The prince of oils and a stunning strand

What you want to know this week

Best olive oil

The extra-virgin olive oil from De Rustica Olive Estate near De Rust in the Klein Karoo is the world’s finest, according to 26 expert blind tasters who gave the medium-intensity Coratina 97 points out of 100. Owner Rob Sill attributes the quality to picking by hand, saying it protects the fruit from damage. The Fomolistas think he's just being bashful and there is more to this accolade. Whatever, he makes South Africa proud.

Best beach

Condé Nast Traveller has recognised Die Plaat beach near Hermanus in the Overberg as one of the world’s best. It is the only beach in South Africa on the publication's list of the top 34. Die Plaat is a 17 km Cape Nature beach within Walker Bay Nature Reserve, which offers biodiversity, historical significance and natural beauty.

The beach's Klipgat Cave is full of bats, and until about 80,000 years ago it was home to late Middle Stone Age people. The waters off Die Plaat are an important calving location for southern right whales between June and December.

Finds

Cold feet

We placed Safeway's hot water bottle in the first FOMO, but here it is again if you missed it. We swear by it.

Its biggest advantage is that you can plug it in to charge next to your bed. It gets blazing hot in five minutes and retains its heat much longer than a regular hot water bottle. On promotion at Clicks for R175.20.

Warning: It's not supposed to last forever but Laureen's is on its second season and gets plugged in up to three times a day.

Food tip

Ali van Wyk says you will never buy one of those expensive bottles of pickled jalapeños again if you see how easy it is to make them yourself in 15 minutes. Doing so costs between R50 and R80 for a 400 g jar.

You will need:

• a jar large enough to hold about 6 to 8 jalapeños cut into rings
• 1 cup of water
• 1 cup of white vinegar (cheap white spirit vinegar, not white grape vinegar)
• 2 crushed cloves of garlic
• 2 tablespoons of sugar
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 6 to 8 jalapeños cut into rings, with seeds

Method

1. Combine all the ingredients except the jalapeños in a medium pot and bring to the boil.
2. Add the jalapeños, stir once and remove from the heat.
3. Let the concoction stand for 8 minutes to cool.
4. You're done. Put the jalapeños in the jar with tongs, pour the liquid over them, and store in the fridge for two months or longer. (You'll soon see when they are off. If you seal the lid, they will last much longer.)
5. It's a bogus story that the chilli seeds cause the fiery heat. Leave them in. You can add spices and herbs such as mustard seeds, cumin seeds or bay leaves, but it's really not necessary. 

Just so we know what to do with all the jalapeños, Ali recommends bacon whisky (see below). It's a cowboy bar recipe and an excuse to start drinking early.

Cutting-edge tip

Did you know you can sand down wooden cutting boards rather than replacing them? When the wood is raw and clean, rub in olive oil to make it look like new again.

Now you know

Familiar acronyms that we use every day but don't know what they stand for:

• OTP: One-Time Password
• PIN: Personal Identification Number
• QR Code: Quick Response Code
• SMS: Short Message Service

• MMS: Multimedia Messaging Service
• WiFi: Wireless Fidelity
• GIF: Graphics Interchange Format
• GPS: Global Positioning System
• KYC: Know Your Customer
• PDF: Portable Document Format
• PNG: Portable Network Graphics
• JPEG: Joint Photographic Experts Group
• URL: Uniform Resource Locator
• www: World Wide Web
• PAN: Permanent Account Number

12 questions to test your Olympics savvy

#1 When was the last time the Olympics were held in France?

#2 In what event(s) will Wayde van Niekerk compete in this year's Games?

#3 When did Chad le Clos compete in the Olympic Games for the first time?

#4 How many Olympic medals has Michael Phelps won?

#5 Which tennis player was lucky to make his country's Olympic team?

#6 Which Olympic sport is dominated by South Korea?

#7 Which athlete who was recently held in a Russian prison for almost a year is competing in the Games?

#8 At which Olympics did a pipe bomb explode in the Centennial Olympic Park, killing one person and injuring 111?

#9 What is the name of the movie based on the Black September terrorist attack at the 1972 Olympics?

#10 Which American male athlete is the strong favourite for the 100 m and especially 200 m?

#11 Which Jamaican athlete is considered the successor to Usain Bolt?

#12 Who holds the oldest world record in women's athletics?

Answers

1. 1924
2. Incomprehensibly, only in the 200 m. And he is a reserve for South Africa's 4x100 m team. 
3. His first Olympic Games was in London in 2012, when he achieved a historic victory over Michael Phelps in the 200 m butterfly.
4. 28
5. Rafael Nadal
6. Archery
7. Brittney Griner (basketball)
8. Atlanta 1996
9. Munich
10. Noah Lyles
11. The 23-year-old Kishane Thompson, who has run a time of 9.77 seconds in the 100 m, faster than Lyles.
12. The Czech Jarmila Kratochvílová, who set her 800 m record of 1:53.28 in 1983 (Caster Semenya's best time is 1:54.26).

Last word

Quote of the week

Jana Luther, co-editor of the Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal, writes:

Blouberg was a “boerestrand", wrote Prof Piet Cillié ... “That's probably why the powers that be could change the official name, Blaauwbergstrand, with impunity."

Other names were basically eradicated.

Pampoenkraal became Durbanville.

Papendorp became Woodstock.

Jan Biesjeskraal turned into Milnerton.

Potsdam still exists but is mostly known as Killarney (Die Burger, 10 February 1995)

♦ VWB ♦

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