Taking the Kids: Celebrating Dads (and Granddads) cooking prowess – at home and on vacation –18+ gift ideas

Eileen Ogintz, Tribune Content Agency on Jun 10, 2021

For that wine lover, Wine Access, which delivers expertly curated wines, has partnered with the Michelin guide to create a wine subscription service put together by sommeliers from Michelin-starred restaurants ($160, including shipping).

“A favorite Father’s Day gift for me is a hand-picked gift basket with three to four craft beers and four to six sweet and savory snacks chosen by my wife and kids,” offered Nick Quentero, who works in the food industry.

And if you have a craft beer fan with a sweet tooth, Hilliards features the Craft Beer Collection ($32.00) combining its popular Craft Beer Brittle and its award-winning Craft Beer Caramels for a salty, sweet and hoppy treat for the beer enthusiast. Infused with Shovel Town Double IPA Beer. They were a hit for the beer drinkers in my family.

Once we left New England for Colorado, we were glad when our kids gifted us lobsters overnighted from Maine. But I was skeptical that fresh oysters would survive overnight shipping until I tried Two Dozen PEI Oysters ($47.99 ) from Northeastern Canada. They tasted like they had just come out of the arctic waters.

For the dad (or grandad, or favorite uncle) pining for Italy, send an Olive & Cocoa Italian Market Snacks, ($98) with a gourmet collection of farmhouse cheese, rustic crackers, salami, basil pesto, bruschetta spread, mixed nuts, and handmade sea salt caramels.

And for the dad who keeps talking about the paella with all that weird seafood he had in Spain 20 years ago, order a Paella Dinner Box by FultonFishMarket.com ($99), complete with two pounds of live PEI mussels, two pounds of frozen, cleaned shrimp, two dozen live Littleneck clams and two pounds of fresh squid tubes and tentacles.

For the Francophile, send France’s most popular dry-cured ham Jambon de Bayonne (starting at $9.99 for 3.5 ounces) a welcome addition to any charcuterie board or sandwich, especially when paired with French Maille mustard (a four-pack variety pack is $14.56) and a fresh baguette. A ham can only be certified as a Bayonne Ham if produced in very specific areas from pigs that are raised in southwest France, the production the same for 1,000 years.

Happy eating! And Happy Father’s Day!

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(For more Taking the Kids, visit www.takingthekids.com and also follow TakingTheKids on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram where Eileen Ogintz welcomes your questions and comments. The Kid’s Guide to Philadelphia, the 13th in the kid’s guide series, was published in 2020, with The Kid’s Guide to Camping coming in 2021.)