Somebody Feed Phil (2018–…): Season 2, Episode 6 - New York City - full transcript
- Oh, he's eating.
- Mm.
Can you hear me?
Mm.
Do you hear me?
- Hello!
- Oh, my God.
That is so good. It's so good.
Where is he going?
You have to move back.
Max, leave me alone, please.
- You have to try this. It's fantastic.
- Here.
- Which one?
- I got them from Breads.
- Which one should I try?
- Whichever you like.
Well, are you going to eat it now?
Why not? It's so good.
I got the chocolate and this one is
the cinnamon. You like it?
- Mm.
- All right. All right. Goodbye.
Ah.
Now what?
# A happy, hungry man #
# Is traveling all across
The sea and the land #
# He's trying to understand #
# The art of pasta, pork
Chicken and lamb #
# He will drive to you
He will fly to you #
# He will sing for you
And dance for you #
# He will laugh with you
And he'll cry for you #
# There's just one thing
He asks in return #
# Somebody feed, somebody feed #
# Won't somebody, somebody feed Phil #
# Somebody feed him now #
I used to work
in Times Square in the early '80s.
And I ate pizza, hot dogs for dinner.
That's what I could afford.
So I usually looked
for where the deals were
and so there was this deli.
I remember it said, "Chicken, 3.25,"
so I said to the guy,
"I'll have the chicken."
It was like half a chicken for 3.25.
Again, early '80s.
And he goes "You want potato?"
I hesitated because I knew
that would be extra.
And he goes, "It's okay. It go with it."
And I said, "Oh, great.
Then I'll take potato."
And so I moved down the line and then
the guy's ringing me up at the end
and he goes, "Chicken, 3.25.
Potato, that's 4.75."
And I said, "Oh. The man said
that the potato would go with it."
And he said, "Yeah, it go with it.
It don't come with it."
That's New York to me.
You're getting ripped off
and you enjoy it.
That's New York.
This is the center of the world.
New York is the center
of the known universe.
Just a fact.
Now, there have been
countless shows about New York
and I'd be crazy to say
that this one's the definitive New York.
But I can show you my New York.
This is the New York I lived in
for the whole first half of my life.
The New York I keep coming back to.
The New York I love.
Like the place that taught me
what great steak is.
This is a steakhouse from 1887.
It's called Peter Luger's.
It's in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
It's a reason to come to New York.
Today, special guest star,
my friend from Modena,
one of the greatest chefs in the world,
Massimo Bottura.
I've been coming here for 30 years,
I've never seen this.
I only dreamed about such a place.
- Right?
- Me too.
Never been in a place like this.
- Amazing, right?
- Never. Never. Never.
They let us go down
into the meat locker.
There's about half a million dollars worth
of meat in this room.
Massimo, we're going
to plan the heist.
All this meat
is one month's supply.
Don't leave the kitchen
if the steak isn't sizzling.
Also with us is my dear friend,
world-famous chef Nancy Silverton.
And she brought the executive chef
from Osteria Mozza in Los Angeles,
Liz Hong, who I love.
I come every year, once a year.
- My first time was '88.
- Yes!
- Mine was maybe the same.
- Eighty-eight.
But the top of my head came off.
You know, I never had great steak before.
I still remember the lamb. So tasty.
- They've got great--
- Really?
Did you order lamb?
- No. But we can. We're not dead yet.
- Yeah, we should try it.
We starting off small.
Just a little bacon
and some cheeseburgers.
- Oh, wow!
- Oh, my God.
- Here we go. Here we go.
- Come on.
- Oh, God.
- This is crazy.
I'm gonna make a bacon cheeseburger.
Good idea!
Good, right? Really good.
A great burger...
made with the steak trimmings.
You know what I like? You see the bun?
It's the perfect proportion
between the meat and the filling.
- People don't get that anymore.
- No.
- It's so important!
- The proportion in food is everything.
- Do you like the sauce? Nice, right?
- Mm-hmm.
- Gravy boat.
- Matches nicely.
Uh-huh.
It's like cocktail sauce
met steak sauce.
- Yeah.
- So good.
The Italian hand gesture
for what he thinks.
Here comes trouble.
- What's that?
- Lamb chop!
I've been coming here for 30 years,
I've never had the lamb.
Whoa.
Oh, my God. There's so much flavor.
And it's so tender.
Best lamb ever!
As you remember?
This was never
a white tablecloth restaurant, right?
- No.
- Always like this?
It was a German beer hall.
There was sawdust on the floor.
- Oh, look, there's fish.
- Have anything to hide?
Somebody's getting salmon.
Somebody's crazy.
I'll bet the salmon's good.
No, I don't think so.
- Wanna ask for a taste?
- You want?
- I would ask.
- He's going to ask.
- For what?
- A bite.
He's asking for a taste.
Excuse me. I'm a poor chef from Italy.
And I would love to have
a taste of that salmon.
- Can I? Yeah?
- Yeah.
- It's very good. Thank you very much.
- Thank you.
- Was it good?
- A bit overcooked.
Let's be honest.
The place isn't still around
because they make salmon.
Look! That's it. That's the move.
He turns the butter plate over.
One of my favorite moves
in all of sports.
- Look! Look!
- Oh, my God!
Wow.
Look how all the butter and the juice
pool up at one end for easy scooping.
Liz is zobblin' on that bone!
- That's the best.
- That's the best.
That's so good.
That's it! That makes me happy.
You want some?
This is-- This is the Peter Luger version
of breaking bread together.
That means you need a bite too, Phil.
Right? It just...
This is one of my favorite...
dining experiences in the world.
Can we get lamb for them?
You have to get everything.
I love the hash browns.
Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
I love-- The french fries are incredible.
I love the desserts. Look at this.
Ice cream sundae. Look at the schlag.
Mountains of schlag.
- Wait, what's that?
- Whipped cream.
- Whipped cream.
- For what?
For your chocolate
and your thing and thing and thing.
Cheesecake: best.
Chocolate-mousse cake: best.
Hot pecan pie.
You know what goes good on that? Schlag!
- Look it! Bah!
- Oh.
It's so good.
Twenty-five years ago
when I moved from New York to L.A.,
I had to leave behind my true love.
New York pizza.
Which is not to say you can't get
great pizza in L.A.,
but there's nothing like the original.
And I'm here to show you some of the best.
We're going on a pizza crawl.
We're going to hit two classics
and a new upstart.
Number one: Totonno's
in Coney Island, Brooklyn.
This is one of these places
where the romance meets the reality.
Ed Levine wrote the book on pizza.
Literally.
And then the book became a website
and that became Serious Eats.
What's on there?
- Sausage and mushrooms.
- Yes, it is!
Oh! A white pie. I'm excited.
Pizza is first and foremost great bread.
- You're right.
- Right? So I always take a piece--
- I tear a piece off the crust...
- Right. To test it.
To test it because... And it's perfect.
That's great on its own.
Mm.
This place was opened by a guy
whose nickname was Totonno.
His real name was Anthony Pero.
When this was
a middle-class Italian neighborhood,
it stayed in the same family
for almost a hundred years now.
- No changes.
- What d'you mean?
- They have current headlines.
- Exactly.
They also have the sisters.
Excuse me. You were in Positano
with my plumber who's on the phone.
- I was in Positano with your plumber?
- Yes.
- He remembers seeing me in Positano?
- Of course he saw you!
- Here. Say hello to Al.
- Hello, I remember you from Positano!
You were the plumber.
Antoinette and Cookie
run the place now.
They're Totonno's granddaughters,
and they're always up for a party.
