Also on Saturday  mid-morning, we’ll acknowledge the big Valentine’s Day holiday with a demo of Kusmi Tea’s Sweet Love.  This Paris-based tea is luxurious and warmly spicy, and the hot pink packaging is perfect for any sweet loves!

Sunday, Feb 12th from 1-5pm, taste a new discovery from the recent New York Chocolate Show: Comptoir du Cacao and their unusual “flaky pralines.” Trust us, you’ve never had anything like this before!

And on Valentine’s Day, Tuesday 2/14, Tea Forte will demo their Dolce Vita, “Sweet Life,” dessert tea collection during lunchtime, from 12:30 to 2:30pm.

It is a sweet life at CMB: as a special offering for Valentine’s Day, we have special Bequet Caramel Boxes in for a non-chocolate treat, and the Prestat Heart-box Truffle Collection will be available through the evening of the 14th!

• On the first day of Christmas – Cucina “Risotto Bag” gift pack, available in three fragrances and less than $20!

• On the second day of Christmas – Aromatherapy Candles the can inspire, stimulate and relax with completely natural fragrances.

• On the third day of Christmas – A New York City dish towels that includes some hand stitching and highlights New York Cities greatest attractions!

• On the forth day of Christmas – Take time for tea with Tea Forte’s Dolce Vita sweet pyramid tea bags, beautifully packaged and creating a true tea experience.

• On the fifth day of Christmas – our friends from Seattle created caramels with a touch of smoked or fleur de sel, salt, now everybody is doing it but they did first and better! Fran’s Chocolates is an original!

• On the Sixth day of Christmas – our friend from Southhampton, New York – Kathleen with her legendary crispy cookie recipe now available with dark chocolate, walnuts, wholewheat floor and glutton free – all from Tate’s Bake Shop.

• On the seventh day of Christmas – Anne Taintor, whose graphics and phrases have humored us for a decade now has a brand new recipe book to be even happier, a cocktail happy hour book.

• On the eighth day of Christmas – from war time England in the early forties comes the phrase, Keep Calm and Carry On, which has many, many applications in our times, and is the perfect complement to a good cup of tea.

• On the ninth day of Christmas – make time for a beer and although you will need a little time to brew it but it sure tastes good home-made – kits from Brooklyn Brew Shop!

• On the tenth day of Christmas – While you are waiting for the beer to brew, our favorite NYC snack from the East Village Red Head Restaurant is Bacon Peanut Brittle, spicy, slightly sweet and smokey – you can not stop.

On the eleventh day of Christmas - Imported from the Aisle of anglesey in northern Wales,  Halon Mon Salt, in original, smoked and with celery, with its clear sea flavor and delicate texture, it is the perfect finishing salt.

• On the twelfth day of Christmas – Butter, sugar and floor with some tweaking, makes for the perfect bit of crunchy sweetness – Shortbread House of Edinburgh is why Scotland is famous for shortbread!

Now it is time to rest and think about next year!

We all at CMB wish you and your family a happy, healthy and of course tasty holiday and New Year.

I thought I would share a little of the behind the scenes process of creating the catalog.

Creating our yearly catalog helps us define and grow our business. We are always on the look out for new and different products – from down the street, to the other side of the world. Creating the catalog forces us to make many decisions about our assortment-what new items to buy and what items to discontinue.

We look to evolve our gifts over time, slight modifications to selected baskets are made each year. This allows us to share our most recent findings with our current customers as well as new customers.   We also have fun developing a new crop of gift each year, this year we have many gifts that feature foods from different geographic regions- such as Brooklyn, New England and California.

Once we decide on the assortment and components in the gifts, we photograph the items. Taking a photo of a gift that includes many components is not always easy – it takes both art and science to get a shot that best represent the item.

The same team has worked together for many years now adding their piece of the puzzle: David the owner traveling to different parts of the world to find food, Mickey Mathis the photographer, and Amy Ashford our graphic designer and myself as the “stage director” making sure all the pieces come together.

Once the photographs are taken, the images are carefully cleaned-up and we go to work on the layout of the catalog, once all the proofs and edits are made the final product is sent to the printing house.

In the below picture, David (owner) and I are setting up the Chelsea Market Bounty basket during one of our photo-shoots.

