My sister in law should get a fabulous birthday present

January 2, 2013 6:34 PM

I just got a great Christmas present from my sister-in-law, help me give back as good as I got.

For Christmas my SIL got me the new Yotam Ottolenghi book, Jerusalem, along with a yogurt maker. It was a slam dunk. Now it's her birthday, and I want to give her an awesome and unexpected present. She is what I would consider - a fairly common Seattleite: Subaru driving, Etsy loving, vegetarian Ballard lefty. I normally buy her some funky jewelry or really nice skin products and call it a day. She rocked my world so hard, though, that I want to surprise her with something awesome for her birthday.
So maybe a gift certificate to a super-cool new restaurant, or maybe an Israeli restaurant? But what would that be? She loves food, but works too much to really do much cooking of her own. I am open to other suggestions. Budget of around US$ 50-ish. Thanks, Green!

posted by msali to shopping (10 answers total)

Loves food -- doesn't cook much -- I would surmise: has take-away leftovers? Possibly doesn't like to reheat in plastic? How about vintage "refrigerator dishes"? Pyrex made lovely ones and I really like the Glasbake design with the fin. Lots out there, though. (Try eBay, Etsy, rubylane.com...)
posted by kmennie at 7:00 PM on January 2

Revel is a pretty awesome restaurant in Fremont. It's been there a couple of years but is still super-cool. Phone for gift cards.
posted by grouse at 7:25 PM on January 2

Ahhh, she likes to cook. How about a single cooking class at a wonderful local restaurant or at a special store like Sur la Table (sp.?). Thai food or French Pastries or... I would have leaped to my feet and thrown a dozen fist pumps if that gift certificate had been in my Christmas stocking!
posted by Lornalulu at 7:32 PM on January 2

I would also highly recommend Revel, or Golden Beetle (this one is more Middle Eastern focused). $50 will be plenty for dinner for two at either place.
posted by rainbowbrite at 7:59 PM on January 2

I've been recommending New York Mouth for gifts lately. It's indie food and everything I've tried has been good and the people I gifted it to we're pretty excited. There are gift baskets, but I just picked out stuff I thought they would like. It came nicely packaged in a tote and also included a free issue of Edible Brooklyn magazine. Which isn't that helpful for her, but it brings me to my other suggestion that you could get a subscription to Edible Seattle and/or the cookbook (though you said she's busy). Or, you can poke around their site, it has event listings (maybe you could get her a ticket) and a dining guide (to help choose a restaurant if you go that route).
posted by wintrymix at 8:31 PM on January 2 [3 favorites]

I've realized that $50 would get you about eight pints of ice cream from Molly Moon's, which would be awesome if you (a) know that your sister-in-law has that much space free in her freezer (imagine getting to choose from eight different flavors of Molly Moon's without putting your shoes on or waiting in line!), and (b) secretly hate her and want her to get fat eating delicious, delicious ice cream.
posted by grouse at 8:46 PM on January 2 [3 favorites]

She likes etsy? Look at her favorites there! She may have things in there that she's guaranteed to love, but won't buy for herself because they're frivolous...PERFECT gifts.
posted by kitarra at 9:26 PM on January 2 [1 favorite]

Subscriptions to Cooks Illustrated and Lucky Peach, perhaps?
posted by backwards guitar at 5:29 AM on January 3

+1 Revel. Delicious, unique, exciting, comforting food.

RE ice cream pints. Full Tilt is the best. They have a shop in Ballard.
posted by valannc at 10:07 PM on January 4

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. Wintrymix ended up leading me to my gift: A giftcard to any of the Ethan Stowell restaurants from the Edible Seattle guide. She REALLY doesn't have time to cook, so all the great cooking suggestions were off the table. We already ate at Revel when we were visiting her, and I thought it was great, but there weren't many vegetarian offerings.
posted by msali at 8:45 AM on January 5 [1 favorite]