Need ideas for a delightful, edible gift

LadyM

My dad is really hard to buy presents for because his main hobby is carpentry and fixit type stuff, and he already has every tool he would possibly need for that. So I decided, hey, how about some cool food type gift? It has to be well-packaged or generally durable, as it will be making an eight hour train journey with me.

Suggestions for stuff I can make myself are also welcome, especially since I'm on a tight budget.

And finally, I'm in Seattle if anyone has any suggestions related to shops in the area.

Secondarily, he's also interested in science (reads Scientific American, etc), so . . . any good science books out there? He's especially interested in global warming.

firewaterword

Not sure if you're so inclined, but homemade food stuffs generally make for nice gifts. Maybe learn how to jar fruit? It's pretty easy. Or a big jar of homemade BBQ rub or something, if pops gets down on tasty meat. Same for spice blends and stuff. All fairly affordable, and keep for a good long time. Considering where you are, you should have lots of stuff to choose from. If you don't want to make something, just go down to Pike's and get him some delicious salmon jerky or something equally awesome.

And now I want to visit my friend in Seattle and go to Paseos ooooohhhhh goddddd....

ATIRage

You said that you want to have it on the train, but is it possible to make the food for him when you get there? Also what does your father like to eat (Is he adventurous, does he have any dietary restrictions?)

I was just about to say: You are in Seattle which is a HUGE foodie place, so you shouldn't be lacking for stuff. If you can cook at your father's place, what sort of stuff does he have to cook with?

LadyM

Probably not possible for me to make it when I get there, unfortunately. My mother will bustle me out of the kitchen. But she has everything necessary for cooking, if I can convince her to let me and she lives a few blocks from a grocery store.

Um, let me think. No dietary restrictions as far as I know, but spicy food sometimes doesn't agree with him. Also, he doesn't like peanut butter. He does like sweet stuff, desserts. Oh, also he doesn't drink alcohol, so no wine or beer. And he's not a griller.

Adventurous . . . Well, he will try new foods, but anything very unusual or "ethnic" is probably going to make my family think, "That's weird." I don't remember ever eating ethnic foods growing up (maybe a little Mexican), it's just not something they do. (No sushi, for example. Though I did successfully get good results with take-out Thai food once.)

Rhesus Positive

You could get him some toffee.

The reason I suggest this is because you can get packs with a hammer included, combining food and his hobby:

Kate of Lokys

Salted caramels are delicious, manly, and just different enough to be interesting. You can make them ahead of time, and they're easy to transport - the only thing that bothers them is heat, which can melt the chocolate, but at this time of year you should be fine.

ATIRage

Awww crap, I was going to tell you how to make easy home made sushi

If you decide to bring food on the train, I'd recommend just making a desert but I don't know how to do that stuff. Hopefully others can help ya there.

If you want to get food or make food while down in Seattle, you could call ahead to a company and have them have food ready for pickup when you arrive.

If you decide to cook there are tons of great shops in downtown seattle that sell foods that you can cook. For fish, Pikes is generally considered a great market.
A classic rib recipe that I make is surprisingly easy:
- Buy a rack of pork ribs, get some Seasoning salt (I believe I use Lowry's seasoning salt) and grab some Frank's red hot (nothing fancy, Normally people don't find the spice that bad).
- Take the ribs, slather it seasoning salt, the franks red hot and some fresh cracked pepper.
- Then place oven on broil. Wrap ribs in aluminum foil leaving the top portion exposed, put on a tray or baking dish, and place on oven.
- Watch carefully while the ribs are in the oven because once they start to burn they go quick, you are looking for getting a slight crust on the exposed portion of ribs.
- After about 7-10 minutes turn the ribs over and crust the other side
- After another 4-6 minutes on the other side turn the oven's heat down to 175-200 degrees. Wrap up the ribs completely.
- Let ribs cook for 3-5 hours (you may need to reapply the seasoning salt/Frank's mixture just to prevent the skin from drying out, check on the ribs every 45 mins to an hour).