Adventures: Bakehouse Wanders Brighton Part 2 Hi everyone! After months of procrastination, I'm thrilled to finally share part two of my Brighton adventure—because who doesn’t love a seaside story? Picking up from last time, I started my day at the Flint Owl Bakery for breakfast and coffee, followed by a visit to Vero Gusto, an Italian bakery, to pick up some delectable treats. Although I’ve been to Brighton plenty of times, my adventures have mostly centred around the Marina and the beach. This time, I wandered into The Lanes—a popular spot with locals and tourists alike, but a place I’d never explored. I didn’t even realise I was in The Lanes at first—that’s what happens when you don’t have a plan. From what I gathered, The Lanes are a mix of independent shops focused on ‘hip’ culture (do people still say ‘hip’?), fashion, and antiques. None of these are really my thing, but you know what they also had? A pasty shop. Now that is definitely up my street… or lane. The ...
Christmas Gifts for Foodies 2023
Black Friday (24/11/2023)
It's mid November, and we know what that means, apart from more rain than we've had for the last few years, colleagues infighting about where to go for their underbudgeted work lunches, and dark treks home from rail replacement busses, it also means we're about to enter the week when Americans all come together from across the country to share and be grateful for what they have, and then then next day go and fight strangers in a re-enactment of the civil war, replacing the prize of justice with ten percent off something that neither party particularly needs, or even wants.
Much like stale comedy, Black Friday is an event that has managed to invade the UK too, somewhat unfortunately. Largely Black Friday activity consists of people buying whatever they can lay their hands on in a flash sale, that was either overpriced previously, or the retailer hasn't been able to shift, however for those with a level head and an amount of self control, it can be a money saver assuming you have a pre-planned itinerary.
You'll no doubt have received endless spam about sales from every store that you've purchased from before, I mean you have haven't you? I don't need to guess, those emails are there stacking up.
Most of the emails you received can go in the delete items folder by default, but hold fire a second on the names that you're more familiar with, because annoying as being inundated with advertising is, there's a happy coincidence.
Next month happens to be December, and you know what happens in December! Yes, Christmas, but also buying lots of gifts for people and spending more money than you'd like on them. There's a connection here, an event that has the potential to save money, and another that will drain your funds if you're not careful.
I personally love Christmas, people generally seem a bit nicer, there's pretty lights everywhere, my home town has lights across the high street of some cockerels pulling a sleigh, don't ask, its a local thing. One thing I'm not a fan of is buying presents, both spending the money, and picking the gifts.
In this merry capitalist week I thought I'd try and help you with your gift purchasing, with the caveat of you're buying for a foodie, I'm going to be absolutely no help with anything outside the realms of food, gaming, and martial art related gifting, all both eclectic and niche I appreciate.
I'm going to cover a range of price brackets, from Secret Santa through to a few bits at the other financial end of the spectrum that I won't be buying from no matter how nice the person was in the last year.
For simplicity I'll most link to Amazon, unless the item is better purchased elsewhere, but remember shop around that's the benefit of this week, and you don't need to get that fifty percent off glitter to put in gin!
Secret Santa and Stocking Fillers
We're starting with the low end, Secret Santa, which I personally despise, I've been burned too many times. Many times have I thought long and hard to come up with the perfect gift to have received rubbish back, including a novelty mug, a sudoku book, and a calendar with every day showing a poo emoji, to name a few; seriously, to this day I don't understand the calendar, people know I enjoy a beer, just buy a small pack of something cheap, I won't be as offended!
If you happen to be crazy enough to embark in the colleague gifting exchange market, I'm here to help.
Admittedly Secret Santa can have a few budgets, but a lot tend to be about £10, so that's where I'll set the benchmark. If for some reason you've been roped into spending more, scroll down to the next section, this might cater for you.
Remember if what you buy was on sale, you don't need to fill up that saving with another purchase, or this defeats the point! I might sound like Scrooge, but again, burned many times in Secret Santa, learn from my experience.
Arguably you could also use these items a a stocking filler for the younger cooks out there, I first got an interest in cooking from a young age, and would've been over the moon opening these on Christmas morning.
Supoon by Dreamfarm
I absolutely love this one, its fantastic! I got my first Supoon a few years back, and never looked back. I grant that this might be a little odd for a Secret Santa present, but if the person is a true foodie, they'll be very appreciative once they've used it.
This item is basically replacing a wooden spoon, with something made of silicone, and vastly improving its function. A couple of cool things include that the head part of the spoon won't touch the surface, measures marked out, which is very useful, and best it scrapes out a bowl or saucepan like nothing else.
The Supoon is an item that every kitchen should have, multiple of them too, I'd urge you to buy for yourself whilst shopping.
Digital Thermometer
Another brilliant and useful piece of hardware for an aspiring or developed cook is a thermometer, preferably digital.
A good digital thermometer can handle meats through to sugar work, which is how I use mine, caramel always failed until I upgraded from using my eyes to a temperature probe.
As you'd think, there's so many thermometers out there, and you could end up spending a lot, but I've linked the one that I own below and its inexpensive, £8.47 on Amazon as of writing.
This is something that will be used widely and will be welcome to anyone's inventory of kitchen tools, this one doesn't even need to find a drawer to hide in because it magnetically attaches to the fridge!
Air Fryer Accessories
If you know someone who rants and raves about their Air Fryer, get them some accessories, they can be quite cheap, and from experience very useful.
My machine is a large one with a double drawer and the only annoying thing about it is cleaning the massive tray after cooking something like sausages, or fishing out food like nuggets. An item I bought for £3.99 was a silicone tray with raised sides and handles, life has been made so much easier with this small edition.
