July 25, 2023
"Allegra Lorenzotti started the Send Olives Instagram account in 2020 as a way to catalogue and rank the various olives she encountered."
"She says the account is tagged 'at least ten times a day' by people who want to share photos of their 'olive porn.'... [At Café Mars, the chefs] offer theirs encased in wiggly cubes of negroni-flavored gelatin... Then, to bookend dinner, dessert features an olive-oil marble cake inspired by the black-and-white poundcakes sold at the city’s bodegas. A purée of salt-cured black olives offers the visual contrast, and a deep flavor that can trick diners into thinking they’re tasting chocolate.
On Instagram, the author and recipe developer Molly Baz kicked off the summer by sharing a cake of her own with sugared Castelvetrano olives baked into the batter.... 'Olives are the new cherries,' remarked an illustrator friend who goes by Doodle Deli, and DMs me a new olive-related product almost every week: Olive lovers can buy a $68 olive-bowl tank from Lisa Says Gah, a $6,000 gold olive ring from Brent Neale, or a $60 olive pillow at Big Night.... 'Photo-dump culture and olive culture are connected,' says Dora Grossman-Weir, another charter member of the Olive Night parties...."
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7 comments:
Spanish Manzanilla de Sevilla olives are ubiquitous in Spain, particularly Andalucia. They're served as complementary appetizers in bars and restaurants all over Spain, and they are addictive. We brought 10 kilos home with us when we moved back to the US, plus ten liters of Manzanilla olive oil - which I believe is the best. The wife even bought some olive perfume (don't laugh, it has a very nice, non-olive like aroma) on Capri earlier this year. You can't have a Mediterranean menu without having olives somewhere in multiple dishes. That said, trying to dress them up in jello says more about the tastes of the customers than the quality of the olives.
Is Popeye a follower?
The act of ranking olives says more about the ranker than the rankee. I'd rank olives. I'd be on board with volunteering for a tasting panel. Love those olives as much as Popeye, myself. And that olive oil.
I note in passing that vast tracts of centuries-old and millenia-old olive groves in Spain are being destroyed to be replaced by housing, because the farmers cannot pay the land taxes and keep living, just growing olives. But hey, even though the farmers are getting the short end of the stick, losing their livelihoods and land for only the price of their dirt, the developers are making good money on the new houses. So that's nice, I guess.
Olive production will be decreased, raising prices amid soaring demand, so good for the remaining few able to keep producing olives. Bad for consumers, of course.
This is the kind of culture we could have had in a parallel universe. Social media bringing us together for fun, frivolous activity. We view it during a work break and chuckle.
Debates? Basic taxes and stuff. "What's the best way to land humans on Mars?" Nothing like "Should we reproduce?" "Is our nation legitimate?"
We chose...a different course.
Black olives matter.
Olive Loaf makes a great deli sandwich.
The act of ranking olives reveals a lot about the person doing the ranking rather than the olives themselves. Personally, I find joy in ranking olives and would gladly participate in a tasting panel. I share the same passion for olives and olive oil as Popeye does.
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