Olives, olives, who wants olives?

14-9-2010
Originally uploaded by cspatrick

Next we went into the halle itself and bought some peaches. Our hands and our shopping cart were too laden with plants for us to buy much else, but it didn’t really matter because this halle didn’t offer much that the one near us didn’t already have as well. There were probably more olives, and lots more dates, and some Sultan brand tea, but overall it was a pretty ordinary halle. This guy probably had at least 15 different varieties of olives for sale!

Perhaps while we are here, I will learn something about olives, as I know very little. I grew up on green olives. When I first tried black olives, I didn’t like them, mostly, I think, because they didn’t taste like I expected olives to taste – that is, salty and vinegary. I learned to tolerate black olives, but those were the only two kinds of olives I knew until long after we moved to Louisiana. I would occasionally go into a shop and see Kalamata olives for sale, but I never tried them. From what I can glean, the basic difference in the varieties of olive are the different marinades in which they are treated, or perhaps in the manners in which they are cured. As I have a chance here in Europe, I hope to try different varieties – not that I will buy them, because I don’t want to be stuck with a whole lot, and I don’t know that a vendor will sell me half a dozen – but perhaps at parties or events like the Montpellier Estival, where a few different flavors may be available on a plate as an appetizer.