Some new items we are excited about this are year:

NYC Hot Chocolate- All the best NYC hot chocolate mixes and drinks in one basket.

Brooklyn Boys- Handmade foods all made in the trendy borough of Brooklyn.

Edible New England- Sweet and Savory products all made in New England and boxed in our “new” New England boxes.

California Dreamin- A gift that highlights California and their diverse food culture.

British Tea and Biscuits- From across the Atlantic we have selected the best biscuits, aka cookies for this gift, all boxed up in our modern British box.

Here is a link to our full catalog:
CMB Holiday Catalog 2011 (pdf)

I am happy to report that it makes for a bit more of a rigorous walk to 30th street and visually has a very different look to Phase One of the High Line Park(section that was opened in 2009).  The walk is generally narrower, and does kind of meander through new and old architecture, with urban views that are both very different and very New York.  The design of the walkway is attractive yet understated, and allows you to enjoy the buildings that surround the walkway. Similar to the more southern section of the High Line, the walk is well landscaped.

I did go up to 30th street and descended into what is being called-The Lot, an area with live Hispanic music, lots of people, beer on tap, play ground and an interesting collection of trendy food trucks. In addition, AOL has funded the Rainbow Lot with very animated inflated amusements. Now there is lots of life on 30th and 10th Ave, a neighborhood that had been very remote in the past!

For more about the High Line Park – www.thehighline.org

The new Fedora, Jeffrey’s Grocery and Joseph Leonard are all new; the oldest, the latter, beginning in 2009, are all doing capacity business. They all are about quality food and drink, good service and have a gentle old fashion look that does not have much flash and in addition they appear as though they are already deeply rooted as West Village neighborhood haunts.

Gabriel Stulman came New York via the University of Wisconsin after graduating in 2003.  During school he worked as bartender, and upon arriving in New York he was taken with the restaurant and food business. He developed a plan and worked with Joey Campanaro, a chef and opened Little Owl and then Market Table, which quickly became two of New York Cities hardest reservations. They split up and Gabe has gone on to open 3 new, different and small restaurants in a short period of time, which has garnered a good bit of media attention including The New York Times alluding to the fact that three have become “Little Wisco” or a small taste of Wisconsin in the West Village based on.

I would be very keen to visit the Wisconsin that these restaurants represent. There is little attitude, an open and friendliness that do not happen that easily in the cool big city, good drink and a focus on very good food that is carefully prepared, though not inexpensive. They work to appeal to locals by having a no-reservation policy or, in the case of Fedora, a same-day only reservation policy.

Fedora has been reincarnated from the celebrated original, often spoken about in this paper. Very early on, as a speak easy, and at a later point, a gay hang out, the place has history and as the recent press goes, Gabe and his associates have been courted, teased and vetted to take over the helm. Brian Bartells, GM and a partner with Gabe on Fedora, a buddy from Wisconsin, has developed the bar both from a mixology point of view and particularly as a warm and friendly place. On a recent Thursday night, at a little after 7 pm, the place was loud, booming, with 2 or 3 deep at the bar.  Brian was warmly working the room yet was very sympathetic and engaging to older people’s concerns about the level of noise and offered to soften the music. I will say that if you are looking for quiet conversation, Fedora or for that matter all three of these places are not your best choices. Brian did spend a bit of time speaking of the philosophy of the revolution and he spoke of the love and camaraderie of staff along with the attention to all the details in a very humble way.

Mehdi Brunet-Benkritly is not from Wisconsin, he is from Montreal and worked there as a sous chef at Au Pied de Cochon that Gabe became friends with, and is the Chef of Fedora.  His style is robust, not afraid of offal or organ meat, not fussy and original. Sweetbreads, tripe, “pig’s head,” tongue are all covered on the menu. Do not worry; there is a big pork chop for two, recently profiled in Time Out Magazine and the trendy down home fried chicken. I may go back for those but I can speak about the Crispy Pig’s Head which is in fact meat from a pig’s head prepared as a croquette of sorts and served with greens and a tarragon gribiche sauce, a mayonnaise with hard boiled egg, it was rich, familiar, unusual and tasty. We also tried the Chioggia Beet Salad and the Grilled Calamari. Main courses included the Crisped Duck Leg, with BBQ sauce, Dates and Herb Salad, Sweetbreads and Octopus – as an entrée together, and Tile Fish with Harissa, the Tunesian spicy condiment, a special. They were all carefully prepared, the sweet breads, gently fried and the octopus, tender and gilled working well together. The harrisa, not to strong working with polenta chips and greens. I thought the best of the three was the duck, although the description in my mind was not true to the dish. The duck itself was crisp, tender and flavorful, the dressing underneath, included cauliflower, dates in mélange and a bit a BBQ sauce that gave the dish, many notes of sweet and savory without taking too much attention away from the duck.

