Last night, my mom called me just as I was sitting down to eat some dinner. She asked me what I was having and I rattled off the food sitting in front of me, "a big salad, a pear and some olives." Sounding shocked, she said, "But I thought you didn't like olives!" I confessed that I crossed over to the olive loving side several years ago and have no intention of going back. She was so pleased to discover that I could now be counted among the olive loving crowd, as she has never met an olive that she didn't like and had been afraid I had inherited my father's dislike of the cured fruit.
These days, my favorite olives for straight eating are these Cerignola olives that I buy at DiBruno Bros. (their huge, gorgeous store is only a block from my apartment, which is both wonderful and extremely dangerous). I have also gone through phases where I prefer the tiny, salty Nicoise olives or the painfully sharp pitted Calamata olives.
So which camp are you in? Do you love or hate olives? If you love them, what's your favorite variety? Have you ever tried home curing olives?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-15-2008 @ 2:54PM
findlayboy said...
Hate them! I have never liked them. Thing is, they look so yummy, so fat and shiny and juicy, and then you bite into them and it's like Satan is laughing at you and saying "Sucker!"
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1-15-2008 @ 2:56PM
honi said...
love olive oil.. dont like olives...
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1-15-2008 @ 3:13PM
Dartssnake said...
For anybody like honi, above, these olives are right up your alley...
http://www.graberolives.com/
My favorite (albeit expensive) olives, bar none.
They taste like the freshest olive oil you ever had...because that's what's in them...
Don't say you don't like olives until you have tried these, they are unlike any olives you have ever encountered.
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1-15-2008 @ 4:43PM
jeffa00 said...
Are you Satan?
1-15-2008 @ 3:42PM
Iscariote said...
I like big green olives stuffed with pimiento packed in olive oil with some hot chili peppers floating in the oil for kick.
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1-15-2008 @ 3:44PM
srah said...
I love olives, but I can never remember the *names* of the olives I like best. I like 'em nice and meaty and tender. Mmmm.
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1-15-2008 @ 4:48PM
Stephen said...
Love love love olives, perhaps a little too much!
My guilty pleasure is nice fat green olives stuffed with anchovy fillets, ultra salty goodness.. washed down with a nice crisp Sav blanc
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1-15-2008 @ 5:15PM
MikeD said...
Always hated olives growing up, but would try one anytime they were around to see if I "got it"...eventually did and now they are probably one of my favorite foods...same thing happened with Bleu Cheese and Brie
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1-15-2008 @ 6:03PM
Janis said...
As a kid, I remember sticking black olives on the end of each finger during Thanksgiving:) Never liked to eat them, tho'
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1-15-2008 @ 6:32PM
alosha7777 said...
I LOVE olives, every kind. just wish hubby did!
http://aloshaskitchen.blogspot.com
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1-15-2008 @ 7:59PM
ethan said...
My absolute favourites are picholine. I could eat them by the pound. I do enjoy almost all of them, however. Not a huge fan of cheap black ones anymore, though. Or... any cheap ones, sadly for my wallet.
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1-15-2008 @ 9:21PM
dan said...
Next time you are at a "whole foods" or "good foods" or any market that has an olive bar with a "price/lb" load up a container with a bunch of olives. While you should probably try to keep them from mingling... I never do.... I just take a bunch of olives, black and green, stuffed or not stuffed, pitted or not pitted. If you are lucky there are over 10 varieties, and you are in for a treat when you get home. Bring out some cheese (or not) and start trying some olives. I have always been amazed that there are so few that I don't care for, and sometimes, I am just saying delishious way too much. This is also a great item to bring to any party.
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1-16-2008 @ 1:53AM
Anna said...
I love kalamata olives, and the best I've eaten are grown in McLaren Vale, South Australia by Coriole Vineyards: www.coriole.com. I have no idea whether they export to the US, but if you ever find a vac-pac of Coriole olives purchase them immediately, go home, curl up on couch and savour.
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1-16-2008 @ 10:53AM
Justin Marx said...
Love 'em. Those red ones though...I also saw them at the Fancy Food Show yesterday...meant to ask the vendor how one ends up with a red olive...but I got distracted by some other morsel and forgot...anyone know?
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1-17-2008 @ 3:14AM
Rob Lusk said...
I too hated olives until I tried Luques olives. WOW! I still don't really like any other kind of olive, but tasting these has given me "strength" to venture out and try different ones. Nothing compares to a Luque olive.
Possibly the fact that I had them at Luques with the almonds and flur de sel they have on the table probabally didn't hurt either.
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1-17-2008 @ 12:02PM
Ashley said...
I work at Di Bruno Bros. and just to let you know...you're overpaying for the olives. They are supermarket brand olives that come in large plastic containers and they simply dump them into the rustic looking barrels.
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1-17-2008 @ 2:02PM
UrbanFrugal said...
Olives have always been one of my favorites even as child. They are one of my extravagances and I always have at least two types of olives in my refrigerator.
http://www.urbanfrugal.com
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1-19-2008 @ 1:33AM
Tama said...
Kalamata, Picholine, Nicoise..I love all varieties. I relish them by themselves, in a Greek salad or on a Mediterranean platter along with hummus, feta cheese, grape tomatoes and pita bread.
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1-19-2008 @ 5:47PM
Marianne said...
These mixed olives are the best ones I've ever had. Especially the red ones - they are meaty and not as salty or sharp as the others (even the other ones in the mix). I was very anti-olive until recently, but I always kept trying them until I eventually 'got it' (like MikeD above) - and now I can't live without.
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