BTW, we will be shopping for gigantic medjool dates from San Diego county this summer. The way that happens is that we will ask a relative to hit any local store that has a bunch of them and have them buy several pounds and mail them to us.
They will be eaten in a day or two.
This will beat the commercial product to the WarshDC market by a month or more! Even the Arab stores around here can't get the product faster than that.
We've found that you can even get gigantic medjool dates on the roadsides between the coast and the Indian reservations (with casinos) that are pretty good and seem to have been harvested maybe a day or two earlier.
But for olives, no matter how many olives I would import from SD or Greece or Spain, that first press would NEVER be better than a pedestrian quality oil found at the local Safeway.
Boy, we will just have to disagree.
I’m a big cook, my brother a professional chef ... cooking is paramount in the family. But Safeway, YUCK! You can have their oil. I’ll continue to buy my favorite quality brands.
You can call me a “phony” and I can call you a “naif”.