My latest cool product discovery has been the alum bar. It basically looks like a giant rock of salt and you’re supposed to wet it and glide it over your face after shaving to help tighten your pores and calm any razor burn. In addition, if you happen to nick yourself while shaving, it acts as a styptic agent and instantly stops any bleeding. While I use an electric shaver and therefore don’t have any nicking or razor burn problems, I do frequently suffer from minor skin irritations, especially during the dry winter months. It’s only been 3 weeks since I’ve gotten it, but so far it’s been nothing short of miraculous in its effectiveness in relieving those irritations. It also appears to have the added benefit of keeping my skin from getting oily. You can buy an alum bar from various places if you Google it, but I just got mine from The Art of Shaving counter at Nordstrom. It costs about $12 and it looks like it should basically last forever as long as you don’t accidentally drop it. Anyway, if you’ve never used an alum bar, run out and get one, now.

Friday afternoon we couldn’t get enough people together for poker, so I wasn’t sure what I was going to do that night. Then I got a text message from Mrs. Dawg asking if I wanted to go to Chiyono. Naturally I said yes and sent out messages to Rick, Kat and Twoin to see if they were down. They all bagged but said they might be up for drinks afterwards. So dinner was just me and the Dawgs and Chiyono was great as always. I of course ordered the consistently excellent fried oysters again since it’s just a winter dish and must be coming off the menu soon. I will miss it. We also got the daikon spare ribs which were braised and served in a delightfully fragrant broth. The daikon was actually the star of that dish, each bite juicy with all of that broth flavor saturated throughout. We also got the grilled cod and grilled salmon, both of which were what you’d expect from Chiyono- a superb balance of flavor from marination and grilling without overwhelming the natural flavor of the fish. But the best dish of the night was actually the fried chicken bites which I don’t recall having had before. Boneless, deeply flavored from some type of soy based marinade and juicy as all get out, every bite of it was superb.

After dinner we headed over to Gama for what can best be described as The Gathering. Kat didn’t come out but Rick did and was the first to meet us over there. Then Twoin showed up even though he originally just said “maybe”. Then Kat’s sis and her boyfriend showed up for dinner, purely coincidentally. Then Gar and Esth showed up with Esth’s little sister and their friend Jojo. Then Ken and Tracy, Jerome, and Rog and Lisa all showed up. We went from not being able to round up enough players for a game of poker to an impromptu takeover of the bar at Gama. Sweet. Gama was once again fantastic. We started with watermelon soju to which our bartender, the same one that hooked us up last time, added extra soju each time we ordered another. Then we moved on to a few martinis and beers. Somewhere during the night I also asked the bartender to reproduce the shot that she made for us last time, a Slutty Redhead, which you would never believe has Jagermeister in it if you didn’t watch her make it. It was a fun night and when we got the check, once again I couldn’t believe how inexpensive it was and how well the bartenders must have taken of us. Good times. Apparently they’ll be adding outdoor seating when the weather gets warmer so then it will really rock.

Not much happened on Saturday. We were going to go to AC, but when I called Borgata they didn’t have any rooms available. Maybe they were all booked up because Hall and Oates were playing that night. Goddamn Maneaters.

Sunday I was thinking about going to Golfsmith to try out the Taylormade Dual hybrid that I’m thinking of getting. But as I deliberated, I got really hungry and as I drove out there, I decided to go right past it and up a mile or two further to the Korean restaurant I had been wanting to check out for over a year now. It’s Kang Suh, the Westchester outpost of the same Kang Suh in K-town in Manhattan. It’s located in a strip mall and the restaurant is quite spacious with private booths on one side, open seating in the middle and a sushi counter in the back corner. I got a takeout menu and went to work. I ordered a kalbi tang, a soon-doboo jigae (the usual soft tofu soup which was what I was really craving but was too lazy to drive out to Fort Lee), an abalone porridge, and a bo ssam (pork belly slices with raw oyster and a spicy radish slaw that you wrap in lettuce). I took it all home and enjoyed an afternoon eating and watching Tiger win another tournament. I haven’t tried the kalbi tang yet, but everything else was good although the soft tofu should have been spicier. It is definitely worth a return visit although I almost feel like I’m cheating on my usual kalbi place, Kalbi House, which is a good 5 or 6 miles closer. It’s hard being faithful where my stomach is concerned.