Local Lox

This locally smoked salmon has a delicate flavor and a remarkably moist, flaky texture--partly because Stephen Hall cures and hot-smokes it to order (so allow two days for processing).

Home-smoked salmon, $25 per pound plus $5 to $10 shipping, from Totally Smoked, (310) 470-4178; fax (310) 474-3359.

Frisco Butter

Gilt Edge may not be the only rich European-style butter with a sweet, creamy flavor, but the price of this San Francisco product is tres raisonnable.

Gilt Edge Creamery Butter, $3 per pound, from HomeChef, Pasadena and Newport Beach.

A Real-World Colander

Most colanders are designed to fit over saucepans, but their main use in most kitchens is over a sink. Now here’s a colander, a capacious oblong one of heavy steel mesh, designed for sinks. The arms can be extended to fit all sink sizes.

In Sink Colander, $29.95, from Sur la Table, Pasadena, (800) 243-0850.