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Honestly, haven't you finished your gift shopping yet?!

No, of course you haven't, and you're not alone. So here are a few hot tips for everyone's favorite stocking stuffer, last-minute gift pack, or holiday hostess gift: weird foreign treats!

JAPANESE

How could we not start with Japan, whose economy, as far as I can tell, is entirely based on bizarrely bright, incomprehensible treats? In Portland, you can hit Anzen, or, if you have time and wheels, the Mecca of Asian foods, Uwajimaya.

Now, you can also buy lovely ceramics, lacquered chopsticks, sake sets, and other nice gifts, but this is a food blog, so we'll stick to the edibles.

For the "intelligent connoisseur who enjoys the finer points in life", may I suggest some Men's Pocky, or delicious Pocari Sweat drink mix? You'll find Tomato Pretz, Kiss Mint gum, and, of course, Black Black Gum, full of caffeine and "high technical taste and flavor." There are sushi gummy candies and Meltykiss green tea chocolates, not to mention beautifully-packaged teas, sakes, and crackers.

MEXICAN

At Mexican grocery stores, you can get delicious Mexican chocolate tablets (dissolve a quarter tablet into hot milk for delicious, subtly cinnamon-almond flavored hot chocolate) or tangy-hot tamarind-chile candies. Oh, and everybody loves the Chupa Chups! (I found this image doing an image search for Chupa Chups. Yikes!)

EUROPEAN

Duh. Europe is all about the chocolate (well, the cheese too, but that's harder to do as a gift), and we are lucky enough to be able to get fantastic European chocolate in Portland. Try Martinotti's downtown and Pastaworks in Northwest or on Hawthorne for Italian imports, Edelweiss for German goods, or head to Taste of Europe for an emphasis on Eastern European imports (all of these have products from France and Switzerland as well, which is good news for us chocolate lovers).

As for brands, you can hardly go wrong, but Lindt, from Switzerland, is generally considered the queen of chocolates. German Ritter Sport chocolate comes in fun square packaging, while Milka comes in purple packages and is particularly known for its milk chocolate.

As far as flavors go, there's nothing wrong with sticking to the basics of milk or dark (true conoisseurs swear by extremely high percentages of cacao, up to 85%, but this results in a significantly less sweet and creamy confection), but I particularly enjoy marzipan, nougat (this is not like American nougat, but rather a divine, meltingly creamy chocolate filling; it's also called praline) or rum raisin hazelnut. Martinotti's (and nowhere else) also carries my favorite chocolate of all time. It has little crumbles of amaretti di saronno almond cookies in them (I could only find this kind of weird picture online); it is amazingly delicious. You can also get delicious chocolate confections, like truffles, liqueur-filled chocolates, or the wonderful Kinder Surprise Eggs, filled with awesome, tiny toys.

Of course, you'll also find delightful candies (Haribo gummi bears taste better than any other brand), jams (some in flavors we don't have here like sour cherry, red and black currant, and quince), cookies, liqueurs, shaped marzipan fruits, and a hundred other things anyone would love to get.

...OK, now it's time to stop reading this entry and get at the last-minute shopping. Good luck from all of us here at Digest!

Let me guess--you still have some holiday shopping to do, right? And maybe you need a few ideas to help you get through the worst of it. Well, we aim to please, and one thing that pleases (almost) everyone is: booze! Here are some great gifts that are sure to be a hit.

Lillet is a delicately sweet, fruity aperitif wine from France (warning: sucky web page). Aperitif wines are wines, usually white ones, that have been been flavored, sweetened and fortified (alcohol added, or concentrated, to result in a stronger drink). It comes in rouge and blanc (red and white, duh) varieties, and I prefer blanc. It's usually drunk before dinner, chilled, over ice, with or without soda water, and is particularly good with a slice of orange and/or a twist of orange peel. Also, they have some fantastic old posters. You can buy this at European import stores (like Martinotti's downtown, or Pastaworks on Hawthorne or in NW), or at Whole Foods. Nicer liquor stores might carry it too.

Japanese plum wine is a longtime favorite of mine as well. It's slightly thicker and sweeter than Lillet, but it's not at all syrupy or cloying. Instead, it has a bright plum taste (there are actually fruits in the bottle). Choya is the most common brand, and it comes in a handsome cylindrical green bottle. You can buy this at Japanese grocery stores like Anzen on MLK. If it's good enough for NYC, it's good enough for me. I like this over ice, or heated, or even just plain.

I discovered Vin Santo during our last trip to Italy. I thought I didn't like dessert wines, because I'd only had sickly-sweet concotions. Vin Santo is a dessert wine, made with white Chianti Classico, but it's subtle and charming, and tastes both like apples and caramel. It's traditionally served after the meal with biscotti, for dipping, and I think it's quite elegant in place of dessert. Again, Martinotti's or Pastaworks are the best place to purchase these.

If you want to stick to local, you could do worse than going to Elephants or the aforementioned Pastaworks and picking out a Willamette Valley dessert wine, or better yet get a recommendation. As for stronger stuff, I haven't yet had anything made by our (very) local Clear Creek Distillery that I didn't adore. They specialize in traditional European-style eau-de-vie, or aged fruit brandies. They make their own framboise, kirschwasser, poire william, grappa and more, and my particular favorite is their oak-aged apple brandy. Their packaging is particularly lovely too, I think.

Any of these would make a classy gift, and none are particularly expensive (OK, you can buy expensive Vin Santo, but you don't have to; I haven't yet met one that doesn't taste great). If you want to dress it up, present it with two pretty small wine or cordial glasses.