The love affair with my Semogue boar brush continues unabated. I’ve never been a real shave soap lover, mainly because I was never able to get a good lather from soap in the shower. But the boar is particularly well-suited to this task; the stiff bristles scraping generous quantities of soap molecules onto its tips and translating this into a very copious and lubricating lather. And, the scrubbiness…marvelous!  Who would have thought I could find such pleasure in something so inexpensive and banal?

Today’s shave was with the Tabac soap in its wonderful ceramic bowl (or it it really glass?). The four-day old Sputnik blade continued to produce a phenomenally smooth shave, I suspect at least partly due to the outstandingly rich lather from the boar brush. The alum block revealed no sensation of irritation whatsoever. Finished off with Tabac cologne….mmmmm….memories of youth. Tabac was my first real-man’s aftershave and the scent is embedded in my libido!

I’ve been a serious photographer since the age of 16, which would mean that I could celebrate my 40 years in this amazing pursuit, were I so inclined. For most of those 40 years, I’ve owned a Leica (or two, or three, at various times!). The actual inventory is quite impressive when I come to think about it:

• IIIf (which I sold in 1974 so that I could take a new girlfriend on a date…a true waste that I regret to this day!)
• IIf converted to a IIIIf
• M4P (stolen from my home with all its lenses during a break-in)
• M2
• M3 (bought “new” in 2005 from the estate of a collector who had bought it and died before he could actually use it. I was so afraid to scratch it that I couldn’t bring myself to use it! Finally sold it in 2007 for a very tidy profit)
• M6
• M6TTL
• MP
• M8.2 (a painful story. Bought new three months before the release of the M9 earlier this Summer)
• 10-12 lenses of varying focal lengths

This inventory does not include a couple of digital point-and-shoot models, which really don’t count because they were made by Panasonic leveraging the Leica name in a sad example of brand-marketing.

I was brought to these musings by the arrival a couple of days ago of Mr. Dario, our intrepid New York City correspondent and veteran maestro of the camera. Mr. Dario came bearing gifts…two boxes of astonishing cigars….and the latest Leica family-tree poster (including the M8) showing the evolutionary chronology of the brand since the first camera ever rolled off the craftsman’s bench. The poster is an incredible find, a result of Mr. Dario’s recent pilgrimage to the New York Camera Show.

I’m off to Costco this morning to get it laminated before putting it up on my office wall.

There are some delicacies that many people eschew because of their cost. And certainly if you look at the cost/weight of certain foods and compare them to others, they easily appear to be outrageously expensive and very poor value-for-money. For example, one can buy a top quality Fillet Mignon for about $40/kg (about $18/lb). Compare this to a piece of tuna bottarga (dried, salted tuna roe) at $800/kg, or a white truffle at about $2000/lb, and you may well exclaim, “You’re outta your mind!” with some apparent justification.

But consider this. One ounce (app. 30g) of tuna bottarga grated onto pasta will easily bring both satisfaction and a beatific smile to the faces of four people with relative ease. That translates to $24, or $6 per person. The same value of Fillet Mignon would leave two people craving for more and two with nothing on their plates! Truffles are not too far off that mark either. My point is that some of the greatest culinary experiences need not be prohibitive if taken in the context of how much is needed to produce great pleasure and satisfaction.

Of course, from a nutritional standpoint, these delicacies are definitely not great value for money…the steak will provide lots more protein and other essential nutrients (a lot of extra fat too though). And one doesn’t need to eat Fillet Mignon either…the same money will buy quantities of lean pork to feed a small army at current low prices.

But for occasional forays into wonderful culinary experiences, one needs to keep the cost/volume relationship in mind…it may just enable some of the most pleasurable (food) moments you will ever have.

Tonight’s dinner was simplicity itself. Spaghettini with a grating of tuna bottarga, tossed in a mixture of hot olive oil, garlic, and chili flakes. A salad of endive, radicchio, walnuts, and shaved Reggiano, tossed with some olive oil and Greek Musto Balsamic vinegar completed a very satisfying, healthful, and inexpensive meal (about $10/person).

