thefoodiegifthunter.co.uk

Green shoots are coming!

Finally, it feels like the longest winter in history may be over, and the big yellow thing has returned to the sky. I misheard Best Foodie Friend last week when she said she had started chitting potatoes. Thought it sounded unusual.

Which means it’s time to start looking at the raised beds again, plotting to grow so many things, and then at least ending up with a glut of parsley and mint. Plus the glut from BFF’s allotment and new garden. But if you’re worried about food miles and provenance, not to mention taste, then no matter how amateur you are, you can always grow a few things yourself, and they’ll taste so much better. In fact, smug virtuousness ought to named taste number 6!

Need some inspiration? Here’s some of my favourites:

* Jamie Oliver not only has some cool and cute looking stuff to use in the garden, but also offers the laziest way I know to get a veg garden going. A Rocket Garden voucher makes a great gift, for someone else, or even for yourself if you’re either a new gardener or a very lazy one. I have very little success with seeds, so someone delivering little plants already underway would be a huge bonus.

* If you’re going down the organic route, then check out The Organic Gardening Catalogue. If you’re good, you can choose from all kinds of seeds, or there are plenty of choices in plug plants too. Also try more unusual things, like growing your own horseradish, ready to accompany a great rib of beef later in the year.

* Want bragging rights and something unusual to show at the local horticultural show? Then try growing heritage varieties, things that haven’t been seen down the garden centre in a long time. The Heritage Seed Libraryis preserving species at risk, and if you become a member you get to grow up to 6 varieties a year. This would be a great gift for a foodie with serious green fingers, as they get to delve into the delights of Glory of Devon peas, Rent Payer broad beans and Bunyard’s Matchless Lettuce. If you just want unusual potatoes, then try Carroll’s Heritage Potatoes, dispatching now but act quickly, stocks are limited.

* Sarah Raven feels like the Daylesford Farm Shop of seed and plant catalogues, in that it almost suggests to me no mucky hands are involved, and she clearly understands her target market. Conforming to type, I will therefore be ordering the Foodies Tomato Collection, seedlings of 3 tasty species along with some basil. It’s like a tomato and basil salad waiting to happen. In a similar vein, just not quite so pretty, try Crocus and their plug plant collections, like Luscious Legumes and Credit Crunchy Veg.

So go pull on your wellies, get your trug out and at least have a look at where you might plant stuff. It could be on small step on the road to self-sufficiency. Or at least a tasty tomato crop.

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

The Good Food Producers Guide

This week’s five are inspired by the publication of The Good Food Producers Guide 2010, as guides to great food shops around the world. Just as a break from the cooking and baking, it allows me to indulge in my other great passion, shopping.

1. The Good Food Producers Guide 2010- I only got this yesterday, but already thrilled/slightly ashamed that have found some places around here that I’ve not already shopped at. Great guide to farm shops and food markets, as well as great producers of everything from meat through to artisanal bread and honey. It also gives a great guide to food festivals around the UK, as well as a seasonal food calendar. An interesting read, I’ll even get over my prejudice against this kind of book, as it’s always out of date the minute it’s published. As it’s the first edition, then give it a go.

2. Gourmet Shops of Paris: An Epicurean Tour – could this be any more appealing? It’s Paris and it’s food. I love it! It covers everything from pastries and cakes, through to more unusual stuff like oils, tea and soup. Even if you’re not planning a trip, the photographs are beautiful and you could just enjoy this without ever crossing the Channel. But it would be so much better to go!

3. Eat: Los Angeles: The Food Lover’s Guide to Los Angeles – going a bit further afield, but this gives you a guide to not just eating out around LA, but places to shop for great food and drink. One for if you’re planning a trip out there, because LA has such a diverse food scene you might want some pointers. Why go and do all the Hollywood stuff? Go and eat!

