Gift ideas for the foodie in your life!
From tomorrow onwards, it is okay to mention the big C? With the 1 December here, people start to think of the perfect gift and I am here to help you out!
Food lovers always enjoy gifts that are unusual, quirky but yet quite useful – like the Globe Decanter by Ingenious. A round glass bottle with the continents engraved, nestled on a globe cradle but the real quirky element here is the glass ship that is attached to the inside bottle. Matching set of two tumblers also engraved with globe details complete the set. I saw it at Frasers in Mahon Point Shopping centre for €54 and thought it looked rather cool.
You can choose the perfect whiskey to go with the set at Bradley’s in North Main Street where Michael’s advice will make it easy to choose from his large selection.
Also at Frasers, I saw a Guinness grilling set – fair enough, currently nobody is thinking about bringing out the rusty old BBQ but fear not, the gift set doesn’t include the stout. Instead it has 3 rubs for beef, pork and chicken, a recipe booklet and 4 stickers to indicate if the meat should be well done, medium, medium rare or rare. As far as I remember a wooden board is also included.
And sticking with Guinness, you might want to have a look at ‘The Official Guinness Cookbook’ – written by Cork food writer Caroline Hennessy, you will get inspirations on how to use your new grilling set. If you are getting the book before Christmas, Caroline has included a tasty recipe for extra stout-soaked Christmas pudding.
And continuing the idea of having a ‘grillable’ summer next year, I came across a box of Smokehouse Grilling Spies by Thoughtfully (you can find them online). A selection of 20 different spice mixes to season your meat and fish including chili garlic, Italian, black cajun as well as salt mixes like rosemary and herb. All spice mixes come in mini bottles and lining them up on the prep table will make you the grilling expert next summer.
More of an investment, the Bokksu Snackbox is a monthly subscription service from the US (they do ship to Ireland). Every month, a box will arrive with delicious snacks from Japan but you can also order a once-off snack box but if you go for the annual service, your subscription will include a handcrafted wooden box. The snacks are made in Japan by small family businesses and will change from month to month. Bokksu is the brainchild of Danny Taing who had lived in Japan and missed the snacks when he moved to New York.
Closer to home, we have wonderful businesses like Bradleys’s, Nash19 and if you are lucky this year, the team of former Idaho who curate amazing hampers with delicious treats that make everyone just happy this Christmas.
Or simply buy vouchers from our great Cork restaurants like Café Paradiso, Greenes, The Glass Curtain, L’Atitude, Da Mirko and so many more. Or simply make your own edible gifts – more to that next week!