If you're a regular reader of the blog, you may have noticed I missed a few days of posting. I was on the road, with Beauty Foods CEO Jacque Gibson, introducing her brand to spa buyers at the Green Spa Networork conference in Santa Fe, NM.
Though we did work hard, there was a little bit of time for fun. One afternoon I went for a walk with the camera around downtown. Between the adobe, the Hispanic colors, the spring flowers, and all the textures, it's pretty hard to take a bad photo of anything there!
This is probably my favorite one. I spent a lot of time and several takes getting it right, and much to my delight, when I looked up from the camera, behind the beautiful window was an olive oil store, Oleaceae!
In one storefront, there were olive oils from Argentina, Australia, California, Cypress, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Mexico, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Syria, Tunisia, and Turkey. Each variety was in a steel container, with tasting cups for customers to try. With each different variety was a description of the flavor, suggested uses, and balsamic vinegar flavorings. (I'll get to vinegar in a minute!)
Here is the pomegranate balsamic vinegar. Are you feeling like a good salad yet?
On the back wall we found a smorgasbord of flavored salts!
I couldn't even fathom the number of different combinations of vinaigrettes, marinades, and rubs you could concoct between all of the varieties of oil, vinegar, and salt. I grabbed a couple of salts for gifts and bookmarked the website, as I know I've found a great go-to place when I need a gift for a foodie!
If you have a good cooking store, oils, vinegars, salts, herbs, and spices are definitely worth the investment. You don't need much for a recipe, and you can always create a new favorite from an old one simply by switching out the plain variety for a flavored one.
Bon appetit!