There’s rarely a kitchen without it! Olive Oil. Great to cook with, great for your skin, really good for your hair and I’m surprised Cleopatra didn’t have a bath in it! A few months ago I was in Mendoza, Argentina sampling their greatest produce across several vineyards when I was given the chance to go and visit a local olive oil producer. Now most of us attribute olive oil to the Mediterranean without a second thought to the possibility that all the way on the other side of the world there is a place producing some very high quality oil! After all, a place that’s good to grow wine, has the weather to grow olives! Whilst my visit to the factory, a small producer in the foothills of the Andes, was during off-production period, it was fascinating to see, nonetheless, how the worlds most popular oil is produced.
Origins: Olive Oil
Off the Grid, San Francisco
You’ve got to hand it to San Francisco, they sure do food with style, whether it’s 2 star Michelin, a restaurant that seasons their garlic with food or serious health conscious fare. However, what San Francisco does better than anyone else are food trucks. Now, living in England, the thought of a food truck serving you something that you might be interested in seems like a farce – our experiences being limited to the pitiful excuse for food served out of these trucks at festivals and fairs. Off the Grid is San Fran’s food truck revolution bundled under one happy umbrella. The organisation has food truck markets every week, all over the city and even tells you how many trucks are going to be present at each market. Once a month, at Fort Mason, Off the Grid brings together no less than 30 trucks serving up anything from cupcakes to creme brulee to pho, beer, jerk chicken and tacos. Throw in a live band and some of the best food you’d pay handsomely for in a restaurant, and you’ve got yourself a perfect summer evening. My efforts must have taken me across at least half the food trucks and I have to admit, I was ecstatically shocked and surprised – everything I tasted was fresh, vibrant and just, downright, delicious!
Patagonian Feasting: El Calafate, Argentina
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Leaving the lush green, red and orange autumnal colours of Ushuaia, a short journey on the other side of the mountains revealed a Patagonian landscape completely opposite to one I’d just left behind. Here there were no tall trees or hills covered in greenery, but a barren landscape only dotted by a few shrubs and the native calafate bush, which lends its name to the town of El Calafate.
Patagonian eating: Ushuaia, Argentina
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Having boarded an Aerolineas flight at Buenos Aires and settled into my seat with Bill Bryson’s At Home, a remarkable and extremely humorous piece of work, as all of his other opus’ on life and beyond, I couldn’t help but wonder what was lying at the end of a three and half hour flight, a place fondly known as The End of the Earth. Naturally, there was an unbearable excitement, especially as the plane on its descent took a turn and out of the window was the curved corner of Argentinas southern coast, the piece of land closest to Antarctica, truly at the end of the earth. Patagonia,
