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12/07/2001 Archived Entry: "Online Holiday Shopping"

There have been predictions in the business press that, because of the fear of terrorism, this year’s holiday shopping is going to be done more on-line (on the computer, on the world-wide web, however you put it) than ever before. That’s like predicting that March is going to follow February. Even if there was no fearful atmosphere this season, it was only a matter of time before we were going to discover the convenience and ease of shopping on websites from the comfort of our homes.

Buy chocolates on line? Pick up a panettone? Order a ham, a smoked turkey, a rare cheese or olive oil? Are you kidding? If I had the courage to buy a dining room table on line, as I did recently, I can buy anything now.

Following are some websites, recently mentioned on Food Talk, where they sell products you will love to eat, and from whom the mail-order service is reliable.

Now … let me now make a pitch for buying books from this website, The Food Maven:

I hope you have noticed that there is no advertising on this website. The only income I get to keep this site going is from the small commissions I get from book sales through Amazon.

To be frank, maintaining this site costs me a pretty penny. I spend an enormous amount of time on it – time is money. Sean Brady, my assistant, spends a good deal of his time on researching information for the website, as well as testing recipes for it and writing for it himself. And, you should know, Sean is my personal employee, who is paid a full-time salary by me, not by my radio station. My webmaster, Ben McCullough, also gets a fee, and there is a fee for maintaining the website on a so-called “server.” (I don’t fully understand what that is either.)

So here is how I get my miniscule commission:

Every time you click on a highlighted book title on The Food Maven and buy that book from the Amazon page it connects you to, I get a small percentage.

If you purchase a book, record, tape, CD, DVD, appliance, cooking equipment, what have you, from Amazon by clicking through on the Amazon logo that is on every page of The Food Maven, I also get a commission – although that percentage is an even tinier one than the direct links provide. It can be as little as 3%.

Even if the books or other purchases have nothing to do with cooking, food, or wine, you can order them my clicking on the Amazon logo at the bottom of the red navigation bar – on the left side of every page of this site – and I’ll get a few cents.

So, please, this holiday season and any season, if you are going to be making any purchases on Amazon, do it through The Food Maven.

For information about books written by me, a few recipes from the books, and connections to Amazon to purchase them, go to these places on this website:
Naples At Table
Soup Suppers
What To Cook When You Think There’s Nothing In The House To Eat

I get nothing at all, except the pleasure of telling you about my discoveries, when you buy something from the following sites.

There are more links to good food, as well as information about food, if you check out the “Links” section of The Food Maven. Simply click on the word “Links” on the red navigation bar to the left.


BARGAIN ALERT!
Esperya carries only artisinal, meaning hand-made, Italian food products, and it is, hands down (pun intended), my favorite food-source website. It carries sensational raw milk cheeses from Italy, organic olive oils from obscure places (like my beloved, rugged Cilento in Salerno province), small-production pastas, preserves, confections, etc., and probably the best packaged panettone there is, from Pasticceria Bastianello. Esperya also puts together gorgeous gift boxes, filled with whatever you order, filled in with old-fashioned shredded paper excelsior, and packed in real wooden boxes with sliding tops. Every item comes with a card describing its origin and special features. Unfortunately for Esperya, but fortunately for us, the business is moving its warehouse during the holiday season, just as new shipments are arriving from Italy. To move as much merchandise as possible now, and not have to move it to a new warehouse, Esperya is offering a 30% discount on all products except rice and pasta, for which they are offering a 50% discount. If I were you, I’d stock up on non-perishables right now.

If you live near Elmsford, New York, in Westchester County, you’ll want to know that Esperya is opening its warehouse to the public for this sale. Call (914) 592-5544 for information and directions.

IRRESISTABLE ALMOND CAKE
A.G. Ferrari Foods is an old San Francisco business that has entered the computer age. They have many Italian food products that are hard or impossible to find elsewhere. Among my favorites are pasta from Gragnano, a town just outside Naples that is famous for its macaroni products and where the pasta is still extruded the old-fashioned way through bronze dies, making its surface more absorbent of flavor. Also Latini-brand pasta, a small family producer in the Marche region that uses a special wheat and artisinal processing.

A new product from Ferrari, one perfect for holiday giving (not that the aforementioned pastas wouldn’t also make great gifts) is Dolcemandorla (Puglese Almond Cake), which I tasted at the Fancy Food Show in Manhattan several months ago. At the time, this rich, almond cake, a dome glazed with almond frosting and coated in slivered toasted almonds, a specialty of Puglia, the heel of the Italian boot, had no distribution in the U.S. I guess Paul Ferrari, who was also attending the show, found it as scrumptious as I did. The small size, 500 grams (just over a pound, serving, I’d say, six to eight, although I could eat half of it myself) is $23.95. The large size (750 grams) is $31.25. Both come in a substantial and attractive cardboard box.

A CONFECTION CONNECTION
Where has Jo Mart Chocolates been all my life? Just where they have always been since 1946, on the corner of Avenue R and Nostrand Avenue in the Marine Park section of Brooklyn, where I used to wait for the bus all during my youth. That’s my old neighborhood. Their hand-dipped chocolates, especially the dark chocolate marshmallows and double-decker (milk and dark) chocolate truffles, not to mention Belgian-style cream truffles, are fabulous, but they have one item that no one else has, a dried fruit “salami.” Many of my listeners have been looking for this old-time item, and I think Jo Mart’s is superb, with a coating of grated coconut that gives it the look of an aged real salami. There are many other great items on this extensive website, including customized chocolates and special holiday items.

DAYS OF WINE AND OLIVES
Beaulieu Vineyard is one of California’s oldest and most respected vineyards. It now features a new line of food products, most of which contain one of their wines. I am not much of a fan of novelty-type items such as wine-based mustards and such, but I do have to admit that they make welcome gifts And these are of very high quality and beautifully packaged. If you, like me, prefer more straightforward food, look at the BV olive products. California wine country is going ga-ga over olives and olive products, with olive oil tasting rooms popping up on Highway 29 in Napa. Beaulieu carries some prime California olives in jars, olive oil in beautiful decanters, and olive tapenades.

SMOKIN’ GOOD
I have been going to Nodine’s Smokehouse since I bought my weekend house in Litchfield County, Connecticut, 16 years ago. The original smokehouse and retail store in Goshen, Connecticut, is just a few miles from my home. First I got hooked on Nodine’s hams, then their sausage, and now their smoked turkeys. The turkeys are gorgeous to behold – they make an impressive show on a buffet table – and they are absolutely delicious, delicately smoked and moist. After you have eaten all the turkey off the bones, make sure to hack up the carcass and use it to make a smoky turkey broth. I’ve used the broth a medium for cooking greens, such collards, mustard greens or kale, and to make bean and pea soups.