4. Eat Smart in Morocco: How to Decipher the Menu, Know the Market Foods and Embark on a Tasting Adventure - well, that’s a title and a half, but sounds like a great pre-read if you’re heading off to Morocco, which is on my wishlist! Whilst it doesn’t really give you food shop guides, it would help you prepare for tackling any of the markets you come across. And, let’s face it, there won’t be a shortage of those!

5. Eat London: All About Food- both beautiful book to read, and full of useful and great places to shop, and eat. And it’s not just central London, but far and wide across the city. Written by Terence Conran and Peter Prescott, it’s beautifully put together, great writing and great photography. It’s on my list!

So, take a break, get out there and shop and support great producers and retailers, no matter where you are. Happy shopping!

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Celebrate with good food & good friends

It seems that wherever you go in the world, everyone is happy to celebrate St Patrick’s Day, whilst the other national saints barely get a look in even in their home countries! But lets not get all partisan about it, lets just get on with some eating and drinking!

1. Ok, you can’t really start St Patrick’s Day without a glass of Guinness. Possibly two or three. There again, loyalties are divided in Ireland, and so perhaps you should order in some Murphys. Or some of each, and decide for yourself.

2. A drop of the hard stuff? Well, there’s plenty of Irish whiskey companies willing to help you out with that! Bushmills and Jameson are probably the best known, but you could work your way through some smaller producers, and try something like Connemara, from the Cooley distillery. This is Ireland’s only independent distillery, and its newest, and the whiskey has been winning awards. Worth a try.

3. Taken the pledge? Ah, will  you have a cup of tea then? Go on, go on, go on. Swap your regular brew for something like Bewley’s Dublin Morning tea. Then there’s Barry’s Tea, which has everything from a classic blend to a gold blend, and a long history of good brews.

4. What appears in our supermarkets as Irish sausage is a poor excuse for a sausage. If you want the real thing then try Jane Russell’s Original Irish Handmade Sausages. These are high meat content sausages as they should be made, with only prime cuts and, as they say, no short cuts. Not only are there traditional pork sausages, but you could also try the beef and Guinness ones.

5. Should you be making a trip (and you may have to, as struggling to find a retail stockist) then it sounds like it is well worth checking out the Drumgooland Smokehouse in Co. Down. The hot smoked salmon has won awards, and they also have some interesting combinations such as gin marinated wild mackerel and smoked salmon fishcakes with lemongrass and coriander.

6. If you want to try a hamper full of Irish goodies, then check out the Irish Gourmet. For those with a sweet tooth, try the Battle of the Biscuits, which will give you not all biscuits but also cakes, honey and tea. For more all round tastes, then try A Taste of the Organic, which has smoked salmon, air dried ham, oatcakes and cheese.

7. Talking of oatcakes, I really like the Smoked Oatcakes from Dittys Home Bakery, for an added dimension to cheese and biscuits. You’ll find these in many places across the UK: I know I bought them first at Waitrose and you can find them everywhere from Forman & Field to Fortnum & Mason.

So, I’m sure there is a whole heap more you could explore, so probably best to get a flight and make a start. Dublin is an obvious choice, but my favourite is Galway. No need to wait until the Oyster Festival in September, there’s good eating and drinking all year round. If you want the rock star approach, you could stay at the G or for more pampering then try the Radisson Blu with the Spirit One Spa. Or I hear great things about the resurgence of Belfast, and especially about The Merchant Hotel, both for its restaurant and its bar. In fact, the bar has been voted Best Hotel Bar in the World, not to mention Best Cocktail Menu. If that’s not a good reason to go, then I’m not sure what other reason you need.

Sláinte!

Photo courtesy of biskuit over on Flickr.

Because even a 7 year old can bake!

Just a quick reminder that Cakes for Haiti Day is fast approaching, and that you can still register a sale. Some of you may remember I got rather carried away with mine, and held it a whole month early, but it’s the thought, and the cash that counts!

Haiti may have gone off our news bulletins but the misery goes on there day after day. So, brighten up someone’s day here with a great homemade cake, and make someone’s day there by sending some cash. Even the simplest homemade cake so often taste better than the most ornate mass produced thing.

