|
|
|
Gift Watch: Procrastinators' Edition
Because it's time to admit you need help.
Gift Watch: Procrastinators’ Edition
We’re sure you don’t want one more source reminding you that Christmas is, like, a week away. So let’s just get right into a few last gift ideas for friends who eat—this time, limited to those items you’ll be able to snag even if you figure you’ve got at least four more days before you even have to get started on your shopping.
First up: magazine subscriptions. Generally speaking, if you’re giving someone a card containing a print-out telling them what they can expect to get from you, everyone knows that you forgot about that person. One exception is with magazines—they always take a while to start showing up at your door. Of course, if you don’t know the exact contents of your pal’s mail already, you might want to stay away from staples like Saveur on the chance that they’re already getting it. So try something just a little off the beaten path: on the gorgeous, swank, and weighty tip, we like Diner Journal, Kinfolk, and Gastronomica. San Francisco’s Meatpaper is great and has the benefit of being more reasonably-priced. At the same price, Lucky Peach might be veering into more commonplace territory now—but that allows for the benefit of easily being able to find the current issue to wrap up with the subscription notification. (These are all quarterly publications, by the by.)
On a similar front, an email receipt is always perfectly acceptable as a gift if the item it represents doesn’t exist on our physical plane, so don’t forget about ebooks and apps when wracking your brain for inexpensive gift ideas. We were instantly smitten by Michael Ruhlman’s new offering, The Book of Schmaltz: A Love Song to a Forgotten Fat ($8). That one’s only out for iPad right now, but his Ratio app is a really handy tool (based on the book of the same name) for iPhone or Droid for just five bucks.
Of course, you can search the appropriate library of whatever platform your friend uses for more options—there are plenty of curious niche etitles available for a few bucks on Kindle, for example. But we have to recommend you consider the digital versions of some local authors’ work if you’re going that route: how about the new Brown Betty cookbook or the practical and fun Food in Jars? They’re each well under $15.
If your vision of holiday shopping is dealing with parking and crowds at KoP, then sure, last-minute shopping sounds awful. And shipping rates for online options are starting to reach astronomical heights at this late date. But the dirty little secret of “last-minute gift guides” is that shopping last minute is not really a problem at all if you just stick to smaller, local spots. Most are open through Christmas Eve, and plenty offer perks—like last-minute discounts, free gifts, and wrapping—that save you that much more money and time.
If you saw our feature on gifts at Cook (253 S. 20th St.) the other week, you might be interested to know that they’re running a special with different daily discounts on their most giftable items through Dec. 24; today’s deal is 20% off all of their tea accessories (uwishunu has the full schedule here).
Speaking of tea, Premium Steap (111 S. 18th St.) has a whole store full of gift options for tea drinkers that are already bundled, giftwrapped and ready to go—plus some really cute items that you might not expect, like beautiful ornaments, hand-knit tea cozies by fiber artist Lisa Kugler (aka ruby b. love), and gorgeous tiffins and bentos. (While we didn't get a good picture of it, we're smitten by this dope panda mug—which is all we want for Christmas, if you’re asking.)
And at Girls Can Tell (1725 S. 12th St.), where literally every item looks like a perfect gift for some food enthusiast you know, they’ve got a deal on now that supports the South Philly Food Co-op. If you’re a member, you get 10% off, easy peasy. If you’re not a member yet, sign up before Dec. 31 and you’ll get a surprise free gift in addition to the 10% discount. If you’re really in a pinch, you can even give the free gift to someone—they don’t have to know!
- barstool scientist
- Booze
- Brew Revue
- Chef Salad
- Closings
- Coffee
- Contests
- Dealage
- Dirty Dishes
- Don't Front
- Eat This Immediately
- Field Trip
- Food and Art
- Food and Holidays
- Food and Movies
- Food and Music
- Food and Politics
- Food and Sports
- Food and Web
- Food Blogs
- Food Books
- Food Events
- Food News
- Food TV
- Gifted
- Happy Hour Hopper
- How-To
- In Print
- Interview
- Meal Ticket
- Menu Time
- Not So Quickfire
- Notes from the Weekend
- On Wheels
- Openings
- Patio Drinking
- Philly Beer Week 2010
- Photos
- Private Chef POV
- Product Placement
- Recipes
- Snack Time
- Stiff Drank
- SUPPER
- Tea
- Testing
- Ticket Stubs
- Top Chef
- Vegan
- Vegetarian
- Video
- Weekly Candy
- Weird Regional Foods
- We're Here to Help
- Where'd We Eat?
- Drew Lazor's Ill-Advised Rant Factory
- Pregame
- Ill-Advised Ranting
- The Week Without Meat
- Philly Beer Week 2009
- Real Big
- Where'd I Eat Last Night?
- Top Chef Masters
- The Good Word
- Next Iron Chef
- Arterial Terrorism
- Food and Radio
