The Nosh Pit Edible Gift Guide 2010
What Seattle foodie wouldn’t want to have dinner with Michael Pollan?
Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Dec 07, 2010 at 02:29PM
Michael Pollan and his glasses come to town on January 15.
Category Various ($25-$250)
Best for Literate foodies
I have to say, it does seem like Michael Pollan comes to town a lot. I guess he knows his audience. We are a city of local-leaning foodies who love a good lecture.
So I am fairly certain that there is someone on your list who wants tickets to see Pollan on January 15 at Seattle Symphony. Those tickets start at $25.
But if you want to really get your favorite foodie going, opt for the Premium Seating option. The $250 price buys a space in the first four rows as well as a space at a post-lecture dinner with the Pollanator himself—a multi-course, locally sourced feast with courses cooked by some very good Chefs: Tamara Murphy (Elliott Bay Cafe), Christine Keff (Flying Fish), Holly Smith (Cafe Juanita), and Maria Hines (Tilth). Each course comes with a wine pairing.
The dinner benefits the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance, $130 of the price is tax deductible.
More info here.
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The Nosh Pit Edible Gift Guide 2010
Epicurean makes a sleek surface for chopping veggies.
Posted by: Christopher Werner on Dec 06, 2010 at 03:54PM
Epicurean cutting boards are available at Sur la Table.
Category Friends and family ($30-$100)
Best for Home cooks
Not so long ago this Nosher was a forlorn chopper whose travails in the kitchen were only made worse by a warped, tomato-stained, slippy-slidey cutting board. After a few nicked fingertips, I finally wised up and swapped my cheapy plastic one for a bamboo board. Now, ready to upgrade again, I’m eyeing what Epicurean has to offer.
Epicurean produces some of the better boards out there, they’re often found in commercial kitchens. The boards are non-pourous, so no staining, and easy to keep clean (dishwasher safe, yo). The wood fiber laminate is good for knife blades, and unlike some wooden boards, is resistant to knicks and cracks wherein icky things can fester. They’re also incredibly light, which is at once nice and annoying, since they tend to lose their hold easily (but put a damp washcloth underneath it and you’re set).
The ones pictured here are bordered with a groove meant to catch stray juices before they go splat. On surlatable.com, the smallest plank starts at $48 and the largest, a 20-by-15 incher, goes for $74.
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The Nosh Pit Edible Gift Guide 2010
An affordable gift that kids can grow into.
Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Dec 03, 2010 at 04:08PM
The Nanuk mug is $22 at Tuuli.
Category: Affordable ($16-$29)
Best for: Nieces and nephews and the like
I always thought I would love shopping for kids because their clothes are just so small and cute. But as it turns out it kind of bugs me to give them things that they are going to grow out of before they finish unwrapping the present.
So I’ve had my eye out for more lasting stuff like this Marimekko Nanuk mug, made in Finland and sold at Tuuli in Pike Place Market for $22.
This has all the markings of a “special mug” for hot cocoa on snow days and for chicken soup on sick ones. I like that.
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The Nosh Pit Edible Gift Guide 2010
A sweet something for the locavore on your list.
Posted by: Christopher Werner on Dec 03, 2010 at 01:57PM
Category: Cheap ($1-$15)
Best for: Locavores, clumsy Clara who thinks she can tend her own hive
Recently a friend of mine was going on about a sandwich he’d had at a new Ballard bar. It had the makings of your typ ’wich, but on on it came a generous slather of honey. This, he said, made it anything but your typ ’wich.
Ballard, honey. Got me thinking about Corky Luster ’s Ballard Bee Company. He canvasses the city for places to plant hives—including the rooftop of Bastille —then bottles the unfiltered, raw end product and sells it just about everywhere.
At Delaurenti, for example, a 12 ounce bottle costs $10.99. Other stockers include Picnic, On the Fly and several restaurants.
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The Nosh Pit Edible Gift Guide 2010
A gift basket that’s not a total rip-off? Believe.
Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Nov 17, 2010 at 02:28PM
Category Friends and family ($30-$100)
Best For Cheese lovers, Seattle natives missing the homeland.
Let’s say your kid’s abroad and can’t get home for the holidays. Or you’re here but your sister is in New York and hanging out with her inlaws.
Or let’s just say there’s someone out there whom you love and who really loves cheese.