I went for Hummingbird Muffins, which were like a more tropical carrot cake, and Blondies, all of which seemed to go down very well. Please support this cause, with your baking, or your cash!

Where would foodies register?

Being of the nosey/curious type, I love looking at the search terms people have put in to get to the blog. There’ve been all kinds of weird and wonderful ones, not to mention some very err, creative, spellings. But this one seemed an entirely appropriate question, and the sort of thing I would want to know the answer to! So, here’s a few thoughts from me:

1. How about seeing if your favourite local deli or wine shop will run a list for you? In fact, I am surprised not more local specialist stores have got into this lucrative business. Sadly, not even Ocado seem to have a listing facility.

2. Thankfully some of the wine retailers seem to have caught onto this, so if you’re foodies who love wine, then this might be a good route for you. As one would expect, Berry Bros & Rudd will run a list for you, to which you can add wine, spirits, accessories, wine tastings and even wine courses at their school. For something with more national coverage, then Majestic also offer a wine list service. They have everything from fine wine through to champagne, beers and spirits, so you could really lay down a very interesting, and quaffable cellar.

3. Natoora offers a really wide selection of goodies from Europe, from fresh stuff through to tinned, cheese through to meat and all kinds of veg. They don’t offer a wedding list service but your guests could buy gift certificates that you could have an awful lot of fun spending after the wedding! As an alternative, check out Forman & Field who also do gift vouchers, and there’s a great choice of stuff that you could spend it on.

4. A wedding would seem the perfect opportunity to upgrade your kitchen equipment. I would be really happy to have a list at Divertimenti and would not only load it up with great stuff for the kitchen, but also with classes at the cookery school. If you wanted things for all the house but still really good, not to mention good looking, kitchen stuff, then Heal’s would be another good choice, or you can register a wishlist at Habitat. And, of course, there’s always John Lewis!

I'd put it on my list!

5. Not on the High Street is one of my favourite sites, and you can register a list with them. There would be fabulous things for the kitchen and dining room, like beautiful cake stands, stylish coffee machines and funky personalised mugs. There are also some interesting food options as well, with everything from an Over Indulgence Hamper (how lovely to come back from honeymoon to this) to organic chocolate, great oils and interesting mustard. They also stock one of my favourite gifts for a wedding or any other occasion: Adopt an Olive Tree with Nudoand they get the harvest once or twice a year. That’s a real foodie gift for me.

6. I do love my cheese, but yet to find someone with a listing facility. Paxton & Whitfield offer gift vouchers, so I guess you could run your own list and ask for those. You could then spend them as you needed cheese. Or have a look at the Cheese Club from Teddington Cheese (great cheese shop, unlikely location), where you could ask people to buy you one of each theme, which covers selections suitable for St Patrick’s Day, Halloween and Christmas, as well as one for each month of the year. The Fine Cheese Co in Bath also offer something similar, and people could buy you a whole year’s worth of deliveries.

7. You may have also gathered that I have a reasonably big cookbook addiction. Which would have made listing with Amazon a perfect choice for me. It would enable you to explore the far reaches of your food reading and cooking desires. You can explore old and new, rare and not so rare. I guess Amazon is almost like a huge department store now, so you can also list for lots of equipment too. Just don’t forget the books.

So, that’s a few suggestions for a couple who love their food as much as they love each other! Happy listing!

Interesting wedding cupcakes taken by clevercupcakes on Flickr.

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Face Food

I’m feeling a bit jealous as some colleagues have gone off to Tokyo for the week. I am really lucky in that I’ve been three times for work, which means I’ve probably done more high end dining there than if I’d gone under my own steam. But the thing that fascinates me most is the bento box, especially the really kitsch stuff. So much of the Japanese restaurants here do the formal, very beautiful stuff, so I wanted to celebrate the stuff that just makes me smile, if not just laugh out loud!

And who knew how many books there were around this subject? If space were unlimited, I’d have all of these. As it is, I may just try to sneak one of these in! See what you think.

