The Food Section

Destination Japan

Silicone chopstick rests by Shukoh Hayashi are twisted to form the shape of a helix. $30 for five.

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has created Destination: Japan, a collection of more than 100 products (exclusive to the MoMA Store) created by established and emerging Japanese designers. We've sifted through them to find culinary-oriented products, from cooking gadgets to barware and tableware. Below are highlights of some of the more stylish, useful, intriguing, and amusing designs.

This earthenware apple-shaped jar has a wooden serving spoon at its core. $55.

Vegetables and fruits are rendered as cartoonish monsters and embroidered on a cotton T-shirt. $45.

This PVC "Patisserie Ring" (also available in blackberry and ice cream) is made of PVC embedded with Swarovski crystals. $45 to $65.

This ceramic grater's base is made of non-slip silicone so it won't budge as you grate away, even with one hand, at the kitchen counter. $28.

The quirky silicone pig cooking lid releases steam through the pig's snout as food cooks below. $18.

A folding bread board folds small for a round loaf or extends to slice a baguette. $75.

The Sushi Bar Card Game is a memory game containing cards with illustrations of fish commonly used for sushi. $29.95.

This bento box contains two germ-resistant silicone rubber containers. An air valve controls the air pressure inside the box to prevent food from sticking to the lid. $20.

Originally created for a Japanese ramen chain, this streamlined spork was designed to eliminate waste created by disposal chopsticks. $12.

The surface of this sake carafe (and cup set) resembles ice. A contour in the side provides a place for your thumb for ease of pouring. $55.

2007 Guide to Holiday Gift Guides

Still searching for a gastronomical gift for your food-centric friends and loved ones? The Food Section has scanned the pages of food magazines, newspaper food sections, and food websites to bring you a compendium of holiday gift lists -- the 2007 Food Section Guide to Holiday Gift Guides, a collection of links to recently published articles on food-friendly gifts for the holidays.

Cookbooks and Other Food Reads
»Books for the Food Cognoscenti [Food & Wine]
»Holiday Books: Cooking [New York Times]
»Broaden a Cook’s Culinary Horizons 11 Ways [New York Times]
»Cook's Books [San Francisco Chronicle]
»Best Cookbooks for a Great Season [Los Angeles Times]
»The Best Cookbooks of 2007 [epicurious]
»Top Ten Reads [Saveur]
»Five books to help you become a chef by New Year's! [Salon]
»A list of books for the cooks in your life [Newsday]
»Gift Books for the Cook [Mercury News]
»Best of 2007: Twenty books from 2007 that made the cut [Leite's Culinaria]

Things to Eat and Other Food Stuff
»Gourmet's Online Gift Guide [Gourmet]
»Winter 2007 Gift Guide [CHOW]
»Gift Guide: Restaurants and Bars [Time Out New York]
»Crazy Good Gift Guide [Serious Eats]
»Holiday Shopping [Cravings]
»Holiday Gifts for Collectors [New York Sun]
»Holiday Gift Guide 2007 [Food & Wine]
»Tasteful Giving [New York Times]
»Good Giving [Saveur]
»Holiday Favorites List 2007 [101 Cookbooks]
»2007 Holiday Gift Guide [YumSugar]
»Stuff I love and Stuff I Want: Things for the Kitchen [not martha]
»2007 Holiday Gift Guide for the Bento Fan in Your Life [Just Bento]

See also: The Food Section Holiday Gift Guide

2007 Holiday Gift Guide

Once again, the holidays are upon us, and The Food Section has compiled a guide to gastronomic gift ideas for (almost) everyone on your list, from the neophyte foodie to the highly educated oenophile.

For the conceptual culinarian: Limited edition prints by designer Jamie Wieck: "Danté's Tea Break" (left) charts Danté's descent into hell as seen through tea biscuits; "Decisions, Decisions" (right), is a massive flow chart mapping the myriad choices involved in dining out.

For the avant garde oenophile: Postmodern glassware that upends the traditional: Alissia Melka Teichroew’s Inside Out champagne (left) and liqueur glasses (top), Maxim Velcovsky's Sommelier Stemmed Cups (center) re-imagine plastic cups as stemware, and Claudio Colucci's carafe (right), blown from a single piece of glass, contains a wine glass within.

For the gastronome-in-training: The gyroscopic Löopa bowl (left) oscillates to keep snacks from spilling when tipped, even when turned upside down. Benders, bendable kids utensils from Boon, help toddlers successfully navigate food's journey from plate to mouth.

For the serious imbiber: So, maybe you can you distinguish between aromas of black currant and blackberry in a glass of Cabernet, but can you detect "wine faults" like vinegar, sulfur, glue, and onion? Le Nez du Vin’s Faults Kit contains an instruction kit with 12 aroma vials that will train your nose to recognize a bad bottle of wine.

For the not-so-serious imbiber: Cool Jewels (top) bring some bling to ordinary ice cubes, LEGO’s corkscrew and bottle opener (right) reinvents the plastic bricks as barware, and the Rossini (left) is a cocktail strainer with an idenity crisis (it’s also a pie server).

Save the planet: Bottled water is fast becoming the bête noire of the ecologically correct epicurean set. Reduce your carbon footprint and output of used plastic and glass by skipping bottled water in favor of tap. The Eva Solo Fridge Carafe, made to fit in a refrigerator door and available in five neoprene jackets, is a fine container for still water, and if you’re addicted to sparkling, carbonate your own with the Soda Club Penguin.

For celebrity chef wannabes: Be like Batali (and risk being a fashion victim) with a pair of signature Mario Batali edition orange Bistro Crocs, or test your culinary comprehension with Foodie Fight, a gastronomical take on Trivial Pursuit.

For the neophyte foodie: A reading list for entry-level epicureans: Adam Roberts’ earnest (and funny) The Amateur Gourmet is a confidence-builder for the uninitiated. Michael Ruhlman’s Strunk and White-inspired The Elements of Cooking combines a glossary of essential cooking knowledge with essays on cooking technique. To complete your education, David Kamp’s wry The Food Snob’s Dictionary sends up the people, places, and movements that comprise the contemporary food world.

For the carnivore: Give the gift of salumi from artisanal producer Fra' Mani, and you will please any conoisseur of cured meats (bottom left). Take out a second mortgage for a whole Jamon Iberico ham (bottom right), the legendary ham made from black-hooved, acorn-eating pigs in Spain, coming to the U.S. for the first time. Top left, a huggable plush pork chop from Sweet Meats, and, top right, Au Pied de Cochon: The Album, a cookbook and DVD from pigtastic Montreal chef Martin Picard.

For the mobile gourmand: The Tableless Meal Kit (top left), Outdoor Meal Kit (center), and Sigg's Cutlery Tool (right) make it easy to eat on-the-go. Bottom left, Clarkson Potter has reissued a series of cookbooks as portable decks of cards -- José Andrés' Tapas is shown here (others, including The Craft of the Cocktail by Dale DeGroff and Cheese: A Connoisseur's Guide to the World's Best by Max McCalman and David Gibbons, are also available). The Mappetite city guide (top right) maps New York City’s restaurants, food markets, and landmarks in a handy flip-and-fold guide (a guide for London is also available for pre-order and more maps are in the works).