Best Foodie Gifts

10 delicious gifts for the Dallas foodie on your list

A discerning Dallas foodie knows that nothing is better than spreading the good word of good local food for the holidays. For that we’ve put together a list of tasty gifts perfect for your favorite gourmand.

Bandera Foods Chocolate-Covered Killer Pecans
Bandera, the company formed by chef duo George and Katie Brown, is best known for its spicy Killer Pecans. This year, they're offering two new treats: Killer Pecan Shortbread Cookies and Chocolate-Covered Killer Pecans. The original Killer Pecans are mammoth pecan halves coated in an addictive spicy mix and roasted until crisp. Imagine them baked into a rich sweet shortbread or enrobed in chocolate. Gift boxes range from $15.99 to $60.99. Call 214-366-9100.

Empire Bakery Pies
Every year, Dallas' best bakery releases a special lineup of treats for the holidays, which makes foodie gifting easy. For 2013, the pies include apple cranberry, pecan and pumpkin, ranging in price from $20 to $22. There are sweet breads including cranberry walnut and gingerbread, plus holiday stollen. Savory breads include challah, molasses wheat and sweet potato rolls ($5.95 for a package of nine).

Romanick Growler from Craft and Growler
Dallas' beer scene has gotten impressive in the last few years, but not all brews are available in stores. Gift some craft beer in a handmade ceramic growler that's practically a work of art. Not only will your recipient get some nice, cold Dallas beer, they'll have a container that’s beautiful enough to display in the living room. The 16-ounce version is $89.99, the 32-ounce one is $119.99 and the 64-ounce growler is $149.99.

Kate Weiser Chocolate Holiday Ornaments
By combining chocolate and holiday ornaments, Kate Weiser has taken two staples of the holiday season and created foodie perfection. They look good enough to hang from a tree, but odds are your gift won't make it more than a few seconds out of the box before there’s chocolate everywhere. You can find them at her pop-up shop in the lobby of the Hilton Anatole.

Herman Marshall Bourbon
North Texas liquor distilling hasn’t reached the level of craft beer, but that doesn’t mean it’s not out there. Herman Marshall is Dallas County’s first bourbon. It’s already won awards despite being around less than a year. It’s available at Spec’s, Goody Goody and Sigel’s.

Mölli Sauces
With Mölli sauces, created by Lakewood couple Leticia and Rodrigo Salas, you can gift the flavors of interior Mexico. The Morelos sauce, a sweet and savory blend with smoky chipotle, tomatillo and tomatoes, works well with fish; the Mexico City sauce has red ancho chiles and tomatillos for pairing with beef and pork. Pick them up at Deep Ellum Postal & Grocer, Rudolph’s Meat Market, Loco Cowpoke or White Rock Local Market.

Tart Bakery Macarons
This French-inspired bakery on Lovers Lane specializes in cakes, cake balls and other bite-size sweets. For the holiday season, the bakery is offering pumpkin spice tarts, chocolate-peppermint cake balls, a breathtaking chocolate-vanilla Buche de Noel, and macarons in flavors such as cranberry and salted caramel.

Sissy’s Southern Kitchen & Bar Canned Jellies
Sissy’s owner Lisa Garza-Selcer is selling her house-made canned jellies during the holiday season. The jellies come in both jalapeño and seasonal fruit flavors, and they are available in 4-ounce jars for $5 and 8-ounce jars for $8.

Luscher’s Post Oak Red Hots
The Grape’s Brian C. Luscher couldn’t find a hot dog that suited his Chicago taste buds, so he decided to make them himself. The handmade tubes are smoked with oak and stuffed with naturally raised, local meats for a sausage that blends the best of Chicago and Texas into each bite. Buy them at Green Grocer.

Wine Poste Gift Basket
The Design District wine shop has partnered with Scardello Artisan Cheese and Dude, Sweet Chocolate to create holiday sampler gift baskets. The wines are all top-ranked labels such as JZ Vizcarra, a beautiful red from Spain. A basket with two bottles of 90+ rated wine, chocolates, cheese, corkscrew and a $10 gift card is $99.99.

Empire Baking's holiday sweets include pecan pie.

Courtesy photo

Empire Baking's holiday sweets include pecan pie.

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Ice Cream News

Kwality Ice Cream shop to bring creamy exotic desserts to Frisco

Kwality

Kwality Ice Cream

An ice cream chain with an Indian flair is dipping into Dallas-Fort Worth: Called Kwality Ice Cream, it's a concept founded in New Jersey that specializes in traditional Indian ice cream and cold drinks, and it's opening a location in Frisco, at 13089 Main St. #500, in a new shopping center.

According to franchisee Raju Vikey, the shop will open sometime in 2025. It joins two DFW locations already open: Irving at 8600 N. Macarthur Blvd., and Euless, at 1060 N. Main St. at Harwood Crossing shopping center, which opened in April.

Kwality Ice Cream was founded by food scientist Dr. Kanti Parekh and his son Anand, in New Jersey in 2003. It has expanded with 38 locations in 14 states including Pennsylvania, Florida, and Texas, where there are three locations in Houston and one in Austin.

“The idea was to create a South Asian-specific ice cream, which is more known for fruits and nuts,” Anand says. “As a Ph.D. in food and nutrition, my father’s background and expertise were in flavor. He used that to create very unique flavors and top notes to give a really good mouth feel and experience.”

They have close to 50 ice cream flavors with classics like cookies & cream, chocolate supreme, and butter pecan; but South Asian and Indian flavors dominate the menu with exotic options like green guava, lychee, and Nuttie Tuttie Fruitee, a berry-flavored ice cream with nuts and candied fruit.

There is also kulfi, a frozen dessert that's like ice cream but with less added air so it has a stiffer, creamier texture. It's served in slices and comes in popular Indian flavors like pistachio, mango, and rose.

Other novel frozen treats include cassata, an ice cream cake with three flavors of ice cream layered over sponge cake.

As with many Asian desserts, they're often less sweet than American-style confections. Wild inventions include the mawa rabdi cup, with ice cream, rice noodles, basil seeds, and rose syrup, topped with nuts and candied fruit; and Thandai ice cream, a staple at Indian festivals, consisting of almonds, fennel seeds, poppy seeds, watermelon seeds, rose petals, pepper, cardamom, saffron, milk, and sugar.

Rabdi is like a pudding, believed to have originated during the 1600s. Kwality makes it following the traditional method of slow-cooking milk until it thickens and reduces, enhancing its sweetness and creaminess, then adding ingredients like cardamom, saffron, and pistachios.

Pints of ice cream and frozen desserts range from $8-$11, and cassata ice cream cake slices are $7.

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