So I've got this thing about Spanish olives. Cold, crisp, tart — I love them, eat them every day, with breakfast, lunch and dinner. Crazy, I know, but I just love them.
In this world of varying tastes, I know there are people who like olives less than I. Some enjoy olives, but they keep their enjoyment to a sane level, say, in the occasional martini, or on a pizza, but they really prefer pearl onions. They look at me in sort of a benevolent bemusement: How can someone get so excited about such a mediocre pleasure?
Then there are those people who actively dislike olives.
Those are the people who make me a wee bit sad. I find so much pleasure in olives that I find myself wishing to share. So I occasionally make the mistake of waxing overly enthusiastic on the subject of olives in the half-hope of persuading the non-believers to change their minds and give olives a second chance.
It's silly, really. I'd like to spread the pleasure, but all the talk in the world will only assure them that I really, really like olives but will never accomplish making them like what they don't really like.
Too, bad, though, because olives sure are delicious.
Every once in a while, though, I run into someone who dislikes olives so much that they can't seem to help proselytizing about it. They want to share with me their belief that olives taste bad. They sometimes go even farther, saying things like, "Ugh, olives are so gross! I especially hate those pimentos sticking out, like a booger hanging out of a single nostril!" I have to work a bit to put their words out of my mind next time I'm having olives.
So my question is, what's the motivation here? I may try to talk someone into liking olives because I want to give that person something that he or she does not have. But what is the person doing who's trying to talk me out of liking olives?
OK, so this is a trad music site, not a gourmet food site. Maybe I should be talking about bodhrans or jazzy guitar chords or something…
Olives are good. But if this is going to be one of those way-off-topic threads, can't we talk about the World Cup?
Everywhere round here all we see are St. George's cross flags. Out of windows, on trucks, cars, everywhere. I wish England well of course and it wouldn't be worth it for me not to give them at least some support, but wouldn't it be great to see some underdogs going through to the next round?
Eg, Trinidad & Tobago, Paraguay or Sweden?
:>}
...or maybe Togo, or Ecuador...
Well...at least you're talking about green olives.
My favorites are nicoise, and picholine, usually from France or Italy. But I did develop a taste for the run-of-the-mill green, pitted, Spanish olives you speak of when living in Barcelona. The kind that come in plastic bag-like containers. I've even been known to eat the tuna stuffed ones, but still prefer them closer to their natural state. A friend purchased a farm here in California recently that is full of arbequina olive trees, from which he pressed oil this last season. Tasty stuff; not for the faint of heart.
But getting to the Irish trad part, and since you're a gourmand, what can you share about Irish food? Savour magazine had a nice spread this last March issue. I'm seriously interested...
By the way, you may be heartened to know, c-54, that my son has been obsessed with olives; has me put them in his lunchbox every day. He started as a toddler with the nicoise (we had to pit them for him one by one), and now prefers the picholine.
No Cuch, you've nailed it. I don't mind the occasional slag or good-humored poke, but the people who can't stop themselves from posting evangelical tirades here against bodhrans, guitars, jazzy chords, learning tunes on the fly at sessions, the Corrs, banjos, crap tunes, young people, old poeple, ad nauseum have taken much of the joy from what this site used to be.
Of course, it's no use arguing with a foolish dogmatist because other people won't be able to tell who's who.
Besides, it's much more rewarding to ignore the naysayers and do your own thing. My local session is huge fun, not unlike a pizza smothered in Spanish olives.
Kalamata olives are good. The ones I've purchased in the USA haven't measured up to the ones I've had in Greece, but Kalmata makes for a good olive.
Also good is picking your own olives and taking them to the press and watching them all get squished into oil. The smell is amazing and the resulting oil is even better.
Finally, a discussion of significance on the session! There's more to life than ITM. Olives. Specifically, I believe that nicoise olives should be eaten just prior to a long set of jigs. I haven't yet determined what other varieties ought to be consumed prior to or after playing reels, waltzes, etc. Further research in necessary.
Olives are absolutely essential, but don't forget that you can't correct misalignment by tightening the joint more, you have to take it apart, cut the olive off and start again. So take care to get it right first time.
To be fair I was thinking of getting some other coutries flags and attaching them to the Pollittmobile and seeing how long it was before I got beaten up.
