on my salad today: balsamic, balsamic, balsamic! i'm enough of a vinegar freak that the addition of oil gets in the way. salad dressing? ok, sometimes, but vinegar alone is just fine.

there's a new item on my perpetual list of stuff to someday try: 50-year-old balsamic vinegar. i saw it used on an episode of iron chef and immediately craved; it had the consistency of syrup. like everything, the flavour evolves with age and i'm dying to know what it tastes like after twice my life span.

of course, a bottle of the stuff is probably going to run several hundred dollars, minimum. how nice would it be to put that money towards another trip to italy and just import a bottle from modena myself? i can dream...

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new product alert: ellen notified me about the possible emergence of vanilla coke. that would really rock; i don't drink much pop, but it's always fun to add vanilla syrup to an occasional glass of cola. and then there was my vanilla stoli and coke kick a couple years ago...bring it on.