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Know people who love to eat and love to cook? Bring smiles to their faces with a whole range of unusual food-related gifts to satisfy mind, body and spirit. But mostly body.
Corto Calabrian Chili Oil
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Courtesy Corto
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I love the versatility of this olive oil. While I’m usually not one for flavored oils, you can taste the quality. It’s produced in California, too, so I also appreciate its local vibe. My favorite aspect of this is that it does double duty for both Asian-style cooking and Italian-style cooking. Perfect if you have a kitchen with minimal shelf space.
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Box of avocados with vase from Primavera Farms
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Courtesy Primavera Farms
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If you live in California, there’s a good chance you love avocados, and these are some of the best ones I have ever tried. Sure, you can always take advantage of that three-for-two deal at Ralphs, and while those are fine, they're your daily driver avocados for your dinner salad. Primavera avocados, on the other hand, are .... just perfect.
Grown with care, they cut exceptionally well, and their texture and flavor make you realize what an avocado should really taste like. So good, in fact, that you can eat one by itself with just a little bit of salt and pepper.
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Big Vegan Flavor cookbook
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Courtesy Nisha Vora
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Chances are there's someone in your circle of friends who is vegan or vegetarian, and might be getting the blahs about getting food on the table. Enter Big Vegan Flavor, a monster of a cookbook by San Diego content creator Nisha Vora of Rainbow Plant Life. (Note, the cookbook is huge, weighing over 5 pounds with over 150 recipes, gloriously photographed.)
Vora wants to show us how to coax the best flavors and textures out of vegetables, and she's done just that in her book. We tried and loved the lemon-garlic brussels sprouts with rosemary, pomegranate molasses vinaigrette, and smashed cucumbers with a yogurt tahini sauce drizzled with a jalapeño faux honey. Your giftee (and you) will likely too.
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Fly By Jing combo pack
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Courtesy Fly by Jing
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If someone in your life has recently moved to their first apartment or new college dorm, they are likely becoming very familiar with instant noodles. Why not help them step it up a notch with Fly By Jing's combo pack of noodles and sauce?
The company and founder Jing Gao, who we profiled earlier this year, is known for its excellent chili crisp, but her attention to detail can be found across all the products. These aren’t your sad cup of noodles from the vending machine at work. Instead, you get bouncy, squiggly knife-cut noodles that perfectly soak up the saucy flavors, which come in both chili crisp and sweet and spicy. I’m seriously addicted.
Koreaworld cookbook
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Courtesy Random House
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Koreaworld is the second cookbook by Deuki Hong and Matt Rodbard. The pair previously explored Korean cooking throughout the U.S. with their book Koreatown. This time, they are taking their concept internationally and researching the effects that Korean cuisine has had around the world.
Some favorite recipes include the Crispy Air Fryer Pork Belly, which always hits in a pinch, and the Family Meal Kimchi Jjiage, a perfect kimchi-based soup for the colder months. Aside from all the great recipes sourced from chefs worldwide, it’s also an impressive-looking book with the fantastic photography of Alex Lau, whose work we’ve been following since his days at Bon Appetit. Get this book for someone who loves Korean food or just loves cooking. You won’t regret it.
AfriCali: Recipes from My Jikoni (A Cookbook)
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Courtesy Simon and Schuster
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Kiano Moju was born to a Kenyan mother and a Nigerian father and raised in California. Her recipes craft beautiful dishes based on African traditions, using readily available ingredients and pantry staples to create excellent weekday meals. As someone from a multicultural background, I love her message that it's okay to make recipes our own while still upholding certain food traditions.
Her short rib stew tells precisely that story. I’ve also been feeling her recipe for pumpkin bread, made with her masala spice blend topped with a simple pecan and pepita crumble. It’s not too sweet and still feels appropriate for the holiday.
Flor Del Desierto
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Courtesy Alta Baja Market
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Sotol is a Mexican spirit that’s a cousin to tequila and mezcal but comes from a different agave plant. The sotol plant is found along the southwestern U.S.-Mexican border and is known for its vegetal taste. It feels like the next en-vogue Mexican spirit, and can be purchased online on the Madre! website, or if you find yourself in O.C. near downtown Santa Ana, stop by Alta Baja Market.
