Season's Eatings

One of the toughest questions I’m asked is “What’s your favorite restaurant?” You might as well ask me which specific taste bud I prefer. Instead of a quick reference, this question begs a full discussion of the weather, the season, the time of day/night, what I’m wearing, who’s paying, etc. But that’s the thing about being a foodie—our hunger is unusually complex and wide-ranging.

This means that gift-giving for food lovers can come easy; unless you give a box of steaks to a vegetarian, it’s hard to mess up. Epicures are by nature curious, so if you can appeal to even one aspect of their passion, you will earn a permanent place in their heart—and at their table.

For the convert to “sustainability”: Alice Waters’s new tome, The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution, is a straightforward and tasteful discourse from one of the founders of the sustainability movement. Pair this gift with a loin of grass-fed beef from locally owned Thousand Hills Cattle Co. and the recipient will feel that all his ranting about factory farming has not been in vain.

For the harried cook: The mise en place approach isn’t just for veggies—it can apply to a whole recipe system. The Russell + Hazel recipe keeper is both stylish and ingeniously organized so as to eliminate the 5:30 p.m. frenzied search for Chicken Diablo. Another way to save time is with the new OXO peeler: It fits in the palm and allows both speed and control over any vegetable. As a party gift, the time-crunched hostess will love the frozen cubes of chopped herbs available at Trader Joe’s. They melt perfectly and brightly into any concoction.

For the Scandinavian locavore: Even if you didn’t grow up eating them, one taste and there’s no denying the power of the ebleskiver. These Danish stuffed pancake-balls can be filled with jam or chocolate and are made in a special pan created by the local wizards at Nordic Ware. Beyond breakfast, you can satisfy your inner Swede and support a small, local shop when you buy lingonberry fudge from The Sweet Swede. Dark and rich on the front with a deep berry finish, this is fudge even an outlander would love.

For the dairy snob: Most of those who fall into this category are cheese snobs, and most of them believe that they must love the oddest, stinkiest, funkiest of washed rind cheeses in order to hold court. I say relax and enjoy the soft earthiness of Sottocenere al Tartufo, an Italian semisoft cow’s milk cheese that is plied with black truffle and aged in an edible vegetable ash rind rubbed with a heady concoction of nutmeg, coriander, cinnamon, licorice, cloves, and fennel. If you want to go the simple route for a lover of dairy, give a rich European butter like the salted Beurre de Gourmets—and a Laguiole spreader to use with it exclusively.

For the adventurer: Your food-lover might never be an Iron Chef, but now she can study up with Morimoto: The New Art of Japanese Cooking. In his first book, Masaharu Morimoto gives wonderfully exact instructions on how to create staggeringly beautiful Japanese food. It’s serious kitchen work, especially the bit about how to tie up your samurai robe. Before diving in, your giftee should do an initial read-through accompanied by a nicely chilled glass of sake, that under-sung brewed beverage. Otokoyama should do the trick.

Finders, keepers: where to get the goods

Cookbooks: online at Jessica’s Biscuit or at Kitchen Window, 3001 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis; 612-824-4417

Thousand Hills Cattle Co. meats: Kowalski’s, various locations

Recipe keeper: Russell + Hazel, 4388 France Ave. S, Minneapolis;
952-358-3685

OXO peeler: Sur la Table, 3901 W. 50th St., Minneapolis; 952-656-0045

Frozen herbs: Trader Joe’s, various locations

Ebleskiver pan: Cook’s of Crocus Hill, various locations, or Nordic Ware

Lingonberry fudge: The Sweet Swede, www.thesweetswede.com

Cheese and butter: Premier Cheese Market, 5013 France Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-436-5590

Laguiole spreaders: Williams-Sonoma, various locations

Otokoyama sake: Hennepin-Lake Liquors, 1200 W. Lake St., Minneapolis; 612-825-4411