I had a few days off this week. My good friend Burke was coming in to visit from Germany (he's not German) so I took Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off from work and we spent a bunch of time driving around doing various things. Seems like now we didn't really do much at all but it was well spent I think because I was tired at the end of it for sure. Burke is a bit the opposite from me, terminally skinny, eats constantly. I gained 2 pounds back while he stayed at my house, mostly because we ate out so much. It was fun though, we managed to go to Yapona and had some good sushi even though we made the newb mistake of going on Monday night. I broke Anthony Bourdain's cardinal rule (more or less). Fortunately I seem to have lived to tell the tale. Honestly it was pretty good though I could tell the difference. Amusing anecdote: I have had a similar experience everywhere in Utah when ordering the ama-ebi (sweet shrimp) sushi. Every time they take my order, and then sullenly return to the table a couple minutes later with the news that they are 'out' of sweet shrimp. I love sweet shrimp because it is delicate and succulent and pretty, but mostly because it is elusive and rare, apparently. So at this last trip to Yapona I was joking to the cute waitress (who did a great job by the way) that every time I order ama ebi anywhere in Utah they are always out and I have come to suspect it is some kind of inside joke for sushi joints to put it on the menu but never actually serve it. She assured me that they did, in fact, have ama ebi and would bring it to me promptly if I were to order it. So I did.

Recently this new brand of olive oil showed up at my local Super Target store. It's less expensive thant some of the other high quality olive oils, about $10 a bottle (others are $14 to $18) and it tastes wonderful. It's Australian, which is obviously not Italian, but it has a similar bright and fresh taste and obviously cooks just the same. So far I would say it is similar in every way to any of other commonly available olive oils I have found and since it is a bit less expensive and comes as either a mellow flavor or fruity flavor (I prefer the fruity flavor, meaning more olive flavor, not Wrigley's Juicy Fruit flavor) I'm sticking with this stuff for now. Best part, you can go to their site to join their tasting club and they'll send you a fancy oilive oil tasting glass. Wicked cool.