quality aged balsamic vinegar- tips

[shootingstar]

Thx, so much for all this info. I guess it'll be not too expensive ie..$20-$25 After all, it's just another gift add-on to several other things..

Gives me lots to make notes and ponder

For now, on assessing rice quality, each person is different. Due to need to cut down my rice consumption, I eat less rice but want quality. I was truly pissed off that I bought the wrong type for myself in a 10 kg. bag..it was short grain a touch more on the sticky/glutinous side. Which I dislike. Something that tastes sticky rice to me, tastes poor quality (except for sushi and for glutinous rice packets of goodies steamed in bamboo/lotus leaves) but that's just probably my Cantonese cooking style snobbishness. Big mistake to buy bag that is not transparent and a brand that I wasn't totally familiar with.

My fav is long grain white rice, even length, not broken grains and not sticky/glutinous. Basmati rice is nice but it doesn't suit for my taste for everyday or frequent eating. I view basmati rice more for certain occasions. It wasn't part of my cuisine upbringing via parents which probably influences my preference.

I only use sushi rice for sushi.

Have a bag of red rice which I haven't opened yet. Heard from a Sri Lankan colleague about how he prepared it. Need to ask for instruction again.

We will buy more arborio rice..we are thinking of maybe paella during Christmas holidays. Next day after our spaetzle stuff on CHristmas Eve.

[Biciclista]

We really love the red cargo rice. It is pretty and tastes good. The other rice we like a lot is Jasmine rice. I don't like sticky rice so much.
Believe it or not, I don't like the Italian rices so much, they seem to be overly processed.

Oakleaf sorry, I wasn't comparing safeway brand with the top of the line, i was more thinking of the middle of the road brands, because like you, i can't justify 40 bucks for it.

[DebTX]

is a great resource for this type of thing.

Here's the link for their balsamic vinegar testing: http://www.cooksillustrated.com/tast...sp?docid=10133

On quite a few occasions, when buying cookwear and gourmet foods, they've helped me find an economical solution. Sometimes those pricey choices aren't the best!

[alpinerabbit]

mmmh I just had some of our austrian (styrian) pumpkin seed oil over my pasta, ever had that? it's good with balsamic vinegar as a salad dressing too...

*fingerlickin'*

[Reesha]

This is an old thread, but I'll bump it.

My secret place to buy the really expensive bottles of balsamic and extra virgin olive oil is TJ Maxx, Marshalls or Homegoods. Best balsamic I've ever had was Napa Valley Harvest. It was thicker than blood! I think it was barrel aged for four years or something. Mmmmm.