If yesterday's post left a bad taste in your mouth, this one will drive the former off the scale completely.
Here's how one of the biggest supermarkets in Hania displays bottles and tins of olive oil on sale on the shelves. You can see a wide range of sizes: the small sleek glass bottles are mainly 'gourmet' olive oil on sale mainly for the tourist (this branch is located near the beach), as well as some discerning locals who may want to buy extra-virgin cold-pressed organic olive oil for dressing a salad or horta. They are of course more expensive than the larger containers (made of metal or plastic), which are what people buy when they don't produce their own olive oil or don't have the necessary transportation or storage facilities to buy olive oil straight from the producer or an olive press (which is how most people in Hania procure their supplies of olive oil for household use).
The bottles on the right are non-olive oils (mainly sunflower). Some people prefer them to olive oil for frying, but most people still use only olive oil for everything. In my family alone, we use at least 150ml of olive oil - the only oil we use - in our food daily, used in the following ways: salads and horta, all our main meals, some baking, as a spread on our sandwiches, in our evening snacks, and the grease on our baking tins.
No one can say we aren't trying to do our best to market Cretan liquid gold. This collection of bottled olive oil in variously shaped glass containers that are aesthetically pleasing comes from my work environment. They come mainly from Crete, but there are also some from other parts of Greece and their sales would be aimed mainly at the tourist and souvenir market, as the quantity held in each bottle is quite small - just enough for a day or two in my house (!). Exports are still low; olive oil needs to be seen not as a luxury that comes in special pretty packaging, but as a necessity with practical uses.
And this post is for Paula, who searched out a bottle of olive oil from Hania in her local supermarket in Oregon.
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I'd hate to cook without olive oil - I think I'm addicted! Tonight I gave our food an olive oil bath (you'll read about it soon)! That olive oil collection is quite impressive; I like the variety of shapes. And you're right - the pictures are much more pleasing than the McDonald's fetish doll.
ReplyDeleteOh. My. Gosh! My jaw dropped open when I saw all those containers of olive oil at your market. I'm still stunned. We have olive oil over here, but nothing that can compare to that. I've got to tell you, that the oil I purchased that was from Hania is THE BEST olive oil. The stuff mass marketed in our grocery stores over here just can't compare to it. From this point on, true Greek olive oil is the one for me! (And what a nice surprise to see my name in your post!)
ReplyDeleteLiquid Gold?...better than Fool's gold! ;)
ReplyDeleteI've seen some of these bottles and other marketed food stuffs in the DutyFree of Greek airports...pretty and pretty expensive!
ReplyDeletegood point Peter, they are expensive, which is why tourists and locals alike have to start seeing olive oil, not as a special prodct, but as a staple in the global kitchen. we need to market olive oil in the same way that tetrapak wine is produced...
ReplyDeleteI'd love to cook exclusively with olive oil, but it is too expensive. Really way expensive! So, I use canola oil in my daily cooking. and olive oil for special dishes, and salads that require the flavor.
ReplyDeleteUp until recently I was using olive oil for everything. Now I use grapeseed oil for frying because it has a lower frying point and olive oil for flavour.
ReplyDeleteWow! I envy your many choices of olive oil! There's only a few at our local store & I have to travel to go to an Italian specialty store to get a better selection.
ReplyDeleteI love olive oil. Actually my husband (the main cook of the two of us) prefers to use it as a speciality and usually uses sunflower oil for bog-standard frying - personally I'd just use olive oil for everything.
ReplyDeleteNow, THAT is a clever picture ;-)
ReplyDeleteI really like the second one. There is so much appreciation stemming from your olive-oil articles about this resource.
Maria, I love your collection of olive oil bottles! Really a beautiful display. I have no trouble finding olive oils here in New York--many varieties, and often I see oils from Crete (when I see them and am running low, this is what I purchase!). I only use olive oil... well, except in two cases: when a recipe calls for canola oil (I have a few baking recipes that call for it, and I find olive oil too heavy to substitute in these cases); the other case is if I am frying eggs. I rarely do this, but when I am frying eggs for breakfast, then I have to use butter. My yiayia used to fry them in olive oil, of course, but I never really liked the taste of the eggs in oil--perhaps just a question of what one is used to. I do substitute olive oil for other oils any time I saute, often when stir-frying (oh, a third exception: some asian stir-fry recipes that benefit from the flavor of sesame oil). Anyway, enjoyed your post, especially after the McDonalds fright (speaking of fried...). Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThe bottles are beautiful. They look like jewels.
ReplyDeleteWow!!! Wow just wow!! I don't think I could take every grocery store in town's olive oil inventory and have it come close to stacking up to that one.
ReplyDeleteThere is no better oil than olive oil in my opinion. I use it for almost all my cooking.
ReplyDeleteBeen meaning to tell you, thank you for recommeding my blog to "History of Greek Food". I appreciate it.
you have a neat collection of liquid gold :)
ReplyDeleteBack home in India,Olive oil is luxury used only for massages or in special hair oils.Not many(none actually) can afford to use it for cooking.
I'm glad I learned about its benefits after moving to US.US grocers usually are well stocked with variety of olive oils .As for my cooking,excepting desserts I use it in all my meals.