Cheers Geoff, glad to glean that you're still learning to spell. I predict:
Winners: Brazil
Runners up: Germany
3rd: England
4th: Italy.
Italy makes olive oil so there's still a tenuous connection.
I was sitting down with some friends one day to eat a lovely dish of olives. After we had savoured a few, a man came in and started spraying raspberry jam over the top of them. I said "We never ate olives that way before, and I don't like raspberry jam on my olives." He said "Well you better get to like them that way, because that's the way I like 'em.
Nick, I'd say you ad your friends have a personal problem. You have a man in your midst who doesn't know how to behave around people. If he's spraying jam around and getting some on yours, or even just the grossness of his combination makes it impossible for you and your friends to enjoy what you're eating, he needs to talked to -- not about the culinary arts but about the basics of social interaction. If he doesn't listen, maybe a good thrashing is in order.
If, on the other hand, he's 100 miles away, quietly enjoying a dish of olives and raspberry jam and you seek him out to lecture him about why his taste is inferior to yours, then you are the one who's out of line. First off, you're wrong about your taste and secondly, you are guilty in a a mild degree of the same offense that first guy is guilty of -- social misbehavior.
(nice typing, eh?)
Meanwhile, after enduring you guys making fun of my poor little metaphor, I must apologize for selecting it. Olives. Hmmph. Dumb idea, sorry.
I think Nick was giving us a parable. We've all come across people in sessions you try to impose their musical ideas regardless of the feelings of the majority.
So, as I understand it.
Some people like their olives plain and as they come, or maybe with just a splash of extra virgin olive-oil.
Some people like them stuffed with tuna, or slimy snotty stuff.
Some people like them in jars mixed up with other pickles.
The trouble is that sometimes people come along and sneak bits of chillis and gherkins into the jars belonging to the people who like their olives unadulterated.
And some of those unadulterated olive lovers spend too much time telling the ones who like their olives with cornichons how evil and despicable a practice this is.
It's a good job playing at sessions isn't so fraught with controversy.
Sure, I understand Nick's point, too. I do think it's important, though, to differentiate between the acts of the people who are ruining your session and the overall quality of the musical tastes of people whom you're rather not see at your session. Nick mentions electric guitars in that thread about guitar chords; I agree that he should be able to protest their appearance at a session he and his friends have been hosting, but I'm making the point that his condemnation of electric guitars playing Irish music is going beyond the scope of his authority. His is not a "higher calling" but a "different calling." And, of course, he's welcome not to like the sound of electric guitars playing Irish music. But why blast them and try to take away something that some electric guitar-player is trying to do, as long as that person isn't crashing your session?
Not that Nick was necessarily making any of those points, of course.
Thanks for the reference John; I think Darina Allen was profiled in the magazine I mentioned above. I'll check out her brown bread recipe (might be good with olives...). HAve you made this recipe, or been to Ballymalloe?
A man is sitting quietly in a meadow. Another approaches him prounouncing "Olives are God's own food. You simply must have one." The seated man replies "Thank you, no sir. I'm allergic." Several of the olive man's friends approach and say "No, you misunderstand us. You MUST have an olive." The seated man eats one, goes into anaphalctic shock and dies. The assembled group dances about the body, cheering "One less olive hater in the world. If only they were all dead."
A different scenario
A man is sitting quietly in a meadow. Another approaches him prounouncing "Olives are God's own food. You simply must have one." The seated man replies "Thank you, no sir. I'm allergic. I've a bonnie bunch of gala apples. There's more than enough for two. Would that make a more convivial feast for both of us?"
The Olive man chooses to gratefully accept the offer, or say "Thanks anyway, but I think I'll find some fellow olive lovers." The two men peacefully co-exist, respecting each others differences. The Olive man goes on to win the nobel prize for literature. The seated man goes on to win the nobel prize for literature.
I have been to Ballymoloe, though not for cooking classes. Beautiful place. I have tried the brown bread and I would guess it is good with olives, but I haven't tried it.
Tough to have a serious conversation about food around here, isn't it?
Ballymaloe does have an ITM relevance in that Darina Allen's brother-in-law Rory plays a few tunes on the Mandolin and isn't a bad singer as well. He sometimes puts on Trad music things at Ballymaloe - or used to.
Here in Perth (Oz) we have some nice Olives. For me they have to be stoneless and in oil with some Chilli and Garlic.
Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
So I've got this thing about Spanish olives. Cold, crisp, tart — I love them, eat them every day, with breakfast, lunch and dinner. Crazy, I know, but I just love them.
In this world of varying tastes, I know there are people who like olives less than I. Some enjoy olives, but they keep their enjoyment to a sane level, say, in the occasional martini, or on a pizza, but they really prefer pearl onions. They look at me in sort of a benevolent bemusement: How can someone get so excited about such a mediocre pleasure?
Then there are those people who actively dislike olives.
Those are the people who make me a wee bit sad. I find so much pleasure in olives that I find myself wishing to share. So I occasionally make the mistake of waxing overly enthusiastic on the subject of olives in the half-hope of persuading the non-believers to change their minds and give olives a second chance.
It's silly, really. I'd like to spread the pleasure, but all the talk in the world will only assure them that I really, really like olives but will never accomplish making them like what they don't really like.
Too, bad, though, because olives sure are delicious.
Every once in a while, though, I run into someone who dislikes olives so much that they can't seem to help proselytizing about it. They want to share with me their belief that olives taste bad. They sometimes go even farther, saying things like, "Ugh, olives are so gross! I especially hate those pimentos sticking out, like a booger hanging out of a single nostril!" I have to work a bit to put their words out of my mind next time I'm having olives.
So my question is, what's the motivation here? I may try to talk someone into liking olives because I want to give that person something that he or she does not have. But what is the person doing who's trying to talk me out of liking olives?
OK, so this is a trad music site, not a gourmet food site. Maybe I should be talking about bodhrans or jazzy guitar chords or something…
# Posted on June 7th 2006 by cuchulain54
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
No, lets stick to olives. It'll be safer.
# Posted on June 7th 2006 by Bob himself
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
And, by the way, you've just ruined stuffed olives for me.
# Posted on June 7th 2006 by Bob himself
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
# Posted on June 7th 2006 by cuchulain54
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
I frankly never liked them.
# Posted on June 7th 2006 by cuchulain54
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
Olives are good. But if this is going to be one of those way-off-topic threads, can't we talk about the World Cup?
Everywhere round here all we see are St. George's cross flags. Out of windows, on trucks, cars, everywhere. I wish England well of course and it wouldn't be worth it for me not to give them at least some support, but wouldn't it be great to see some underdogs going through to the next round?
Eg, Trinidad & Tobago, Paraguay or Sweden?
:>}
...or maybe Togo, or Ecuador...
# Posted on June 7th 2006 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
Well...at least you're talking about green olives.
My favorites are nicoise, and picholine, usually from France or Italy. But I did develop a taste for the run-of-the-mill green, pitted, Spanish olives you speak of when living in Barcelona. The kind that come in plastic bag-like containers. I've even been known to eat the tuna stuffed ones, but still prefer them closer to their natural state. A friend purchased a farm here in California recently that is full of arbequina olive trees, from which he pressed oil this last season. Tasty stuff; not for the faint of heart.
But getting to the Irish trad part, and since you're a gourmand, what can you share about Irish food? Savour magazine had a nice spread this last March issue. I'm seriously interested...
# Posted on June 7th 2006 by Keith Dubinsky
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
By the way, you may be heartened to know, c-54, that my son has been obsessed with olives; has me put them in his lunchbox every day. He started as a toddler with the nicoise (we had to pit them for him one by one), and now prefers the picholine.
# Posted on June 7th 2006 by Keith Dubinsky
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
I don't know anything about food -- or, apparently, about irony and allegory.
# Posted on June 7th 2006 by cuchulain54
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
No Cuch, you've nailed it. I don't mind the occasional slag or good-humored poke, but the people who can't stop themselves from posting evangelical tirades here against bodhrans, guitars, jazzy chords, learning tunes on the fly at sessions, the Corrs, banjos, crap tunes, young people, old poeple, ad nauseum have taken much of the joy from what this site used to be.
Of course, it's no use arguing with a foolish dogmatist because other people won't be able to tell who's who.
Besides, it's much more rewarding to ignore the naysayers and do your own thing. My local session is huge fun, not unlike a pizza smothered in Spanish olives.
# Posted on June 7th 2006 by Will CPT
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
I prefer Black Olives myself, especially on Pizza.