Yes! Oh, my God!
Cookie, come over here
'cause I'm gonna leave.
She doesn't want to.
Come here before I hit you
with this bottle in 2 seconds.
Cookie's very shy.
It's not that I'm shy. Let her talk.
She likes to talk.
Nobody messes with Cookie.
If anybody bothers me,
I just throw them out.
- Exactly!
- That's good.
The answer to...
"What do you like about New York?"
Our grandfather,
he brought pizza to America.
In 1905, when he came from Italy on the--
I think it was The Margherita,
was the name of the boat.
The Margherita and the pizza.
Isn't that something?
My family came over on The Rugelach.
They got a photograph on the wall.
It's got "Lombardi's,"
which is widely considered
the birthplace of American pizza.
On the right is the owner, Mr. Lombardi.
But next to him is the pizzaiolo,
the man who made the pizza,
Anthony "Totonno" Pero.
He's the one with flour on his shoes.
That, to Cookie and Antoinette,
is the proof!
There'd be no pizza
if it weren't for Anthony Pero.
- To Anthony Pero!
- To Anthony Pero!
That is right.
When you're good at something,
it's in your blood, it's in your family,
you fight hard, you keep it,
you make it great.
- Salute, health is right.
- Health only. Nothing else.
What do we say in Jewish?
- How do we say it?
- How do we say it in Jewish?
- L'chaim.
- L'chaim.
In our language, the more "ugh"
you have the better.
Next, another legendary spot
for pizza in New York.
It's off the Avenue J stop
in Midwood, Brooklyn.
Di Fara's.
- It's a long wait?
- Yes.
He said it's an hour-and-a-half wait
after you order your pizza.
No, it's not.
That's what he says.
There's just one guy making it.
He's been doing it for longer
than most of you have been alive.
Wait a minute.
Why do we put up with this?
Sometimes you just got to have the best.
Dom, whose last name is DeMarco,
and his partner,
whose last name was Farina...
Two names.
"What will we call the store?"
They put the Di for DeMarco
and Fara for Farina
and it became Di Fara's.
But Dom is still here. The partner is not.
Oh.
- That looks...
- Take a look.
Wow, is that beautiful.
- Look at what he's doing. Hands.
- Look, bare hands.
That's like the legend, right?
"I hear he pulls them
out of the oven with his bare hands."
True.
- He's Iron Man.
- Yeah.
You see? Wow.
I'm happy you're still here.
You're still doing it.
- I do what I like, you know.
- You do what you love.
You do what you love: make the pizza.
I do what I love: eat the pizza.
We just got the basic pie,
but it's got the fresh cut basil on top.
Exactly.
People were not snipping basil
on slices.
- And he's been doing it here...
- Yes.
- ...for more than 50 years.
- Right.
Wow, it's good.
- Dom, you still got it.
- I hope so.
I know so.
Is Julia here? Julia?
Julia, where are you?
We're gonna eat your pizza!
- I'll bet people have bought pies...
- It's a secondary market.
...and they go right outside
and sell it like Springsteen tickets.
Is this some of the best pizza
I've ever tasted?
Yes. It's undeniable.
- Dom.
- Yeah.
We love you. We love your pizza.
Eighty more years to you.
I'm not gonna stop.
Don't worry, Dom. Neither will we.
One of the best things about New York
are the New Yorkers.
- Do you eat over here?
- It's all right.
- It's not the greatest.
- What?
- Not the greatest.
- Who's better?
I like the pizza joint over there
by Madison Square Garden. Pizza Suprema.
- I like it too. Very good.
- Know what?
- He's got taste. He's a man with taste.
- We'll let you live. You got taste.
I make my own pizza.
- Yeah!
- All right!
In New York, you never hear, "I think."
- No, no, no.
- They just say, "That's not the best."
That's true.
These pizzas are classics,
but Ed said I can't leave
without trying his new champion.
And then he tells me that the best pizza
in New York is in New Jersey.
Here it is. This is Razza.
Jersey City. It counts as New York.
If you can get somewhere within
half an hour of the center of town--
- Know your argument?
- Yes?
The Giants and the Jets play in Jersey.
Hey, very good.
Joining us at Razza is Dom Lombardozzi.
Maybe you saw him on The Wire
or Boardwalk Empire.
He is a phenomenal actor,
and he's a foodie like me.
Oh!
The pizza's made
by Razza's owner, genius Dan Richer.
He's self-taught
and kind of obsessed with details.
I tasted 13 different pepperonis
when I was developing this.
I love you.
You're like a mad scientist behind there.
But it's what you want
in a guy making you something.
I want an obsessive character.
Wow.
- Damn!
- Right?
Best pepperoni pizza I ever had.
It's phenomenal.
It makes you excited about pizza again.
I can't hear you
because in my head it is this...
# Ah #
Dan started us out with a classic,
but now we're moving on
to what he's famous for:
completely original combinations.
This is one of our seasonal pies.
It's New Jersey corn, shaved onions,
fresh mozzarella and scamorza cheese.
Wow.
Oh, my God.
Right.
This is change-your-life good pizza.
I'm a purist.
I love the Margherita pizza.
- This?
- Amazing.
- This is amazing.
- Yeah.
- Wow.
- Thanks.
This is so enjoyable.
- This is the pork pie.
- Yes!
We take pork gelatin and cut it into
cubes and then it enables us to put the--
So it's almost like you're putting
soup dumpling filling on the pizza.
So this was inspired by the soup dumpling.
Look at that. Look at his face
light up. Like a Hanukkah bush.
Like a what?
This is not just about the pizza.
It's about this guy's head.
Dan. Dan. Dan. Dan.
Look at these guys
after 20 slices of pizza.
My man can throw down.
- Twenty-one!
- See!
Twenty-one!
Are there any more pizzas back there
that I didn't have?
We have a rotation
of about 60 pies that we do.
I don't think we had 60 pies, do you?
There's a food that made
New York famous before pizza.
And a great place to get it
is in the middle of the harbor
on a boat called "Pilot."
And I'm meeting
a very good friend of mine named Al Roker.
Maybe you've heard of him.
And our friend John Harris.
I wanted to do this with Al
because he's Mr. New York.
He is part of the reason this city
is so nice they named it twice.
How many years now? In New--
Forget The Today Show. Just in New York.
In New York since 1983.
- So you're a New Yorker.
- I'm a New Yorker.
So the company's great, but I
forgot, when I was getting on the boat,
that it would be going like this a bit.
I wish you guys would stop moving.
Are you a little shaky right now?
A little bit.
- I'm OK.
- Here's to your face.
- Hey, now.
- Here's to your face.
Here's to your face.
- Here's to your stomach.
- Love seeing you.
- This helps-- Bitters and soda.
- Bitters.
- Yes.
- Who knew?
Who knew?
But we're not just here
to watch me turn green.
We're here to taste a bit
of New York City's history: oysters.
And we're joined by chef Kerry Heffernan
and oyster expert Julie Qiu.
So when the first settlers came here
and explored this area,
they reported back to Europe that they
found oysters the size of dinner plates.
And a lot of people came here
to experience the New York oyster
because it was that big of a deal.
It was called, New York... The Big Oyster!
The Big Oyster?
Before the Big Apple,
it was called that.
I think it's a better title.
Back when you could eat
oysters from these waters,
they were sold
from street carts like hot dogs.
And they only cost five cents an oyster.
They're a little more expensive now.
Cheers.
And so you guys know
how to eat an oyster properly?
- No.
- Let me.
- OK.
- Tell me if I'm right.