1. Face Food: The Visual Creativity of Japanese Bento Boxes – talk about playing with your food! Show me a kid or an adult who could resist the Frog Party salad! Got a boy who won’t eat his packed lunch? Super Mario to the rescue! Lunchtime may never be the same again.

2. Kawaii Bento Boxes: Cute and Convenient Japanese Meals on the Go- Kawaii means cute, and then a bit more, and is a bit of an obsession in all kinds of things in Japan. And this book really gives a good view on it when applied to the art of the bento box. I particularly love the rice sheep!

3. The Manga Cookbook- we’re definitely in niche territory here, but definitely an interesting one to have on your bookcase. Manga is huge in Japan, and apparently food appears a lot in the comics. Food sounds good, including onigiri (rice balls), yakitori and oshinko (pickled vegetables). Which are all popular with your average Manga character.

Yum Yum Bento Box

4. Izakaya: The Japanese Pub Cookbook - I enjoyed nights in an izakaya more than many of the meals I had, just as it was bit more relaxed, and felt more real than eating beautifully prepared sushi and sashimi in private dining rooms. This is great for a more relaxed style of Japanese cooking, but don’t think presentation goes out the window, far from it!

5. Yum-Yum Bento Box- I know, I’ve featured Face Food and Kawaii Bento Boxes, but this one is just so cute as well, it’s hard to pick between them! Smiley mushrooms, pig sandwiches, chickens made from rice, frogs made from rice…well, at least that’s a new use for the leftover rice!

So explore the fun side of Japanese food, especially if you have kids. These are the sorts of books that will really get kids excited about food, from choosing it to preparing it and then really tucking it and enjoying it. Or just surprise them with a very different lunchbox one day! Can you imagine their faces? Fantastic!

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Getting ready for Mother's Day

Just a quick note to say Buy A Gift have a weekend promotion of 20% off all gifts. This is a great site for gift experiences in particular, for foodies and non foodies. With 20% off it’s even better, and lets not forget Mother’s Day is not that far away (14 March, in case you don’t know).

If it’s for a foodie mum, then my best suggestions are:

* Full day curry cookery course for two – six hours of private tuition for two of you from Curry Club founder Pat Chapman, so you will really get a great insight into a wide range of Indian dishes. A real treat for a spice-loving mum, you get the tuition, lunch and a goody bag at the end of the day. After the discount, this will be £336, not cheap, but it is for two, and will bring you a lot of experience in a very personal environment.

* If she’s a creative kind of mum, then how about a day course in sugarwork, where she can give full rein to her artistic and creative flair in a foodie environment. There’ll be sugar cages, spirals and praline galore by the end of the day, all under the tutelage of chef Nigel Brown. The course is up in North Lincolnshire, and if you order it this weekend it will be £120.

* If she likes a drop of the fizzy stuff, then a day of champagne tasting should do the trick. She’ll get to taste 8 different champagnes, learn about how to distinguish between the houses, and matching champagne to food. Sounds like a good way to spend a day to me! After the discount, for two of you this will be £108.

* If mum doesn’t live near you and you’re not close enough to take her out for lunch or cook her lunch, then there are a whole heap of dining out options, from breakfast to afternoon tea to the chef’s table at Gordon Ramsay at Claridges. You could spend from £24 to just under £1000, there are some interesting options there.

So, if you want to not leave your gift choice for Mother’s Day to the last minute, and these take your fancy, then use code PANDA20 at checkout to qualify for the 20% off. Offer finishes midday on Monday, see site for details.

And if nothing else, as the photo says (kind of), call your mum! Fab photo by soot+chalk on Flickr.

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Learn more skills than you ever knew about

I got a tweet last week regarding a new website, ooh.com, which looks really interesting if you want to find, or even run, a great cookery course or experience near you. Whilst it doesn’t only cover food and drink, at the moment there are just under 170 courses listed across the UK.