Echoing my wife’s food philosophy: “Eat better…eat less”.

Another shave today with the Semogue 1520 boar brush, purchased from Fendrihan.com (an excellent on-line vendor, based in Canada). It’s breaking in very nicely, developing a “feathering” at the tip ends which gives it a much better latherability. The bristles are also getting a little softer, although still very stiff compared to a good badger brush. But here’s the rub (pun intended): The stiff bristles are amazing at generating a great lather from a soap, presumably because they are capable of scrubbing off much more soap onto the brush. I used the Semogue with my all-time favorite soap, the Gold-Dachs Spezial Razierseif. An outstanding lather; dare I say it?; better than with my best badger brush. The G-D has the most amazing scent, and the final pass resulted in a super-smooth visage that feels good even 12 hours later at the time of writing.

I find that the interest in boar brushes has rekindled my explorer’s spirit when it comes to shaving. Thanks to Leisureguy for the lead into this very interesting area.

Devout Muslims are encouraged to make the Haj to Mecca at least once in their lives. But where does a devout Canadian foodie go for his holiest pilgrimage in his own country? The Cheese Boutique in Toronto, that’s where! I first learned about the Cheese Boutique from Peter Minakis, the genius behind Kalofagas (www.kalofagas.ca), a blog site dedicated to fine food, especially Greek. I won’t bother trying to better Peter’s pictures of the Cheese Boutique, which you can see here. Unfortunately, as good a photographer as Peter is, his pictures cannot do justice to what should rightly be a religious shrine to Foodism.

Mapquest reveals a curious route into a basically residential area where one would not imagine any kind of business. As you turn the corner onto Ripley Avenue, looking for #45, your thoughts are likely around the vagaries of GPS and computer mapping, which sometimes lead one astray.  But it turns out that Ripley Avenue is an anomaly; a strange little street of what appear to be small manufacturers, machine shops, and garages. Suddenly, you’re almost on top of #45…a rambling building with a somewhat tacky sign up front; an image of a mouse in artist’s garb standing in front of a cheese wedge.

Wander inside and you find room after room stocked from floor to ceiling with the most exotic imaginable comestibles. Pastas of every variety, scores of balsamic vinegars, olive oils I’ve never even heard of, including many single varietals. Bottarga (dried fish roe)? Of course, two kinds, even the rare and highly prized tuna. The clerks are maniacs, trained in the infinitesimal minutiae of their craft. Ask for advice and you will surely be steered to a new version of culinary Heaven. The high point is the aging room where they age cheeses an additional 2, 4, 6, years or more.

I bought two kinds of bottarga, plus a selection of hyper-aged raw-milk cheeses; one Gouda from Thunder Bay aged 4 additional years, and a Quebec cheddar aged an extra six! Two bottles of organic olive oil from Greece, as well as Greek balsamic vinegar (wonderful!), and a couple of hand-made pastas rounded off the mix. Oh, yeah, and the home-made sausages…how could I forget those?.

I wrote to thank Peter for the heads-up….’cause I really need yet another place to drop $500 on food in 15 minutes.

Never being one for half measures, when I first got into gourmet shaving in the early ’80’s I immediately went for a top-quality badger brush. I’m ashamed to say that I’ve never tried boar, horse, or synthetic brushes. Why go out for a burger when I have Fillet Mignon at home, right? But like Leisureguy is wont to say: “I love a good burger, as well as a good steak”. The two aren’t mutually exclusive, and his recent forays into the world of boar-brush shaving have piqued my interest. Nevertheless, the self-driven moratorium on further gear acquisition has kept me from ordering a boar brush…until now. I needed a couple of bars of MR GLO and noticed that Fendrihan also carries a nice selection of boar brushes at very reasonable prices. So I ordered a Semogue 1520 and a Vulfix 28. This morning I used the Semogue with one of my favorite shave creams, the J.M. Fraser Mosswood. A wonderful lather on the first pass, but I had to reload some cream into the brush for each of the remaining two passes. Nevertheless, I LOVED the scrubbiness. You can really feel the bristles activating the beard and setting it up for a cut. I got a magnificently smooth shave with a fresh Sputnik blade. I hope that with more breaking in the brush will be able to sustain three passes with only one cream injection.

