Spreads - Olive Paste

I just finished an art piece for bewarethecheese.com's fine art gallery "Senses". For this piece I had to photograph, and eventually eat more than 40 different spreads.  I've decided to post a little something about each spread that I sampled.

If you don't like olives, you can pretty much rest assured that you're going to hate olive paste.  If you love olives, this is really something you must try.  You normally don't think about olives as anything other than an accouterment to a salad or maybe a plate of pasta. As a spread it takes this great flavour so much further, and expands all the things you can do with olives.

CC

My Olive Filled Adventure - Part 2 Sparta

On our way back from our trip to Kalamata, Allison and I decided to stop into Sparta (or Sparti).  I figured that the famous Spartan army was reason enough to make the stop, but Sparta has another great site, well worth checking out for the Olive fanatic.

The Museum of the Olive and Greek Olive Oil, is a mouthful to say, but it's a great place to visit.  It's a beautiful building full of olive history and information.  You wouldn't think that there would be that much to talk about with olives, but this museum really shows how important this little fruit was, and is, to the world.

The first part of the exhibit is all about the history of the olive, including these ancient fossilized olive branches.  They also explain the differences in the many varieties of olives (there are dozens of varieties), and how olives have changed the coarse of many civilizations.

My favorite part of the exhibits was the giant olive presses and grinders.

This is an ancient mortar and pestle, one of the earliest ways people extracted oils and paste from olives.

This giant corkscrew press would smush the olives until the oil would drip into the bucket bellow.

All over Greece you find that many of the ancient buildings are fabricated using old olive grinding stones.  They're round stones with a hole in the middle, and they weigh a ton.  I never really could figure out how these grinding stones worked, until I saw a traditional grinder at the Olive Museum.

Did you know that olive oil also works as a fuel for lights.  Churches and homes all over the Mediterranean used to use olive oil to light up their homes.  I'd love to get an old oil lamp and try this out myself, I never knew olive oil was that flammable.

Here's another bonus I discovered on our road trip.  Did you know that you can improve chicken souvlaki?  As with just about anything, all you have to do is ad bacon.

CC

My Olive Filled Adventure - Part 1 Kalamata

This past weekend, Allison and I went for a road trip to the Southern part of the Peloponnese in Greece.  Our destination was Kalamata.  If you think that the word Kalamata sounds familiar, it might be because you've sampled one of their famous olives.  Kalamata Olives are not a type of olive, but are in fact an olive grown in Kalamata.  Since I'm an olive fanatic I was very excited about this trip.

The rumour I had heard about the olives was that we wouldn't find any in the city of Kalamata.  They say that the locals don't really eat the olives and that most of them are exported.  I have to be honest, there aren't that many places selling these olives in the city, I only came across one olive specialty store (and I bought a kilo of olives).  However, many of the restaurants seem to use this local delicacy both in the olive form and in the oil.

My first impression of these local delicacies was fantastic.  I never really thought about the importance of fresh olives and fresh olive oil, but getting them at the source really seemed to imrpove the flavour.  The Kalamata olive is traditionally very sour, with a slight bitter kick at the end.  It's often soaked in brine (not oil) and is very plump and juicy.

All over this town I was greeted with a taste of this awesome delecacy.  You never really think about olives as being so versitile, until you visit a few restaurants in Kalamata.

As an added bonus, I learned that the honey in Kalamata is also very well known in Greece.  I was lucky enough to sample some on my first morning.  It's so rich and sweet.  I wonder if the olive trees, that are just about everywhere, have something to do with the fine honey?

CC

This Week In Candy

Candy News -  With the Olympics in full swing, a great deal of candy news is about how candy companies and candy makers are routing for their home teams.  Cadbury seems to have the most on the subject, but that could be because they're an official sponsor and they even have a Cadbury village set up in London for the games.  But they're not the only ones, all kinds of candy companies, large and small, are rooting for their home teams, and it's fantastic.

What's Happening At Candy Critic -  Two things to mention this week.  First of all, I just got back from an awesome trip to Kalamata and Sparta (in Greece).  These two places are extremely famous for their olives and olive oils.  I'm sure some of you have seen Kalamata olives available at super markets, well this is where they're grown.  They're not a breed of olive, but in fact they're the place where they grow.  I'll have a couple posts later this week about my adventures.  Also, a reminder that we're running a contest right now that could net you a couple of Sour Patch Kids t-shirts and a bunch of candy.  Check out how you can win here.

Rant -  I love the Olympics.  While the strange sports that you only get to see during the Olympics are great, the real reason I love the Olympics is the patriotism.  Even some candy companies produce special edition treats just for the Olympics, and these treats are often decorated with their countries colours and flags.  I think candy companies should be more proud of their heritage, and I think patriotic candy should be around all of the time.  I'm not just saying this about Canadian sweets either.

CC

It’s all Greek to me.

I seem to really be promoting Presidents Choice as of late here on Candy Critic, but that could be because they’re coming out with so many strange and wonderful new things that I just can’t stop myself.
Today’s new adventure is these Greek flavoured potato chips. Or maybe they’re Greek style flavoured potato chips, I mean that only makes sense.
I was really impressed at the idea of Feta Cheese, Olive, and oregano flavoured chips but they took a little to warm up to. I think at first I was expecting it to taste like a Greek salad and they don’t. But the flavour is pretty good and well worth the adventure.

CC