Yeah, okay.
You want to sip that liquor.
You want to savor that.
Slurp it down. Chew it.
A lot of people don't chew that meat.
It drives me nuts.
It actually allows--
- It releases the sweetness of the oyster.
- Terrific.
Why are some oysters briny
and some are literally sweet?
When they're
next to more fresh water,
they're going to be
a little more sweet and less saline.
But when they're grown,
like, very close to the ocean,
that's when they're super briny.
- It's like eating the ocean.
- Exactly.
- High tidal flushes are giving that--
- I had one of those last night.
Yes!
- Ooh. Oh, my God.
- Yay! Oysters!
- Yay!
- The best I've had.
How about in New Orleans
where they grill them?
- It's good. Have you ever had that?
- Chargrilled oysters.
I've never had that before.
Is it delicious?
- When we go to New Orleans.
- Next stop.
I think we're
just going to travel with Phil.
Unmoor this.
Here we go.
New York is
the very definition of city.
Bustling, loud, non-stop
with buildings stacked
on top of each other into the distance.
It's exhilarating.
But some of my favorite places
have the opposite effect.
New York City has
some of the best parks in the world.
This is the High Line.
Running for a mile and a half
along a reclaimed elevated rail line,
is a wonder and a marvel
of urban planning.
Then at the northern tip of Manhattan,
near where I had my first apartment
after college, is Fort Tryon Park...
with its beautiful views
of the Hudson River
and the cliffs of New Jersey.
John D. Rockefeller built the park
and he bought the view.
He bought the entire Jersey side
of the Hudson River
so that no one could build on it and it
would be forever preserved like this.
That's money!
Each of these places is spectacular.
But they still can't hold a candle
to the park to end all parks.
My favorite park in the world
is Central Park.
Maybe my favorite place ever.
And it's in the middle of the city.
My wife, Monica, and I spent
a lot of time here when we were dating.
And we still come back here
every time we're in town.
Here's what I love.
You're on this bridge
and if you look here,
you're completely lost in the woods,
you're in nature, it's gorgeous.
And you look here...
you're in the city.
A lot of people just think
that there was wildlife here
and the city built up around it
and just left that park alone. No.
Every single thing has been designed.
Everything.
It's cinematic. Everywhere you look
is a perfectly composed vista.
It's so beautiful and you walk through it
and you're transported out of the city.
It's beautiful, huh?
That reminds me
I want duck tonight.
Oh, Philip.
Steve Cohen's been
a Central Park tour guide for years,
and he knows everything about everything.
- This--
- All is man-made.
Think of the labor.
- For recreational sake.
- That's right.
- To get rid of the chaos.
- Right.
To lose yourself.
- I love getting lost in the city.
- Well, that's the intention.
Imagine the most prime real estate
on the face of the Earth
left alone for the people.
And as full of attractions
as any museum.
Like these 19th century sandstone reliefs,
considered the first public art
in the country.
And Bethesda Fountain's iconic angel,
created by sculptor Emma Stebbins
to celebrate
the city's clean drinking water.
So now we're in the woods.
We are in the Ramble.
Philip, come on.
- We're frolicking in Central Park.
- Oh, my God.
And look up.
Look at the engineering.
Look at the romance.
- I'm looking at the engineering.
- We're frolicking!
It's a beautiful ideal...
ideally realized.
It is romantic, I have to say.
Yeah, it is.
Oh. Lovely meeting you.
I've had it.
Oh, marriage.
You've got to kiss her! Go!
Yeah, right?
- Come on! You're in New York!
- Philip.
All right! Terrific!
He's a good actor.
After you ramble
through the Ramble,
you got to go just west of the park
to the Upper West Side.
And one of my new favorite places in town.
Especially popular with carnivorous types.
Oh, geez. Do you need help?
- No, I got this.
- That's bigger than you.
I'm very impressed.
That's actually what I was going
to have. I was gonna order that.
On a roll.
Erika and Jocelyn
are world-class butchers
and they run their shop called White Gold.
How much does that weigh,
what you were just carrying?
Like a hundred pounds. One-fifty, maybe.
- That's nothing.
- Yeah.
- You were a vegetarian?
- Growing up, you know.
And what turned you? The sight of this?
It's funny.
I was an animal rights vegetarian.
Now I consider myself,
like, an animal rights butcher.
- Hi, guys.
- Oh! It's Judy!
- Hi!
- Judy Gold, White Gold.
- White Gold was your rap name, wasn't it?
- Yeah.
My friend Judy Gold
is a great comedian
who actually lives in the neighborhood,
so I'm excited to introduce her
to this palace of meat.
So, I'm vegan.
Oh, God. Look at that meat.
Oh!
So, here's why White Gold
is the best butcher shop ever...
They also serve idealized versions
of the classic New York food
you'd find at the corner deli.
Bacon, egg and cheese.
This was my staple diet in the '80s.
- It's unbelievable.
- Good.
Beef pastrami Reuben
with house-made kraut,
house-made Thousand Island.
Oh, my God.
Can we just look at the layers here?
I mean, that's perfect.
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God. No. This is--
Homemade hot dogs
with kimchi sauerkraut.
Roast beef
with something called beef butter.
- Oh!
- That's fresh?
And an upscale take on
a local sandwich I didn't even know about.
Who wants
to look at the chopped cheese?
You throw, you know,
the pickles and the jalapenos on it
and then you chop.
And then the cheese goes on it.
You let it melt a little bit
and onto the bun.
It's a cheeseburger.
- Mm.
- Yeah.
Who thought it?
Chopping the meat
and the cheese together.
Yeah, it's like
a classic Harlem bodega sandwich.
- Didn't know.
- Yes.
Mm!
You're doing God's work here.
Thanks, girl.
I am in this area all the time.
And I will never walk by here
and not come in.
That sounds like a threat when you say it.
Full of meat now, Judy and I
will have the energy we need
to attack
the most important store in the world.
The deli of delis.
The super deli. The uber deli.
Zabar's.
It is the be all and end all to
everyone's life in that part of the world.
This is a little something
I like to call "two Jews run amok."
Oh, the German Swiss
is actually very good.
Now that they've-- You know,
they're sorry, I get the German Swiss.
You'd think the pre-made bagel
with cream cheese would not be as good.
- Thank you.
- Sure.
Mm. Mm. Mm.
Oh, my God! It's so good!
Hello. We're just dancing.
Look at this.
Oh!
Can I have half pound sliced
thin?
- I'm trying to fit in.
- Louder.
Sliced thin.
Can I have it sliced-- Thinner!
- Thinner!
- Is that the best?
Thinner!
I used to manage a deli.
- You did? Were you good?
- They would come and they'd say,
"Is this what you have?"
- Yes.
- No.
This is what we have. Yes.
That's why you're seeing it,
because we have it.
And they would say,
"No, no. Is there more in the back?"
- Yeah, we're hiding it from you.
- No, we have it.
We do have more in the back, but--
"Yeah, is it better?"
"Yeah, but it's me. It's me.
You can tell me.
Tell me if it's better..."
- This is the secret tunnel.
- I love a secret tunnel.
Now this opens you up
into a whole new world.
- # It's a whole new world-- #
- We can't afford that.
Oh.
And what do you get when you come?
Usually things to eat, snack on. And...
- Things to eat. Good idea.
- What you get?
- Getting things to eat.
- What you get?
I got some-- What you call it? Ru--
- Rugelach. Say it right.
- Rugelach. Isn't it the best? Say it.
- What did you think it was? Rude-a-gus?
- Rude-a-gus.
