It’s first weekend of April and the first weekend of the baseball season (Let’s Go Red Sox, Let’s Go Giants!).
Here are a pair of amusing notes from the food world to chew on while watching the Final Four or getting your garden ready for the warmer weather.
A very big congratulations go out to Scripps College, 30 miles east of Downtown Los Angeles, yesterday becoming the first Los Angeles County olive oil maker to win the Los Angeles Extra Virgin Olive Oil Competition in its 14 year history.
As a proud alum of the Claremont Colleges (Claremont McKenna College to be exact, but as a French major spent most of my time at Scripps), it warms my heart that Scripps embarked on such an artisan food journey. My alma mater would never think of making olive oil, let alone growing olive trees.
I had no idea Scripps was even pressing olives for olive oil, despite being on the pulse of everything food-related in Claremont and Los Angeles as the dining critic for the Claremont Colleges’ student newspaper The Student Life. Your’s truly graduated before the first edition of olive oils were ready in Fall 2012.
However, I was certainly aware of the olive trees in the Humanities complex (I read a Scripps student’s thesis about all of the edible plants on campus…this was foraging long before Noma existed). For a Scripps toga party once, I even made an olive wreath out of the branches of these trees. I don’t think John Belushi could do that for his “Animal House” toga party.
For those keeping score, the olives used were Mission olives, with some Arbequina olives included from an alum’s father’s ranch in Ojai, California. We’ll have to find a way to get our hands on one of the $45 eight ounce bottles soon.
Last year, we covered some of the exciting eats in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, including the mammoth two foot long, one pound, $26 Boomstick hot dog at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. Now in time for opening day, presenting the Beltre Burger, a one pound beef burger with a half pound of bacon. I doubt that Adrian Beltre would ever eat his namesake burger. It’s always good when the general manager of concessions notes, “We don’t count calories.”
You better not here.
We’ll talk again next week, since after the Beltre Burger, you probably won’t need to eat anyways until Monday. Have a great weekend everyone!
Trev's Bistro 