From West Cornwall to the Highlands, there is a huge variety on offer. Always wanted to know how to cook in a wood-fired oven? You can do it in a day in Shaftesbury for £160. Want to learn to smoke your own produce? Yep, you can learn to do that too.

There are courses for designer dinners and intensive courses for wannabe chalet cooks, courses at famous places and courses at someone’s house. And if you fancy teaching, then you could even sign yourself up to run any kind of course, not just cookery. Pass on your knowledge of bee-keeping, or how to build a wind turbine, or even hide working and buckskin course. The sky is only limited by your passion and knowledge.

I think a day course (or longer) makes a great gift for a foodie, particularly those who are a little difficult to please! After all, getting a new skill to brag about has to get extra brownie points! Have a look at the site, and keep an eye on how it develops. Personally, I am hoping to have time to get on the Parisian memoir writing master class!

Fabulous photo of domestic classes past from Cornell University Library.

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

If you were quick, you may briefly have read my vicarious review of Dr T and MGG’s lunch at The Field Kitchen at Riverford. Sadly, there was a glitch on the blog and I had to restore to the previous day’s version. Which wiped it out.

I could try and rewrite it, but the original is always the best! Just to say they had an amazingly wonderful lunch that they haven’t stopped talking about to anyone who will listen. I take it on their recommendation that if you are near the area, or can make the detour, it is worth booking for! If not, then order up the cookbook and invite everyone round for some communal dining.

What can you expect? Well, without being able to taste it, then perhaps it’s best to let some photos do the talking. These are all MGG’s, so a little leeway on the focus is allowed! See if these stimulate your appetite!

The menu (if you squint)

Where a lot of lunch came from

Ploughing through

Plates looking clean

Anyone for seconds?

The only one they didn't want

Bring on the full English

I love breakfast. To be fair, I love weekend breakfasts, holiday breakfasts, breakfasts out…anywhere really where it’s relaxed and, preferably, someone else has made it. And if you didn’t make someone breakfast in bed on Valentine’s Day, then do it just as a surprise on any other day, or take them somewhere special, or just somewhere different, for a great breakfast, just because.

Want some ideas? Try these.

* I love the marmalades from The Pickled Village, even if only for the names. Depending on the kind of breakfast you want to create, you can choose from things like The Amorous Breakfast (pink grapefruit with cranberry and a nip of vodka) and The Morning After Breakfast (lemon marmalade with stem ginger and ginseng). They’d start any morning with a bit of a bang!

*If you want to share breakfast with quite a lot of people, then try the Breakfast Box for six from Sillfield Farm. The farm is home to wild boar, rare breed pigs and Herdwick sheep, and these end up providing some great brekkie treats. Eggs, two types of bacon, sausages, black pudding…that’s a serious breakfast with taste!

* If you want to head out for breakfast, then it still seems that the Wolseley is one of those places that you can’t go wrong at. But if that is a bit too formal, then how about Lantana? Or I’m very fond of Cecconi’s as well. But if you made me choose, then it would be a toss up between the corned beef hash at the Carnegie Deli, or cinnamon toast and a double strength cap at Alf Resco in Dartmouth. Depends if anyone is offering up the ticket to NYC!

* Get out and find your best local baker, and support them, get in there buying real bread. For me, I’m between Paul’s and King’s Road Bakery, who supply the great bread that the Red Lion serve. If you start with great bread, all you need is a toaster, great butter and fabulous jam, and that’s a great breakfast.

* Don’t want to cook yourself, and need to get away? How about a quick break but somewhere quite extraordinary? Have a look at the selection on Unique Home Stays, there are some fabulous options. I fancy The House in the Sea, although possibly not good if you are afraid of heights. Or don’t like the sea. But if you want a sea view with your full English, then this is for you. Alternatively, Mr & Mrs Smith always have a great selection and I would put a lot of faith in Alastair Sawday’s view.

So go ahead and make breakfast something remember. Although I have to say my favourite brekkie is still when MGG arrives at my bedside with a bowl of cornflakes. Sometimes even with milk!

Full on full English photo by peasap over on Flickr.

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner