Spice Pantry Gift Bags
Gifts for cooks at South China Seas this year include well-priced and handsomely presented 12 bottle spice pantries featuring exotic salts and peppers, chiles, and herb and spice collections from Europe, the Far East, South Asia, and Mexico.
SALT & PEPPER, $59.95; CHILES, MEXICO, THE FAR EAST, INDIA, THE CONTINENT, $49.95.
Cook's Tools
What do they use in Hawksworth’ high-tech kitchen to prepare a silken chimichurri sauce? A mortar and pestle.
Thai granite mortar & pestles are available in sizes from a large 6" interior diameter to a huge 10”: $34.95 to $129.95.
Other low-tech tools for cooks at South China Seas include Valencian paella pans, sushi rolling mats, dobin mushi sets, sukiyaki pans and traditional Japanese iron pots with wooden lids, tortilla presses, cast iron comals, Laotian rice steamer pots and baskets, molinillos, masala dabbas, benriners, ceramic mortar & pestles, chopsticks, Asian tableware ...
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Gift Basket Minimalism
The South China Seas PANTRY-IN-A-BOX – no ribbons, no raffia, no baskets, no bows – just a big red box packed with exotic ingredients for the cooks on your list who want to expand their repertoires. Thai, Sushi, Indian, Chinese, Mexican, $55.00; Foodie Box packed with Mediterranean-themed luxuries, $110.00.
Spices –
are the Spice of Life
Nutmeg with mace blades photo © Tracy Kusiewicz
We carry exotic herbs and spices that you will not find anywhere else. But, we also carry the standards – spices that you can buy at any supermarket – but better – fresher, more fragrant, sourced directly in small quantities and prepared and packaged by us. Recent arrivals include “Azafran”. Mexican (or False) Saffron is really dried safflower petals (Carthamus tinctorius). It is used primarily for colour, but other than for colour, it is no substitute for the wonderful and utterly unique bitter-sweet flavour and fragrance of real Spanish saffron. The fragrance and flavour of safflower is very slight, which makes it a better substitute for saffron than turmeric, which has a pleasant but un-saffron-like flavour and fragrance of its own. From Mexico, “azafran” has made its way into Philippine cooking. Use generously to colour foods such as the classic Menudo Amarillo (yellow soup with tripe) or use a pinch as a pretty garnish.
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