Extra Virginity: The Sublime And Scandalous World Of Olive Oil (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
Fascinating! But also life changing, in that I went to my local food coop today and was frozen in indecision in front of the shelves, noting that our supposedly vetted choices all had "cold pressed" on the label, which I now know is something to be suspicious of. Am I surprised by the level of adulteration? A little, even though I'm super skeptical in general. I may only have had real olive oil once, when I was hiking in the High Atlas Mountains and was offered a flatbread dripping with something that bore no relation to what I thought of as olive oil. It was a revelation. I sometimes fantasize about returning, just for that taste. I appreciated the historical background preceding the food quality scandals and description of the arduous harvest/extraction process. So, this book was interesting, but it could have been shorter by a third. The author kept repeating himself, telling us the same stories what felt like twice, and continuing to remind us that a) extra virgin is a special grade not all olive oils should get b) but it's a valuable commodity so there's lots of fraud c) lots of the olive oil we use is pretty much garbage.And then proceeded to not tell us HOW to find out what the good olive oil is. Just...taste it. Uh - no. Most grocery stores don't sell it in small enough quantities to taste enough so you can tell the difference between the months it takes Americans to go through a small quantity.Basically, it was interesting, but mainly just preachy, and could have been much shorter if he didn't think we were all idiots who needed reminding of the basic facts three times per chapter.
What do You think about Extra Virginity: The Sublime And Scandalous World Of Olive Oil (2011)?
got this one from my daughter...fascinating loo at the world of olive oil. delicious and cut-throat!
—baileygriffin99081
Makes you distrust any olive oil unless u make it yourself
—nrja
I hAve to go to italy now and taste it
—bekahcross7
