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Gifting with taste

BEPPI CROSARIOL

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

Latest comment posted at 11:19 AM EDT 30/11/07

From chocolate-covered cherries to caviar and black winter truffles, food gift-giving is exploding this season ...Read the full article

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  1. Kay Ay from Canada writes: Bernard Callebaut is an artist!
    We ate his chocolates at Christmas (the year we lived in Calgary) and I've never tasted anything else that good in my life.
    I had forgotten how good they were until I read this.
  2. C M from Calgary, Canada writes: After living in Belgium for a number of years, I was thrilled to discover Bernard Callebaut here in Calgary - his gorgeous chocolates reminded me of my all-time Belgian favourite (Neuhaus) and helped ease the severe reverse culture shock I went through after returning to Canada - merci beaucoup, Bernard!!
  3. Shamus M from Canada writes: "Gifting"? I thought we already had a word for that with "giving". As in "Giving the gift of life." not "Gifting the gift of life."
  4. Jason Laing from Montréal, Canada writes: This is not news, this is advertising.
  5. Anthony B from Sydney, NS, Canada writes: Shamus M from Canada writes: "Gifting"? I thought we already had a word for that with "giving".

    Nah, "giving" is what the common folk do. "Gifting" is for pretentious wanabees. Kinda like driving a used car and saying it's "pre-owned."
  6. J W from Montreal from Canada writes: I think it's a great idea to give food as Christmas gifts. Who needs another knick-knack or ugly sweater anyway?
  7. Karina_I (my art at windstream.ca) from Canada writes: I always ask family and friends to give me food as gifts - chocolates, berries, pickled mushrooms, exotic teas. Instead of clutter it creates good "tasty" memories.
  8. Velma from Burlington from Etobicoke, Canada writes: For the last couple of years I have given my brothers gift baskets wtih home made treats - cookies, quick bread, fudge and home made Bits N Bites snacks. They don't bake, and appreciate the gesture, especially since I use our mom's recipes. It is like a blast from the past, recapturing in food form our childhood. For some other friends, a fruit basket or a wine and cheese basket are welcome gifts.
  9. Morgiana Halley from Bangor, Maine, United States writes: Two British food gifts, hitherto little known and seldom appreciated, are Wensleydale cheese (the official Wallace & Gromit product) and Bakewell puddings. I buy both every year, to personally enjoy and to share. The sites are bakewellpuddingshop.co.uk and wensleydalecreamery.co.uk For a special treat, get the package that matches the cheese with a Botham's bakery fruitcake (you eat them together) or one of the cheeses with additions (apricots, stem ginger, cranberries, etc.) Or come visit me and share mine. I also have a strong interest in traditional foodways, so I'd love to try some of the Canadian items described that I have so far missed, and to make some further comparisons of smoked salmon from different areas. Yum! As a teacher of college-level English, I agree that "giving"is a perfectly adequate word, but deny that use of the more recently adapted "gifting" is *necessarily* pretentious. You can give someone an item without it being a present. If you sneeze or cough in my presence, I might give you a tissue or a lozenge. If you are my child, I may give you an apple as an after school snack, or a new coloring book, when you have filled the old one. If, however, I wish to present you with something special to commemorate an occasion or recognize an achievement.... In essence, "gifting" is closer to a synonym of "presentation" than it is of "giving." Okay, I can be a bit pedantic, but that's how it strikes me.
  10. JC perfide from Paris, France writes:
    In case you are on low income or pension plan, you may think of peanut butter on a bun, like a Canada minister suggested once.
  11. Anthony B from Sydney, NS, Canada writes: Morgiana Halley from Bangor, Maine, United States:

    So, if a driver cuts me off in traffic, I will be "gifting" the finger in recognition of his achievement? :-)

    Sorry, but redundancy and the replacement of perfectly serviceable words with new ones are personal pet peeves.
  12. Mr. Justice from Canada writes: A box of Snickers bars is better, and is much cheaper. Of course, the wrapping isn't foo-foo, and neither is the price, and there is nothing to "discuss" about Snickers bars, and nothing really to base "sharing your feelings" about them. But they're the best.
  13. Morgiana Halley from Bangor, Maine, United States writes: If you read my comment as it was written, you would see that your opening remark about "gifting" the finger was a clear misinterpretation of what I had implied. In fact, the formality inherent in the use of the word "gifting" indicates either preferential purchase or careful preparation, and it begs assistance from the preposition "with." I am afraid that, if you "gifted someone with the finger," that digit would presumably be lying in a box, surrounded by cotton wool, and completely detached from the hand it had previously graced. While I am in complete empathy with your distaste for needless redundancy, my original comment was meant to clarify the fact that "gift," when used as a verb, is not, in fact, a replacement for "give," any more than "utilize" is a replacement for "use." Each has its appropriate meaning and function, and they are subtly, but significantly different. On the whole, I'm on your side, so please stop kicking my ankles. And why are we thumping each other over the use of the English language when the subject under discussion is supposed to be good food?

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