Lucia loves… being a perfect house-guest

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/article6732109.ece
Bringing a thoughtful present always makes you welcome
It’s the time of year — if we’re lucky and have generous friends — to go a-visiting. All over the country in tiny cottages on Dartmoor, in beachside villas in Cornwall and Sussex, in grand manor houses in Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, in shooting lodges in Scotland, in France, Tuscany and Spain friends are getting together. Which means that the question of the present looms large. What should you take that is original, useful, charming and doesn’t break the bank? It’s not easy in these not-so-affluent times.

As we’ve been lucky enough to have had many happy times in friends’ houses, both in the UK and abroad, I’ve taken to quizzing our hosts about the matter. After their initial fluffing about with “oh, no, no, we don’t expect anything, we just like people to bring themselves” it does eventually emerge that it doesn’t go down well if guests arrive empty-handed. They may well never be asked again.

What they most like to receive is surprisingly conventional — so much for all that striving for originality. They like good wine and delicious foods.

Huge chunks of Parmigiano or Pecorino (try www.lavialla.it if you aren’t near a good delicatessen — they fly everything over from Italy) always go down well. La Vialla’s home-made tasting Pappa al Pomodoro — a brilliant base for Tuscan tomato and bread soup — costs just £5 a jar.

Bottarga, that fabulously fishy dried mullet roe, scores highly — you grate it over spaghetti that has been dressed with garlicky olive oil and that’s it (£15.95 a stick from www.papadeli.co.uk ).

A couple of weekends ago I presented some friends in Norfolk with two huge jars of Maria Balfour’s amazing potted shrimps, and they went down a treat . They’re not cheap at £28 a jar but they look and taste divine (from www.effortless-eating.com which until September only delivers in the London area).

Apparently most people like the sort of delicious smelly things that it feels too extravagant to buy for themselves — upgraded or different versions of bathtime lotions and potions. So it’s worth looking at Brown & Harris (at Harrods) which does lovely bath and body lotions in vintage-style bottles as well as triple-milled soaps that are perfumed with traditional English flowers such as English rose, lavender and lily of the valley. If you’re feeling generous you can add in perfumed drawer-liners, plus wardrobe and drawer sachets. The foaming bath essence, the body lotions and the paper-wrapped soaps are £5.99 each, the scented linen-water is £4.99 and the perfumed drawer-liners £6.99 for six.

Neal’s Yard Remedies has recently been taken over and is very excited about its new Jasmine body cream (£25.10) and shower gel (£12.60) and, lovely though they are, I am more taken with its traditional products — the Geranium & Orange body lotion and bath oil (both £18.90) which smell delicious. You can add in the hand wash and hand lotion (£10.50 and £10.80 respectively) with the same scent.

If you want something more original turn to roullierwhite.co.uk which, apart from selling the best of all scented candles by Rigaud, has a delightful website. If you’re going to stay in an English country house, there’s a tape to measure the height of the tennis net (£20), and a solid oak rack that holds tennis racquets (£35). There’s also Mrs White’s Swanot, a natural fly spray for £15, while for those heading for mosquito or midge-ridden areas there’s Mrs White’s Unstung Hero, a natural mosquito repelling cologne that costs £15.

If you’re going to stay with a family that has lots of children www.jaqueslondon.com is your man — there’s everything from croquet to backgammon.

As for me I’m heading off to family in France with what I think is the perfect present when there are lots of children around: Tefal’s ActiFry, which brilliantly cooks chips with very little fat. You simply cut the potatoes into chip shapes, bung them in the machine, add a sliver of oil, press the button and let it work its magic. It’s not cheap at £148 (from Argos) but worth tracking down. It’s the sort of house present that should go on pleasing the kids for years to come.