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For those of you who may have read my Wine Me Dine Me column of Nov. 30 http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/11302005/rachel/75655.htm

all about cool cookbooks to buy for food loving friends this year, I do have a few to add.

One is Silver Spoon from Phaidon Press which you won't be able to find for another week or so while they are printing more. It's sort of like the Joy of Cooking for Italian food and it's been selling like hot cakes. Or calzones. I called the publicist and she assured me you will be able to get it by Christmas.

Also good is The Fifth Taste: Cooking with Umami. Now, Umami is a taste sense just like bitter, sour, sweet, etc. You know like the fifth Beatle. 25 chefs got together some recipes to point out this concept that the Japanese have known about for eons. It's a sort of very rich flavor.

So try to get those for your foodie friends so they can make you some good meals.