Need some gift ideas for the gourmands, gourmets, and oenophiles on your list? For friends who live outside the South send a ceramic Krispy Kreme coffee mug with the Krispy Kreme bowtie logo ($4.95). Krispy Kreme, whose homebase is in Winston-Salem, has become a Starbucks-like status symbol in many of the nation’s cosmopolitan areas. Even the stereotypical impatient New Yorker will watch for the Hot Doughnuts Now sign and wait in line for those secret recipe yeast-raised doughnuts. A Krispy Kreme store opening is front page news in some cities. While a few transplants here in Charlotte are looking forward to the Dunkin’ Donut shops opening here (with their more cake-like doughnuts), Krispy Kreme is a hometown favorite. If your friend isn’t a coffee/tea drinker, send the T-shirt ($13.95-$19.95). It’s always a big hit in the gym.
One of Madagascar’s principal export crops is vanilla. Madagascar Bourbon vanilla has an intense darker flavor than Mexican vanilla which is softer and lighter. Unfortunately, the spring of 2000 brought violent storms to this island nation and half the vanilla crop was destroyed. What this has meant to US cooks is the price of Madagascar vanilla, which had always been expensive, has almost doubled in the past year. Locally at gourmet shops, such as Williams-Sonoma, it’s $18 for an 8 ounce bottle. Package this extravagant gift with an assortment of cooking tools, such as large cookie cutters, and a Silpat Nonstick Baking Mat, a product which ends burned bottom cookies since it provides even heat transfer for all baking needs. The 11 1/2 by 16 1/2, 1/2 sheet pan is $19.95. All at Williams-Sonoma.
Meyer Lemons are a winter treat. This fruit is believed to be a cross between an orange and a lemon and is much sweeter than its lemon cousins. The Meyer Lemon may be used in its entirety, including the peel. San Francisco’s Cafe LuLu is famous for their condiments, vinegars, and mustards. A gift box filled with a 6-ounce jar of preserved Meyer Lemons in olive oil, an 8-ounce jar of mustard with preserved lemons and garlic, a 6 3/4 ounce bottle of fig and Meyer Lemon balsamic vinaigrette, and a 6 3/4-ounce bottle of preserved Meyer Lemon and artichoke vinaigrette is available from Sur La Table for $49.95 (www.surlatable.com or 800-243-0852).
Move over Waffle Iron, the new grill to have is the Panini. Try this home sandwich grill for Italian style sandwiches. Commercial Panini grills can cost over $900, but this one is for home use. It has a nonstick grill face and three different grill positions: one that opens flat for grilled meats and vegetables and two for sandwiches. Plus it has five temperature settings. Available for $89.95 at Sur La Table.
Size does matter — and shape, too. If you haven’t noticed how a curve of a lip can affect the taste of wine, you need to get into Riedel wine glasses. Riedel designs its stemware to complement specific wine properties. For example, their Riesling and Pinto Noir glasses have a slightly curved lip to control the flow of the wine to the tip of the tongue, highlighting the sweetness while diminishing the naturally high acidity of these grape varieties. The design of their Chardonnay and Cabernet glasses directs the flow to the center of the tongue revealing an ideal balance of fruit and acidity. Try their Chianti/Zinfandel Vinum series for about $20 a stem or the Brunello di Montalcino Vinum for about $25 per stem. At area wine shops.
If you choose other glassware for a comfortable feel, consider these stylish 8-ounce wavy tumblers by the Leonardo Design Team. Each set consists of six colored glasses: aqua, lime green, violet, red, orange, and blue. From the Museum of Modern Art online store (www.momastore.org) for $50.
For the gift that keeps on opening, give the Screwpull Elegance three piece corkscrew which opens a bottle without effort in a simple push action. This corkscrew has chrome-plated zinc alloy for handles and lever. The gift set includes a replacement worm, a foil cutter, and a fish-shaped storage stand. An idea gift for wine lovers and writers with carpal tunnel syndrome. $199 for the Elegance model, $139.99 for the original classic black model at area wine shops and Amazon.com.
Two of Carolina’s top pan-handlers have produced the newly published Not Afraid of Flavor: Recipes from Magnolia Grill (The University of North Carolina Press, 254 pages, $25). Ben and Karen Barker are well-known American chefs whose Magnolia Grill is in Durham. Photographs in the book are by Ann Hawthorne. Ben Barker was awarded the 2000 Best Chef in the Southeast by the James Beard Foundation and Karen Barker was named Best Pastry Chef by Bon Appetit. The cookbook contains 125 recipes many using regional ingredients and offering a new twist on the familiar, such as Softshell Crabs in Cornmeal Tempura with Fennel Slaw & Tomato Aioli, Crawfish Jambalaya Risotto, Herb-crusted Rack of Pork on Brunswick Stew, and Blueberry-Peach (or Nectarine) pie.
During the holidays, why not get Stuffed? Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant Family by Patricia Volk (Alfred A. Knopf, 248 Pages, $29.95) is filled with tales of an innocent New York City and the Austrian-Jewish family who lived there. The author’s great-grandfather, Sussman Volk, was the man who brought pastrami to the New World and from 1888 to 1988, the Volks had a series of restaurants in New York City. She recalls Sundays as her day with her restaurateur father — on these days great adventures would occur. She recalls how her mother who could accommodate hundreds of diners at the family restaurant was a hopeless home cook. Beyond the fond recollections and character sketches are stop and think truisms: “Family is the world, your very own living microcosm of humanity, with its heroes and victims, and martyrs and failures, beauties and gamblers, hawks and lovers, cowards and fakes, dreamers and steamrollers, and the people who quietly get the job done. Every behavior to learn is there at the dinner table…In a family you don’t come from nowhere. You enter the world already part of something.” If you haven’t hugged your family enough recently, this book will prompt you to do so.
For those who are looking for a unique gift idea for a gourmand friend: become a stand in for him or her at Bruegger’s Bagel Bakery on a Sunday morning. The one near me has a line snaking out the entrance by 11am and the wait typically takes more than a half hour. This is the perfect gift for impatient friends. Hint, hint.
This article appears in Dec 1-7, 2001.
