BITES : A Glass of Oil

It was a thirsty crowd at Loew’s Santa Monica Beach Hotel on Feb. 22. The American Institute of Wine and Food was holding a liquid-oriented tasting event called Mutatis Mutandis: The Rich and Varied Affinity of Olive Oil and Wine. Some 190 people showed up, and about 100 more had to be turned away.

The thirst problem was compounded by nearly an hour’s delay as the wine glasses were set up (six for wine and six for olive oil per person). “We have to be a little patient,� said Los Angeles AIWF chapter president Tom Martin. “They’ve been putting out glasses since 5 p.m.�

Once everybody was seated, David Rosengarten of the cable TV Food Network led a tasting of wines, then a tasting of olive oils, complete with his trademark wisecracks. Spittoons were provided. Then the crowd flowed to a hotel dining room to sample food from a dozen restaurants representing winey, oily Mediterranean cuisines.

We were left puzzled, though. Rosengarten had showed how wine and olive oil can be tasted by the same procedures, but what about the affinity? Like, does a rustic-style olive oil go with a hairy-chested Zinfandel, or a sensitive Chenin Blanc with a perky young extravirgin oil, or what?

The Water Beneath My Wings

Like sharks, tuna have to swim every moment of their lives, because their breathing mechanism is simply to move water past their gills by swimming around with their mouths open. The slowest a tuna can swim without drowning is one body-length per second.

Another reason they can’t stop swimming is that unlike most fish, which have “swimming bladders� to keep them buoyant, tuna are heavier than water and would actually sink if they stopped. In effect, say J. Joseph, W. Klawe and P. Murphy in “Tuna and Billfish--Fish Without a Country� (Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission; 1988), they’re flying underwater.