- Say rugelach.
- Rugelach.
- With a "ugh" at the end. Ugh.
- Rugelach.
- Rugelach.
- Okay.
Do you come here a lot?
Do I come here a lot? No.
- Why?
- Why not?
I buy kosher, I'm kosher.
You know there's ham in that.
Is that all?
We're buying that for you today.
- No.
- Yes! Absolutely.
Yes! Suzanne!
- Yes.
- Why?
- We have to give!
- You're on TV.
- I wouldn't accept. Thank you.
- Okay.
Bye, Suzanne. Shabbat shalom.
You don't like this?
- This is the 100 percent--
- Oh, that is--
- Because you have to have.
- You bet. That's in every Jewish house.
- Are you going to make egg creams?
- Yeah.
Yeah, why not?
- If you get this during Passover...
- Yes.
...it doesn't have corn syrup in it.
- That's not kosher.
- It's better?
Yes, because it's corn.
- Thing is, it's better without corn syrup.
- It is?
- Yes.
- I learned something today.
That's interesting.
Yes, it's very interesting.
We also found out it's not true.
- Okay. It was fun.
- It was good.
- For playing with us today...
- Yeah?
- ...all this is yours.
- No way!
Yep.
Can I do another episode?
Nope!
Don't be
selling this on the street.
That's old New York.
So how about some new New York?
A perfect place to see
the city's rising stars is Chefs Club.
It's kind of a performance space
for chefs.
With a new one taking over
every few months.
Tonight I'm coming for JJ Johnson.
At his last post, Harlem's The Cecil,
JJ earned a James Beard award nomination
for his elevation of Pan-African cuisine.
It's his personal home-style comfort food
served in a hip, downtown setting.
How hungry are you?
I'll taste everything.
Okay. I got some goat noodles.
I love goat.
I think goat is the most underrated meat.
It's the most consumed animal
in the world.
But here, people don't know.
They don't know what they're missing.
So this is based off a dish
coming from Brazil
that has high Japanese culture
and West African culture
living together on the coast.
So it's West African peanut sauce,
braised goat and bok choy, edamame beans.
If you were to say, like, who I am,
you can get
everything about me in one dish,
this is what I would say.
Wow. If this is who you are,
you are delicious.
You're great.
The next dish is JJ's take
on a West African classic: jollof rice.
It's spicy rice
with a stewed eggplant curry.
Deceptively simple.
Unbelievably delicious.
People have Twitter wars
about who makes the best jollof rice,
Nigeria or Ghana.
You!
That's delicious.
That's comfort food and spicy and hot.
So I'm going to bring over
these, like, crazy, crazy short ribs.
Like Fred Flintstone.
Yes! Beef ribs, look!
Here's
where JJ's Caribbean roots really shine.
Braised short ribs and peanut sauce
with rice, beans, and roti.
This is
my great aunt's roti recipe from Barbados.
Oh, so you can make a thing.
That's what I recommend.
We'll bump it,
and then we'll deconstruct it.
Look at that. Butter knife.
Yeah, I'm in heaven.
That's good.
The meat's beautifully cooked.
That is spicy and nice.
And that peanut butter sauce, come on.
- What are you having?
- Bass. Veggie burger.
- Did you have the short ribs?
- Not yet.
You're giving it to them?
I give one to them and I give one to...
Nice.
- Thank you.
- Sure.
- It's like I dipped it in a piranha tank.
- So I told you you could do it.
It's Saturday morning
at the Ganesh temple in Flushing, Queens.
I have no idea how things work
at a place like this,
so I'm very lucky that
Rupa Balasubramanian is in town.
I know Rupa from L.A.
I just wrote to her,
"Would this interest you?"
She goes, "Would it?
That's the temple I went to
as a kid growing up in Queens."
I had no idea.
I was a little baby
walking through these halls.
Joining us is
the amazing Indian chef Floyd Cardoz
of Bombay Bread Bar in Manhattan.
I first came here because of the food.
And then my wife used to bring me here.
We lived not far from this temple.
It's one of the biggest in Queens.
- So wait a minute.
- It's the crown jewel.
- You came because of the food.
- I came because of the food, yes.
Just downstairs is some
of the best Indian food in the city,
but first, Ganesh beckons.
Thank you.
They give you one flower as a blessing.
This is Dr. Uma. She's in charge.
I brought flowers today,
but other offerings might include
incense, milk, and fruits,
notably coconuts.
So what is
the significance of the coconut?
- When you break the coconut...
- Yeah.
...you're letting your ego go.
- Therefore you surrender to the...
- You sure you want to do it?
This might be very difficult for me.
It's not so easy. It has a technique.
- Is there a coconut breaking area?
- Yes, indeed.
- Here it is. How convenient.
- Go, Phil.
Put that bicep into it.
- I guess my ego's pretty sturdy.
- Throw it.
- Throw it? Like...
- No! No.
Or that.
- My ego is now shattered. Good?
- That's good.
- And now comes the eating?
- The good part.
Floyd and Rupa
lead me and my shattered ego
down to the temple's
famous community canteen,
which specializes in dosas,
South Indian vegetarian pancakes
made of fermented rice and lentils
and then they're stuffed
or served with dips and sauces.
Floyd seems to be ordering all of them.
- Rava masala dosa.
- Mm-hmm.
- Mysore masala dosa. One paper dosa.
- A paper dosa.
- With the uttapam.
- Yeah, the onion chili uttapam.
In fact it's so much,
it all can't fit on the table.
We need to annex another country.
Okay, what will I start with?
First thing I'd eat
is the rava masala dosa.
- Yes. That's my favorite thing.
- It's made from semolina.
What's that?
That is onion.
- Yeah.
- And chili.
Oh, yeah.
And curry leaf.
- Mm! Never had this!
- So good.
- Now you got to get this.
- Paper dosa.
Oh.
- Now my inclination-- To dip--
- Dip. Dip.
- Dip in sambar and chutney.
- Love it.
That's the coconut
that you broke outside.
In that chutney.
It's so good.
Never had this.
When growing up,
I had people say,
"You're Indian. You're so lucky.
You get to eat
chicken tikka masala all the time."
No. That's not what South Indian food is.
That's not what real Indian food is.
So everything that I get from the Indian
restaurants that I know is northern?
It's Northern Indian
and most of it is not home food.
This is home food.
- What I grew up on.
- So different.
And Rupa turned out pretty well.
I'm gonna make you something.
Okay.
Are you going to put--
Potato inside?
In India we love starch on starch.
Rice dosa with potato.
Rice and potato curry.
- Starch on starch.
- Rice.
The equivalent of putting
the french fries into the sandwich.
Right.
I'm loving this.
It's like a thick scallion pancake.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
Super pancake.
I dressed as that for Halloween one year.
Coney Island is this magical place.
Steeplechase Park. Luna Park.
This is where New York went
for recreation a hundred years ago.
And they had this ride
that was just a spinner,
and people would just get shot out.
Like this.
This was before the invention
of the lawsuit, by the way.
That's what I think New York is like.
You're spinning around, then you get--
When you can't take it anymore, you're
shot out to where you're supposed to live.
For me it was Los Angeles.
For people, it's all over the world.
For some people they can hang on.
And they live in New York.
One of the benefits of hanging on
is this place right here.
I had coupons.
I think it was three hot dogs
for two dollars and 25 cents in 1983.
Yeah, and because it was a deal,
I would eat three hot dogs at lunch.
Very smart.
A hundred years ago this genius
named Nathan Handwerker
saw that all the hot dogs were a dime.
