Let’s be clear: I am not one to make fun of people who are go a little too far to find good food. I overpay for heirloom tomatoes and triple crème, like all annoying urban elitists do. But we all have the line we will not cross, and at this year’s Fancy Food Show, someone found mine.
For-kids-only olive oil! Yes, it’s a real product. It is, apparently, an extra-virgin Spanish olive oil chosen for its smoothness and lack of peppery overtones.
As it happens, we Greeks know a thing or two about olive oil (and olives), particularly Greeks who have become annoying urban elitists, and here’s the dirty secret: You know which olive oils have those qualities? Cheaper ones. Hats off to that oil importer, who’s passing off the second-rate stuff as kid-appropriate. I await his repackaging of stale bread as “teething-friendly.”
Smart marketing and dumb consumers. There’s a guy at our local farmer’s market that sells unsweetened jam for $14 for an average sized jar. No preservatives so chances are half of it will spoil before you can eat it, yet he sells out virtually every week.