The 25 Best Food Gifts For Your Hangry Squad

Slippers, socks, headphones—they’re all fine. Gifts you can eat, tho… that's the level of bestowed enjoyment that we're aiming for when we pick the best gifts for our loved ones. Keeping someone's feet warm is nice, but filling their belly with truffles or dumplings or banana pudding? Jumpin' Jehoshaphat. That's the good stuff. 

The best food gifts feel special and decadent, but also cater to the preferences of your friend, family member, or lover; perhaps they're looking for an adaptogenic latte to start their morning with Gwynethian serenity, maybe they're fiending for gabagool, or maybe they're the type whose favorite contact sport is gorging on Pocky sticks at midnight. Maybe they can eat infinity olives, or perhaps you're sending them seasoning blends to escort them on their journey to becoming a less toxic version of Gordon Ramsay. The truth is that we all eat, and helping each other do it better with thoughtful, edible gifts is one of the greatest forms of charity. 

So introduce your giftee to rare Kit Kat flavors, smoked tinned fish, and pickle-stuffed olives, or spice up their life with literal spices from around the world. Buy a giant basket and lovingly fill it with the pie formerly known as Crack Pie, ready-when-you-are soup dumplings, truffle-flavored hot sauce, and bittersweet spritzers; then give it to the greatest food lover in your life. If you want to go a little beyond, you cannot miss by coupling your gifts with some great cookbooks, a grip of dope cooking supplies, and maybe even some killer coffee gear. Here are the best edible and drinkable gifts for anyone and everyone in 2023. 

A spicy combo

We love chile crisp (and general ultra-flavorful condiments) brand Fly By Jing. In fact, we love it so much that we interviewed founder Jing Gao about her new cookbook, which came out this year. Have a very spicy holiday season and beyond by pairing some of Fly By Jing’s greatest hits with a book specifically designed to show you how to use ‘em.

The gift of living más

If your homies aren’t making their own tortillas yet, with all due respect, they are fucking up. Masienda’s ethically sourced masa is soooooo good, and it couldn’t be easier to use, especially if you have a great tortilla press (which is included in one of Masienda’s tortilla packages below). Dry, crumbly grocery store tortillas? Thing of the past, bro.

For snack weebs

In America, we have no shortage of snack options—Flamin' Hot life, you know? But do we have Hokkaido butter chips, Calpico-flavored mochi, and a gazillion flavors of Kit Kats? Until recently, nope; you would have had to buy a ticket to Japan to stuff your face with those. Now, thanks to the lords over at Bokksu—a Japanese snack box subscription service—you can get them delivered straight to your 'Murican apartment door. 

The ultimate pasta experience

Your good-pasta-loving friend is probably also your smartest friend, which means they deserve the absolute best. Give them a six-month or year-long subscription to Sfoglini’s Pasta of the Month Club, wherein they’ll get simply a ton of very dope, seasonal pasta each month. Maybe also score them a few boxes of their cascatelli, the original shape invented by The Sporkful host Dan Pashman (whom we interviewed about his new shapes earlier this year, NBD).

Or, you know, just gift the hype of Sfoglini’s amazing new shapes.

Taste the rainbow (of Japanese Kit Kat flavors) 

Even the most ardent fan of rare Kit Kat flavors hasn’t spelunked to the depths that this “variety party box” offers. It’s packed with a total of 70 pieces and 18 flavors, for a tasty AF 2024 (if you can make it to January without eating them all). 

Sorry, Coke, this is actually the greatest soda

You don’t have to be sober to love Ghia, which makes a non-alcoholic herbal spirit and also these fab canned drinks that approximate the flavor of an aperitivo spritz. Case in point: Our food and kitchen staff writer Adam Rothbarth keeps an entire dang beverage organizer full of these for whenever he craves a little something but doesn’t want the hangover from a negroni. They’re truly great, and anybody from amaro lovers to the N/A curious to weird soda enjoyers should love a pack of these bad boys.

Spice up their life

It’s 2023, baby, and we don’t use gr*cery store shelf spices anymore. We’re into fresh herbs and high-quality offerings from curators we trust. Spicewalla is one of the finest, and if your friend loves cooking and/or eating food with any flavor at all, they deserve an upgrade. Start ‘em off right with a kitchen essentials pack; or, just go turbo and give them T-Pain’s wing spice collection, which we interviewed him about—yes, really—right here.

For the ones who order their martinis "super, super dirty"

Dirty: yawn. Extra dirty: standard. Filthy: now we're talking. Filthy (yes, that’s the name of the brand) makes some really wild drink garnishes for everything from 'tinis to Bloody Marys, and perhaps the most visually berserk are these olives stuffed with tiny gherkins. Gift to your friend who's always looking for ways to upgrade their home bar cart. Throw in a half-dozen pouches of olive brine if they're truly a filthy, filthy little freakazoid.

