Foodies are a snap to shop for. For them, gifts that taste good are always in good taste. A survey of discerning gastronomes reveals that these are the gifts they would be most pleased to see under the Christmas tree:
● A bottle of Veuve Clicquot’s 1980 Texas Sesquicentennial cuvee ($39.95 at Marty’s). This strikingly packaged bottle from one of France’s finest champagne houses provides a way to celebrate the end of the Sesqui-Saga with finesse. Half a dozen Baccarat “Dom Perignon” champagne flutes ($40 each at Neiman-Marcus) would be a pricey but extremely nice accompaniment.
● A gift basket of the Mozza-rella Company’s peerless cheeses, including fresh Texas goat cheese, fresh mozzarella, and Texas basil cheese (prices vary; available at the Mozzarella Company, 2944 Elm St.; telephone: 741-4072).
● A pan of still-warm gingerbread made from the recipe in The Dairy Hollow House Cook book by Crescent Dragonwagon with Jan Brown (MacMillan, $19.95). Guaranteed to produce instant Christmas spirit.
● A pile of perfect linen napkins available in a multitude of |colors ($18 each) from the FrankMclntosh boutique at StanleyKorshak.
● A Screwpull ($15 at Marty’s), the oddly named, superbly functioning corkscrew that prevents loss of temper, loss of treasured bottles of wine, or both.
● A copy of The Art of Eating by M.F.K. Fisher (Vintage paperback, $9.95). This fat, handsome book is required reading for anyone who cares about food. It includes five of Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher’s books, written from 1937 to 1954: Serve It Forth, Consider the Oyster, How to Cook a Wolf, The Gas-tronomical Me, and An Alphabet for Gourmets. An alternate choice for Fisher-philes who have already committed The Art of Eating to memory; the just-published Fisher-annotated edition of Fine Preserving by Catherine Plagemann (Aris Books, $9.95 paperback).
● Subscriptions to Simple Cooking ($12 for four quarterly issues from the Jackdaw Press, Box 371, Essex Station, Boston, Massachusetts 02112) and Wine Discoveries: A Guide to Exceptional Wines Under Five Dollars ($18 for six bi-monthly issues from P.O. Box 654, El Cerrito, California 94530). If I could read only two food and wine publications, these would be my choices. Simple Cooking is John Thorne’s quirky, personal, thoroughly useful bulletin on what he’s been up to in the kitchen. Wine Discoveries is Arthur Da-mond’s no-nonsense guide for the wine enthusiast whose palate must be reconciled with his purse.
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