There's other things out there two like rack to add another level, and nonstock greaseproof like reusable paper, just check with all these gadget whether their machine is circular or oblong, work it awkwardly into a conversation.
I've put a link the what I purchased at Robert Dyas for myself so that you get the idea, this one was a bargain, but shop around!
Greggs
There's usually a novelty or comical entry at the Secret Santa, what's cheap and delicious? Greggs!
I'm not going to dwell on this one but Greggs do both vouchers and frozen versions of their food in Iceland. I'm not personally a fan of gifting vouchers, but my eyes would light up if I open £10 worth of Greggs in either form.
Mid Tier
This is where I will put the general gifts, things that are great to gift a foodie; mid tier doesn't mean in quality, I wouldn't stoop that low ;) we're talking price.
These presents are the sort of thing that you buy when you're thinking of a friend or family member who loves cooking, but its not necessarily your vibe.
Everything that I have placed here, I have personal experience of, and confirm that it made my life better.
You won't know the content of everyone's kitchen, but courses and cookbooks, which I could've called the section are fantastic and thoughtful gifts that will brighten a Christmas Day.
Cookery Course by Sorted Food
This might seem slightly bias, but I'm not affiliated. Could I call Sorted Food friends? I know them negligibly, but I know they read the odd article, so we'll call them a friend of the blog, but the idea of gifting their courses comes from experiencing them first hand.
Three courses have been released so far, baking, food photography, and edible gifts, all of them a great courses and inexpensive, and they can be gifted on the Sorted Food website.
The learning material is all online, so your recipient can go at their own pace, and rewatch as needed. All of the lessons are taught by the experts over at Sorted Food, and I couldn't recommend them highly enough.
I've done reviews on this blog for all the material released this far, feel free to go and check the articles out. psst.. the image above is Cinnamon Buns that I made on the course!
Baking
https://www.ommnisbakehouse.com/2023/08/course-00-to-hero-course-by-sorted-food.html
Food Photography
https://www.ommnisbakehouse.com/2023/09/course-review-hangout-capture-with-baz.html
Edible Gifting
https://www.ommnisbakehouse.com/2023/11/course-review-edible-gifting-with-ebbers.html
Poppy O'Toole Cookbooks
Amazon - The Actually Delicious Air Fryer Cookbook
Cookbooks are a great purchase for a foodie, there isn't a foodie out there who doesn't like sitting with a cuppa flicking through a good cookbook looking for inspiration and drooling over the images with anticipation.
There are so many books out there, so pop down to your local bookshop for ideas, but one, or two, to highlight for me are both by Poppy O'Toole. Both books, 'The Food You Need' and 'The Actually Delicious Air Fryer Cookbook' are both books that I've bought over the last year, there's even some croquetas mix cooling in the kitchen at the moment from the Air Fryer book mentioned.
I've found the books to have great variety, and easy to follow; a few moment's I've wondered where I was going, but held on and things worked out, in Poppy I trust!
World Of Warcraft Cookbook
I wasn't going to put a list of cookbooks because there's so many great ones, but in case you're gifting to someone like me who's interests are weirdly straddling gaming and cooking, this book is genuinely great.
I own a range of gaming themed cookbooks, which have become a bit of a trend, including Overwatch, Hearthstone, D&D, and so many more, but the best is the Warcraft Cookbook. There are actually two World Of Warcraft cookbooks, both are good, but the first one is the best.
Most of the recipes have some link in name to the game, a lot of them are food items that players are familiar with, but these recipes are well put together. Recipes range from sweet treats to a Winterveil (Christmas to non gamers, I suppose) turkey, unless you give them the book early this recipe might have to wait a year; in addition to the food there's some great drinks too.
One of my favourites from the book is a humble little Frybread that goes incredibly well with a curry, instead of the typical Naan, and the Hot Apple Cider has become somewhat a Winter tradition.
If your friend is into a different game, have a look around, there's lots of these books about and I'd argue they are surprising in that the quality holds up to the novelty.
Higher End
So I'm not going to be buying anything in this bracket for someone this Christmas, but I'm going to imagine a wish list if I were asked what I would like.
The items that follow are of outstanding quality and I'd consider a pinnacle of gifting for a foodie, all of them will make a Christmas statement that shouts yummy in a sophisticated tone.
Ninja Products
I've been bombarded by Ninja recently with their sale materials, and being fair to them I'm a convert, I bought a few bits over the last year and think they're great.
When I first encountered Ninja they were advertising everywhere to the point where I assumed they were a social media flavour of the month, but they're really high quality. My latest purchase from Ninja was an Air Fryer, and I couldn't be happier with it, its fantastic!
Check out the review here:
https://www.ommnisbakehouse.com/2023/10/gadget-review-ninja-air-fryer-foodi.html
I know the Ninja are having quite an extensive Black Friday sale, so it'll be worth popping over to their website, if anything for yourself.
Fortnum & Mason Hampers
I've actually bought these before, for both my mother and sister, and as a foodie I know that I would love to receive one. When I bought these hampers I didn't go to the top end, but the quality is exceptional and it just says something when gifting something exquisite, especially if its not the sort of financial realm that the sender abides in.
One year for my mother I bought individual items to make a bespoke hamper, also from Fortnum and Mason, this brought the price down a reasonable amount with a similar outcome, so there's another idea.
Hexclad Pans
Now this is an item out of my current budgetary range, but it has to go in the list.
Hexclad pans are making quite a storm in the cooking world, and endorsed by Gordon Ramsey, they aren't messing about on quality or price.
I don't have personal experience, but on speaking to those who do, these are the real thing and exceptional quality. If you have the cash, these will be a remarkable gift for a very lucky home cook.