An actually delicious N/A “wine”

When we reviewed Proxies N/A wine alternative recently, our food writer was surprised by how tasty some of the options were. While Proxies aren’t really wine and shouldn’t be consumed as such, they are a flavorful, complex alternative for people who just want something to swirl in a glass and feel classy while hanging out. Try a mixed pack to get started.

The pie that started a revolution

Once known as Crack Pie (until we collectively realized that comparing desserts to a drug epidemic wasn't in great taste), Milk Bar's signature Milk Bar Pie—we will say—is so difficult to stop eating you might call it addictive. It's buttery, gooey, super-sweet, and crazy-good, and you no longer have to wait in line at one of Milk Bar's NYC bakeries to grab one. 

For the snack-obsessed

Girl dinner? Manly breakfast? Just trying to give your father-in-law a snack, because he seems cranky and the IPAs just aren’t cutting it? Cap off 2023 (aka the year everyone became obsessed with tinned fish) by giving your homies some absolutely honkin’ sardines from très chic seafood company Fishwife with preserved lemon, slow-smoked mackerel with chili flakes, anchovies, and smoked trout.

Because Y2K is back, baby

OK, so we all got a little burnt out on truffle fries about 10 to 15 years ago. But time is a flat circle, my guy, and if espresso martinis are back, you bet your arse we wanna bring truffles back, too. You could definitely make the case that Truff's super-popular truffle hot sauce never went out of style, because it's always been a hit; just ask the 21,000+ happy peeps who've left sensational reviews for the stuff on Amazon. Is it for everyone? No, it's not. Some people can't handle anything spicier than Taco Bell's mild sauce, and others think truffles smell like feet. But for the right person, this is the jam, whether you go with a single bottle or a gift sampler.

For the yoga 'n' meditation types

MUD\WTR really speaks to those of us who feel like we're gonna die after a couple of shots of espresso but still want a morning pick-me-up that's: a) tasty; b) ritualistic; and c) gonna help us actually get to inbox zero today. Of all the coffee alternatives out there, it stands out as the cream of the crop, both for its superb, chai-like flavor and alert-but-chill effects. Check out our full-length review of it if you wanna hear all about its charms (and yes, we do roast the spelling/styling/punctuation a little). Also, the starter kit/gift box comes with a frother, which is always fun. 

Your favorite spicy chip lover’s favorite spicy chip

You heard us: GTFO, Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (JK, we love you). A new contender has entered the ring. Great Lakes Potato Chip Co.’s Buffalo Wing Potato Chips are the perfect chip. They’re ultra-crunchy, p spicy, and the potatoes’ skins are left on, meaning there’s a hearty, rustic mouthfeel. They’re just a perfect chip, and the spicy snack fan in your life deserves a big ol’ box of them.

For the coffee lover who needs a kick in the a**

So, your brother seems to love great coffee. He uses a pour over setup and has a gooseneck kettle… but he also just told you about a “great deal” he got on a four-pound bag of beans at Costco. No disrespect to him (or Costco), but he can do better, and it's your job to help. Enter: a subscription to a really, really good roaster, like Onyx Coffee Lab. He’ll never go back to Costco… until he needs five pounds of mayonnaise.

For the vegan with great taste

Vegan ice cream can be super hit-or-miss, which is why your plant-based brethren will be extra-grateful to receive a box of Mochidoki's vegan collection. No boring-ass, standard combo of vanilla, chocolate, and green tea mochi here; we've got four different best-selling flavors of chewy pleasure, from passionfruit and lychee to coconut and mango. It's a bonus that they can last in the freezer, but we doubt they'll make it long without getting scarfed. 

For the super-busy gourmand

Sometimes, you've got I-can-barely-muster-the-energy-to-make-mac-and-cheese burnout, but fave-takeout-dish cravings. Omsom packs some of the best flavors of Asian cooking into handy little pouches that are ready to be thrown in with whatever proteins and vegetables the store (or your fridge) can provide. Follow the provided recipes, and you’ll have restaurant-quality Thai, Vietnamese, and Filipino meals ready to go in under 30 minutes.

GOATed banana pudding

If you’ve ever been to NYC (or have watched Sex and The City) you’ve more thank likely heard of Magnolia Bakery. The ultra-famous sweet shop is mostly known for its delectable cupcakes, but real heads know that it’s all about the banana pudding. If you’re across the country, or just feel the need to hoard the cult-fave, you’re in luck: You can get the brand’s three most popular pudding flavors—classic, red velvet, and chocolate hazelnut sent directly to your house. Share them with friends, or hide them in the back of the freezer from your entire family—we won’t tell.

Nosh on, hungry hungry hippos. In the words of Jimmy Durante, make someone happy. 

---

The Rec Room staff independently selected all of the stuff featured in this story.