In previous months, Olives and Olive Oil from Spain, has hosted stands at a number of events to give you the opportunity to try our delicious olives and olive oil. While it’s no secret Spain has the best olives and oil in the world (we won’t tell anyone if you don’t), unless you’ve visited a stand or tasted them yourself, you may not have experienced the beautiful flavours of our produce.

If you haven’t tried them yet, next time you are out shopping put some Olives and Olive Oil from Spain into your trolley – you won’t be alone; Spain is the largest exporter in the world of their top quality olives and oil.

For those of you who have fallen in love with the taste and know what we are talking about, the only thing you want to know is where to buy them.

Olive oil from Spain is available in delicatessens, specialty food stores as well as in supermarkets. Extra Virgin, Pure and Light olive oil varieties are available through Australian outlets. For lovers of all things organic, organic olive oil coming from Spain is also available at delicatessens and supermarkets. You’ll know if you’re buying Spanish product because it’s easily identified by ‘Product of Spain’ or ‘Made In Spain’ labels.

Once you take a bottle home, explore the flavours of the oil with different ingredients. Perfect for any meal, you can use Olive Oil from Spain to cook, to marinade meat or poultry (add a dash of oil, a squeeze of lemon and pinch of salt) or drizzle over salads. You will be surprised at how much the oil enhances the flavour of every meal.

If your passion is Olives from Spain, you’ll be pleased to know they are readily available too.

Popular green olives, stuffed with pimento or anchovies are stocked in delicatessens, specialty food stores and supermarkets. Beyond these well-known varieties are a buffet of other flavours for you to try. Green and black olives are available whole and pitted and also come stuffed with lemon, almond and cheese. Mmm delicious.

You can enjoy olives as they are, pop them in a lunch box, dress over salads, top pizzas or add them to your favourite pasta. Once you open olives from Spain, they will prove hard to resist.

Olives from Spain are easily identified by the wording “Product of Spain” usually found on the label.

For more information or ideas on how to use Olives from Spain log www.olivesfromspain.com.au. For Olive Oil from Spain log onto www.oliveoilfromspain.com.au.

Olives and Olive Oil from Spain travelled to New Zealand last week to bring the delicious taste of Spain to visitors at the Food Show Auckland.

The Food Show Auckland is the most loved, visited and delicious food show for consumers in New Zealand. Around 40,000 guests were able to touch and taste food and wine from around New Zealand and the world including different foods, most importantly Olives and Olive Oil from Spain, wines, spices, cheeses, confectionery, liqueurs, coffees and teas. Guests were also able to see top celebrity chefs including Stefano di Pieri, Julie Biuso, Al Brown, Richard Till, Ruth Pretty, Ray McVinnie, Peter Gordon, Lauraine Jacobs and Annabelle White.

Our popular stand showcased the tradition and taste of Olives and Olive Oil from Spain and invited guests to experience Spain’s fine produce including the best olives and olive oil in the world. Guests were surprised to learn that Spain is the biggest producer of olives and olive oil and the main exporter worldwide.

Hungry visitors huddled around the Olives and Olive Oil from Spain stand to feast on delicious dishes prepared at the stand twice daily including Spanish green olive tapenade and pasta with roast tomato and olive sauce made with black Spanish olives and Spanish extra virgin olive oil. Guests were also able to take home a recipe card so they could reproduce these delicious dishes at home.

In the four days of the show guests consumed over 120kg of Olives from Spain including pimiento stuffed, green olives, anchovy stuffed, garlic stuffed and black olives, as well as 27 liters of extra virgin Olive Oil from Spain.

As part of the Spanish experience guests were invited to enter a competition to win dinner for two at Auckland’s top Spanish restaurant ‘Bellota’, one of six restaurants owned by international award wining chef Peter Gordon and a jewel in the New Zealand dining scene.

Bellota is the Spanish word for acorn and plays a crucial part in the creation of one of the world’s most treasured delicacies – Jamón Ibérico de Bellota which literally means Iberian ham of acorns. This sacred and expensive produce is crucial in Spanish cuisine and is showcased in Bellota’s menu along with other Spanish ingredients including Olives and Olive Oil from Spain.

After four wonderful days at the Food Show Auckland, New Zealanders’ know how scrumptious Olives and Olive Oil from Spain are and will be sure to keep an eye out for them at local supermarkets and delicatessens.

TRAVEL TO SPAIN WITHOUT LEAVING MELBOURNE

Explore Culinary Delights with a Tour of Melbourne’s Best Spanish Restaurants

Spanish Olives and Olive Oil gave visitors to the Good Food & Wine Show in Melbourne a little taste of Spain. Held over three days 4-6 June, the Show attracted almost 30,000 visitors who were lucky to experience cupcake classes, wine and coffee tastings and of course Spanish Olives & Olive Oil.

