. . except in California, where we have no doubts ours is best.

A couple of years ago, a food magazine, I think it was the CIA** magazine (since discontinued), did a comparative testing of ExtraV Olive Oils which clearly demonstrated their East Coast prejudice. California Olive Oils took the top three spots, by a wide margin. The article stated "This shows that California is starting to catch up to the Italians". Yup, starting to.

That's not new. I have a very old cookbook from the days when you couldn't even get a cookbook published unless it was written in New York. The author extolled the virtues of the best Italian Olive Oils, but lamented, "Unfortunately they don't export these grades". He then lamented, "California makes Olive Oils fully equal to the best Italian. Unfortunately, they don't export it either".

Today it's different. With 400 producers, many of which are also wineries, there's plenty to export. All 400 producer's Extra Virgin conforms to quality certification by the COOC (California Olive Oil Council) - no problem with fake olive oil here.

Here we drink mostly California wine, as by far the best bang for the buck. Imported wines are usually served as an accent item, but are as often from Spain, Hungary Italy, and Chile as from France. The Frogs tend to be way over priced.

** Culinary Institute of America