shopping
Couture Confiture
Though olives are normally preserved with salt, why not try sugar for a change? Such was the thinking behind chef Jean-Marie Meulien's Confiture d'Olives, created for his Provençal restaurants Table d'Olivier. Made from black and green olives, apples, honey, lemon juice, olive oil, and aromatic herbs, the jam was so popular that he started producing it commercially. Will jaded New York palates be a little suspicious? "I thought olive jam was going to be a bit odd, but when I tasted it, I was intrigued by its sweet earthiness," says Rick Moonen, chef owner of RM and Branzini. "We have been conditioned to eat olives a certain way." Our taste suggests serving it with crêpes and pancakes, sheep's-milk cheese, foie gras, any kind of white meat, or even lemon sorbet and ice cream; Moonen is planning a quenelle of olive confiture with a gravlax of arctic char and onion toast. $12 for a 4.6-ounce jar. —GILLIAN DUFFY
Oliviers & Co.
Grand Central Terminal
249 Bleeker Street
198 Columbus Avenue, at 69th Street;
877-828-6620

best of the week
New Year’s Eve at Daniel
Why not spend the city’s biggest social night with one of its greatest chefs? Daniel offers three options this year: three courses plus a show by cabaret singer Christine Andreas; a gala tasting menu with live jazz; and a pretheater dinner. ($350, $325, or $125)
Daniel
60 East 65th Street
212-288-0033

data
Christmas Fish List
With the enduring popularity of Italian food, and the spate of trattorias and panini parlors opening on a weekly basis, it's no wonder that it's beginning to look a lot like an Italian Christmas. That means a Christmas Eve supper of seafood, alternately called il cenone, la vigilia, or Feast of the Seven Fishes (one for each of the holy sacraments). Never mind that the tradition has become more prevalent here than in the old country. Or that non-Italian kitchens, like Citarella and the Minnow, are getting in the cenone spirit with dishes like baccalà dumplings and marinated eel. There's a fishfest to suit every appetite. But act fast—Lupa and Babbo are already booked solid.

New chef Mark Strausman squeezes seven fishes into three family-style courses, from baked clams and fritto misto to roasted striped bass alla Siciliana. Manhattanites will find the same $45 prix fixe at Campagna, Strausman's Flatiron fixture.
Cucina
256 Fifth Avenue, Park Slope
718-230-0711

Chef David Pasternack plans to run his holiday menu for two weeks leading up to Christmas, offering ample opportunity to sample the crudo of the day, grilled octopus with blood oranges, baccalˆ, and fried local eel Neapolitan-style ($70; menu changes daily).
Esca
402 West 43rd Street
212-564-7272

Why stop at seven when you can have thirteen courses, signifying Christ and his disciples? But no one's expected to consume two antipasti, three soups, three pastas, and five main courses, which is why it's all offered à la carte.
Felidia
243 East 58th Street
212-758-1479

For his second annual Italian Christmas Eve, chef Marc Meyer serves up a $50 three-course feast featuring selections like frittura of Florida shrimp, hand-cut fettuccine with bottarga di tonno, and whole grilled orata. Save room for the ricotta-fritter finale.
Five Points
31 Great Jones Street
212-253-5700

Chef Martin Burge's $75 Feast of the Seven Fishes is a loose interpretation of the old-world custom. We'd wager that warm oysters and caviar with leek fondue and grilled squid stuffed with braised short ribs never graced a Neapolitan holiday table.
fresh
105 Reade Street
212-406-1900

Tony May keeps things relatively simple with a $70 five-course prix fixe, offered December 23 through 28 (except on Christmas). Chef Odette Fada's acclaimed way with risotto will be on display in a luxe version featuring oysters and Franciacorta spumante.
San Domenico NY
240 Central Park South
212-265-5959

shopping
Let Them Eat Christmas Cake
That fabled single fruitcake, perpetually pawned off from one person to the next, wound up at our office last week, and rather than send it on its way as tradition dictates, we decided to eat it. It came wrapped in an attractive hand-watercolored paper from June Taylor Company, Oakland's font of exotic jams and marmalades, and was loaded with mostly organic, intensely flavorful prunes, raisins, peaches, apricots, dried cherries, candied peel, currants, and almonds throughout brandy-perfumed sweet-and-spicy cake ($25). Sliced thin and served with a glass of port or sherry, it's capable of dispelling the nasty-fruitcake myth in a single bite and turning thoughts of tactless regifting into ones of shameless hoarding. But not to worry: Taylor makes them year-round. For unrepentant citron-phobes, we suggest the offella d'oro, a fruit-free cousin of the panettone artisanally made in Verona and imported by Chelsea Market's BuonItalia ($27.50). It's tall and puffy and redolent of sweet butter and almonds, superb as is or toasted with a cup of tea or coffee.
June Taylor Company
510-923-1522 or 212-687-0300
www.junetaylorjams.com
BuonItalia
95 Ninth Avenue, near 15th Street
212-633-9090