On Saturday, June 25, 2016 at 8:41:03 PM UTC-10, Julie Bove wrote:
> "dsi1" <dsi1om> wrote in message
> ...
> > On Saturday, June 25, 2016 at 4:28:09 AM UTC-10, sf wrote:
> >> On Sat, 25 Jun 2016 04:26:20 -0700 (PDT), dsi1 <dsiom>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >> > I was never able to get a fruity taste out of olive oil.
> >>
> >> I think you get those nuances when you're tasting freshly milled oil.
> >> I get "peppery" from fresh EVOO. Maybe they call oil that's not
> >> peppery fruity. I dunno and frankly, I don't care. There are plenty
> >> of other oils out there, so you have other choices if olive oil
> >> doesn't rock your boat. For me, it's a cooking or salad dressing oil
> >> - I only dip when I'm in a restaurant killing time waiting for my
> >> order and there's a baguette on the table tempting me to eat it.
> >> Other parts of the country put different types of bread on the table
> >> and they are better with butter.
> >>
> >> > It always tastes like oil-based paint to me.
> >>
> >> Sounds like you're still getting stale olive oil - or maybe it's a
> >> brand that is EVOO in name only. Whatever it is, don't waste your
> >> money. I like and use olive oil enough to make worthwhile to buy in
> >> the large Costco (Kirkland brand) containers.
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >>
> >> sf
> >
> > It sure does taste like stale oil but in every Italian restaurant I go to,
> > the oil pretty much tastes the same. I just think I have a genetic
> > predisposition to this - after all, nobody in my family's history ever ate
> > the stuff before.
>
> Now that I think about it... I once ordered the hummus appetizer at Red
> Robin. This was some years ago. They poured a bunch of oil over the top
> which I think was olive oil. The odd thing was, the menu didn't mention the
> oil on the top. But... The oil had such a very "off" taste to it that we
> couldn't eat it. I know it was the oil because we asked for a spoon (they do
> not normally supply you with silverware unless you order specific things)
> and I scraped it all off plus any hummus that it was touching. The hummus
> itself tasted fine.
>
> I did mention the oil to the waitress. It was so many years ago now that I
> can't remember what she said but based on her reaction, I gathered that they
> wouldn't do anything. I do remember mentioning here and I caught flack for
> mentioning how they also cut the cucumber into huge spears that were next to
> impossible to eat, instead of the normal round slices that would normally be
> served with hummus.
>
> I have only ever been at one Italian place that served olive oil with the
> bread. It was on Cape Cod and a new place at the time. And while I did enjoy
> the bread and the oil, I did not enjoy the reaction of another diner. Two
> elderly women were seated near us and one must have been hard of hearing or
> something because she kept shouting. The other clearly was hard of hearing
> as she had no clue what was being said. But it went something like this.
>
> "Look! They're dipping the bread in the oil!"
>
> "What?"
>
> "I said... They're dipping the bread in the oil!"
>
> "What?"
>
> Repeat, repeat, repeat to the point where it actually got comical. Other
> diners were then all looking at us waiting for us to dip again so the woman
> would shout. My husband and I who both wanted more bread, could not bring
> ourselves to eat any more of it as we couldn't stand the shouting. He did
> try to sneak and do it but she shouted again. Thankfully our food came at
> about this time and no more comments were made.
>
> Apparently this oil dipping was a novel thing for the Cape. We did dine
> there again but were given butter instead of oil.

The practice of dipping bread in a plate of olive oil and balsamic vinegar will be a novel idea for some. We only started doing this about 10 years ago. Asians don't have much of a history with olive oil. I do love balsamic vinegar - it's great for coloring sauces and gravies.