This pages of this week's Entertainment Weekly are sprinkled with their holiday gift ideas. (Dear Amazon: No matter how many mags, blogs, or reps flog your new Kindle, I'm never going to use it. While I don't love the space my biblio excesses take up, I love the smell, touch, and heft of real books way too much. Another thing I love too much? Spending $399 in far more worthy places. Love, Stephanie) As a television obsessive, a few EW foodie gifts stood out for me. There's the old-new hamburger phone from the new It-Movie, Juno $19.99 (wards.com), the Hung knife that will allow you to "chop like the champ" $210 (korin.com), and the wine, 2002 Conti Sertoli Salis Sforzato, that might make you feel dirty, sexy, and monied for $55 (vinositeshop.com).

That's all fine and dandy, but if you want to spread some San Francisco love across the country, try dousing your loved ones with these local gift ideas.

June Taylor Foodstuffs: Aside from her usual delectable pots of jams and jellies, at this time of year June Taylor also has port-soaked fruitcake and vegetarian mincemeat. Note to the ex-pats and Anglophiles out there: grab these while the going's good. She also has candied citrus peels (blood orange, Seville orange, Rangpur lime, Meyer lemon), fruit paste, and pears preserved in cassis. (Cake: $30; Mincemeat: $26; Pears: $36/$18; Fruit Paste: $15; Candied Citrus Peel: $14)

Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food: This new cookbook from the famed Bay Area chef is a must for those of us who collect cookbooks, meals, and menus from Chez Panisse. Far more simple and straightforward than her other cookbooks, The Art of Simple Food, not only takes individual ingredients and breaks them down into uncomplicated, delicious dishes but Waters teaches the salivator about pots and pans, menu planning, and how to stock your pantry and choose your ingredients. ($35)

Anything from Kermit Lynch: The man carries some wines as low as $11.00, okay? I mean, honestly, with Kermit Lynch vetting your wine, can you really go wrong here? I didn't think so. Bonus: you don't need your own globe-trotting Nick George/Darling to know it's going to be good.

Cocoa Bella Chocolates: If you opened a box of chocolates in my grandma's house, chances were good you'd be in for an unpleasant surprise. While she didn't bite into each chocolate to see if she was going to like it, she did jab a fingernail into the bottom, thus allowing the contents to ooze onto the frilled paper. With their custom box builder, Cocoa Bella ensures you never have to poke, prod, or bite a chocolate to determine its stomach worthiness. ($40 for 20 pieces, $75 for 40 pieces)

DeLessio's Chocolate Bubble Wrap: You use bubblewrap to pad your presents, why not eat it? As addictive as popping the bubbles themselves, DeLessio offers six different flavors for $16.50 a pound.

St. George Absinthe Verte: Last week, Lance Winters of St. George's Spirits in Alameda got the news that he could start selling his newly concocted Absinthe Verte. Banned in the U.S. since 1912, cocktailians can finally wrap their lips and brain cells around the anisette-flavored green beverage that reputedly made madmen out of some of history's most celebrated artists and writers. San Francisco's Green Fairy goes on sale December 21st and supplies are limited, so I shouldn't really be telling you about this if I want any left for myself. ($75)

I've often heard about, but never made it to, the famous parking lot events held in the small parking lot of a Berkeley food triumvirate: Cafe Fanny, Acme Bread, and Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant. The most well known of these events is the Oyster Bliss celebration that takes place in the Spring. This past April marked the 16th Annual Oyster Bliss event. Other annual parking lot events are Provence Day and Beaujolais Nouveau Day.

At Cafe Fanny the other day, I noticed a sign announcing a new event -- one featuring the salumi of Paul Bertolli's Fra' Mani. From the sign, and in Bertolli's words,

"I've been waiting for just the right opportunity to celebrate Fra' Mani in the local community where it was born just a little over a year ago. As luck would have it, we found our home a stone's throw away from our friends at Kermit Lynch, where I never fail to find the right wine match for my salumi. I am proud to share the work of our first year with our neighbors and friends in what has become Berkeley's only center for seasonal outdoor Bacchanalia -- Kermit's front yard."

Marc of Mental Masala and The Ethicurean accompanied me to the salami-fest on Saturday. "I know the last thing you probably want to do is go to a sausage-based event," I wrote to him last week when I invited him. Marc's a vegetarian. But he gamely came along and noshed on Acme bread, Fiscalini San Joaquin Gold cheese, and some pistachios as I dug into my plate of pork.

The menu featured two choices: Fra' Mani Grilled Classic Italian Sausage with Cannelini Beans ($12), and a Grand Salumi Platter with 7 different types of charcuterie from the Fra' Mani kitchen ($16). I chose the Salumi platter and was served dry chorizo, salametto, salame toscano, soppressata, salame gentile, mortadella, and salame rosa. This choice was an obvious one as it gave me a chance to taste all of the salumi side-by-side as well as allowing me to taste two new products from Fra' Mani -- the mortadella and the salame rosa. The salame rosa was wonderful and studded with pistachios that added to the flavor profile. And I can't wait to get my hands on some of the mortadella - it's going to be fabulous in sandwiches.

The event also featured wines from Kermit Lynch chosen specifically to go with the Fra' Mani products which were all reasonably priced at between $5 and $8. Before leaving, we tasted a sublime lemon pistachio cake and a good salted chocolate cookie from the Cafe Fanny table.

All in all, a fantastic event.