I love olives, especially the black, dry-cured, salty ones. In France, you can buy them in vacuum-sealed plastic packages, and they are typically cheap, imported from Turkey or Morocco.
Most of the time here in the US, however, olives are brine-cured, which can get messy, and also, I don’t find them to be as satisfying or soft as the dry-cured kind. I guess Kalamata olives come closest to the kind I like. I wish olives were more popular in the US as they would be more available than they are.
What kind of olives do you like best, and where do you buy them?
Disgusting, vile comestibles. My entire family were olive lovers, all kinds. Never understood the attraction. I do try different types from time to time, but they are always nasty, overly salted little depth charges. Can’t they just leave well enough alone, and allow those olives to become their true birthright, viz. extra-virgin olive oil.
I’m an olive lover, too. My favorites are these large, Sicilian green garlic olives. My husband hates it when I eat them–I smell of garlic for hours afterwards. I usually purchase them at my local Whole Foods market. They have a fantastic olive bar there, but I always go for my garlic olives.
I like them black and briny or stuffed with garlic. The garlic ones I buy at Trader Joe’s. THe regular black ones I buy at a Turkish market around here since they are much cheaper than at the regular supermarket.
As for the dry-cured olives try to go to France where the good ones are not the cheap imported ones, but the ones made locally! 60% of the French olive trees are for “table” olives, not for oil.
You want to look mostly for Tanche or Grossane olives variety. The greek do some good dry-cured ones too.
Stay away from the californian black olives : they’re mostly artificially blackened.
A lot of people live in areas where Olive bars are uncommon… or so they think:
Check delis or the deli section of your supermarket. The Deli Manager is often quite receptive to suggestions
The same goes for supermarket salad bars
IMHO, the best source is a local ethnic store. You may not think there is a Middle Eastern store near your house, but you’d be surprised. They’re often plain storefronts that don’t advertise, but subsists on word of mouth
Cheese shops are often receptive to carrying olives
Remember: olives keep well, are polular, and varietals give a certain cachet for gourmet outlets. It’s little burden on them to stock them.
We buy the dry oil-cured black olives at a local Greek deli, Nick’s Produce. The brand is MARMARABIRLIK, and it is a product of Turkey. $3.99 for 1 kg. http://www.marmarabirlik.com.tr
Nick’s sells many kinds of olives: Greek, Calamata, pitted, stuffed with various items. They are quite local, though. You are likely to meet at least one of Nick’s sons when you shop there. (mmm…Calamatas!)
i go to the olive bar at my local thrifty. very nice selection and quality olives, i like the big green ones, s/o likes the big black ones I’ve tried the olives stuffed with blue cheese and -boy-were they rich!!
i go to the olive bar and my local thrifty. very nice selection and quality olives, i like the big green ones, s/o likes the big black ones I’ve tried the olives stuffed with blue cheese and -boy-were they rich!!
I’ve tried the olives stuffed with blue cheese and -boy-were they rich!!