I know I’ve been slacking in writing here lately, but only because I’ve been pretty busy otherwise. But I feel like I’m coming down with a cold, so I figure tonight is as good as any to stay in and do a little recap of what’s been going on. I just got back from Hajime where Sam, as if he could read my mind, seemed to know that when I’m not feeling so good, his rice soup heals me like nothing else. I tell ya, when it’s cold outside like it is tonight and you’ve got a bit of the sniffles, try having japanese soup over rice with shitake mushrooms, egg, and thin slices of fish barely cooked by the broth. Sounds good, doesn’t it? 🙂 Hajime had closed for 10 days while Sam went on vacation to Taiwan. Certainly is nice to have him back. He even got me a cool tiny little Chinese charm of a jade dog (I was born in the year of the dog). Oh, and lemme give a quick shout out to whomever it was that printed out one of my blog entries and brought it in for Sam to read. It’s kind of cool to know that other foodies may be stumbling upon my journal entries. Anyway, onto the nonsense that is my daily life…

Work has been going well although I’m slipping behind in my big projects due to a couple of things beyond my control, but none of it is causing me enough grief to write about it here. I’ve been working out a lot more regularly as my weight had been creeping up again. My cardio is getting back up to par although for some reason I’m not dropping weight; but I don’t mind too much as my spare tire has been shrinking noticeably. I can go for a full six 3-minute rounds of Bas Rutten’s MMA workout at full knockout power now, so I know I’m getting in better shape regardless of what the scale currently reads. Food-wise I haven’t eaten at Mi Cabanita in weeks since all of that rice and beans while absolutely delicious, is really not conducive to a good training and diet regimen! I did go to Typhoon on Sunday and indulged in various fried items and was actually a bit disappointed. I don’t know if they have changed chefs or what, but the wings are not as good as I remembered them (maybe I’m too used to my own version now?) and they didn’t know what I was talking about when I asked if they had the avocado rolls which was always one of our crew’s favorite things but weren’t listed on the menu anywhere. Oh well. In other Japanese news, I finally caught the last Pride (Bushido The Tournament) fights on pay per view and man, that was one of the best shows ever. Anybody who thinks that ultimate fighting is barbaric and simply mindless brutality should be forced to watch that Pride, especially Takanori Gomi’s two fights (yes in this tournament format the winning fighters must fight twice in one night). To watch Gomi vs. Kawajiri is to get a peek into the future of mixed martial arts. Here were two guys with incredible cardio going toe to toe at a nonstop blistering pace and fighting supremely technically right to the very end. Watching the takedown attempts and the defenses to thwart them, all happening in the blink of an eye. The position changes, level changes, angle changes for throwing punches. The instinctive changes in fight strategy- takedown stuffed? just come back to the feet, secure a thai clinch and attempt some knees. Opponent defending your head punches? throw your power shots to the body (Gomi really did a great job at that). It was remarkable, nay, inspirational to watch that kind of skill and technique being executed at that speed for that length of time between equally skilled fighters.

In other news, it was K’s birthday dinner on Friday which R booked at a Jamaican/Southern restaurant called Maroons. Being all tricky, R booked the reservation for 8:30 but said 7:45 on the evite. Well a bunch of us showed up on time and the restaurant was too small and the bar area too crowded to wait there so Twoin and I had to go grab a beer at a shitty place a block away (it was too cold out to walk to any place decent). R finally gets to the restaurant at 8:15 and texts me to head over so we do so but end up still not getting seated until 9:30. I didn’t mind, but everybody else was getting antsy and hungry. C&J actually ordered apps at the bar! We finally got seated and ordered. The Madd Margarhita was really good but really strong. I followed it up with the smoother rum punch drink. I ordered the jerk chicken wings for my app and the jerk pork for my entree. The wings were exceptional; big, juicy, heavily seasoned, with just enough heat to zing the palate and make your drink taste even livelier. I was seated next to Wong who is funny by any standard, and absolutely off the charts eye-rollingly hysterical when he gets a drink in him. I forget much of the wacky stuff he was spouting, but to give you an idea, he went off on a five minute dissertation about his anthropological theories, highlighted by his shouting across the table “Cows in Southern China don’t yield milk!” Good ol’ Wong, always entertaining!

The following morning I drove to Twoin’s and he drove us down to Atlantic City to meet up with K & R, and E. The plan had originally been to do the road trip after Maroons, but we scrapped that idea because it never makes sense to do a long drive in the middle of the night after a big meal and drinks. So we get to the Borgata at around noon, wanted to grab some of the awesome wonton noodles at the noodle bar, but there was a long line so we just grabbed lunch at the Metropolitan restaurant. They featured a raw bar so I decided to try the oyster stew. It was roux based, not cream based which is harder to pull off successfully due to the lack of richness, but they did a good job of it. The oysters in it were enormous, plump, and super briny as they should be. Fantastic. After that light lunch it was time to hit the tables. Twoin doesn’t roll too high, so we needed to find the lowest minimum blackjack tables which turned out to be $15 minimum. Good rules though, six deck, hand shuffled, dealer stays on soft 17. I bought in for $750 and we played for several hours and I went from being up a grand to being down to my last black chip after a particularly horrendous string of bad shoes. I bet the last $100 and decided if I lost it I would go join K at the craps table. I won that hand and let it ride and won the subsequent hand as well. Back up to $400 I played regularly again (regular for me is varying between $60 and $130 bets depending on how rich I think the deck is in tens, occasionally getting up to $200 a hand if I get on a hot roll). Having ridden out the bad streak, I was fortunate enough to still be at the table when the deck got hot and I pressed my bets while the going was good. Before I knew it, I was up to $2750 in chips and decided to break for dinner. I asked the pit boss for a dinner comp and he called around but said he couldn’t get me in anywhere until 10:30p, so he said to just try to get in anywhere and just pay using my players card. So we went back to the Metropolitan where me, K & R had the steak which was really terrific. Also got a dozen clams and a dozen bluepoint oysters from the raw bar. I forget exactly what Twoin and E had, but the tab was cheap, only $150 for the five of us, and sure enough I had enough comp dollars on my card to cover it. With a full stomach Twoin and I headed out in search of an open seat at a blackjack table. Twoin’s game had come a long way in the 6 hours we played before dinner. Starting out with meager $15 bets, he started getting a feel for the deck and by the end of the session he was varying his bets with the finesse of a seasoned pro, betting up to $50 without hesitation whenever he sensed the deck was about to reward him. He made $400 in the pre-dinner session and another $100 after dinner. After dinner he had been up a lot more than that, but everytime the main dealer went on break, the replacement dealer named Phou would go on mad tears and eat away at our winnings. I ended up winning another $500 in the after dinner session and we decided to bail before that Phou would come back to the table. Momma didn’t raise no Phou!

Well, that’s enough for now. Time for some Nyquil and my bed…