Oscar’s Top Three Olive Oils

Olive oil is a Very Big Deal for Oscar Bello Goya.  He cooks with it, pours it over his food, and spends a good amount of time thinking about it, selecting it, and enjoying it every single day. 

When we ask him what he wants for his birthday or Christmas, it's always olive oil. Imagine. (Says the woman with the Filippo Berlio cooking oil in the clear plastic bottle, and a small bottle of Trader Joe's Extra Virgin for salads.) I mean, I know enough to know you cook with cooking grade oil and make salad dressing with EVOO. I know when I'm dredging my crusty bread in something bright grass green and incredibly nice at a good restaurant. I swoon. But I don't generally treat myself to that kind of thing. I just didn't grow up appreciating olive oil. I probably never even tasted it until I was in my mid-twenties!

You all were so generous when I asked for some contributions toward olive oil for Oscar's 30th birthday. We were humbled. I put his birthday post up in the evening and when I got up the next morning I gasped and immediately removed the donation solicitation from the post. I mean, enough! So generous. So enthusiastic. And we are so grateful! Oscar gets his olive oil at oliveoillovers, the best source he's found for exquisite oils from around the world. 

I made a couple of videos when I was last in Indiana, of Oscar cooking his amazing Spanish tortilla (a big wheel of eggy deliciousness with fried potatoes in the center and a dash of curry and a ton of olive oil poured over top). It's soooo good. Oscar got a certification in kitchen operations at IES San Sebastian de La Gomera, on his home island in the Canary chain.

 I have had the great pleasure of Oscar and Phoebe's company over their spring break. Last night I made a little video of Oscar administering a very fine olive oil which was a gift from Liam. It's a varietal called Hojiblanca (white leaf) and it's from a company named A Twist on Olives in Westerville, Ohio. This stuff is as smooth as it gets, without the throat-burning bitterness of some great olive oils that sort of baffles me. The thing is, olive oil is meant to be drizzled over foods that will cut that burn and turn it into a peppery asset. You aren't really supposed to guzzle it straight.

Hojiblanca EVOO gets Oscar's vote, and mine, too. This was our Thanksgiving in March meal. I roasted a turkey breast and did my best to make good gravy from it; Oscar made mashed potatoes, and I made some pretty fab lima bean and carrot succotash. YUM. It was a proper feast, but every night they've been home has seen a feast. Gravy is an unknown thing in the Canary Islands, but Oscar has taken to it like a duck to water. Every meal I make with gravy he tells me is his favorite American food. :) I have to look aside when he pours olive oil on top of my American gravy. 

 

My kids seem never to be happier than when they're tucking into a feast here at home. When I was a teen and college student, highly peripatetic and apt to be out biking and birding when 6 pm rolled around, I couldn't understand why everything in my parents' house had to revolve around meals. Now, as the meal provider, I get it, totally and completely. Meals were when we got together. That was when we talked and caught up together. Nobody but my busy mom stood and ate over the sink in my house, growing up, the way I often do now. And when my kids are here, we plan around meals. 

Look at that smile. He can't wait to tuck in!

Now for a few tips on selecting olive oil. Oscar doesn't just taste it, but he looks carefully at it, as well. He likes a strong, clear color, which can vary from pale straw yellow to emerald green. He checka to see that it's fresh and recently pressed (you can't age olive oil the way you can let wine age; fresher is better). Olives are harvested in October, November and December.

You should be able to see on the label where the oil is from. Oscar prefers Spanish oils. 

Oscar likes to see cloudy stuff in the bottom of the bottle; he says that's the sign of a good olive oil. 

Olive oil is usually sold in opaque, dark green bottles, and that's because light destroys its unique properties. Oscar keeps his oil in a closed cabinet. For that reason, olive oil sold in clear plastic or glass bottles is likely to be less than top grade. 

There are cooking oils, and oils that are not meant to be subjected to heat. I do buy Bertolli and Filippo Berlio oil for cooking, and that often comes in a clear bottle. Extra virgin (EVOO), sold in opaque bottles, is not used for cooking but for dipping and garnishing, and for salad dressing. 

