I'm not sure, but I think I just finished my project proposal for my computer animation class. I didn't expect to get that far, but here I am. I guess that's what you get for not doing anything else all night.

On Saturday night, I went to Sushi Aoki for dinner. It's located on W. Broadway, between Cypress and Burrard. I'd been there once before but I only had the yakisoba, so I knew nothing of their sushi. This time, I sampled some of their sushi and boy was it awesome. Their menus are quite helpful, chock full of photographs so you can see what you're getting. I ordered a simple salmon and tuna sushi combo, and looking at the picture, I was expecting a satisfying yet not a bloated dinner. I was wrong.

When you get salmon and tuna sushi most of the time, you usually see a tiny piece of fish on top of some rolled rice. What I got was several large slabs of fresh fish on top rice. The pieces of fish were so large, I had to lift them off the rice to make sure there was something underneath. There was enough fish there that at some restaurants this would have easily constituted an order of sashimi.

My dining partners, Adam and Tyson, were also not expecting the large portions. Adam had a California roll combo and some tempura, while Tyson had a feast consisting of nearly every variety of raw seafood. We all got our asses kicked but it was so good.

There was one "interesting" moment though. As Tyson was sampling the various items from the sea, he came upon one selection that he said wasn't that great but we should try and get our opinions. Keep in mind he had a rather mild response to this piece of seafood. I decided to try the mysterious item. It looked like a slice of raw squid to me. It was white and had the same texture all the pieces of raw squid I've seen in my entire life. I should have known better at that point, but hey, I'm a dumb guy. As soon as I put it in my mouth, I knew I had made a grievous error on my part. I've been eating sushi for almost twenty years. I've tried a lot of things but never have I had a piece of sushi that was so disagreeable. Raw squid tastes awful. There is a good reason why Greek people batter it up and fry it. To make things worse, the texture is slimy and chewy. I tried chewing as fast as I could to get it down, but it fought me every step of the way. My trouble must have been very evident because Adam and Tyson kept saying, "Are you alright?"

I finally managed to swallow the cursed piece of squid. After sipping some tea and regaining my composure, I managed to say, "Adam, that was really good... your turn". The bastard guy wouldn't have any of it.

So, other than the nasty squid experience, I must say that Sushi Aoki is an excellent place for sushi.

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