Fat-phobia begone! Make way for the flavor-philes!
After years of reading the grams of fat on packages of processed foods, consumers are embracing locally-sourced foods bursting with flavors oozing from rich fats. Bacon anyone?
At a slow food event in San Francisco this summer, I was particularly impressed with the olive oils crafted by Apollo Olive Oil company located in Oregon House California. Gianni Stefanini, who runs the mill, creates only three varieties of oil from light to bold. His favorite is Barouni which he admits is not for everyone because it has a distinct pungent quality that you either love or hate.
I enjoyed tasting each of the varieties from Apollo Olive Oil’s (Mistral, Sierra and Baroni). The most memorable and unique was the Baroni.
One of Apollo’s claim to fame is that they have perfected a processing technique through the used of vacuum mills which results in olive oil with as much as 700 ppm of polyphenols. This compared to regular extra virgin olive oil which ranges from 50-200 ppm of polyphenols.
After an extensive olive oil tasting, I reveled in more flavorful fat, this time whipped bacon fat smeared on a roasted corn on the cob. It doesn’t get any better than that. But don’t take my word for it, check out the video.