In this video, Oscar introduces his top three oils, and talks a bit about why he likes them. I thought you would enjoy hearing from him in his own kitchen. Please accept our sincere thanks for making his 30th birthday so very special. I trust you can tell how happy a good olive oil can make him. With your generosity, he'll be sitting pretty for quite awhile! 

               

Óscar Turns 30!!

  Óscar Jesús Bello Goya is a man of very few possessions. After all, in January 2024, he picked up everything that he owned and put it in two suitcases to come to America to be with his love, Phoebe. After a courthouse wedding within days of his arrival (by his fiancée visa, they had to get married within 90 days of his final arrival here) he and Phoebe have been living together in the USA for over a year. He's got his green card and a job, too! He's learning to use all kinds of electric tools. He's learned to drive (there was no need to on the island; he biked to work); gotten his driver's license; he's gotten so much practice on English and is getting so good!

He's also learning to survive an Indiana winter, and as NO FUN as it's been in Ohio, it's been worse there. Brrrrr!! 

I’ve been observing this charming and unusual man since early 2019, and I can say that they broke the mold when they made Óscar. The one thing he loves most besides Phoebe, his family and friends and the ocean is... food. Ohh yes. It's food. He definitely came to the right wife and mother-in-law.

 And that food must be swimming in olive oil (note bottle on table by his place!) Really, really good olive oil. It goes on everything. Sometimes even on dessert...I’ve seen him buy cases of EVOO from Lebanon, and cases from Spain. Wherever we travel, if there’s an olive oil store, he’s going from tap to tap, holding up the cup, squinting at the color and cloudiness, tossing it back, a thoughtful look on his face. To say he’s a connoisseur is putting it mildly. He’s got particular tastes, and not just any oil will do. He's a purist.

 My sister-in-law, Jade, had a fabulous idea for the Thompsons to pool our funds and get him a gift certificate to OliveOilLovers. com. We each threw in $50 and this is what happened. (Some of these he already had; he's just gloating over the spoils of all the oil he owns).

photo by Phoebe

Phoebe said he was like a kid on Christmas morning. Pretty adorable. This made him so happy. I’d say we created a monster, but he was already a Cookie Monster for food and olive oil. A very handsome one, but definitely a monster. There’s no going back now. The olive oil genie is out of the bottle, and he’s not going to fit back inside.

Photo by Phoebe

 Judging from his buttery skin and that thick, shiny auburn hair that seems to grow an inch a week, I think he’s onto something. I couldn’t eat that much olive oil in a sitting. I couldn’t eat that much in a year. I’ll just be over here quietly drying up and blowing away. But I would like to see if I can help keep him in EVOO for awhile. 

 Oscar turns 30 on Saturday, February 22, 2025. UPDATE: Here, around 7 pm on Feb. 19, I posted solicitation for anyone who felt like contributing to send a small gift via my blog donation button or a direct link. SOME PEOPLE didn't follow the DIRECTIONS and they were FAR too generous. Everyone was! This boy is SET for olive oil for quite some time to come! It's now 11 AM Feb. 20 and with a sheepish laugh I'm pulling the plug on this spur of the moment "campaign." Man. The power of a guapito reclining before an array of bottles, and the power of a long-distance love story for the ages...

Obviously. many of you lovely people wanted to help keep our Oscie in olive oil! (Who wouldn't?) Here's a heartfelt THANK YOU from his doting mother-in-law. He is still in the dark about this; after all, it's not his birthday yet. But you have a treat coming. When Phoebe tells him, she's going to have her iPhone at the ready for his reaction. Stay tuned!  I, for one, cannot wait!

I call this the Burt Reynolds shot. Minus the bearskin. Photo by Phoebe.

It’s a “Welcome to America, happy 30th birthday, congratulations on your wedding, and we’re so glad you’re here!” for one very deserving, occasionally homesick, and freezing cold Spanish lifeguard. I know that nothing could make him happier! 

**I am being very sneaky about this. I put a teaser on Facebook, using the feature whereby you can block a certain person from seeing your post. I'm not putting it on Instagram, because he would see it right away. And he doesn't visit my blog because it's too difficult to read just yet. So if this works, it will surprise the heck out of the dear boy, and delight him beyond telling. I loove a surprise! Thank you so much! Y'all are absolutely the BEST!