You make a very good point. I just wish people would realize that as much as they hate something somebody else may like just as much as they hate it.
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by Unseen122
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
Oh...I get you...never mind.
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by Keith Dubinsky
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
Give me Kalamarta Olives everytime.
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by woops
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
Kalamata olives are good. The ones I've purchased in the USA haven't measured up to the ones I've had in Greece, but Kalmata makes for a good olive.
Also good is picking your own olives and taking them to the press and watching them all get squished into oil. The smell is amazing and the resulting oil is even better.
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by abuteague
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
Nice metaphor.
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by Zazzaliss
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
Keith -- check out Ballymaloe House and the cookery of Darina Allen. Very amazing food. Her brown bread recipe is excellent.
And I should probably say I learned about her cooking from a guitar player.
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by John Culhane
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
Boil the breakfast oily?
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by oldstrings
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
Finally, a discussion of significance on the session! There's more to life than ITM. Olives. Specifically, I believe that nicoise olives should be eaten just prior to a long set of jigs. I haven't yet determined what other varieties ought to be consumed prior to or after playing reels, waltzes, etc. Further research in necessary.
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by leoj
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
Shouldn't this be spelt O'Lives?
Seargent O'Ily's Dream
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by woops
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
Here she is, the finest Olive of them all:
http://www.popeye-n-olive.com/olive.html
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by Ptarmigan
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
Olives are absolutely essential, but don't forget that you can't correct misalignment by tightening the joint more, you have to take it apart, cut the olive off and start again. So take care to get it right first time.
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by LastToFinish
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
Danny, you could always fly the Saltire.
Ooops! Forgot!
Scotland didn't quality did they? :(
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by Geoff Pollitt
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
To be fair I was thinking of getting some other coutries flags and attaching them to the Pollittmobile and seeing how long it was before I got beaten up.
Kalamata olives in extra virgin olive oil. Mmmm!
Olives in brine are way too salty.
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by Geoff Pollitt
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
That should be qualiFy (freudian slip?).
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by Geoff Pollitt
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
CouNtries'
I'm going to lie down now!
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by Geoff Pollitt
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
Cheers Geoff, glad to glean that you're still learning to spell. I predict:
Winners: Brazil
Runners up: Germany
3rd: England
4th: Italy.
Italy makes olive oil so there's still a tenuous connection.
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
I like olives with noodles.
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by Ottery
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
I was sitting down with some friends one day to eat a lovely dish of olives. After we had savoured a few, a man came in and started spraying raspberry jam over the top of them. I said "We never ate olives that way before, and I don't like raspberry jam on my olives." He said "Well you better get to like them that way, because that's the way I like 'em.
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by Nick Spencer
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
The man with the jam, he'd got the taste for Jammy Olives on his ascent of Kangchenjunga, right?
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by Ottery
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
Nick, I'd say you ad your friends have a personal problem. You have a man in your midst who doesn't know how to behave around people. If he's spraying jam around and getting some on yours, or even just the grossness of his combination makes it impossible for you and your friends to enjoy what you're eating, he needs to talked to -- not about the culinary arts but about the basics of social interaction. If he doesn't listen, maybe a good thrashing is in order.
If, on the other hand, he's 100 miles away, quietly enjoying a dish of olives and raspberry jam and you seek him out to lecture him about why his taste is inferior to yours, then you are the one who's out of line. First off, you're wrong about your taste and secondly, you are guilty in a a mild degree of the same offense that first guy is guilty of -- social misbehavior.
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by cuchulain54
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
(nice typing, eh?)
Meanwhile, after enduring you guys making fun of my poor little metaphor, I must apologize for selecting it. Olives. Hmmph. Dumb idea, sorry.
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by cuchulain54
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
I once asked a friend of mine, over lunch, how he liked his jam.
He replied, "It depends who it's spread upon".
Maybe we know the same people, Nick.
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by Conán McDonnell
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
I think Nick was giving us a parable. We've all come across people in sessions you try to impose their musical ideas regardless of the feelings of the majority.
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by lazyhound
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
"who" not "you", obviously.
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by lazyhound
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
So, as I understand it.
Some people like their olives plain and as they come, or maybe with just a splash of extra virgin olive-oil.
Some people like them stuffed with tuna, or slimy snotty stuff.
Some people like them in jars mixed up with other pickles.
