Tasting

It was about time for another bank holiday -- we haven't had one since last week. We took most of the day off and went shopping in les Halles in Narbonne -- always a pleasure.

This stall sells locally produced olives and olive oil. Production in this area is very modest -- certainly not on the scale of Andalusia or Italy -- but the number of small producers is growing (in line with the decline of the wine industry). And while the oil is inevitably expensive when produced on such a small scale, most of it is excellent. Here you can dip small spoons to taste the various flavoured oils. I'm not much of a fan of pre-flavoured oils -- I prefer the oil to taste of itself, and I can't help feeling it's more likely to go rancid when it has foreign bodies in it. However, it is nice to do as the Spanish do: flavour a small quantity of the best olive oil you can find with herbs, spices, and nuts, let it infuse, and put it on the table with some good bread for dipping at the start of a meal.