FLAVOURED BALSAMIC VINEGARS

I must admit, I have gone overboard with a recent love.  This summer I stopped in at a specialty store that only sells olive oil, balsamic vinegar, tapenade, and olives.  The store is located in another city not far from where we live.  I had heard about this store but had not had the opportunity to visit it.  When I walked in and saw the variety of oils and vinegars I thought this experience was going to be much better than a store that sells chocolate or kitchen gadgets.  Their feature of buy five bottles and get the sixth one free was also a very good selling point.  And did I buy.  This store called Oliv has since opened at location close to where we live.  Using flavoured vinegars and oils has replaced any thought of using store bought salad dressings.

I have been using the vinegars and oils on much than just salads.  I only photographed four of the balsamic flavours that I use.  Besides garlic, cilantro, coconut, chocolate raspberry and maple, I have developed relationships with sesame ginger, cherry and grapefruit balsamic vinegar.

To give you some examples of what is possible with these vinegars consider this:
-toss cooked green beans with sesame ginger vinegar
-add sesame ginger vinegar to stir fries
-add sesame ginger vinegar to cooked vermicelli noodles
-marinate uncooked steel head trout or salmon with maple vinegar
-toss shrimp with coconut vinegar while sautéing the shrimp
-drizzle maple walnut or caramel ice cream with maple vinegar
-thaw frozen fruit and drizzle it with chocolate raspberry vinegar
-use chocolate raspberry vinegar in place of chocolate sauce
-add garlic cilantro vinegar to beef marinade
-drizzle any of your favourite vinegars on popcorn

I especially like drizzling fruit with chocolate raspberry vinegar.  It helps with the chocolate craving.  You can also add a tablespoon of some of the fruit flavoured vinegars to smoothies.  I am sure that there are many other foods that would go well with flavoured vinegars.