Foodstuffs are always the way to our hearts. It brings back memories, enhancing your experience all over again with flavor, panache and punch.

Half the lure of New York is the restaurant scene.  Berkeley is teeming with multicultural manna from heaven.  Pasadena has the fortunate position of being home to a few culinary schools and chefs practice on diners every chance they get and diners get the benefits of their stand out or edgy trends.  Let’s not even start in on cruises, Hawaii or Europe.  I could write a travel diary solely focusing on meals.

I remember great moments in my life by what I was eating.   I asked for ten homemade pizzas for my tenth birthday.  I made seven for my son’s third birthday party although I am sure he has no memory of it.  When my husband and I were dating, he always ordered lasagna and we scoured Long Island and NYC for Italian.  We shared hot fudge sundaes at the Friendly’s in Commack and we were the first to try the ‘all you can eat’ promotion for breaded fried shrimp at the Sizzler’s in Smithtown, N.Y. in the 70’s.

My BFF in NY once brought garlic bagels and onion bialys on the plane with her and people on board were begging her and dying for a bite from the sheer intensity of the smell wafting throughout the cabin.  At the bottom of her magical bag she had NY Italian cannolis stashed amid heavy cold packs.  Now, that’s a good buddy.

I am sentimental about when I first tried this or when I last tasted that.  My first onion was raw and eaten like an apple once I had teeth.  I ate the lemon innards up until not too long ago.  I first and last had escargots served with drawn butter, garlic and parsley on a family Baltic cruise.  I had a field day tasting different animal meats for the first time but I swoon recalling about it now at Brazilian churrassquerias both in Brazil in my twenties and in the U.S.A. when the kids were petite and dared to dare me.

Every menu is an opportunity to celebrate like Thanksgiving and make it sacred.

For a few years, I threw themed luncheons sharing original, foolproof recipes demonstrating them in my kitchen.

Yes, food is vital and plays a big part in our lives.

So it’s no wonder that food gifts, food related products, gadgets or books are frequently exchanged in our family.  My nephew just got into pie making – perfect opportunity for a few pie centered cookbooks for his shelf.  My son’s girlfriend wanted to do some cast iron cooking,  a nice Lodge specimen and cookbook followed.  My husband loves popcorn (who doesn’t?) – hot air popper wrapped and under the tree.

I gladly visited Seattle and brought home food gifts and had tons of food stories (check in the Search box for Seattle to read earlier posts ).Thanks to my son and J, we have the best of Seattle that could be packaged and stuffed into luggage right here in our own Southern California pantry.  The rose petal jelly was the only thing I even wanted for Christmas when asked.  It is unmatched in quality. We visited the start up store and heard the story of Kukuruza popcorn on our chocolate lover’s tour.  I spent hours tasting Quintessential oils and vinegars before concluding which flavors to ship back home.  I munched and snacked on freshly roasted Ceres’ sugared pecans with M and J after visiting the needle and Chihuly gardens.  Fifteen months later, we were gifted with a huge supply that ran the gamut and covered every sweet tooth.

Yup, that’s Maple and Coconut Balsamic vinegars.