want to go?“ That negates the whole idea of why I asked them. If I knew where I wanted to go, I wouldn’t have asked. So when I saw dinner deciding dice, I thought they’d be a good gift for a few of my indecisive friends. The one shown, from Bryce’s Dice, are fun, but you can find others to roll around with on Etsy and Amazon.
In the category of “Something I would never buy myself, but…” one of my least-favorite baking tasks is cutting parchment paper circles to line cake pans. (Sorry, those silicone cake pan liners don’t work. Cakes stick to them.) So who was happier than I when the food stylists who worked in my kitchen, making desserts for the photos in Ready for Dessert, showed up with packages of precut parchment paper cake pan circles? The answer to that would be: Me! I knew about them but was too cheap to spring for a package. Every time I had to cut a parchment paper circle, I cursed my frugalness as I cut and trimmed sheets of parchment paper to get them to the right size. But having these circles in my kitchen, from the fine folks at King Arthur Baking, makes me a happier baker, and any baker you know will be happy to have these in their kitchen.
|
Sunday, December 7, 2025
2025 Gift Guide
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment