On Aug 15, 10:06*am, Brooklyn1 <Gravesend1> wrote:

> I've paid a lot more than $35 for a liter of olive oil and didn't even
> like it, it smelled like stinky cheese... many of the estate oils can
> be very pricey and all are a crap shoot. *I once bought my brother a
> tiny bottle of 50 year old Balsamico for Christmas, found out later he
> poured the entire bottle into his bagged mixed greens salad, with
> generic salad oil... he phoned and told me he thought that vinegar had
> spoiled so he tossed that salad in the trash... that's when I told him
> that vinegar cost a hundred bucks.


It was in L.A. at the Pacific Dining Car with my uncle and a few
of his friends. The steak cost $35. I told my uncle that they don't
make toilet paper expensive enough to justify that cost. He said it
was excellent steak. Ok, so it was, but it wasn't worth $35 -
especially for me as I don't like fine dining anyway - the table
cloth, the waiter constantly stopping by to pour water into everyone's
glasses with the ice tinkling in the pitcher and everyone having to
lean back to make room for the "server". I felt like I was the server
by the time we got through.

Now, as for pricey vinegars and olive oils, I'm sure some are
good and some are not - but I'd love to conduct an experiment on that
issue. Suppose for instance you were to take some average olive oil
and place it in an expensive bottle and then seal it back up to make
it appear that it was never opened. I wonder how many would notice.
Some would I'm sure. But most would not.

However, go the other way - take some really expensive olive oil
and pour and reseal it into a cheap bottle, and I'll bet most of the
experts would notice more readily - because they're more prepared to
taste the cheapness because the bottle is cheap. We've been through
this before - the experts and I - and I know there's no end to the
debate - but I really would love to spring a surprise on some of those
people. Put the good in a cheap bottle, their taste buds will be
looking for cheap. Put it in an expensive bottle, their buds will be
looking for quality. If the difference in quality of oils is drastic,
of course they might tell. Who wouldn't? But using just an average
olive oil and placing that same oil into cheap resealed bottled and
also expensive resealed ones, I think it would throw most into a tizzy
- one I'd like to be there to see.

TJ