Fig & Olive Plans Your Next Party + a Broke-Girl-Friendly Happy Hour

Upon sampling the olive oil at Fig & Olive, we wanted to grab a bottle and start guzzling it like champagne.  Immediately, we started looking for excuses to imbibe as much olive oil as humanly possible. Having discarded the idea of dousing our Cheerios in this decadence, the perfect solution came to us instead by way of Fig & Olive’s Executive Chef Pascal Lorange -- an olive oil tasting party!  So unique, so European, and so...resplendent with olive oil.  Chef Lorange has kindly provided us with all the details necessary for organizing this oh-so civilized soiree, along with recipes for drool-inducing Fig & Gorgonzola Tartlets and Zucchini Carpaccio, the perfect additions to your party.  Just add some Prosecco -- and perhaps those cute Euro boys you met at The Standard (we won't ask) -- and imagine yourself in Saint-Tropez or the Amalfi Coast.  Oh, and it's National Olive Month (seriously), so feel free to use that random fact as further excuse for the occasion.

Before we get into the sumptuous, olive oil-drenched details, however, we would like to acknowledge the fact that some of you may be more into the European fantasies than the hostess duties. We suggest you check out Fig & Olive’s surprisingly Broke-Girl-friendly specials. Their Aperitivo Hour from 5 to 7 p.m. daily includes complimentary hors d'oeuvres with the purchase of a $7 to $10 drink.  If you show up for their just-launched Summer Thursdays, also from 5 to 7 p.m. throughout the month of August, the purchase of a glass of rosé will get you not just a free appetizer, but also a free tasting of four French wines. 

For those of you inspired to throw a chic olive oil tasting of your own, here's what you'll need: 

Slices of green apple (to cleanse the palette)
Wine glasses or small bowls (to hold the olive oil)
A sliced baguette
At least four different olive oils.  A few of our suggestions: Oleum Priorat Vitae - Spain ($11.99); Castelines - France ($24.99); FIG & OLIVE Frantoio - Australia ($13.99).

Instructions:
1. Pour about 2 tablespoons of olive oil into each wine glass or small bowl. Warm the olive oil and bring out the fragrance of the oil by gently cupping it. Cover the top while swirling to keep in the aroma.

2. Smell the oil three times, looking for some of these notes: apple, almond, artichoke, astringent (a puckering sensation), banana, bitter, buttery, fresh, fruity, grass, green, green leaf, harmonious, hay, melon, perfumey, musky, nutty, woody, peppery, pungent, and rotund.

3. Next, if you are a hardcore olive-oil-taster, go ahead and take a sip. (Mere mortals can instead use the baguette slices as vehicles for the oil.) Take two quick drags of air through your teeth to finish the tasting, and wait a few seconds to let the oil's aftertaste settle.  You're looking for a fruitiness, “green” or “sweet,” a "grassy" smell, and also possibly some bitterness.  Ideally, you should get a balanced sensation of fruitiness, bitterness, and pungency, which tells you it's a good oil.

4. Between each tasting, eat a piece of a green apple slice to cleanse your palette.  (And please, try not to guzzle olive oil straight from the bottle unless you're sure no one is watching.)