One click away from the perfect treat

Nothing wrong with the classic Christmas fruit basket, and a bounty of options exist if you're keen on it, but the truly food-obsessed probably are craving something a bit more obscure for the holidays.

Now's the time to indulge the food hounds on your gift list with little indulgences they wouldn't necessarily buy for themselves — or might not even have encountered before. To help with your holiday hunt, we've compiled a list of some unusual, top-notch delicacies, all available to purchase online.

Meat, cheese and fish
Simply for the concept, you've got to appreciate iGourmet.com's 50 States of Cheese, which if nothing else shows how far artisanal American cheesemaking has come in recent years. Among the selections are cheeses made from Arizona (Black Mesa Ranch's jalapeno chevre, $8.99 for 6 oz.) to Louisiana (the triple-crème Fleur-de-Lis, made by John Folse's Bittersweet Dairy, $19.99 for 8 oz.) and everywhere in between.

The cheesemeisters at Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge, Mass., give you two ways to shop.  You can hand-pick everything from French selections like pungent washed-rind Epoisses ($19.95/lb., plus nasty glares from your delivery guy) and sheep's-milk Bleu de Basque ($23.95/lb.) to Piedmontese Raschera di Alpeggio ($17.95/lb.) and Stilton from Nottinghampshire ($20.95/lb.). Or you can opt for one of their cheese samplers, ($49.95 for 3-4 selections).  The shop ages its selections to perfect ripeness in its own cheese cave and its staff are experts in proper cheese-shipping.

The equally fastidious dairy fanatics at Murray's Cheese Shop in New York have gone even further, equipping their Web site with a spiffy pairing tool that allows you to select cheeses by country, milk type and even beverage. Want an Irish cheese to go with dessert wine?  There's Cashel Blue ($13.99/lb.). Or some Old Chatham Camembert ($6.99 ea.) from New York to match a robust red. Each cheese also has an Amazon-style "customers also purchased" feature, so you can see what your fellow cheesehounds are eating.

Sue Conley and Peggy Smith, the masterminds behind Marin County's organic Cowgirl Creamery, now offer their own cheeses — and some favorites from around the world — in their online store. Check out their Tomales Bay Collection ($45), featuring their own triple-cream Mt. Tam, plus two cheeses from nearby cheesemakers.

Think it's nuts to mail-order canned tuna?  Not if you've ever tried Papa George albacore tuna packed in natural juices (six cans for $21). The Seattle-based family company, owned by Steve and Holly Lovejoy, is named for the Lovejoys' boat — from which they fish the north and south Pacific for top quality albacore. Not only do they track down top-quality fish so popular that it's shipped to fans on the East Coast, and even homesick soldiers in Iraq, but how many fishermen keep you up to date with their own blog?

It's hard, though, to find a better way to show affection to an omnivore at holiday time than with meat — and what better “You'd never buy it yourself” gift than a heap o' bacon? Pork lovers who get a shipment from Flying Pig Farms in Shushan, N.Y., will be joyous indeed. The farm's humanely-raised heritage pigs are the source for top-notch bacon ($8/pkg.) and kielbasa ($8.50/lb.). Should that not satisfy, check out Nodine's in Torrington, Conn., and their juniper bacon ($8/lb.), or maybe the applewood-smoked bacon sampler ($25.95) from Nueske's in Wittenberg, Wisc. For the daring, there's wild boar bacon ($17.50/kg.), available at Exoticmeats.com. And the true bacon obsessive is probably lusting for a bacon-of-the-month club subscription from The Grateful Palate.

Lastly on the meat front, it's been a banner year for ham lovers.  After years of lobbying, the federal government has given the nod to Ibérico ham, cured from pigs allowed to roam the fields of western Spain, feasting on acorns. That nutty flavor infuses the ham, considered without equal by the Spaniards and even the most discerning pig aficionados.  None available this season, but you can plunk down a $199 deposit for orders to be filled in 2007-08. Better love that lucky ham fan: Whole hams will cost upwards of $800, depending on the euro's valuation. Available from Tienda.com, whose owner, Don Harris, helped negotiate the details that allowed for importation.

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