Delicious and Indulgent Foods that are not Sweet

 

I am trying to cut back (but not eliminate) sweets from my life. Sweets play an important role in my life - few things feel as luxurious or indulgent as do sweets. Sometimes I want soothing, a feeling of taking care of myself, and baths or hot tea don't do it for me at all. I'm not a huge fan of wine, and I've cut way down on all alcohol, wary of migraines. In my quest to find alternative satisfying luxuries, I ended up at the Georgetown Olive Oil Company.  

They are a tiny little storefront on M Street in (duh) Georgetown. When I went there, the door was locked and I had to ring for admission, and the sign on the door said they were only allowing three customers in at a time. I was, at first, the only customer. 

They stock several olive oil varieties, and many flavored olive oils as well. They also have dark and light balsamic vinegars, other vinegars made from different wine varieties, and flavored vinegars. They had to serve the tastings to me - in tiny paper disposable cups, just to wet your mouth and get a sense. Drinking even a swallow of olive oil or vinegar was a new sensation for me. On a subsequent trip, I may bring in my water bottle for clearing my mouth. Other customers came into the shop, and so I didn't get a chance to sample everything (which I would have enjoyed!)  I came home with several small dark bottles, Moroccan picholine varietal oil, lemon-flavored oil, premium white balsamic, and peach-flavored white balsamic. (They re-use the bottles, and there is a discount for bringing them back.)

Reading about how to do an olive oil tasting, the pure taste without food is recommended,as is done in the shop, but I decided to set it up with some extras: a baguette, some leaves of butter lettuce, some (homegrown) cherry tomatoes, a farmer's market peach. I pulled from my cabinet the standard bottle of olive oil and the balsamic vinegar, for a comparison. My girl came over, and we happily went to town. 

The Moroccan picholine olive variety had a real bite, a taste that came back in the back of the mouth. I liked it fine on the baguette, but it was overwhelming on the plain lettuce - it would need something to tame it - or compete with it - like a lot of good pepper. The lemon-flavor was good, but my girl and I were disagreed on whether it overwhelmed the underlying flavor of the oil. The white balsamic was heavenly, sweet and sour at once. I loved the peach flavored balsamic, but my girl couldn't stand it.

I'm indulging myself on the oils, keeping in mind that olive oil degrades rapidly - no point in hoarding it. Vinegar will last for years, literally. I have used the peach vinegar to cook with once - finishing some pork chops. But where I found I really liked it was as drink. The peach vinegar mixed 1:1 with rum over ice makes a lovely little tipple. I looked up "shrubs" and they are pretty much this. (Oddly, I tried some seltzer in the drink, and it made it much worse.)

Georgetown Olive Oil does mail order, but I enjoyed the experience in the shop, and I want to return the bottles, so I imagine I'll be back down there before much longer.