*rant*

Just been out for a nice Friday dinner out. I'm partial to a nice drop of olive oil, some balsamic vinegar and good bread to dunk therein. It seems however that restauranteurs at several of the establishments I have dined at recently slept through basic high school chemistry. Here's the problem:

If you put the olive oil and the balsamic in the same dipping bowl they seperate- oil on the top, balsamic (being water based) on the bottom. Now the problem with this is when you dunk your bread it must pass through the oil before reaching the vinegar. Because olive oil is a hydrophobic substance the nice coating of oil that the bread receives on the way through prevents any absorbtion of vinegar.

Moral of the story- two bowls. One for vinegar, one for oil. Dunk the vinegar first.