And he thought "What if I made
a better one and charged a nickel?"
That's why you've heard of Nathan's.
I wish I had a coupon.
Which one do you want?
- Come on. Really?
- No, for real.
- Here.
- Aren't you sweet?
- What's your favorite thing?
- Actually, I prefer the fish and chips.
With the coupon.
Coupon!
Have a good one.
You're the best!
I got ten hot dogs. I don't know
what you guys are going to eat.
Aren't you great? Thank you, dear.
Who wants a hot dog?
Thank you.
- Lindsey, that's for you.
- Thank you.
All right, dear. Share with the people.
Oh, my God.
And we're back.
Oh. Hello, old friend.
It's the perfect thing.
These crinkle-cut fries...
were always part of the experience.
What is it? Why are these so damn good?
This is New York to me.
This is New York.
And here's another famous New Yorker.
One of the greatest comedy minds
in our lifetime
is Elaine May.
Perhaps you've
heard of Nichols and May.
If you haven't heard of Nichols and May,
they revolutionized comedy.
Elaine went on to do
A New Leaf and The Heartbreak Kid
and she ghostwrote Tootsie.
And I'm a friend of hers.
I don't know how that happened.
I wanted to do something special with her,
so I took her to my new favorite
ice cream place called Ice and Vice.
These are the flavors today.
We're going to taste all of them.
And then the one you like,
we'll make a thing out of.
A thing
like one of these crazy cones
and the outrageous flavors
that helped Ice and Vice win awards
and go from a small street cart to
a Lower East Side ice cream destination.
I consider this the Academy Award
of ice cream tasting.
It is. They already won the Vendy's.
- The next stop is the Oscars.
- Exactly.
I would suggest trying the vanilla first.
Look at those nails.
Who needs a scooper?
Mexican vanilla with black lava sea salt.
Hm.
It tastes very white.
Creamy, yet with a slight fruity taste
that I can't define.
It has a lot of textures, a lot of depth.
I love how serious you are about this.
I've never seen you
so serious about anything.
My favorite one is
buckwheat honey with turmeric
and sunflower seed butterscotch chip.
The next nominee?
Mm.
Really dramatic taste, yet with humor.
- I love that.
- Yes.
Very good for you.
- You know turmeric?
- I eat it all the time.
I'm almost yellow from it.
This one right here is Opium Den.
Oh.
Inside is lemon bread crouton
with poppy seed and white sesame.
It is an opium-like flavor
from my experience.
Have you ever been to an opium den?
Of course. I picked the best opium.
So this is 9AM.
It is a Vietnamese coffee
with donut truffle.
Well. There are hints,
oddly enough, of Cuban tobacco.
- Just the lightest bit. Yes.
- Wow.
This is some palate you've got there.
I've tasted a lot of things in my life.
So, Shade
is a smoked dark chocolate.
Yum.
Yum is a good--
Well, I'm trying to be brief.
Next come
the most unusual flavor nominees:
peach jalapeno,
yuzu with coconut milk,
and Swedish Fish.
As crazy as that flavor is,
it's delicious, isn't it?
I want to say this now.
No matter who gets the award,
it's an honor just to be nominated.
- Is that the last one?
- Yeah.
They're all delicious.
This is going to be so hard.
I like that you put
this undue pressure on yourself.
It's relatively important.
For complexity, for depth...
- Yeah.
- ...for originality,
I will have to go with the 9AM.
Congratulations, 9AM.
And you've all been wonderful.
If nothing--
You've all been delicious.
Every one of you.
And I think 9AM shares this
with all of you.
I think Blue Purple
is giving you the finger.
Good?
- I just ate some paper around the--
- How was that?
- Delicious.
- Even the paper is good.
Look, I got three scoops!
I love you, Anastasia. Look at that.
Excellent.
You have some cone in your hair.
Of course she does. She's Elaine!
You can draw
a straight line from Elaine May
to America's comedy institution,
Saturday Night Live.
And one of the greatest
all-time performers is this guy.
Tracy Morgan, everybody.
This is Russ and Daughters.
He said, "What is this?"
I said, "It's soul food."
I didn't say your soul.
In 1914, Joel Russ opened
a small appetizing shop
on the Lower East Side
selling Jewish delicacies
like lox, cream cheese,
pickled herring, bagels, and more.
Four generations later,
his descendants still run the place,
and recently they opened a beautiful
sit-down restaurant around the corner.
- It's history.
- Yes.
So, that's what I love about New York.
- History.
- Yeah.
You look at it.
- Yeah.
- The curb on every street is this big.
- Right.
- You go to L.A., it's this big.
- That's how old this town is.
- Oh, we've worn it down.
Yeah, we worn it down.
- Hello!
- How we doing?
- That's for me?
- That is for you.
Chocolate egg cream.
- I don't eat sugar.
- No sugar?
- No sugar.
- All right.
This is an invention.
I think it comes from Brooklyn.
- There's no egg, there's no cream.
- Excuse me.
- You can't have it. It's sugar.
- I have to.
- No, it's sugar.
- No, it'll be fine.
He never had an egg cream before.
It's chocolate syrup,
usually Fox's U-Bet.
Milk. And then when you add the seltzer,
it has this chemical reaction.
You like it!
Way beyond liking it. I love it.
I don't want you to drink
that whole thing because I care about you.
I killed Tracy Morgan today.
- Oh, here we go.
- Oh, God!
- What's going on?
- Your potato latkes.
Latkes! You know what it is?
Is that like a knish?
It's like a knish. But not a knish.
Potato pancakes.
Well, you should've put
some mozzarella cheese on it.
He never had what was called appetizing.
I love this!
I love turning people onto stuff I love.
You're going to try this.
You see how thin they slice it?
It's an art form.
We got to fry this. You got to put it
in some flour and fry it.
That's my thing.
I understand.
You want to know what's my favorite meal?
- Yes.
- Can I tell you?
- Yes.
- Besides high school school lunch.
Because school lunch is still in effect.
I love school lunch.
- I love school lunch.
- All right.
I love school lunch!
Now, my favorite meal, of all time,
I call it
"hot dog and pork and bean casserole"
on a tin plate... with a fork.
You know what my dad said?
Try everything in life once.
- Herring?
- No.
How's your health now?
It's been how many years?
Three years since I got hit by that truck.
How long after the accident
did you host Saturday Night Live?
- A year?
- No. 14 months.
Fourteen months.
I thought you were better than ever.
Thank you.
You were effortless that night.
It wasn't like that, Phil.
It wasn't like that.
- There are two shows on SNL.
- Uh-huh.
The dress show. Air show.
During the dress show, I flubbed a lot.
I spoke to Lorne.
Yeah.
Now Lorne is like a dad to me.
I said, "Lorne, I'm not sure
I can do it."
He said, "Tracy...
people don't care about funny.
They're just glad you're here."
- That's right.
- "They're just glad you're here."
That's a very sweet thing
to say and true.
But you're also funny.
I told you, Phil, when we first met,
"We are friends forever."
I ain't ask why I felt
a connection with you. I know why.
Because in the last life,
we were probably cousins like this.
Phil coming over at the family picnic?
Phil coming over? Yes!
This is my picnic
in Central Park with ballerinas.
There was an event at my hotel
and I met these real ballet dancers.
Elina dances
with the American Ballet Theatre.
Abigail's a freelance dancer
and a teacher.
And Georgina is a soloist
with the New York City Ballet.
And I see the way they're eating
and I'm like, "Wow!"
I was impressed. I didn't think
they ate. "Well, sure we do!"