We choose to drink some of the Sixpoints beer on tap from Red Hook Brooklyn.  The “Little Wisco Special” developed with and for Gabriel and Brian is inspired by “our memories of Wisconsin and the influence of friends and community,” according to Brian.   The pint was filled with flavor and great with or without food, although I prefer a beer like that with good food!

Desserts are brief and well thought out, highlights were “Cheesecake” Panna Cotta, a smooth and luscious cream pudding, accessorized with passion fruit and graham cracker crumbs, warm lime madeleine’s with sabayon and a made to order apple tart were runners up.

I visited Joseph Leonard, on a cold Tuesday evening in February and to my surprise the place was booming. A different menu, but equally thoughtful food described as “an American brasserie” which translates to some French leaning classics with service in a warm and not fussy way.

Jeffrey’s Grocery, almost across the street from Joseph Leonard, which recently closed for a few days to expand their kitchen, has a focus on more casual dining, small plates and a raw bar but the food also has a continental pedigree about it.

What is this little revolution, having not met the man, I hypothesize that Gabe gets on very well with people and has a very sincere appreciation for all aspects of running a restaurant especially the food and chef and lets others go for it, and everybody wins especially the customer.

Céline Legros, a French business lawyer-turned- New York Baker, has introduced a line of French style mini pastries.  Using an old family recipe as her foundation, Céline adds her own unique twist.

Originally, from South West of France Canelés , these delicious treats are made of crepe batter and slowly cooked at very high temperatures, which causes the outsides to become caramelized and the inside to stay deliciously moist.  Flavors include vanilla, orange, lemon, lime and rum.

Finaciers are small mini French almond teacakes, similar to a sponge cake, usually contains some type of almonds, if it’s crushed, sliced or flavoring. These small cakes are light, moist and normally molded in a rectangle pan. Many say that the cakes are popular because they look like little bricks of gold. Céline has introduced her Financiers in 4 different flavors; plain, chocolate chip, almond and raspberry.

Don’t forget about Mother’s Day, this would be such a treat for that special woman in your life.

“We are fully committed but you are welcome to eat at the bar” was the answer I got when I just assumed there would be a table available for 2 at this new restaurant that opened  6 weeks ago, on a cold February Wednesday night. At the bar also means in the kitchen where there are some ringside seats for watching the action in the kitchen.   Interestingly as I have reported, there are many new French, Italian and beyond restaurants opening the neighborhood. Not sure of the economics here but a good bit new and in this case, very good things are happening in food!

Spasso means fun and amusement in Italian, and indeed it was very lively and not quiet, filled with children, George Capsis would say. Children, who work downtown, pay a good bit of rent in the west village and help nourish the economy.  Matter of fact, Wall Street in this case is more directly helping Main Street, which needs to happen more around the country but we enjoy it here. Spasso’s genealogy is part dell’ anima and L’Artusi, where Bobby Werhane – managing partner, worked previously, with the current sibling restaurant Choptank.  Craig Wallen the chef, worked previously with Michael White – Convivio and Mario Batoli – Lupa, making him trained by the best Italian food maestros in our city.  The setting is rustic and pleasant, in a location that previously was Alfama, and many before that.  A location that has not been lucky but Spasso may just be the right ticket!

Stracciatelli, featured on the Spasso blog with a recipe, was one of our three appetizers.  It is a variation on Mozzarella but  “fresher” softer, and with more butter fat.  Basically it is a freshly made cheese using curd that is softened, pulled and steeped with heavy cream, served with green extra virgin olive oil, good salt and crusty toasted bread – simply good!  Grilled octopus, with yogurt, cucumber and mint lived up to an older, sometimes cynical Greek gentleman’s expectation – George you know who I am speaking about.  Crispy Arancini with ricotta and tomato, no rice, was a very pleasant way to eat eggplant, nice crispy texture and supple eggplant flavor.

