Gifts to savor: Holiday treats for the people you love

Food is a great gift everyone can enjoy—delicious, thoughtful, and perfect for bringing people together this holiday season.

From savory delights to sweet treats, these edible gifts will make any celebration feel extra special.

Wildflour ham

A holiday spread feels incomplete without ham—and Wildflour offers some special ones. They come in boxed sets, complete with fixings and serving instructions, making them perfect for gifting.

There’s the Celebration Ham Box (P2,200) which includes Wildflour’s bestselling Celebration Ham—made with pork belly—plus Hokkaido milk buns, pineapple jam and honey mustard. The Christmas Ham Box (P2,500) includes Christmas ham which is made using a leaner cut of pork, plus Hokkaido milk buns, pineapple jam and honey mustard.

There’s also Hamonado Box (P2,200), Wildflour’s newest offering, which features a sweet, Filipino-inspired sausage-style ham. It also comes with Hokkaido milk buns, pineapple jam, and honey mustard.

Quick tip: Wildflour’s hams are also delicious with pandesal.

Order through wildflourtogo.com or DM @wildflourtogo on Instagram.

Festive flavors from Joel’s Place

Head to Joel’s Place for holiday food—whether you’re shopping for gourmet gifts, preparing to host a gathering, or going to a potluck. Christmas hampers like Timpla’t Tuwa, Gourmet Pantry Picks, Proudly Pinoy, Curated Cravings, Flavors of Asia, Gusto Hamper, and the Signature Snack Box are thoughtfully put together and take the guesswork out of gifting. 

They also offer holiday platters and dishes that would be great additions to your celebrations like the Festive Flame-Grilled Feast (ribs, chicken inasal, sausages, corn on the cob, potato buns, garlic sauce, chimichurri, lettuce and parsley), Party-Ready Meat Lover’s Paella, Yuletide Cheese & Charcuterie Board, Best-of-Season Platter, Festive Callos a la Casa, Fabada Clásica, Holiday Bread Platter, Beef Bourguignon Signature Pie, Santa’s Signature Sandwich Platter, and Classic Holiday Pot Roast. Just make sure you order three days ahead.

Lots of sweet treats too at Joel’s Place like the very pretty Christmas Tree Croissants, Christmas Éclairs, Ribbon Pain Suisse, the Merry Medley Dessert Platter. And while you’re there, pick up a bottle of bubbly or two so you can toast to joyful moments with your loved ones.

Order through joelsplace.com or visit Joel’s Place Proscenium (Ground Floor, The Proscenium Retail Row, The Proscenium Residences on Estrella Street, Rockwell Center, Makati) or Joel’s Place Glorietta 4 (Ground Floor, Glorietta 4, Rustan’s Expansion, Ayala Center, Courtyard Drive, Makati). 

Cream puff tower from Croquembouche Factory

For a show-stopping gift or celebration centerpiece, order a cream puff tower from Croquembouche Factory. They don’t just look beautiful; the cream puffs, which are dipped in Belgian chocolate, are delicious. I love the ones coated with caramel, too.

Choose from different designs—they have Christmas- and New Year-themed towers—and sizes or customize your own. Did you want a tower of 22 cream puffs? 32? 50? 96? 128? Want to add cookie sets or custom dedications? You absolutely can.

Order through https://croquembouchefactory.com/. 

Melt-in-your-mouth Angus roast beef from The Purple Wok

Here’s a dish that has never failed me no matter the occasion, whether given as a gift or served at parties: The Purple Wok’s Melt-In-Your-Mouth Angus Roast Beef. It’s been a staple for me for any kind of celebration for years now.

They’re not kidding—the roast beef really melts in your mouth. It’s so tender and so flavorful. It also comes with garlic confit and a variety of sauces: au jus, gravy, truffle demi glace and garlic aioli. Enjoy it with mashed potato and/or rice, and I even love it stuffed in pandesal. It’s available in four sizes—Sharing, Family, Party, or Feast.

The Purple Wok also has other delicious offerings: Baked Maine Lobster Tails that are cooked with lemon butter, paprika oil and garlic aioli, Baked Butterfly Shrimps, Gambas Al Ajillo, Grilled Chicken Inasal, Baked Salmon Supreme Piccata, Baked Salmon in Garlic Butter, and Truffle Overload Linguine.

Order through @thepurplewok on Instagram.

Holiday cochinillo

There’s no doubt about it—us PInoys love our roasted pigs. Lechon, cochinillo, they add an extra-dose of festivity (and flavor!) to our celebrations.

Chef Gale Tan Sun, founder of MNL Food Co. and the chef behind Asador de Manila, has mastered the art of making cochinillo.

He said, “Our cochinillo is not just cooked, it’s cared for.”

Gale personally makes sure that each pig is carefully selected, then cleaned and seasoned. It is then slow-roasted over live fire—a process that, he said, demands patience and love. 

“This isn’t a ‘set it and forget it’ dish. We stay with it for hours, watching the fire, turning it by hand, basting it little by little until the skin becomes perfectly crisp and the meat stays tender, juicy, and full of flavor. No shortcuts. Just time, heat, and heart.”

Order through Asador de Manila (Level 4 Gateway Mall 2 Araneta City Cubao) or MNL Food Co (26A Betty Go Belmonte Street New Manila Quezon City; Viber 09188984253)

Auro x Chele Gonzalez

Filipino chocolate brand Auro has teamed up with chef Chele Gonzalez for the holidays. The result of this delicious collab are two limited-edition Christmas offerings inspired by Auro flavors—Auro Blanco Calamansi Tarta de Queso and Auro Dark Chocolate Orange & Hazelnut Burnt Basque Cheesecake.

