Day 18 - The Olive Oil Journey

I know this is "the olive oil journey," but who's to talk about olive oil without mentioning balsamic vinegar. When I was young, despite loving olive oil, I despised balsamic. I thought it absolutely ruined the taste of Olive Oil and had no clue why people consumed it. However, I liked balsamic glaze, and I loved the balsamic from the local oil and vinegars store. So why did I hate the balsamic I was always served? Low quality and cheap - sounds familiar right?

Day 18

Valencia, Spain | November 11th, 2022

Friday morning I wake up to a torrential downpour. Rough day to wheel bags around the city.

One thing I really wanted to do before leaving Valencia was see the Central Market. A guy from my Hostel Room was hungry and joined me. For some reason, there were no cabs, but there also was a lull in the thunderstorms, so we walked there - which was terrible because my wheeled bag was rolling all over the brick road (not the first time this happened...)

We got there at 9:10 and had class at 10am - had to be an efficient effort. The market was absolutely massive, with the usual goods: an extensive seafood section, fruits and vegetables intertwined with Iberian ham, olives and nuts.

We opted to get the 1.5 Euro sandwiches for breakfast (Tuna and a Fresh Mozz for me). And because of the low prices of the sandwiches, we balled out with 3 Euro Fresh OJ which slapped ofc.

There was a miscommunication between the cab driver and me and we ended up taking an extra 15 minutes to get to class...

Huge tasting day in class today. Oranges, apples, 3 types of cheese, pesto, infinite bread, carrots, corn, dark chocolate, anchovies, etc etc. And I was kinda known in class to be the guy with a huge appetite - so I kept getting offered more food from everyone around me who didn’t want theirs.

This was more a DIY (do it yourself) than guided tasting, and I just ate everything drenched in either the intense Picual or the mellow Arbequina Olive Oil (Picual and Arbequina are Olive varietals). The goal of this lesson was to interpret which oil pairs best with which foods.

My [subjective] conclusion: intense oils with bold food flavors. Mellow oils with light flavors.

I don't like food that tastes just like olive oil (except bread haha). Its meant to compliment - so with the cake I preferred something a bit more mellow.

But the mellow oil was completely overshadowed by the anchovies, I loved the Picual with anchovies on bread.

After tasting, we said our goodbyes (last day :/) and I headed straight for the airport (had no room left in the tank for lunch). I knew the flight had a chance of being cancelled for days as thunderstorms were expected.

I passed out in the Taxi until arriving and woke up with my neck at a 90 degree angle - not ideal - but thankfully only a 30 minute nap.

2 Flights: Bologna to Amsterdam, 2 Hour Layover, Amsterdam to Bologna. When the Valencia Flight (thankfully) took off, I had no hotel or transportation booked. The only certain thing was I had to be in Cartoceto, Italy on Sunday at 9am.

The flight took off on time and I watched my first TV since arriving in Europe: Episode 1 of "The Playlist" on Netflix (about the creation of Spotify). I wanted to see Episode 2 but I opted into catching up in the blog instead. We land in Amsterdam pretty quickly and I actually ponder leaving the airport to go to a coffee shop, but the sensical side of my brain said no and instead I ate a smoked salmon sandwich while waiting to board the next flight.

When I got on the plane every single person was speaking Italian with such a thick accent. Not a lick of English. I probably should have been more appreciative of understanding (parts of) the Spanish language for the previous 17 days - I know 0 Italian.

I get to my seat and the guy next to me is watching NBA highlights with an English title so I asked him if he spoke English. He said "a little" in a very heavy accent. Translation: NO

But the guy in front turned around and said yes.

At this point, I still have 0 hotel booked for the night. It's 9pm.

By 9:05pm that guy said he was getting a ride to Rimini from the airport and he could drive me! Problem solved. ~Imaginary Fist Pump~

Hotels In Bologna were running around $150 for the night, and I snagged one in Rimini for $40. And an hour closer to Cartoceto!

We finally get to the car at midnight and take off.

1 Olive Oil Takeaway

Did you some of the largest Olive Oil companies you see in supermarkets actually source from top producers in the world? Some (not all) also source from super cheap producers and combine both products to create the perfect [or not-so-perfect] blend. Good luck finding the producers they source from.

Transparency is one of the biggest issues in Olive Oil - for many reasons. I’m not calling for anything at the moment as I'm still learning, but one thing I do want to always know is where my oil comes from, as precisely as possible.

-Jack

Thank you for reading and welcome to the blog! I'm traveling through Europe on a quest to find great Olive Oil.