Foodie Holiday Gifts, Coffee, Salt and Kitchen Gadgets

Guest Interview

Market Report ()

David Karp is a pomologist with UC Riverside and a freelance writer for the Los Angeles Times food section, where he writes the Market Watch column. This week he talks to Laura Avery about the Warren Pear. Al Courchesne, owner of Frog Hollow Farm in Northern California, will be bringing his coveted Warren Pears to the Santa Monica Farmers' Market on November 30 and December 7. This is a rare opportunity for Southern Californians to meet Farmer Al and to try this incredible variety of pear.

Guest Interview

Saving the Season ()

Delilah Snell owns The Road Less Traveled, an eco-store in Santa Ana. She is a Master Preserver, which she earned through the UC Cooperative Extension. She recommends using trusted recipes and techniques from the National Center for Home Food Preservation and Ball.

You can find Snell this weekend at Patchwork Indie Arts and Crafts Festival in Santa Ana.

A recipe for her Hot Mustard Pickles is on the Good Food Blog.

Guest Interview

Salt: The Essential Ingredient ()

Mark Bitterman and his wife own The Meadow in Portland and New York City, where they sell hundreds of varieties of salts. His book is Salted: A Manifesto on the World's Most Essential Mineral, with Recipes. Recipe ideas for the Himalayan salt blocks are here.

Guest Interview

Heirloom Beans and Huitlacoche ()

Steve Sando owns Rancho Gordo, a food company specializing in ingredients native to the Americas.  He loves huitlacoche or corn smut, a fungus that grows on corn.

Sando also sells heirloom beans, corn and spices on his online marketplace, Rancho Gordo. His beans make a wonderful stocking stuffer. For a larger gift you can select one of his curated packages like the Dessert Island Sampler; for the ultimate legume lover, try his Year of Beans program.

Guest Interview

Direct Trade vs. Fair Trade Coffee ()

Kevin Sinnott is the author of CoffeeCompanion.com and The Art and Craft of Coffee: An Enthusiast's Guide to Selecting, Roasting, and Brewing Exquisite Coffee. Today, he defines fair trade, direct trade, shade grown and organic coffees. He says that, in terms of the farmer, direct trade is the best option.

Guest Interview

Mozzarella Bar Via Roma ()

Jonathan Gold reviews Obika, a mozzarella bar in the Westfield Century City Shopping Center. The original Obika is in Rome, This California outpost flies in their cheese three times a week from Italy. Gold likes the sausage n'duja and the mozzarella in carroza.

Obika
Westfield Century City Shopping Center
10250 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles, California 90067
310-556-2452

All of Jonathan Gold's restaurant suggestions are on the Good Food Restaurant Map.

Guest Interview

The Well Stocked Kitchen ()

Christopher Kimball is founder, editor and publisher of Cook's Illustrated magazine. He also hosts the syndicated PBS cooking show, America's Test Kitchen, which just launched its eleventh season. He's also our kitchen gadget expert, and reveals some of his favorite products. The winners? A few everyday products that have been updated in both form and function.  From an easy-to-use zester, to an adjustable measuring cup for solids and liquids, and multi-layered oven mitts made from the same material as firefighter apparel.

Kimball's recommendations:

Super-Fast Thermapen
Microplane Zester
KitchenArt Adjust-A-Cup
Kool-Tek Mitts
The Wine Enthusiast Zoom Corkscrew

Guest Interview

Pairing Wine with a Wine Glass ()

Georg Riedel, who creates glassware that enhances the experience of drinking wine and other fine spirits, stresses the importance of glass shape and decanters. He is a tenth generation producer of the Riedel glass dynasty, which originated in Austria.