One option soon not allowed in the EU is jugs and refillable bottles of olive oil...you know, the stuff on every single restaurant table throughout the continent: "
From 1 January 2014, restaurants may only serve olive oil in tamper-proof packaging, labelled to EU standards" [
BBC]. I can only think this is a ploy to help the economies of the the
PIGS: although the "
spectacular surge in demand for olive oil in developed and emerging markets" [
OOT] should help too. Oliver (yes, honestly) Bailly the European Commission spokesman said the olive oil regulation would benefit consumers because they are only "
making clear that when you want to have olive oil of a certain quality in a restaurant, you get exactly the one you are paying for", what about rip-off wine? What about the 'fresh' bread in an open basket? the meat? the fish? How often does one really get 'exactly the one you are paying for'? Anyway, just like to mention that earlier this year the EU
codified marketing standards for olive oil and I am in favour because reading the regulation [
PDF] I don't think it's as bad as everyone is making out (no change there then!) and as early readers of Owsblog will know,
I like olives...but also I am always pissed off by the obvious dodgy olive oil (I mean restaurant owners saving a few bob, not the
multi-billion pound scam) passed off as super-pure cold-pressed extra-virgin.
Love or hate. The Year of the Snake started on February 10th and should really be renamed year of Marmite ("Love it or hate it."); not because you hate the year or because it has any similarity to the sticky, salty, brown, beer by-product yeast extract but by our calendar so far each month we have a had a 'Marmite' moment: the end of the line or the end of an era for 'divisive' characters. First Chavez died. A month later Maggie died (no O that day) and now, another month later, Ferguson has retired! To quote Austin Barry commenting at The Spectator (I hope he doesn't mind) whose comment has caused a tea and toast crumb splattered Ows laptop: 