Guests were invited to sample green olives stuffed with lemon, anchovy and pimento as well as pitted green olives in anchovy brine. Three extra virgin Olive Oils were also available for tasting and surprised showgoers with their different flavours. Our guest chef also prepared two Spanish dishes – Gazpacho and Pasta with Roast Tomato and Olive Sauce.

For those who would like re-live their Good Food & Wine Show experiences (and celebrate World Cup and Tour de France fever!) explore Melbourne’s best Spanish restaurants like MoVida, Tapas Lola, Basque Tapas & Wine (not to mention chocolatier Chocolateria San Churro) and experience the cuisine of winners!

Frank Camorra’s MoVida restaurant is perhaps Australia’s best tapas restaurant. Joined by two sister restaurants, MoVida Aqui and MoVida Bar de Tapas, MoVida’s offers an excellent tasting menu including Aceitunas (Marinated Green Olives with Citrus, Garlic and Thyme); Cecina (air dried Waggyu with poached eggs and truffle foam); and, Pulpo (char grilled octopus with paprika potatoes).

If you’re down St Kilda way, visit Spanish favourite Tapas Lola. Stepping into the restaurant, you’ll experience a sense of a steamy night in Barcelona. The tapas menu offers a selection of small plates which justifies ordering multiple dishes to share or enjoy all by yourself. While Tapas Lola offers mains, the tapas menu with its traditional favourites of chorizo, Seafood Paella and Croquettes is more popular with guests. If you visit, be sure not to leave without trying the Spanish Sherries.

Named after the Basque Country region in Spain, Basque Tapas & Wine serves a wide range of tapas and paella dishes. Live flamenco guitar and the late night bar bring this restaurant and Spanish culture to life in the streets of Windsor. While the organic vegetarian paella is fast becoming a Windsor favourite, along with twice cooked pork with apple and spiced lamb meatballs served in tomato puree. This is a great venue for a nice dinner for two or get together with friends.

No Spanish gourmet tour is complete without exploration of the wonderful world of Spanish desserts. Luckily, Chocolateria San Churro, located in Fitzroy, is a café devoted to Spanish chocolate in all its decadent forms. Chocolateria San Churro serves a vast array of nothing but chocolate. Imported from Spain, the product is turned into mugs of steaming hot chocolate, ice cream and truffles. If that doesn’t have your mouth watering, try a doughnut-like churros, served with liquid chocolate for dipping.

Next week: Travel to Spain (in Auckland)

Meandering around, tasting delicious food and sipping superb wines sounds like a fabulous way to spend the day, and for many, that’s exactly what they did over the weekend.

Sydney’s Good Food and Wine Show for 2010 wrapped up for another year, with the three day show being heralded as a success once more. The show, which attracted over 45 000 guests and was held at the Sydney Exhibition and Convention Centre at Darling Harbour, hosted an array of delights which assaulted the senses.

Hundreds of stalls displayed everything from cheeses, to barbeques, to wines of all descriptions, and even exercise machines to work off the guilt of those gluttonous delights. Once people were done indulging or just wanted a break, there were participative demonstrations to perfect cocktails and make that perfect froth to top off your café style cappuccino.

Top chefs, George Calombaris, Gary Mehigan and Matt Moran were on hand creating restaurant quality dishes in the celebrity theatre. The top chefs showed the ambitious at home cook how to turn their day’s purchases into something special.

The Olives and Olive Oil from Spain stand proved a winner, with Spanish olives, oil and ambiance bringing a hint of Spain to Sydney. The stand showcased the heritage and expertise of Olives and Olive Oil from Spain and enabled guests to experience Spain’s fine produce including the best olives and olive oil in the word.

Beyond the traditional pimento stuffed green olives, guests were able to sample green olives stuffed with lemon, green olives stuffed with anchovy and pitted green olives in anchovy brine. Some even tasted all four!

Popular with showgoers was the olive oil from Spain sampling which was a new addition to the Spanish Trade Commission stand. The feedback from guests who tried the three different varieties of Extra Virgin olive oil from Spain indicated that they hadn’t known, like wine, different Extra Virgin olive oils have different flavours depending on the variety of olives used.

Beyond sampling produce, guests were also able to watch twice daily demonstrations by the Olives and Olive Oil from Spain chef who taught guests how to prepare Gazpacho and Pasta with Roast Tomato and Olive Sauce. Not only did guests take away a postcard featuring the recipes for both dishes but they also enjoyed tasting samples of each recipe.

Our secret is out now – more people know how delicious Olives and Olive Oil from Spain are. Guests will be hungry for more so keep an eye out for your fellow Olive and Oil lovers at your local supermarket and delicatessens.