Lost Horizons

Extra virgin

Extra-virgin: Beyond the qualifications for virgin, the oil must exhibit the finest flavour and aroma that its variety of olive and degree of ripeness is capable of producing. And it must contain not more than 0.8 percent of free fatty acids. Fatty acids, which break off from the fat molecules, generally have unpleasant flavors.
So this is extra-virgin olive oil, its not cheap. Some people say it’s a good pain killer, some people say its healthy, I say its hype. Look, at home I don’t eat salads, if I am going to eat something I will cook it, so I will use Mazola, or something else, I am not going to waste good dosh on something that claims to have “the finest aroma and flavour”, if all I am going to do is fry some chicken or fish in it. Of course there are olive oil snobs, “oh we will only buy our olive oil, when we are in Tuscany. The whole area is exceptional for oil and it has the top Chianti Classico producers. Also, I enjoy shopping in the villages, I like to go to Pisa and Florence. I'm always on the lookout for new things to bring back. Salamis can often be hand-made and if you really search, particularly in the markets, you can find some fabulous ones. You might taste a really sweet finocchiona salami with subtle fennel, made so big that one huge beautiful slice is the size of a plate. Wild boar products, dried white beans and chickpeas - this year's - I'm always looking for those.” Makes me want to puke, what’s wrong with Park’n’shop or Tescos?

So you have this stuff, cold-pressed is even more expensive, and people like it – great put it in a fancy looking bottle and they will pay more! Even better lets dilute it with some other oils they won’t know the difference! So now all the shops are doing it, selling cheap olive oil as top quality, because it comes in a fancy bottle. So your clever marketing man has to come up with a new idea… Eureka! We will stick some things in the bottle, like garlic, chillis or herbs, and we can say our extra virgin olive oil enfused with whatever, and we can charge even more for it. What utter bollox.

So, now, you have a clear picture of my feelings on fancy bottles of olive oil, with things stuck in the bottle, right?

Last night, I cooked a chilli-con-carne for P at my apartment. I did all the cooking the night before, as I believe a CCC tastes better after one or two days. Like all good guests, she came armed with a gift (and what is all that about? I asked her around for a meal, because I want to share my meal with her. All I want is her thanks, not some gift that I don’t need and she probably didn’t want to waste the time buying). The gift was, that’s right, a fancy bottle of “Gourmet Lovers exta virgin, cold pressed olive oil with chilli and mint”. Aaaaarghhhhh.

Oh, well next time I buy some lamb chops, they can be fried in the stuff.

posted by Luke @ 12:01 PM