Friday, March 12, 2010

Wine or Olive Oil or what

Yesterday my future father in law invited me to one of his seminars on olive oil tasting. I didn't know, but bitter, spicy (as in hot) and fruity are the three only "desired" tastes of olive oil. The smell of pickled olives was supposed to be bad, just as obvious things such as musty, sour and rancid. I usually have 2-3 olive oils on hand as I love to cook so it was really interesting.
My future hubbie's father is also into wine (he owns a small wine cellar), which is quite normal in many countries. On the whole, however, it seems that it it is very different for each country which food/drink we concentrate on or even obsess over. In Germany people have tons of different kinds of bread and beer. I've heard a few people in the US recite all 100 or something flavors of the big ice cream companies. I also realized that I've got no clue which things are popular in countries that are a bit further off the beaten track. Asia? Middle East? Africa? Can you contribute any experience when it comes to other countries?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am not a big cooker. I use olive oil all the time and did not know there were different flavors. I definitely need to expand my food horizons.

SaraswatiChB said...

Oh, my first comment. Thank you, you truly are onelovelygirl... I am now a little expert on olive oil. The extra virgen one is the best, but usually the more expensive it gets, the better the quality :-( That means I use a cheap one for frying vegetables in the pan and a better one for salads and all things that uses cold oil. I love olive oils with a grassy/greeny taste.

Anonymous said...

Brot, Brot, Brot, Brot^^

Charlotte said...

Yeah, actually it should be Körnerbrot, Roggenbrot, Roggenkrüstchen, Schwarzbrot, Münsterländer, Graubrot, Weißbrot, Mischbrot, Sonnenblumenkernbrot, Kürbiskernbrot, Fitnessbrot, usw...

Yoshi said...

What an interesting question. I am from the US and although maybe some people can recite all flavors of ice cream here, I have yet to meet them. I think that where I live, Seattle (home of Starbucks and a million other more superior coffee shops), people are obsessed with coffee. Everyone has a favorite type (kona, arabian, etc.) and a favorite preparation (pressed, manual drip, turkish, etc).

Yoshi (libertunity from Swapbot)

Jessica said...

I cook with olive oil but I just buy the regular oil in the store. Although I have heard the diff. ones.

I'm from the US and as for the ice cream. A few companies come to mind that have a variety of flavors. Although I only know the ones that I enjoy I do have to say I don't know anyone who knows them all.

Ben & Jerry's is a popular brand with names like Chunky Monkey and Phish Food.

Fi said...

In belgium bread is something really important and we have lots of different varieties. When im on vacation im always missing the good bread that you find here:)

fii -swapbot

Jen said...

some friends recently gave us a bottle of really beautiful olive oil and it's the first time I've enjoyed eating it with just bread, I think it's really interesting how something so ubiquitous like olive oil or coffee can start to taste really complex if you have it all the time.

I live in Scotland and I can't think of any produce that we really obsess over here, but there is a dish called stovies that's very traditional but very specific to Scotland, even people in England generally haven't heard of it. It's basically boiled potatoes and some kind of meat, so it's quite simple, but most people will have their own version, some make it with left over roast, stew, sausages or corned beef. It's actually becoming quite trendy and you'll often get it at weddings and then people will discuss where they've had the best stovies.