Oh, the variety of olives, Ice and Olives has, and you can sample one if you are indecisive on which kind you want. I love trying things before I buy them, especially olives, especially if they are stuffed with various ingredients.
Ice and Olives at 29th Street and Croco Road, specializes in gourmet olives, both in bulk and jarred. The business offers its own private selection in the dry good sections of the little market – ranging from almond stuffed, to anchovy stuffed, to bleu cheese stuffed.
The olives sold in bulk include the roasted garlic stuffed olive, which I thought would be overpowering but ended up being quite pleasant. The saltiness of the olive combines with the garlic to blend together into one flavor. The Italian olive is the bright red one with the pit still in it. Now, don't be scared of the pit, as long as you know it is there it should do you no harm. This olive reminded me of a milder black olive, and would be good to give salads color, or maybe even to cook with fish in replacement of capers. The last one I tried was a garlic jalapeño one, which I was scared of because I don't like overly spicy things. This was a surprise in that it was crunchy because of the jalapeño, but the garlic toned it down, as well as the saltiness from the olive. This one ended up being my favorite because of the texture and the flavor combined.
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