Kyle Chayka: Lately Iāve gotten into buying things in bulk. Not quite Costco scale, but stocking up on high-quality necessities like dry pasta, beans (thank you Rancho Gordo), and cooking oil. City lifestyle dictates small purchases on repeat visits to your local bodega / organic grocery. But if you have a little extra space, you can stop worrying about running out quite so often. Plus it makes your kitchen look more like a provisions store. Olive oil is the best candidate for high volume, but Iām not talking about the Whole Foods 365 or Filippo Berio standards. On a whim, I discovered on Amazon a whole world of specialty olive oil thatās no more expensive but much, much better than the basic brands. Iāve now gone through three, three-liter tanks of Mr. Papouās Extra Virgin Olive Oil, a family-owned Greek producer that is totally delicious and retails for under $60.Ā
Mr. Papouās is bright green, grassy, and peppery, better than Graza by a long shot. Its texture is light, a quality of Greek olive oil that I enjoy. The flavor is beautiful for salads or dashed over tinned fish (or the aforementioned beans). The best chip dip on earth is just plain Greek yogurt with some of this oil poured on top, no more, no less. Try it if you donāt believe me. But at this scale, I also donāt sweat just using it for sautāāĆ©ing. Sure, some of the vegetal notes might fade with heat, but itās like the common wisdom with cooking wine: You shouldnāt cook with anything you wouldnāt want to consume straight. Buy a big tank of this oil, and then get a normal-ass oil bottle with a pour top, like this generic one on Amazon for $8. It doesnāt take up much space on miniscule countertops. Refill it every time it goes empty, which in our case is every week or two, depending ā when the oil is actually good, you end up using more of it.
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Great idea this. Not sure what the prices for olive oil are like in the US but theyāve skyrocketed here in the UK. Anyone got any UK based brands theyād recommend?
Sold. Stoked to try. Thanks guys!