The menu is broken down into boxes that include Meats and Cheeses, Pesce and Vendure  antipasti ($9 to 15), Primi – Pasta ($15-20), Secondi ($22- 29) and Contorni – side dishes, allowing you many options. You can eat more simply without spending too much which I think the restaurant looks to offer but it is easy “to go to town” based on the enticing menu. We had the Macceroni die Busa, with a pork ragu, goat cheese and fennel fronds.   Tightly woven pasta shells in a rustic, rich, flavored sauce with a nice spoonful of soft goat cheese. This dish has a reference to “nonna,” I would say you would be quite lucky if grandma served this.  The service was very good, with young helpful waters that had a good share of passion for the food.  Recommended was a Trout Saltimbocca, an unusual dish that was a prosciutto-wrapped piece of moist and gently but nicely flavored fish in a sage flavored butter sauce. We also get the Cauliflower Caponata, which used crafty cauliflower in a more inspired way; it had a good savory quality along with some white raisons for sweetness.

Dessert included a chocolate, salt and caramel tart which rode the caramel salt trend nicely. An apple tart that included layers of spiced, nicely flavored apples was a good counterpoint; it was less about sweetness and more about spice. An Italian wine list that included Traditional and “Surprising” wines was extensive and well composed.  A manager helped us select a not too dry, full-bodied red wine named on our receipt, de Leonardis, which was an excellent value at $38.

All this said, means that the young are enjoying better food, paying for it and you should call ahead and go!

LowCountry Produce- Handmade and Hand-packed, a company from South Carolina that produces all-natural southern style chutneys, relishes, jellies and preserves.  All produce sourced locally  at the peek of their season. They started 5 years ago by collecting friend and family favorite recipes, these old fashion recipes allow them to provide their customers traditional low country southern flavors.

Our favorites include- Peach Preserves, this is one hardy preserver full flavor that includes red chili flakes and raisins (I think its perfect on a piece of sharp cheddar cheese); Pickled Garlic, so crunchy a real treat for garlic lovers; and sweet potato butter, slow cooked a southern treat that can be added to soup, pancakes, sauces or even over ice cream.

The Taste of the North Fork- Homegrown flavor with a sophisticated taste.  Owner Jeri Woodhouse, runs an all women business that concentrates on sourcing all produce locally on Long Island. Their mission is to come up with the best jarred products. They has done quite well so far! Some of their jarred savories include: Bread Pickles, Pickled Mini Peppers, Dilly Beans, Cheddar Cauliflower and our favorite Pumpkin Pickles (Which will be available later this fall).

Katchkie Farms- is a 60-acre organic farm upstate in Catskills, NY, they are committed to celebrating local flavors while supporting sustainable agriculture. Made in small batches Katchkie is committed to showcaing the flavors of the vegetables and fruits grown on their farm- you can just taste the freshness of summer in their products.  Products include: Katchkie Ketchup, Salsa Verde, Bob-B-Q and Tomato Jam.

Once they’re gone, they are gone until next years harvest……

Made in Lancaster County, PA using only four ingredients these pretzels get their impressive flavor from the care that is put into every one.  They are hand rolled and twisted, then boiled in water and soda, and finally placed in a 500 degree stone lined oven for 15 minutes.

Martin’s Pretzels have been a staple at Union Square Greenmarket for three decades where they sell broken and whole pieces three days a week.  Finally Martin’s Pretzels has found their way to our store in NYC and can be bought 7 days a week.
Broken Pieces $5.00 a pound
Bag of Pretzels $3.50

Gregorie is a fine arts photographer  a few years ago he gave up his day job to focus on his passion of photography.

To help raise his first daughter , he created “Lea’s Alphabets.”  A collection of photographic collages each with a letter and image that relates to the letter.  Each image educates as well as decorates, are enjoyed by all ages.
We have a large image hanging in our store along with magnets, a set of 26 letters of alphabet which are $20 or $1.50 each, and post cards which are $1.95 each or 3 for $5.00.
The images are bright, clean, friendly and basically make you smile.

Not available in many places and were a recent find at the New York Gift Show in the hand made section.