Here’s a funny story about what we each consider valuable.

My stag-party gift in 1980 was a beautiful Renwick leather briefcase. Renwick was a maker of high-quality leather goods very similar in design and build to Hartmann. This was a tan colored, hard-sided briefcase of a style popular in the ’80’s, although you don’t see them very much nowadays. I used that briefcase for some 20 years, and frankly it looked like hell near the end. It was badly scuffed, stained, and weather-beaten. I had reached a point where I was quite embarrassed to carry it and looked forward to its replacement.

One day I was checking into the Toronto Hilton. In the line immediately behind me were two Asian gentlemen, also waiting to check in. I put my briefcase on the counter to get my wallet, and remember once again making a mental note to myself to replace this nasty looking bag asap. After checking in I headed to the elevator and by the time it arrived, the two Asian gents were able to embark at the same time. As soon as the elevator began to move I noticed them eying my briefcase and speaking excitedly to each other in their own language. Eventually, one of them mustered up the nerve to say to me in broken English: “Ahh…that is a very beautiful briefcase…would you consider selling it for $500?”.

Such is the nature of human nature, that once someone wants what you have, even if you don’t want it anymore, it suddenly acquires new value. I smiled at them and said: “No thank you, I couldn’t part with it”. STUPID!, as my business partner Margarita would say.

I first visited the Alden factory in 1985, when the company agreed to give my partner and me a dealership for Canada. I just found this amazing video from earlier this year. You’re gonna love it. Listen to the opening remark about the 405 “Indy” boot (pictured below). A fascinating story in its own right. Video, here.

Cordovan is both a color (dark reddish brown) and a leather type. The leather is horsehide from a specific part of the horse, the “shell” or butt area. I suppose animal-rights activists might well call those who wear genuine shell cordovan shoes, “horses’-asses”, without being too far off the mark! It is generally considered the finest leather for making shoes as well as other accessories such as belts, because of its texture, suppleness, and durability. Fine men’s shoes made from cordovan leather may last several generations with proper care.

Genuine shell cordovan, when used for a traditional welted shoe (Old-men’s shoes as I like to call them) provides an unparalleled level of lateral support and stability when walking. Your feet  feel firmly planted onto the earth. And as good as they look new, they look even better as they age; the leather acquires a deep patina and since it is quite oily is virtually self-polishing. A quick few brush strokes every few wearings and they look awesome once again. There’s a whole web site dedicated to this leather, here.

America has only one tannery left that specializes in working with genuine shell cordovan, the Horween Leather Company of Chicago. They’ve been in business since 1905. They make all the cordovan for Alden and for some of the other shoe-makers that can still work this amazing material.

If you live in New York or California you are blessed with the highest density of stores selling Aldens as well as a few other world-famous men’s shoe brands. If you live near San Fransisco you are in Heaven in more ways than one; there is an Alden Store in that beautiful city.

This is going to sound kooky, but if you live near an Alden store it is worth the trip to see these shoes as if you were visiting an art gallery. Yeah…..that good!

Hey, as I get older, I come to realize that those “old men” knew a thing or two about comfort and value, in a time before marketing managed to convince us that we should throw everything out every couple of years and fuel the money-coffers of the corporations.