So, I thought,
"You eat, I eat. Let's eat a lot."
I would do what you're doing
if I weren't dancing. I would go--
- You're doing it now.
- We are.
How about-- Let's start
with Charles Pan Fried Chicken.
- Hell yeah.
- Nice!
I'm here to tell you
it's a myth that ballerinas don't eat.
And I'm going to show you
with some of New York's finest takeout.
- Good fried chicken.
- Mm.
- Do you know Faicco's?
- No.
They make giant hero sandwiches.
Yes, thank you.
Holy cow.
Brilliant!
We're gonna have pastrami sandwiches.
This is the reigning champion.
- This is-- Katz's?
- Katz's.
All right. Here we go. You ready?
Do we like it?
I like it!
Here's the challenger.
This is Harry and Ida's.
What do you think?
I appreciate the classic...
but I'm into this.
Then we have more sandwiches
from Harry and Ida's.
- There's so many sandwiches.
- But know what?
This one is smoked bluefish.
- You're into it. You are--
- I'm into this one.
You're from Finland.
You like smoked fish.
I have a specialty.
Chocolate egg cream.
This is from Han Dynasty.
These are called dan dan noodles.
Sorry, technical difficulties.
I'm going to have to literally just...
Very impressive.
Do you think ballet dancers
are stronger, more powerful now
than they were like 30 years ago?
Absolutely.
Yes, it's becoming less art and more--
- Gymnastics--
- It should go to the Olympics now.
- Look at how ice skating has changed.
- Right.
It used to be a double axel,
now it's triple axel.
And now men do like quadruples and...
- So that--
- Till somebody dies.
Did you have enough savory?
- Oh, yeah.
- Um...
- My goodness.
- Paulette, everybody.
Hi!
Paulette Goto is a great friend
and a fantastic pastry chef.
She gives New York food tours
and is on the Cooking Channel
and Food Network.
Oh!
- Ready? One, two, three!
- One, two, three!
That's what's up.
- That piece is bigger than you!
- I'm ready.
This is chocolate with chocolate...
and more chocolate.
- Amazing.
- It's brilliant.
- This is-- This is called heaven.
- It is heaven.
If I had to choose between dance and food,
I'd choose food.
On that note...
Yes, this is how I always imagined
my life in New York would be.
Shall we dance? Let's go.
Whoo whoo!
I can't do any ballet moves
because literally my pants are splitting.
Just one.
No, I can't!
Come on. Come on. Come on.
New York has everything.
You could see a new type of theater,
show, ballet, opera--
You could eat in a new restaurant
every meal. You'd never catch up.
There's so much
and it just keeps spreading out
further and further and further.
In fact one of my favorite places is
actually a half hour north of Manhattan
in the Hudson Valley.
So, Stone Barns...
was a Rockefeller estate,
and it's now an agricultural center.
And Dan Barber and his brother have
a restaurant in there called Blue Hill.
Whenever I go,
if you go at a different season,
you know, you're going to get
a different meal.
I'm going to go ahead and say
this is my favorite restaurant
in the United States.
Yes. This place.
Everything is from this genius
named Dan Barber
who's not just the chef,
but he's a visionary.
He and his team have developed
a more nutritious wheat...
a more nutritious butternut squash.
He's working
towards nutrition and sustainability
and making every single thing delicious.
That is until he decided
to get me involved.
I feel like a lady in the 1800s.
Comedy is your thing,
sausage is his thing.
- There's probably a lot of overlap.
- They're very similar.
Never show someone
how you write a joke,
and never show the sausage making.
- So turn off the cameras, right?
- That's right. Go ahead.
- All right. So ground pork.
- Yes.
Beets that have been
roasted, chopped, pureed.
There's no art to this
other than you got to get in there.
This is it.
Okay, there is an art to it.
Go for it.
- You really wanna get in there and like...
- Am I not?
You want to get the stuff
from the bottom to the top there.
Yes! That's how I made my fortune.
Going from the bottom to the top.
- Now's the fun part.
- This is it.
We're going to stuff this
into a sheep casing.
That's sheep intestine.
- All right? Here we go. All right?
- Yeah.
Oh! Oh! Magic!
It's like an organ grinder and his monkey.
All right.
It's beautiful! Look at it!
This is sausage. Come on!
As a 20-something year old,
I would read in The New York Times
about these magical places
called four-star restaurants.
And once a year, on my birthday...
I would save up
to go to one of these places.
And my friend Rob, my roommate,
he was also stupid like me.
And we would save up,
and we couldn't afford dates.
We would split a girl.
We'd take one girl.
But the point is... the sharing of this.
Oh, Phil!
And so tonight
I'm with the great chef Alon Shaya
and the date we're splitting
is his wife, Emily.
And you have not been here yet?
- No, first time.
- I couldn't be more excited.
Eating at Blue Hill
can be a three, four-hour--
Five-hour meal I've had there once.
I usually don't like this kind of thing.
I get tired. My back hurts.
Wait a minute.
Vegetable sushi.
And then you taste the food.
It's--
You've never had anything like it.
Tastes like sushi.
Because the vinegar and rice.
I love bites like this
where they're so pure.
Yeah.
This answers the question,
how do you make vegetables exciting?
Nothing is too ungapatchka.
You know what ungapatchka means?
It means when there's
too much stuff on something.
Ungapatchka.
Look at this.
This is dinner and a show.
You're never in one spot very long.
- It's like Game of Thrones.
- Yeah.
- These are my enemies.
- Yeah!
This is a beet hot dog.
I actually helped make these today.
- Really?
- Yeah.
I also love that we're
in kind of a big splurge restaurant,
- eating hot dogs.
- I know.
We're eating hot dogs.
Best hot dog I've ever had.
Amazing.
The view's not bad, too.
This was the original manure shed.
It's where you're
having your next course.
Oh.
Wow.
Look at this manure shed.
It's nicer than my house.
Oh, wow.
The world's most beautiful
manure shed, everybody.
- This is really magical.
- We have live compost in this bin,
- chugging away at 142 degrees.
- Whoa.
Oh, oh.
- Raccoon! Did you see it?
- Get him back here.
By the way, that's our next course.
Very nice.
Straight from the farm.
What's happening? To mushrooms.
So, on your plates are mushrooms
that have been cooked in the compost
that we have right here.
When compost breaks down,
it naturally generates heat.
And so Dan thought, "Why not cook in it?"
'Cause he's a genius.
It's the ideal temperature
for poaching eggs.
Oh!
Beauty. Get in there.
Oh, yes.
- Isn't that amazing?
- I like it.
There's such thought behind everything.
You're learning stuff,
you're entertained by the presentation,
and it's delicious.
And so we come to our finale
in the place where it all started.
Oh, it's the fish head.
- That's good stuff.
- This is great! We're in Japan.
Oh God, and there's
so much going on in the rice.
The ingredients are the stars
of every single dish.
Oh, that is beautiful.
Duck breast can be so boring, right?
- Not this one.
- Yeah, not here.
Mm-hmm.
Emily!
Smoky...
So good.
Sweet.
Crispy.
Ducky.
Ducky.
We had a squash breeder
ten years ago for dinner.
"If you're such a great breeder,
why don't you shrink this thing
and make it actually taste good?"
This is honeynut.
This is now in Costco,
Whole Foods, Trader Joe's.
So it's concentrated nutrition, flavor...
I'm going to give you the next generation.
No one has ever had the next generation.
This is the thing,
we just got it yesterday.
Ah!
This is the craziest thing I've had.
I didn't add salt. I didn't add butter.
