Valentine’s Day Gift Guide (for Him)

Since Mr Foodinista will be traveling the rest of this week, I will be traveling all of next, and we’re having 8 friends over for dinner on Saturday night, we are celebrating Valentine’s Day this evening with dinner at Hungry Cat. We don’t typically do a gift exchange (last year he surprised me with a favorite Chanel nail varnish, and I spent an absurd amount on a pair of Façonnable boxer shorts), but if we did, these would all be a huge hit with the mister, minus the gin—but as the saying goes, happy wife, happy life. Clockwise, from top left:

Nuñez de Prado Olive Oil ($26.75/1L): An organic and fruity olive oil from Spain with a great nutty flavor. And love the tin.

Hermès Orange Vert Soap ($30): My husband hates to wear cologne, but is totally into this soap with a clean and subtle citrusy, woodsy scent. Ladies: this is what you dream a dude will smell like.

Paul Smith Pyjamas ($215): I got a pair of just the bottoms for Mr Foodinista for Christmas (I think you can grab them separately at the West Hollywood boutique for about $100—ask for Chad) and the cotton is sooo nice and washes really well.

Junipero Gin ($30/750 ml): The name of this artisanal gin from San Francisco says it all. This one is SUPER juniper-y and crisp, and tastes deceptively light in a gin in tonic. But make no mistake, it’s 100 proof.

Converse Chuck Taylors All Stars ($45): Mr Foodinista’s go-to shoe, which he buys pair after pair in black. I’m digging the charcoal though and wonder if I might persuade my Valentine to go grey?

Wilson Six.One Tour Racquet ($200): Federer’s and Mr Foodinista’s racquet of choice, which I don’t quite get on the part of the latter because apparently it’s nearly impossible to play with but I guess he likes a challenge. I’m just happy to make contact with the ball and drink Arnold Palmers…

Love is in the Air…

garden roses in a 1950's h & co. heinrich bavarian porcelain vase © lily lodge

We are less than a week out from Valentine’s Day, a holiday I hated until I met my husband. This year my friend Alex and I are cooking a Japanese-themed menu for 10 of us, and our Tokyo expat neighbors are bringing the sake. I’m so excited—Alex and I are shopping in Little Tokyo later this week for plates and bowls—we’re going all out.

In the meantime, I’m thinking about flowers for the table for Saturday night’s dinner. Mr Foodinista has exquisite floral taste, and I’m hoping that it leads him to Lily Lodge—a spectacular organic florist on Robertson run by the very chic Ariana Lambert Smeraldo, whose daughter is in music class with Tiny G! She used to work in fashion and it shows (we first met when she was at Bottega Veneta). Ariana hand selects beautiful vases ranging from 1940s Murano to Qing Dynasty Peking Glass, and the flowers are every bit as stunning….Parrot tulips, Dutch hydrangeas, New Zealand peonies and anemones are just a few of the offerings.

parrot tulips © lily lodge

Pressed into Service

Friday’s lunch was quite decadent as was dinner, thanks to some pressed caviar I purchased at Petrossian in West Hollywood. While pressed caviar is traditionally made from the “dregs” or leftovers, Christopher Klapp, GM at Petrossian, says “we use the same high quality caviar that we would sell jarred/canned…so we are using 100% Transmontanus caviar with a new Petrossian recipe so we do not need to use the leftovers. We would never want people to accept us giving them anything but the best caviar products possible!”

It’s pretty dreamy stuff, and Petrossian’s chef Ben Bailly likes to toss with pasta, which sounds incredible. In reading my email this morning, I discovered that both Christopher and I had the same dinner on Friday night—grilled steaks smothered with pressed caviar! We both agree that the steaks were good, but chef Ben Bailly did one better and made a light red wine sauce to go over theirs. Here are the grilled ribeyes (sans sauce) that Mr Foodinista and I enjoyed with a glass of Nicholas Feuillatte brut rosé. Talk about surf and turf!

It was a fun, if pricey, experiment but I’m not sure that I would repeat it as the flavors were perhaps a little lost in the fatty richness of the ribeye. I would, however, gladly repeat my breakfast experiment the following morning – every day of the week if money allowed! I mixed in some of this super concentrated pressed caviar with scrambled eggs and topped with a little cracked pepper and a dollop of sour cream. Whoa, was this good—little salty surprises in each bite and the intensity of flavor simply sublime. Now if only I could win the lottery…