Mirate Mucho Mezcal t-shirt
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Courtesy Mirate
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What better way to flex your love for Mexican spirits than a perfect, straight-to-the-point t-shirt from one of our favorite bars and restaurants, Mirate in Los Feliz? We love the no-nonsense approach to the design of this shirt. It reminds us of an old print ad, a real winner for old analog souls.
Lasita FC jersey
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Courtesy Lasita
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Lately, we’ve definitely been feeling the look of retro soccer/football fashion. We also love Filipino food, so this is a win/win. That said, I don’t know if I’d wear this beautiful piece of clothing to my next Filipino feast at Lasita in Chinatown unless you want to ruin it with kare-kare sauce and splatters of grease from their pork belly lechon. But maybe we should save it for all other special occasions when we want to flex our love for one of our favorite Filipino restaurants.
Hamburgers Nice t-shirt
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Courtesy Hamburgers Nice
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While the first-ever Tournament of Cheeseburgers, where we picked SoCal’s favorite cheeseburger, is now in the history books, that doesn't mean we aren’t still celebrating the burger lifestyle. The best way to do that is to grab a shirt from Long Beach's most beloved burger slingers, Hamburgers Nice, who’ve got shirts that echo the designs from your favorite skateboard company when you were a kid, but this time in burger form.
Adams Wine and Alta Baja Market wine club subscriptions
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Courtesy Adams Wine
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What better way to tell someone you care about them than a steady stream of wine chosen by two of the best wine purveyors in L.A. and Orange County? Adams Wine Shop, a Black-owned wine shop, offers various selections for their wine club, everything from two bottles to entire cases, plus pick-up and regular discounts in the shop.
In Santa Ana, Alta Baja Market specializes in wines with subscriptions from the Baja California wine region with a choice of 6-bottle packages four times a year and also hosts 1-day or multi-night tours of Valle de Guadalupe.
Kavahana Kava Nectar Starter Kit
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Courtesy Kavahana
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A N/A pick for someone in your life looking for a new hip drink to try. When I authored my cool drinks guide earlier this year, there was perhaps no more memorable experience than visiting the Kavahana Bar in Santa Monica. Made from the Kava plant from the South Pacific, this drink has relaxing properties, all while offering a tingling sensation on your tongue after each sip. This gift set offers two of their offerings and a cup made for a coconut shell that you can use repeatedly.
Hexclad salt and pepper grinders and apron
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Courtesy Hexclad
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Courtesy Hexclad
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I love to cook at home, perhaps too much. I would say that I use it to unwind, but I suspect my wife would argue that it’s the opposite. That said, there’s something about using really good gear in the kitchen. Hexclad makes excellent non-stick pans and other cookware. I never knew the importance of having a good salt and pepper grinder until I found these HexMill salt and pepper grinders. They’re built tough and look great sitting out on the counter.
I admit I can get messy in the kitchen, with various grease splatters, not to mention the occasional sauce stain; it’s never pretty. But if you have a little room in the holiday shopping budget, consider the Hexclad aprons, made from recycled plastic bottles and offering solid coverage, nothing is getting past this baby. It also has great pockets, not to mention a measuring chart printed underneath.
Nonalcoholic gift sets from the New Bar
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Courtesy New Bar
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Courtesy New Bar
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With dry January coming, there's a good chance someone in your life is looking to participate in the month-long detox period. Luckily, we live in a golden age of non-alcoholic spirits, where a place like New Bar comes in. Shop in person at either of their Venice and WEHO locations or order online. We are big fans of their gift set because it has a little bit of everything. The Ready, Set, Sip and the Negroni are both great options!
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Credits
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Editing and writing
- Rene Lynch, Gift Guide Editor
- Suzanne Levy, Gift Guide Editor
- Ross Brenneman, Education Editor
- Bonnie McCarthy, Freelance Writer
- Gab Chabrán, Associate Editor, Food and Culture
- Mariana Dale, K-12 Reporter
- Larry Mantle, AirTalk Host
- Laura Hertzfeld, Best Things To Do Reporter
- Julia Paskin, Host, All Things Considered, The L.A. Report P.M. Edition
Art
- Erin Hauer, Visual Designer
- Olivia Hughes, Illustrator
Other support
- Nubia Perez, Community Engagement Administration
- Sabir Brara, Digital Product Project Manager
- Chanelle Berlin Johnson, Director Audience Engagement
- Megan Garvey, Senior Vice President, News
As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.
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