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Avoid disappointment this Mother's Day

I wrote yesterday about a few ideas on what to get a food loving mum for Mother’s Day. Which kind of got me thinking about the things to avoid. Here’s a few I’d give a wide berth to:

1. Milk Tray – the lady may love Milk Tray, but most food lovers won’t be over-thrilled. Particularly if it’s only a quarter pound box. Honestly, save your money, make cornflake crispie cakes or brownies instead.

2. A Shopping Trolley – you know what, we may look at these and think how practical for touring the farmer’s market and carrying home our purchases. But since when did we want practical presents?

3. Personalised Champagne – or even worse, personalised Prosecco. If you’re going to buy fizz, buy the best you can and go for taste. Make your own label if you must, but put the money into product, not the gimmick.

4. A novelty apron – foodie mums use an apron for practical purposes of keeping food off themselves whilst they’re cooking. Not for a practical joke.

5. Umami paste -this may just be me, but if a dish doesn’t have umami from the ingredients, don’t go messing with it.

6. Cheap truffle oil- a bit like the champagne, if you’re not going to buy the good stuff, then don’t go with the cheap stuff. Truffle oil should be expensive, and that’s why it’s a fabulous gift if you get it right. London Fine Foods do a 250ml bottle of Black Truffle infused oil which is the real deal. A little goes a long, long way. Which at £30 is a good job, but do this or don’t bother.

7. Big bottles of peppercorns or oils with herbs – most of us will want to know what kind of oil it is, possibly where it’s from, and who tended the herbs. We don’t want 50 litres of some unidentified stuff. Thank you.

8. Novelty pepper grinders - there is never a moment for these. Not that much to be said.

9. Ainsley Harriott cookbooks – and possibly no Gary Rhodes either. Cooking has moved on.

So, hope you get your mum something she will really enjoy, rather than what someone wants to sell you under the guise of Mother’s Day. Remember, taste first and foremost, to avoid disappointment. Unlike the pie.

Photo courtesy of raindog on Flickr.

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