2022 Food-Lovers Gift Guide
For the past couple of years, I’ve put together a gift guide filled with ideas for what to give your friends and family who love good food. (Here are 2021 and 2020.) Everything from California-grown dates to preserved lemon paste to ceramic bowls intended specifically for scoops of ice cream. And, of course, I couldn’t help but include a few cookbooks. In the past, I’ve kept gifts under $50. This year, there is no price limit, although I made sure to include a wide range—from $9.99 to $160. I enthusiastically recommend each one of these 2022 gifts, and they are all made by women of color.
Ceramic and Bamboo Stovetop Steamer – Fly by Jing ($100) – As gorgeous as it is useful, this steamer fits two servings of soup dumplings. For a truly special gift, bundle the steamer with Fly by Jing’s own frozen dumplings.
Saffron-Colored Cake Stand – Moonflowers ($160) – A handmade ceramic stand that’s not just for cake! It would look lovely with a pile of clementines in it.
Wooden Cutting Board – Àplat ($26 for the large size) – Nobody can ever have enough cutting boards. This one is pretty enough to serve sliced bread or snacks on.
Ceramic Coasters – SampleHAUS ($59 for a set of 4) – These would look great stacked and ready in any home bar. They’re cork-backed, so they won’t scratch the surface they are resting on, and they also come in a variety of colors and patterns.
Sal de Gusano / Chinicuil Salt – Don Bugito ($9.99) – A stunning burnt sienna colored salt that enhances any mezcal you pair with it and makes for an exceptional salt rim on a margarita. The toasted chinicuiles (aka maguey worms) used in this salt come from the Sierras in the northern region of Mexico.
Black Pepper Subscription – Diaspora Co. ($48) – Home cooks use black pepper as an everyday staple ingredient. How fun would it be to receive a whole year’s supply of exquisite black peppercorns in the mail?
Extra-Virgin Olive Oil – Exau ($29) – Sweetly named after the co-founder’s mother, Lina, this olive oil is produced in Calabria, Italy and tastes a little bit like fresh tropical fruit. Get a bottle of the 2021 harvest before it sells out!
Gochugaru Chile Pepper Flakes – Mother-in-Law’s Kimchi ($24) – Perhaps best known as the chile pepper flakes used when making kimchi, gochugaru is also outstandingly delicious sprinkled on steaming hot rice cakes, stirred into stews, and mixed with oil for a quick marinade. The chile pepper heat is relatively mild and sweet.
Tamarind Date Sauce – Basbaas ($22.99 for 2 bottles) – Smoky, sweet, and spicy. This sauce is delicious as a dip, marinade, or brushed liberally on grilled meat and vegetables.
Seeded Crackers with Umeboshi Plum – Yumé Boshi ($11) – Made from a mix of pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, poppy seeds, and sesame seeds, plus umeboshi pickled plums and a tiny bit of cayenne. These crackers would bring style and uniqueness to any cheese board, but they are particularly wonderful alongside mild, spreadable cheeses like fresh ricotta.
Champagne – B. Stuyvesant ($57.95) – A blend of Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir, with generous and persistent bubbles. Owner Marvina Robinson named her company in honor of her hometown neighborhood (Bedford-Stuyvesant) and produces this proper champagne in the Champagne region of France.
Small Batch Whiskey – Uncle Nearest ($49) – Do you know the story behind Uncle Nearest? He’s the whiskey maker the history books failed to include, and now his great-great-granddaughter is carrying on the family legacy and winning every award in sight.
Dark Roast Coffee Beans – Blk & Bold ($14) – I’m partial to a dark roast that takes well to a generous amount of milk or whipped cream—a real holiday treat! This one has wintery notes of caramel and toffee.
Malaysian Lavender Orange Spiced Tea – Azalina’s ($15) – A loose-leaf black tea mixed with dried orange peel and lavender. Perfect for your friend who doesn’t really drink coffee but loves tea.
Brooklyn Blackout Brownies – Blondery ($75) – A rich cocoa noir cake base frosted with ganache and topped with chocolate sprinkles. Count me in.
Cookies and Caramels Gift Box – Kika’s Treats ($54 for the large size) – Our friends Shak and Ohn gave us a collection of Kika’s Treats for Christmas years ago, and we are still talking about how delicious those cookies were. You cannot go wrong with this gift.
Alfajores – Sabores del Sur ($33 for 12 cookies) – Before I tell you that about these alfajores, I should mention that they’re only available to be picked up in the Bay Area. Okay, now that that’s out of the way, these shortbread cookies are dusted with powdered sugar, filled with creamy dulce de leche, and are truly the best.
Black Power Kitchen – Jon Gray, Pierre Serrao, and Lester Walker with Osayi Endolyn ($40) – Part cookbook and part manifesto from the team behind Ghetto Gastro, a culinary collective in the Bronx, NYC. One of my favorite cookbooks of the year.