For these sort of “I’m thinking of you and I know you love the Northwest” gifts, I like the winter collection from Beecher’s. It’s an assortment of Northwest cheeses and accompaniments that costs $55 and ships for $12.
You get: Mt Towsend Creamery Seastack, Willapa Hills Two-faced Blue, Beecher’s Flagship, Rutherford and Meyer Plum Fruit Paste, and Beechers original crackers—basically the makings of a kickass cheese plate, all ready to go.
Most gift baskets are jerks. But this one is full of actually good stuff, and it’s within the realm of reason from a price perspective. Send away.
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The Nosh Pit Edible Gift Guide 2010
The food truck founder will teach the basics of Creole cuisine.
Posted by: Christopher Werner on Nov 16, 2010 at 12:59PM
Cook Creole cuisine with Matthew Lewis, founder of Where Ya at Matt.
Category Friends and family ($30-$100)
Best For NOLA natives; food truck fanatics
OK, so technically this cooking class happens before the holidays (it’s December 15), but do keep in mind St. Nick’s is December 6. Go big and skip the bonbons this year.
The instructor for the $65 session is Matthew Lewis, who will prepare barbecued shrimp, jambalaya, and bananas foster, plus demo “the basics of Creole cooking from trinity to rouxs and desserts.”
Anyone who frequents Lewis’s truck Where Ya at Matt will tell you his is some of the best Creole cuisine Seattle’s seen—not to mention a game changer when it comes to street food. You want to know his secrets. Plus, the guy’s a total charmer. Look at that smile. Cooking with him for a couple hours is a guaranteed good time.
Time, cost, sign-up information: it’s all over here.
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The Nosh Pit Edible Gift Guide 2010
Break out these Dutch cookies for hot toddy talk time.
Posted by: Christopher Werner on Nov 12, 2010 at 12:39PM
Find speculaasbrokken at a Touch of Dutch on Whidbey Island.
Category Cheap ($1-$15)
Best For Sweet teeth, the friend who went to Europe last year and still talks about it
You already know Whidbey Island is where you go for mussels. Did you know it’s where you go for a Dutch treat (not that kind)?
On Front street in Coupeville is a store called A Touch of Dutch, established by a Netherlands transport and a nod to the ‘Landers that once settled in the area. It’s a wee place, and at the center are several towering bookshelves lined with all sorts of imported Dutch deliciousness: stroopwafels, oliebollen, salted licorice. Especially great are the speculaasbrokken.
These honkin’ cookies are bundled in threes and together weigh 14 ounces; one pack costs $4.95. They’re almost brittle and crumble with each bite, and the lingering spice of white pepper, nutmeg, and clove, not to mention the touch of ginger and cardamom, make the biscuits an ideal complement to a hot toddy.
While sipping that toddy with said friend, ask said friend about his/her trip. Because really, delicious as they be, the gift here isn’t the speculaasbrokken. It’s the memories they’re bound to trigger. Speculaasbrokken is basically Holland in a wrapper (note the windmills).
Said friend will love them.
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The Nosh Pit Edible Gift Guide 2010
Make life a little easier for the challenged baker you love.
Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Nov 09, 2010 at 01:15PM
Kitchen Scales Everybody should have one.
Category Friends and family ($30-$100)
Best For Bakers and dieters
I’ve been baking since I was eight years old, but it’s only in the last few years that I’ve baked things that sober people could enjoy. I used to think that I couldn’t bake for the same reason that I have trouble keeping my shoes tied, or maintaining an up-to-date calendar, or remembering your birthday. I am not a precise person; I am a dreamy mess. So the cookies never came out right.
But that was just silly self-doubt stuff. The real reason I couldn’t bake well, no matter how much I practiced or how hard I tried, was because I was measuring by volume. Measuring by volume is crazy! Stop doing it because it doesn’t yield precise results. And baking, whether we like it or not, is about precision. There are correct and incorrect ways to measure by volume—and I know one from the other—but still, it never felt all that accurate to me.
Once I got my first kitchen scale and started converting volume measurements to weight ones, I became fearless. Things don’t always turn out perfectly, but at least it doesn’t feel like a Hail Mary every time I toss the AP flour in the bowl.
If you know someone who loves to bake but doesn’t do it very well, get them a kitchen scale like this Oxo stainless steel number from Sur La Table, available online for $50. And get ready to eat some good cookies.
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