I didn't add pepper.
Where is it getting the salt from?
- I don't know.
- Amazing.
- This is phenomenal.
- Isn't that crazy?
I learned the thing that makes the fruit
or the vegetable most nutritious,
also makes it most delicious.
- You know what's stupid? He left the pan.
- That is stupid.
- Before he's back.
- Or we get in trouble.
That was supposed to serve
three more customers.
Whoa.
A roasted Gruyère oyster
with eggplant broth.
- What?
- Let's all do the oyster dance.
- That is so good.
- Yum!
Then they kicked us out
for dancing in the kitchen.
We can't leave New York without visiting
the birthplace of the blues,
my mother's kitchen.
Dad, you want soup?
How many people are we feeding?
Just us.
- Well, how many of the crew?
- Don't worry about the crew.
Put in two more balls each.
Max.
I make fun
of my mom's cooking. I've always done it.
It made its way into Raymond.
It's part of the schtick.
She does make something very good.
It's her matzah ball soup.
I'll do it.
Max, I'm the chef.
You didn't have anything to do with this.
- That's right. You did it all yourself.
- Right.
You made the soup yourself?
The matzah balls yourself?
- Yeah, with no help.
- Right.
Now whose recipe is this?
My own.
This is-- It wasn't adapted
from your mother?
- No. No, I really--
- No?
So this is not like some nice thing where
it's passed from generation to generation?
- No.
- Yeah, you can say it. So say it.
What the hell? It sounds better.
Now I've always thought
this was your best dish.
It is.
- No.
- You think so?
You have no competition.
Let me taste it.
Yeah.
What does that mean? Yeah.
- I like it. I think it's very good, but...
- But what?
I might be partial.
I might need a second opinion. Hold on.
What is this?
- Hello.
- Hello.
- How are you?
- Good.
- Who's he?
- Come.
Who's he?
- Hi, Phil.
- This is my friend Dan.
- Hi, Dan.
- He likes soup.
Pleased to meet you.
This is Daniel Boulud.
One of the world's greatest chefs.
Matzah ball soup. That's my favorite.
Good.
So he's gonna try
Helen Rosenthal's matzah ball soup.
Do you know who this is, Mom?
What?
You know nearby we have
Épicerie Boulud?
- Yes.
- And Boulud Sud?
- Yes.
- Right?
- And the restaurant Daniel?
- Yes.
This is Daniel Boulud.
- I'm Daniel Boulud.
- Nice to meet you.
Pleased to meet you, ma'am.
I have on occasion made matzah ball soup.
Not that I grew up with it, but...
Yeah.
I love that-- Oh, my God.
This is very, very good.
Wow, Ma!
- See?
- You put herbs inside?
- Yes.
- Some parsley?
Or there was some dill? What was it?
Parsley. Mostly.
But do you put dill also?
Yeah, I use a lot of dill.
So you see, I brought the dill oil.
Oh!
- She wants it.
- Thanks.
- She loves it.
- This olive oil's made with dill.
Add a little bit on your soup
and you'll see.
It's going to float on the surface.
- Liquid?
- Nice.
- Liquid dill. You want some?
- No thanks.
- Oh, you should try it.
- Taste it!
- All right.
- Amazing.
- I think you're going to like...
- Thank you.
Daniel Boulud is in your kitchen,
giving you something, and you say "no"?
- Okay.
- It's good.
It's nice, right?
What do you got there?
Oh, this is my matzah ball recipe.
I had a question because in my recipe
it said that we put grated onion
- in the matzah. Milk.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- Some egg, some water.
- Some chicken fat. The schmaltz.
- Right.
But you don't put fat
inside the matzah balls?
No. I take it out of the soup.
But once I took it out of the soup,
I put it in the water.
She freezes the soup
and then it's laying on top
- so you just take it off.
- Yeah. Absolutely.
One would think
you had something to do with it.
- No.
- That's the thing he is watching.
- I'm watching.
- You see? He is.
- He say nothing, but he was watching.
- Right.
I have to confess to you,
I use chicken bouillon too.
Oh. Okay. Chicken, chicken.
You made a double chicken stock.
Yeah.
I always make fun of her cooking.
I do it for a living really.
But I have to say
that the matzah ball soup is...
And now we have verification.
I'm so glad we do.
I would say this is
a four-star matzah ball soup.
Bravo.
Merci.
Maybe it should be
on your menu, Daniel.
- Helen's matzah ball soup?
- I will.
Helen's matzah ball soup.
I will. I promise.
Mm.
Look at this!
- Yeah.
- There's meat left over there.
- Yes.
- Should've given you some.
Wanna take some home?
Now you know
how much I love New York,
its food, its culture, its attitude.
But here's the thing:
New York is New York because this is
where people came for a new life.
My own parents had to come
through the Verrazano Narrows
before the bridge was built...
into New York Harbor,
past the Statue of Liberty.
So it looms very large
in our collective memory
of what it means to be an American,
to have come from somewhere else
and to have settled here.
For my birthday a few years ago,
my wife bought me a bench here
in my favorite place.
And then a few years later
when she hit that same birthday,
I bought her the bench next door.
So I'll always be grateful to New York
for the life that I have.
You got to be grateful to a place
that can do this to you.
# So come sit at his table #
# If you're happy, hungry
Willing, and able #
# To see how breaking bread #
# Can turn a stranger
Right into a friend #
# He will drive to you
He will fly to you #
# He will sing for you
And he'll dance for you #
# He will laugh with you
And he'll cry for you #
# There's just one thing
He asks in return #
# Somebody feed, somebody feed #
# Won't somebody, somebody feed Phil #
# Oh, please somebody
Somebody feed Phil #
# Somebody feed him now #
- Mm.
Can you hear me?
Mm.
Do you hear me?
- Hello!
- Oh, my God.
That is so good. It's so good.
Where is he going?
You have to move back.
Max, leave me alone, please.
- You have to try this. It's fantastic.
- Here.
- Which one?
- I got them from Breads.
- Which one should I try?
- Whichever you like.
Well, are you going to eat it now?
Why not? It's so good.
I got the chocolate and this one is
the cinnamon. You like it?
- Mm.
- All right. All right. Goodbye.
Ah.
Now what?
# A happy, hungry man #
# Is traveling all across
The sea and the land #
# He's trying to understand #
# The art of pasta, pork
Chicken and lamb #
# He will drive to you
He will fly to you #
# He will sing for you
And dance for you #
# He will laugh with you
And he'll cry for you #
# There's just one thing
He asks in return #
# Somebody feed, somebody feed #
# Won't somebody, somebody feed Phil #
# Somebody feed him now #
I used to work
in Times Square in the early '80s.
And I ate pizza, hot dogs for dinner.
That's what I could afford.
So I usually looked
for where the deals were
and so there was this deli.
I remember it said, "Chicken, 3.25,"
so I said to the guy,
"I'll have the chicken."
It was like half a chicken for 3.25.
Again, early '80s.
And he goes "You want potato?"
I hesitated because I knew
that would be extra.
And he goes, "It's okay. It go with it."
And I said, "Oh, great.
Then I'll take potato."
And so I moved down the line and then
the guy's ringing me up at the end
and he goes, "Chicken, 3.25.
Potato, that's 4.75."
And I said, "Oh. The man said
that the potato would go with it."
And he said, "Yeah, it go with it.
It don't come with it."
That's New York to me.
You're getting ripped off
and you enjoy it.
That's New York.
This is the center of the world.
New York is the center
of the known universe.
Just a fact.
Now, there have been
countless shows about New York
and I'd be crazy to say
that this one's the definitive New York.
