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Thank you! I wrote about my dislike of truffle oil a few years and thought maybe it was just me. The stuff was so bad that for years I thought I didn't like truffles. Then I went to Italy and tried actual ruffles. I found that though the flavor was indeed earthy and distinct, it was also surprisingly delicate and ethereal.

As I said on my blog, if I had my way, every restaurateur who goes about with truffle oil on his menu would be boiled in a vat of truffle oil and buried with a vial of the vile stuff stuck through his heart. I really do hate it.

I was interested to find that while buying truffles at the market may be expensive, at least in the small restaurants in the area in Italy we frequent, a pasta or risotto with truffles is not all that much more expensive than the other menu items.

I was also served a risotto (in Italy) made with fresh truffles that still had that unpleasant, stinky gym sock odor I associate with truffle oil. Pretty sure the kitchen bumped up the truffle flavor with truffle oil. I couldn't finish it and was left wondering why the chef couldn't leave what would otherwise have been a lovely dish well enough alone.

I spent a week in Atlanta and was amazed at some of the food. It was certainly not the Atlanta I remembered from my youth. We really well and the Buford Highway Market was amazing.