The trouble is that sometimes people come along and sneak bits of chillis and gherkins into the jars belonging to the people who like their olives unadulterated.
And some of those unadulterated olive lovers spend too much time telling the ones who like their olives with cornichons how evil and despicable a practice this is.
It's a good job playing at sessions isn't so fraught with controversy.
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by Ottery
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
I like my tunes in a big glass jar of brine!
Yeah I assume most of us got what Nick was driving at. Very bad metaphor though. Nick, next time might I suggest you use Marmite?
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by Conán McDonnell
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
Sure, I understand Nick's point, too. I do think it's important, though, to differentiate between the acts of the people who are ruining your session and the overall quality of the musical tastes of people whom you're rather not see at your session. Nick mentions electric guitars in that thread about guitar chords; I agree that he should be able to protest their appearance at a session he and his friends have been hosting, but I'm making the point that his condemnation of electric guitars playing Irish music is going beyond the scope of his authority. His is not a "higher calling" but a "different calling." And, of course, he's welcome not to like the sound of electric guitars playing Irish music. But why blast them and try to take away something that some electric guitar-player is trying to do, as long as that person isn't crashing your session?
Not that Nick was necessarily making any of those points, of course.
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by cuchulain54
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
Olives are like marmite, you either like it or hate it!!!!
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by Sarfly
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
Thanks for the reference John; I think Darina Allen was profiled in the magazine I mentioned above. I'll check out her brown bread recipe (might be good with olives...). HAve you made this recipe, or been to Ballymalloe?
Like the music, food is culture.
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by Keith Dubinsky
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
What's "marmite"?
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by cuchulain54
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
http://www.marmite.com/
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by Will CPT
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
now available in squirty-tube format!
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by Q
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
Ah, like the Vegemite that those Aussies eat, right?
I'm taking some to my next session.
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by cuchulain54
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
A marmite is also a large French covered cooking vessel .....
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by Ottery
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
I'm taking squirty-tube marmite to my next session, and I'm going to squirt it all over the electric guitar player.
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by cuchulain54
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
Don't eat our endangered species!
http://www.marmots.org/
Oh, sorry, wrong glasses.
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by oldstrings
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
"Life is too short to stuff an olive..."
Or maybe it was "...peel a grape..." ?
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
Hmmmm
A man is sitting quietly in a meadow. Another approaches him prounouncing "Olives are God's own food. You simply must have one." The seated man replies "Thank you, no sir. I'm allergic." Several of the olive man's friends approach and say "No, you misunderstand us. You MUST have an olive." The seated man eats one, goes into anaphalctic shock and dies. The assembled group dances about the body, cheering "One less olive hater in the world. If only they were all dead."
A different scenario
A man is sitting quietly in a meadow. Another approaches him prounouncing "Olives are God's own food. You simply must have one." The seated man replies "Thank you, no sir. I'm allergic. I've a bonnie bunch of gala apples. There's more than enough for two. Would that make a more convivial feast for both of us?"
The Olive man chooses to gratefully accept the offer, or say "Thanks anyway, but I think I'll find some fellow olive lovers." The two men peacefully co-exist, respecting each others differences. The Olive man goes on to win the nobel prize for literature. The seated man goes on to win the nobel prize for literature.
# Posted on June 8th 2006 by KC Gross
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
# Posted on June 9th 2006 by Ottery
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
You can do this very easily if you slice them thin enough
# Posted on June 9th 2006 by Conán McDonnell
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
I have to say, olive this metaphor!
# Posted on June 9th 2006 by AlBrown
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
Hi Keith
I have been to Ballymoloe, though not for cooking classes. Beautiful place. I have tried the brown bread and I would guess it is good with olives, but I haven't tried it.
Tough to have a serious conversation about food around here, isn't it?
# Posted on June 14th 2006 by John Culhane
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
That's Ballymaloe.
# Posted on June 14th 2006 by John Culhane
Re: Of Spanish olives and Irish trad
Ballymaloe does have an ITM relevance in that Darina Allen's brother-in-law Rory plays a few tunes on the Mandolin and isn't a bad singer as well. He sometimes puts on Trad music things at Ballymaloe - or used to.
Here in Perth (Oz) we have some nice Olives. For me they have to be stoneless and in oil with some Chilli and Garlic.
# Posted on June 14th 2006 by Donough