There are about nine Targets in Manhattan alone. “A” Whole Foods? There are 11 in Manhattan.
If you buy really good olive oil and use that when you want that buttery flavor… the expensive stuff does it’s job and does it well. The cheap stuff is just that…
For flavorless oil I like Grape seed oil like chef Irvine.
For stir fry it needs to be sesame.
When I do any Mexican deep frying its straight up corn.
One day I will press my own olives… For now I just cure them in water… I love my olive tree!
nycch: Welcome back. A couple of comments, apropos of nothing: first, indoor dining is re-opening this weekend and we’re off to Henry’s End for turtle soup, etc. (I remember our interaction about it several years ago). Secondly, thanks for the Steve Jenkins link. I used to play tennis with him & wondered if he’d reappear after he “retired” from Fairway.
Tom Mueller’s book Extra Virginity was quite a helpful book 10 years ago, and for some time he kept a website that kept track of the good/bad/ugly olive oils. I see he’s taken down the website, though the book is still interesting even if all you remember from it is the depth of sleaze and dishonesty in a lot of the olive oil business (familiar trusted brands that sometimes aren’t even made from olives, etc.).
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Hi, SteveR. Good memory, but as a high-risk oldster, I’m not comfortable with the idea of resuming restaurant dining.
SteveJ is selling some good stuff, if not exactly cheap.
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Thanks for this. Fairway’s balsamic was excellent too.
Understood. We’re not exactly spring chickens ourselves (over 65), but got our 1st dose of the vaccines a couple of weeks ago and are feeling ok with places where we know the owner and are sure of the precautions being taken. Jenkins is incredible with cheese and olive oil (not so much with tennis - hope he’s reading along 
) & several years ago, when we took a trip to Umbria, he set us up on a day at a small family run frantoia in Todi, tasting olive oils straight from the family’s trees and touring their mill, etc. Nice to see that he’s working again. By the way, I went on his website and, in the media section, there’s a link to an epicurious article (https://www.epicurious.com/ingredients/the-absolute-best-extra-virgin-olive-oil-for-cooking-article) that’s well worth looking at, tasting and rating a number of oils.
Wow, that Olive Oil Jones site is beautiful, and their arbequina is very tempting, but I’m not crazy about those prices – they’re much higher than what it cost at Fairway ($50 instead of $15-$20 for a liter). That’s somewhat understandable since I’m sure it’s a much smaller operation, and I bet they’re worth it, but I’ll probably wait for a special occasion like Christmas before I think about that kind of splurge. I really miss my Brooklyn Fairway and its excellent OOVOs. After heavy usage of those for months, I became spoiled and can’t go back to Trader Joe’s olive oils. They taste rancid to me now! (Except maybe the California one, that might be OK.) I tried TJ’s Tunisian unfiltered organic OOVO recently. It comes in a lovely tin. But, nope, not a fan. Too astringent, and not particularly fresh-tasting.
I’m feeling too nervous about Covid for a jaunt into Manhattan to visit its Fairways. Fortunately I have the Industry City Sahadi’s near me and found a pretty good Greek Kalamata OOVO there, Agrovim Iliada. It’s $12.50 for 750 ml (25 oz.). It’s rich and unmistakably olive-y, the kind where you can be sure, just by tasting it, that there’s no cheating being done, no grapeseed or canola or sunflower oil in there. IMHO it’s definitely better than Zoe, which I also tried at Sahadi’s and wasn’t crazy about. It tastes very neutral to me, not bad, but a bit blah, not much taste, maybe more reminiscent of sunflower oil with a few olives tossed in, though definitely not as bad as some of the other junky olive oils I’ve found around here. Anybody have any other recommendations for southern or central Brooklyn? I love fruity ones that aren’t too astringent. Thanks!
Olive oil can have so many different flavor profiles - buttery, peppery, herbaceous, citrusy, bitter (in a good way) - very much like wine. It may take a couple of tries before you find one you like. You may want to start with one that is not quite so powerful (for lack of a better word) to start.
I’ve hosted olive oil tasting events. Most people don’t realize how varied olive oils can be. Well, maybe most people in the world though probably not most on HO. It is very interesting. You use small, blue glasses so as not to be swayed by color variations when tasting.
Enjoy the hunt!
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One only has to go to Spain. Good olive oil PARADISE! Every village has farmers who make their own. The oils all taste different depending on several factors.
This is just a small selection at my lodging. The unfiltered oils blew me away. My breakfast every day for a week was just bread (baked daily by the lodging’s neighbours) and these oils. The owner filled a bottle with unfiltered oil for me (as a free gift) when I departed.
If I want a Spaniard to look at me with contempt I tell them “Italian olive oils are the best”. They all know the story about Italians buying Spanish oils and selling them as “Italian”.
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I ended up buying this & it was great. Thanks for changing my mind about olive oil.
I’ve got a great recipe for country-style phyllo dough waiting…
I’m drooling.
Spain has long been on my list of countries to revisit but I think it may have moved way up the list when comes that I’ll travel again. That looks amazing. Spanish olive oils have always been a favorite.
We were using the Zoe from Sahadi (Atlantic Ave one, near us), but have found one we liked more at the Key Food (don’t shoot!) on Montague St (not sure if the one on Atlantic Ave has it). It’s Bono’s Sicilian EVOO. It says it’s Val Di Mazara PDO, cold extracted & Organic. The fine print says that the olives (3 varieties) are from both Palermo & Agrigento provinces. Obviously, we’re not talking high end here but Key Food shelf stuff, but we like it more than we thought. By the way, since Jenkins retired several years ago, the Fairway stuff (just about all the varieties/nationalities) lessened in quality. Although we shopped at the Red Hook store until it closed, we stopped buying olive oil & cheese there.
ETA: maybe some day we can get Dave Cook & arrange an old timers dinner in Brooklyn. He’s the only one who’s been adventurous enough to still be out there, doing the foraging, during these scary times. 
If you also eat pork and like tomatoes then I suggest the most famous Jamon producing area called “Sierra de Aracena”. The oils, the tomatoes and the Iberico pork in Spain will make you smile all day.
I posted my experiences from that Sierra trip here. [wipe tears 
]
Oh, that’s great! Glad you like it. Good luck with the phyllo.
Well that specificity is encouraging - and unusual!
I’ve relied on TJ’s for a while now, because the quantities are small, my usage isn’t high, and I can try a different one each time. Their Tunisian and Spanish oils have been really good. The Greek was a strong flavor that I didn’t love, but may be what others are looking for.
Here in CA through the pandemic, we have used Costco for normal use (pretty good tbh) and higher end stuff from Williams Sonoma for finishing/specialty use.
Was it the Kalamata one? I hated that so much I brought it back because I thought it was spoiled.
Here’s the one we buy (link to the company’s website): https://www.bonousainc.com/products/bono-sicilian-val-di-mazara-pdo-organic-extra-virgin-olive-oil/
Amazon has their more generic “Sicilian” EVOO available.
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Thank you for the suggestion. Your trip looks amazing. Your photographs are wonderful as is you writing.
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