A True Tale of Olives and Balsamic Vinegar

[JenBayles]

We browsed through the TX Hot Sauce Festival a few weeks ago where I purchased a bottle of Amber Balsamic Vinegar. The Italian gentleman manning the booth was very passionate about his products - various vinegars and olives - and with good reason. I've used the balsamic vinegar in meat marinades, salad dressings, alone for bread dipping. Shoot, the stuff is so good you could practically use it as a before-dinner cocktail. It's somewhere closer to a worcestershire sauce than a vinegar. I don't usually wax enthusiastic about such products, but I'm hooked on this one. Apparently the family who makes it wants to keep the business small and regularly turns down offers to supply various restaurants.

Anyway, I'm almost out of the one bottle I bought and had to get more so tracked it down on one web site. The blasted shipping is more than the product! So, I placed a huge order figuring to use a couple bottles as gifts in Christmas baskets and supply myself for a good while. Turns out it's distributed right here in Houston, and the same gentleman who manned the Festival booth drove it over to my house personally because they missed UPS this morning. He also threw in a couple jars of the Greek olives (fantastic!) since he couldn't refund the shipping. Invited me and anyone else interested to come by the "plant" and sample the wares directly from the fermenting vats. I know my Cajun buddy Clarissa will be in on that little field trip. If you can't stomach the outrageous shipping cost and don't live in Houston, you can try a bottle here...

https://df12.dot5hosting.com/~olivefar/ ... 63df78826f

[alicia-w]

i slice tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella, tear up some basil, sprinkle with some cracked black pepper, sprinkle with good extra virgin olive oil and a bit of amber balsamic vinegar. it always gets raves.

[JenBayles]

That sounds REALLY good alicia! You always have some of the best recipes I've ever seen and am copying this one down for future reference. I've got plenty of fresh basil out in the garden to use with it.