Hazelnut oil

Raw. They have to be blanched, or baked, or heated somehow. And I want hazelnut oil. The hazelnut oil I bought tastes neutral. Most likely not cold-pressed. When these hazelnuts are smashed in a garlic press, the press becomes all oiled up and slippery wet with it. I think it turned into peanut-butter type consistency simply by processing. Here it is flavoring the oil like garlic does. 

Used this way as the oil component of a dressing.

The people around here are so nice it is astonishing sometimes. 

I went into Tony's down the street a few blocks, to pick up some blue cheese and look for cold pressed hazelnut oil. They are an upscale market so likely to have it. I left my glasses in the truck and could not read the labels. Easy enough to just go get them. The truck is right there in front. I asked the one of three people working together and talking behind the meat counter, an extravagant layout of expensive cuts of grass-fed meat, if there was someone around on this side that could help me locate it and she walked around the counter to join me on the other side. A bit embarrassed, I did not mean for her to move, nonetheless she scanned the shelves and came up with hazelnut but could not confirm it is cold pressed.

They would brag about that, I think.

She asked someone more knowledgeable than herself, they conferred, agreed it was not exactly cold-pressed but rather treated very carefully with low heat. So, no. And they were not the slightest put off by my not buying it after all that special attention. 

Throughout all that we conversed. I asked her about her meats and she answered knowledgeably. I told I had just been to Oliver's the day before planning something for that night, I mentioned the additional ground beef. Instead of being dismissive, instead of being competitive, instead of being 100 ways of rude or childish, instead she was interested, genuinely so, totally interested in what Oliver's is up to. Wondering if it is worth it to go there herself. Very interested in how they compare. A regular clerk, a person who works there, and they all seem that way, completely immersed in their industry, not at all like the descriptions of Millennials that I read about, nor hipsters, nor the X-generation whatever that is. I find none of that true. Rather, repeatedly I find very engaging people all around.