Auro Blanco Calamansi Tarta de Queso was inspired by Auro’s beloved Calamansi Cheesecake Chocolate Bar. To make it, Chele, who is passionate about local ingredients, used Auro White Chocolate, folding it into a creamy tarta de queso base with touches of calamansi. The cake is layered with spiced cookies and topped with a light spiced cookies frosting, Auro White Chocolate shavings and fresh calamansi zest.

Auro Dark Chocolate Orange & Hazelnut Burnt Basque Cheesecake features Auro Dark Chocolate in a burnt Basque cheesecake base with hazelnut crumbs and orange. It’s topped with an orange glaze, caramelized crushed hazelnuts, and Auro dark chocolate shavings.

The cakes are available in two sizes—small (P1,400) and large (P2,300). Limited individual slices are also available at Auro Cafe BGC and Burnt Basque Cheesecake by Chele Gonzalez at Podium.

Order through Auro Chocolate Cafe BGC
(Viber 0917 113 3599
or email info@aurochocolate.com) or Burnt Basque Cheesecake by Chele Gonzalez
(Viber 09177038877 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. or use the order link on the @chefcheleskitchen Instagram account). Gift wrapping and personalized notes are available upon request. Make sure you order three days in advance. 

Sebastian’s Christmas Collection

This one’s for the ice cream fans.

Each year, Sebastian’s sorbetero Ian Carandang creates a Christmas collection worthy of a spot on your holiday table or your gift list.

This time, Sebastian's offerings include special holiday ice cream flavors inspired by Christmas in the Philippines: Bibingka (roasted banana leaf ice cream with bibingka and salted egg chunks, topped with grated niyog), Leche Flan Royale (leche flan ice cream with a rich leche flan ripple), and Puto Bumbong (muscovado kakanin ice cream topped with grated niyog and muscovado sugar), which is the first holiday flavor Sebastian's released back in 2010. Enjoy the flavors by the scoop for P165 or get them in pints (P495) which are perfect for gifting.

Two ice cream cakes are, too: Bibingka Ice Cream Cake (baked bibingka rice cake topped with salted duck eggs layered with roasted banana leaf ice cream and cheddar cheese ice cream with salted duck egg chunks) and Ube Leche Flan Torte (layers of ube cake, ube ice cream, and leche flan). You can order them whole (P1,950) or by the slice (P185).

Also great for gifting are Sebastian's Crinkle Chilly Burgers (P165 per piece) which are ice cream sandwiches that use moist crinkle cookies — a Pinoy favorite! Flavors are Chocolate Peppermint Crinkle (chocolate crinkle filled with cool peppermint ice cream), Ube Macapuno Crinkle (use crinkle filled with macapuno ice cream), and Matcha Strawberry Crinkle (matcha crinkle filled with Baguio strawberry ice cream).

The Christmas collection is available throughout December at Sebastian's at The Podium Mall or sebastiansicecream.com.

Gourmet finds from Bow Tie Duck

The best food gift anyone’s ever given me was purchased at Bow Tie Duck: Echire Butter. That gift kicked off my obsession with this handmade French butter. I fell in love with it so fast and so hard that I ended up eating nothing but bread and butter for three days. And then I gifted the same thing to the special people in my life.

Echire Butter is just one of Bow Tie Duck’s many gourmet offerings. You can also get different flavors of Bordier Butter there. And not just butter. They have all kinds of gourmet treats from Europe—cheeses, pasta, sardines, steaks, foie gras, coffee, cold cuts, jams, caviar, chocolates (they carry Angelina’s Advent Calendar) and more.

They have holiday bundles and they can help you put together your own gift sets as well.

Order through bowtieduck.com. 

Illo’s Party Trays

Illo’s Party Trays started as a home-based business that has grown so much and has become a celebrity favorite. It’s easy to see why. They’re reliable, their food is delicious and they’re a pleasure to deal with. They serve their food in party-sized portions, making them a go-to for all kinds of celebrations.

Some of my favorites include the baked salmon, baked spaghetti, Lara’s Bagnet Kare-Kare, lengua champignon, and the chicken cordon bleu.

For this holiday season they have also prepared full party spreads good for 6 to 8 or 12 to 15 people that include beef salpicao, baked salmon, flat porchetta, your choice of paella, gambas al ajillo, baked spaghetti, chicken galantine, brioche buns, plus a cake.

Order through https://illospartytrays.com/, DM @_illospartytrays on Instagram or message 09776101950. 

Mo’ Cookies

Mo' Cookies has special treats for cookie lovers. The Moment Group's cookie brand has introduced Holiday Giftables that will be available until Dec. 31.

A Lot of Everything (P695) is a box of 30 assorted Crumbs or little cookies in different flavors. It’s perfect for sharing, for bringing to parties or giving to your favorite families as a holiday treat.

You can also gift people with Mo' Cookies' popular palm-sized cookies. There are three sets to choose from and each one comes in a special Christmas box that could be stacked to form a holiday scene. There's Holiday All-Stars (P665) which includes Chocolate Chip, Nutella Crinkle, White Chocolate Walnut, and South Cotabato Chocolate Fudge. The Holiday Ooey-Gooeys (P650) comes with Two Chocolate Chips, one Nutella Crinkle, and one Triple Chocolate Mallow. The Holiday Snack Box (P630) is guaranteed to be a hit. It includes Chocolate Chip, Naked Oatmeal, White Chocolate Walnut, and Dark Chocolate Oatmeal.

Get them at all Mo’ Cookies stands or online via mo.momentfood.com, GrabFood, Pick-A-Roo, foodpanda, and GCash Food Hub.