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FEASTING: The Epicure Gift Guide

Feasting is our new column dedicated to cooking, grilling, eating and discovering what’s on the menu across America and the world.

We all have that one friend (or five) who loves to eat more than anything. So what to buy someone who’s tried anything and everything? From a crunchy, spicy Chinese condiment to some of the best meat in the country, our epicure gift guide has something to satisfy everyone on your list. Check it out below and start your shopping early, or stock up to make holiday entertaining a breeze.

Crunch DynastyCrunch Dynasty
When Crunch Dynasty founder John Mills met his wife in 1998, his idea of fine cuisine was corn dogs and beef jerky. Luckily, she introduced him to some of the best food in NYC, including her mother’s extraordinary Chinese. Every home cooked meal was accompanied by a bowl of a crunchy, spicy condiment that John spent 10 years trying to recreate. Finally his mother-in-law taught him how to make it, and the mastered recipe is now known as Crunch Dynasty. We’ve sprinkled it on everything from ramen to peanut butter and jelly toast and seriously can’t get enough. crunchdynasty.com

Schermer PecansSchermer Pecans
These farm fresh pecans are harvested from the Georgia orchard that has been in the Schermer family for more than 65 years. They are always hand selected and freshly shelled for some of the best pecans you’ll ever have. Go for raw, roasted and salted or one of the many delicious candied varieties, perfect for holiday gifting and entertaining. schermerpecans.com

Carnivore ClubCarnivore Club
Don’t forget the charcuterie lover. Carnivore Club is the first curated cured meat of the month club, featuring handcrafted charcuterie from artisans around the world. Each month, a box filled with 4-6 different types of ethically-sourced meat arrives, centered around themes like Italian Salumi and Artisanal Jerky. You can choose to send a subscription anywhere from one month to 12, so it’s truly the gift that keeps giving. carnivoreclub.co

King Bean Coffee RoastersKing Bean Coffee Roasters
When Kurt Weinberger founded King Bean Coffee Roasters 20 years ago in his parents’ South Carolina garage, the coffee scene was exploding in the Pacific Northwest but hadn’t made it to the South yet. So he bought his first roaster and started selling to Charleston’s high-end restaurants. Now you can buy their hand-packed coffee in a variety of flavors from a classic French Roast to Southern Pecan. kingbean.com

Olive & Sinclair Duck Fat CaramelsOlive & Sinclair Duck Fat Caramels
There’s a reason these won Garden & Gun’s Made In The South 2014 award because they’re outrageously good. Made in Olive & Sinclair’s Nashville, TN workshop from caramelized cane sugar and rich duck fat, each caramel is the perfect salty-sweet bite. oliveandsinclair.com

Rocky Mountain Organic MeatsRocky Mountain Organic Meats
If you’re looking to impress your meat loving friends, Rocky Mountain Organic Meat is our go-to for some of the best-tasting beef in the country. They raise their grass-fed cattle the old-fashioned way, without steroids or growth hormones. Go there for everything else too like offal and pasture-raised lamb. rockymtncuts.com

Amanda Gabriele
Amanda Gabriele is a food and travel writer at The Manual and the former senior editor at Supercall. She can’t live without…
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Swap your spaghetti for bucatini and thank us later.
Various dried pastas

One stroll down your local grocer's pasta aisle, and you'll be quickly, startlingly reminded of just how many pasta shapes there are. According to Italy Magazine, there are an estimated 350 different types of pasta, and about four times that many names for them. Needless to say, we'd love to cover them all, but an article addressing each and every pasta shape might prove a bit excessive.

The world of Italian pasta is an extensive one that would take months to dissect properly. We could spend days on gnocchi alone, and months on the beautiful madness that is stuffed pastas. Ravioli, tortellini, lasagna, and cannelloni are each individually deserving of their own articles. As it is, though, in the American market, there seems to be a bit of confusion around some of the more common dried pasta shapes and how they're best used. We've chosen a dozen of our very favorite, most commonly found pasta shapes to discuss here.
Bucatini

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The ultimate guide to Lebanese cuisine, a rich and distinct food culture
After you read this, you'll be excited to cook this cuisine at home
Middle Eastern, Arabic, or Mediterranean dinner table with grilled lamb kebab, chicken skewers with roasted vegetables and appetizers variety serving on rustic outdoor table

The food culture of Lebanon is rich and resonant, reflecting both its Mediterranean setting and deep anthropological history.
Even those who have never trekked to Beirut — let alone their local Middle Eastern eatery — are likely familiar with a few of the staples. Lebanon, once a major part of the Ottoman Empire, is the birthplace of earthy dishes like baba ganoush and sweet treats such as baklava.

With its admiration for seasonality and a mix of breads and produce almost always accompanied by beverages, Lebanese cuisine is like the Italy of the Arab world. Whether you're munching at a cafe in Tripoli or just thumbing though a good cookbook at home, this kind of food is not only delicious and distinctive, but it welcomes an unhurried pace over the duration of many, many enjoyable courses.
The history of Lebanese cuisine

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Bring all these ingredients to quench your thirst in the wild
Outdoorsman's Hot Toddy

So you're camped out in your best tent for too long? Or wearily panting atop the summit of a fourteener? Perfect! Time for some easy cocktails to make everything better. Yes, that's right, when you've got the 4-1-1 behind these easy-to-make, tasty adult libations, you can enjoy a fine drink on a mountain, at the campsite, or when you're home and don't feel like cutting lemon twists or adding sugar to the rim of your cocktail glass.

The secret to making great camp cocktails is the same trick to achieving military victory: Keep it simple. There's no camp-friendly version of the Long Island iced tea, but that doesn't mean you have to stick with cheap whiskey when roughing it.

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