Olive Oil!

Things are finally starting to calm down now, and I realized that I'm going to have to take up more specific topics to talk about and go more into detail on, so in addition to just blabbing about my day, I am going to take up one thing that strikes me about the Greeks or their way of life. The best starting point here would be to talk about olive oil

Now why would I choose olive oil? They have corn oil in the United States, but it wouldn't be the first thing that I was going to talk about when describing the US at great length. In fact, they have corn oil here, but why would the olive oil be THE oil here.

First of all, I guess it's time to address the olive tree. The olive tree is of utmost importance here in Greece, and it has been since the dawn of time. Odysseus talks about seeing olive trees. If you have never seen an olive tree in your life, you are missing out. They have a leaf that has one side silver and one side green, when they blow in the wind it looks fabulous!

Because of the rough terrain in Greece, it's hard to grow anything but olive trees. Many times, the olive groves are on the side of a hillside where nothing else useful would be able to grow, so the Greeks have terraced the land so the olive trees could grow. I have met olive trees here that are thousands of years old!

When the olive trees ripen with olives, you can imagine the fuss of the people going around picking them for their beautiful olive oil.

The farmer takes these precious things to the local press where they are turned into the oil that he uses to cook with for the rest of the year.

Olive oil has a taste to it that is unlike anything else in this universe. I have realized that it is a replacement for butter here, butter exists of course, but no one would dream of using it when they could use olive oil in its stead. If you want a pre dinner snack, just put some olive oil in the fresh baked bread and you have yourself a masterpiece that is unequal-able!

Guaranteed in Greece, the first ingredient for any recipe is olive oil (garlic follows second). If you are without olive oil, you are without my friend.

Note that the Greeks eat some of the most saturated fat in the world per meal, but also note that they don't have cardiovascular disease, hmmm...I wonder if the olive oil has anything to do with that.

So you were right when you said that we would be cooking with it when I get home. More than that, it will be my elixir of life!