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Valerie Confections SUPER CHOC-O-FOOD

Still scrambling for holiday gifts? If you’re shopping for people who like food, or should like good food, then look no further than these L.A. options:

Valerie Confections: While Valerie Gordon is know for her toffees and cute-as-a-button petit fours, an interesting gift would be the SUPER CHOCO-O-FOOD, a huge block of milk chocolate with a hint of caramel loaded with dried pears, apricots, golden raisins, macadamia nuts, cashews, almonds, sunflower seeds and peanuts. The packaging comes from Commune Design, and each color (pink, violet, aqua) corresponds to part of a triptych image found under the label. Valerie now also has teas blended by the American Tea Room just for the shop, including the Black & Blue, which was inspired by her Black & Blue jam and contains black tea from Nilgiri, blackberries, black currants, blueberries and blackberry leaves.

Kiss My Bundt Baking Academy: Chef Chrysta Wilson of Kiss My Bundt, formerly on West Third Street, is now teaching baking classes at Surfas in Culver City. The first class will be on January 15 and will focus on baking with winter citrus. And if you purchase a spot in this class before December 24, you’ll get 20 percent off. If you’ve ever had Wilson’s bundt cakes, you know they’re a treat.

Monsieur Marcel at the Original Farmers Market at Third and Fairfax: This gourmet foods store has all kinds of delicious treats, including European chocolates, fancy vinegars and oils, flavored salts, cheeses, wine and all kinds of fun stuff. This place will have lots of variety, so you’re sure to find something for the gourmand on your lift.

Chili Cheese Fries at The Veggie Grill

Just when you thought you had The Veggie Grill figured out – it’s tasty, but no, the meat isn’t real – The Veggie Grill surprises you. There’s a secret menu!

As with many secret menu items, these dishes are variations of items already on the menu. The one we tried were the chili cheese fries, which uses the restaurant’s signature sweet potato Sweetheart Fries topped with the Bean Me Up chili, vegan cheese and sour cream, and garnished with chopped tomatoes and parsley. This is a huge dish, so be prepared to either share it or to bring at least half of it home. The chili cheese fries are tasty but heavy. Who knew vegan food could be so substantial?

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The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf is at it again, offering complimentary 12 oz. cups of its new Spring Peach Tea Latte, Spring Peach Iced Tea Latte and Peach FruTea tomorrow, March 1, 2011, from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. The latte and the iced latte are pretty self explanatory — peach and honey — but what’s FruTea? Apparently it’s an Ice Blended beverage with a hint of green tea. Sounds good, but since it snowed in Burbank over the weekend, I think I’ll stick with the hot tea latte.

Photo courtesy of The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

More free stuff from The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf coming your way starting this Saturday! Coffee Bean has a new line of bottled coffee and tea drinks, and for the next two weeks Coffee Bean will be giving them away. From April 17 through April 23, get a free bottled cafe drink with a lunch or baked good purchase, and from April 24 through April 30, get a free bottled tea with the same such purchase (the freebies will be given out between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.). The bottled coffee drinks include Café Latte, Café Mocha and Café Vanilla, and the bottled tea drinks include Honey Rooibos, Jasmine Pearl and Peach Assam.

Eastside favorite LAMill just announced the addition of beer, wine and sake to its menu, including two new drinks. The Tea Champagne drink is made with Imperial Palace Brut Blanc de Blancs and LAMill’s Organic White Pomegranate or Holiday in the Cup tea. The Black & Black is half Old Rasputin Imperial Russian Stout and half iced organic LAMill house coffee. That one sounds way too heavy for my palate, but if you try it, let us know what you thought of it! Expect a variety of wines, sparkling wines, beers (especially the Japanese kind) and sakes.