My first pair of Alden shoes…the Cordovan Wing Tip Bal Oxford

Little known fact….my first entrepreneurial business venture was in the high-end men’s shoe business. I was a corporate honcho at the time, but had strong entrepreneurial urges. One of my closest friends in those days was straight out of GQ; a very snazzy dresser with a fetish for hand-crafted shoes and clothing. He introduced me to Alden shoes of Massachusetts, which was at that time one of the premiere makers of traditional “Goodyear welted” shoes for men. In the mid-’80’s there were three or four (Johnston & Murphy, Allen Edmonds, and maybe one more). Today, only Alden remains. Fortunately, by staying close to its traditional values it has survived and flourished as the finest maker of men’s shoes in America and one of the best in the world (the other brands still exist but they are all “offshore” and leverage their “brand”).

My friend convinced me to start a sideline business together, selling bespoke custom-made shirts, ties, and shoes under our own brand. Our “shtick” was to sell these to like-minded individuals in their own homes, in the evening (after our own business hours, of course) or on week-ends. We had one Helluva chutzpah in those days, actually convincing some of the greatest names in men’s clothing and shoes to make private label stuff for us (and for most of them, we were their only private label account ever. How’s that for balls?).

A couple of funny stories. I occasionally used to pick up my 6 year-old daughter from school. I drove a new Alfa Romeo sedan and was impeccably dressed with tailor-made suits, shirts, and absolutely gorgeous shoes. My daughter would see me receive shoe inventory at home, and would observe me sorting the orders and loading them into my car for delivery in the evening. One day at her school, each of the children was asked to stand up and tell the class what their father did for a living. My daughter’s answer: “My Dad is a shoemaker”. I’m sure the teachers must have had a dramatically different view of shoe-making as a profession after that!

The second story. I used to travel extensively to Europe and the Far East in those days….probably six times a year. I had never been stopped in an airport by anyone before I started wearing those Aldens….but no joke….a couple of strangers would routinely stop me on every trip and excitedly ask: “Are those Aldens?”. How weird is that? But Aldens were a cult shoe in those days (perhaps even more so today with the demise of most of the world’s great shoemakers).

Anyway, I’ve never been more comfortable than when wearing a fine pair of hand-crafted shoes that fit properly. My partner used to say: “A man should invest the most money in the two things in which he will spend the greatest time…his mattress and his shoes”. And he was right. Great shoes are a terrific investment. I have every pair of Alden, Church, and Dack’s shoes that I ever bought and they are all in excellent condition. Over time they have come to fit like a glove and are supremely comfortable. They also look great. They have paid for themselves many times over. There are three simple rules to making great shoes last for generations:

1. Never wear them two days in a row.

2. Always keep them in cedar shoe-trees so they can dry properly in their original shape.

3. Occasionally give them a good polishing (I hate doing it so usually reserve that for a professional shine at the airport).

Most people are astonished when I mention what a good pair of shoes should cost: $300-$500. They are used to $59 specials from Payless, and the Timberland knock-offs from the outlet stores that have become the benchmark for men’s shoes. Some comment that they don’t want their shoes to last a long time as they prefer to always be in style. Others are convinced that traditional men’s shoes are no longer in style. I disagree. Visit GQ’s web site and go to the Style section. Type in “Shoes”. You will see that traditional leather brogues, wing-tips, and loafers are still the benchmark shoes for men of style (as opposed to fashion).

If you ever have a chance to buy a pair of Alden shoes……don’t hesitate. Treat yourself to a life-altering experience of comfort and an appreciation for what hand-crafted tradition stands for.

Sadly, back surgery three years ago (three ruptured disks as a result of many sports injuries) now force me to wear heavily padded shoes that take the weight off my spine. Even there however, there are some great quality choices. Ecco, Mephisto, and others make excellent “modern” shoes…they still cost $200-$400 though. But I still try to wear my Aldens as often as I can when my back feels good (most of the time these days fortunately). And hopefully, I will add a new pair ro my collection shortly:

Object of desire – the Chukka boot – a shell cordovan (horsehide) version of the iconic ’60’s desert boot