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[bonobo]

tutsiwarrior, on 2011-10-18 18:03:24, said:

yeah...I remember that study of olive oils...hadn't realised that Bertolli tested badly and I buy it because it is the most consistently available...I also get the tesco brand when available and the Carrefour brand used to be nice as well...usually nice color and aroma...

I came back from a short trip to the US last week, and of course I brought olive oils.  I splurged on a very nice organic California, made it all the way back to Thailand, took it out of my luggage, then knocked it over a few minutes later to smash on the tile floor.  

[tutsiwarrior]

that's a bitch...do you remember where the CA olive oil was produced? I haven't lived there in 25 years and CA was never known then to have an 'olive industry'...and olive trees take yonks years to grow until they can produce...

I was in the UK in July and there is a chain of markets known as 'Taj' run by arabs...I picked up about 5 kilos of assorted pulses; red kidneys, garbanzos and assorted dahl ingredients and brought them back to Vietnam where I was working, can't get them there for love nor money...then I got sick and had to return home to Thailand...I was carrying the beans in my hand luggage and had to ditch them in the HCM airport as they were too heavy for me to carry in my enfeebled condition...UK to VN then trying to get them to Thailand; fcuking waste of effort...

just hope that the abandoned beans didn't cause a security alert at HCM airport...

[bonobo]

California has a fairly robust olive oil industry now.  Mostly it is smaller, boutique olive oils, but some are quite good.  Quite a few of the orchards are in the Imperial Valley, although the coastal counties have some as well.

California has always had a large eating olive industry.  But except for some monasteries, I don't think there has been much in the way of oils until the last 20 years or so paralleling the rise in US demand for olive oil.

Sucks about your HCM tale.

[tutsiwarrior]

yeah...the Imperial Valley might do OK for olive orchards...a bit harsh out there without irrigation...there used to be a 'date festival' in Indio many years ago...

California always was 'self contained' with regard to nice cooking ingredients...let me tell you about the shock when I moved to Derby in the East Midlands in the UK in the late 80s and going shopping in the produce section of the local Sainsburys supermarket in the winter...couldn't believe that people could live on that shit but there were 10 different kinds of potatoes...bundled up, crippled, arthritic, diseased people hobbling around due to bad diet...sort of like a writer's dystopian nightmare...but the pubs were nice and the local beer from Burton on Trent was delightful...

[Naam]

off topic question: has the airport code really changed from SGN to HCM? there was a big row decades ago when Viet Nam demanded the change and the authority in charge refused by insisting SGN has to be used.

[Naam]

Raesum, on 2011-10-02 17:52:01, said:

I'm sure its nothing that a bit of "Nam Pla Prik" (Chiilies,garlic,lemon juice,fish sauce etc) poured on top can't fix!! I put it on everything-even roasts.

seconded!

[tutsiwarrior]

Naam, on 2011-10-20 11:11:16, said:

off topic question: has the airport code really changed from SGN to HCM? there was a big row decades ago when Viet Nam demanded the change and the authority in charge refused by insisting SGN has to be used.

hi naam...nah, the airport code is still SGN  but most people that do business in the area call the town Ho Chi Minh City (regardless of what the die hard imperialists say) hence, HCM in the non-airport vernacular...

the local name for the airport is Ton Son Nhut (sp?) just like in the war days when it was a military installation...

Edited by tutsiwarrior, 2011-10-20 11:36:36.