What Despair Was
What’s that? You thought that cussing at food was reserved only for asparagus? (Image link thanks to grammarqueen; cartoon by Gary Larson) As big of a fan I wasn’t of asparagus juice, olive juice, called 橄榄汁 (ganlanzhi), quickly became another bottled foe I encountered in mainland China. In fact, it was found at a store in Xiamen 厦门 that specialized in olive products, namely dried olives, pickled olives and this juice. No olive oil? Nope, but olive oil stores can be found in other parts of the country, namely nowhere near wherever I usually am (the south). Besides, how else could I provide both misery to myself and a blog post to readers if this opaque bile-colored thirst-quencher (that is, quenching one’s thirst for this drink forever) didn’t exist? According to the Olive Oil Times (member since birth, at least in theory), although more and more Chinese are being introduced to European olive oils, (don’t start hoarding one of my most beloved foods, you asparagus juice drinkers!; eh who am I kidding, all of the non-imported stuff there will likely be tainted with gizzard pulp anyway), for now olives planted in Gansu and Tibet are produced mainly to be consumed dried and/or used in southern Chinese cooking, as referenced above.
If the 7-11 near you stocked olive juice and it wasn’t buy one get one free, would you still give it a go?
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