But I can show you my New York.
This is the New York I lived in
for the whole first half of my life.
The New York I keep coming back to.
The New York I love.
Like the place that taught me
what great steak is.
This is a steakhouse from 1887.
It's called Peter Luger's.
It's in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
It's a reason to come to New York.
Today, special guest star,
my friend from Modena,
one of the greatest chefs in the world,
Massimo Bottura.
I've been coming here for 30 years,
I've never seen this.
I only dreamed about such a place.
- Right?
- Me too.
Never been in a place like this.
- Amazing, right?
- Never. Never. Never.
They let us go down
into the meat locker.
There's about half a million dollars worth
of meat in this room.
Massimo, we're going
to plan the heist.
All this meat
is one month's supply.
Don't leave the kitchen
if the steak isn't sizzling.
Also with us is my dear friend,
world-famous chef Nancy Silverton.
And she brought the executive chef
from Osteria Mozza in Los Angeles,
Liz Hong, who I love.
I come every year, once a year.
- My first time was '88.
- Yes!
- Mine was maybe the same.
- Eighty-eight.
But the top of my head came off.
You know, I never had great steak before.
I still remember the lamb. So tasty.
- They've got great--
- Really?
Did you order lamb?
- No. But we can. We're not dead yet.
- Yeah, we should try it.
We starting off small.
Just a little bacon
and some cheeseburgers.
- Oh, wow!
- Oh, my God.
- Here we go. Here we go.
- Come on.
- Oh, God.
- This is crazy.
I'm gonna make a bacon cheeseburger.
Good idea!
Good, right? Really good.
A great burger...
made with the steak trimmings.
You know what I like? You see the bun?
It's the perfect proportion
between the meat and the filling.
- People don't get that anymore.
- No.
- It's so important!
- The proportion in food is everything.
- Do you like the sauce? Nice, right?
- Mm-hmm.
- Gravy boat.
- Matches nicely.
Uh-huh.
It's like cocktail sauce
met steak sauce.
- Yeah.
- So good.
The Italian hand gesture
for what he thinks.
Here comes trouble.
- What's that?
- Lamb chop!
I've been coming here for 30 years,
I've never had the lamb.
Whoa.
Oh, my God. There's so much flavor.
And it's so tender.
Best lamb ever!
As you remember?
This was never
a white tablecloth restaurant, right?
- No.
- Always like this?
It was a German beer hall.
There was sawdust on the floor.
- Oh, look, there's fish.
- Have anything to hide?
Somebody's getting salmon.
Somebody's crazy.
I'll bet the salmon's good.
No, I don't think so.
- Wanna ask for a taste?
- You want?
- I would ask.
- He's going to ask.
- For what?
- A bite.
He's asking for a taste.
Excuse me. I'm a poor chef from Italy.
And I would love to have
a taste of that salmon.
- Can I? Yeah?
- Yeah.
- It's very good. Thank you very much.
- Thank you.
- Was it good?
- A bit overcooked.
Let's be honest.
The place isn't still around
because they make salmon.
Look! That's it. That's the move.
He turns the butter plate over.
One of my favorite moves
in all of sports.
- Look! Look!
- Oh, my God!
Wow.
Look how all the butter and the juice
pool up at one end for easy scooping.
Liz is zobblin' on that bone!
- That's the best.
- That's the best.
That's so good.
That's it! That makes me happy.
You want some?
This is-- This is the Peter Luger version
of breaking bread together.
That means you need a bite too, Phil.
Right? It just...
This is one of my favorite...
dining experiences in the world.
Can we get lamb for them?
You have to get everything.
I love the hash browns.
Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
I love-- The french fries are incredible.
I love the desserts. Look at this.
Ice cream sundae. Look at the schlag.
Mountains of schlag.
- Wait, what's that?
- Whipped cream.
- Whipped cream.
- For what?
For your chocolate
and your thing and thing and thing.
Cheesecake: best.
Chocolate-mousse cake: best.
Hot pecan pie.
You know what goes good on that? Schlag!
- Look it! Bah!
- Oh.
It's so good.
Twenty-five years ago
when I moved from New York to L.A.,
I had to leave behind my true love.
New York pizza.
Which is not to say you can't get
great pizza in L.A.,
but there's nothing like the original.
And I'm here to show you some of the best.
We're going on a pizza crawl.
We're going to hit two classics
and a new upstart.
Number one: Totonno's
in Coney Island, Brooklyn.
This is one of these places
where the romance meets the reality.
Ed Levine wrote the book on pizza.
Literally.
And then the book became a website
and that became Serious Eats.
What's on there?
- Sausage and mushrooms.
- Yes, it is!
Oh! A white pie. I'm excited.
Pizza is first and foremost great bread.
- You're right.
- Right? So I always take a piece--
- I tear a piece off the crust...
- Right. To test it.
To test it because... And it's perfect.
That's great on its own.
Mm.
This place was opened by a guy
whose nickname was Totonno.
His real name was Anthony Pero.
When this was
a middle-class Italian neighborhood,
it stayed in the same family
for almost a hundred years now.
- No changes.
- What d'you mean?
- They have current headlines.
- Exactly.
They also have the sisters.
Excuse me. You were in Positano
with my plumber who's on the phone.
- I was in Positano with your plumber?
- Yes.
- He remembers seeing me in Positano?
- Of course he saw you!
- Here. Say hello to Al.
- Hello, I remember you from Positano!
You were the plumber.
Antoinette and Cookie
run the place now.
They're Totonno's granddaughters,
and they're always up for a party.
Yes! Oh, my God!
Cookie, come over here
'cause I'm gonna leave.
She doesn't want to.
Come here before I hit you
with this bottle in 2 seconds.
Cookie's very shy.
It's not that I'm shy. Let her talk.
She likes to talk.
Nobody messes with Cookie.
If anybody bothers me,
I just throw them out.
- Exactly!
- That's good.
The answer to...
"What do you like about New York?"
Our grandfather,
he brought pizza to America.
In 1905, when he came from Italy on the--
I think it was The Margherita,
was the name of the boat.
The Margherita and the pizza.
Isn't that something?
My family came over on The Rugelach.
They got a photograph on the wall.
It's got "Lombardi's,"
which is widely considered
the birthplace of American pizza.
On the right is the owner, Mr. Lombardi.
But next to him is the pizzaiolo,
the man who made the pizza,
Anthony "Totonno" Pero.
He's the one with flour on his shoes.
That, to Cookie and Antoinette,
is the proof!
There'd be no pizza
if it weren't for Anthony Pero.
- To Anthony Pero!
- To Anthony Pero!
That is right.
When you're good at something,
it's in your blood, it's in your family,
you fight hard, you keep it,
you make it great.
- Salute, health is right.
- Health only. Nothing else.
What do we say in Jewish?
- How do we say it?
- How do we say it in Jewish?
- L'chaim.
- L'chaim.
In our language, the more "ugh"
you have the better.
Next, another legendary spot
for pizza in New York.
It's off the Avenue J stop
in Midwood, Brooklyn.
Di Fara's.
- It's a long wait?
- Yes.
He said it's an hour-and-a-half wait
after you order your pizza.
No, it's not.
That's what he says.
There's just one guy making it.
He's been doing it for longer
than most of you have been alive.
Wait a minute.
Why do we put up with this?
Sometimes you just got to have the best.
Dom, whose last name is DeMarco,
and his partner,
whose last name was Farina...
Two names.
"What will we call the store?"
They put the Di for DeMarco
and Fara for Farina
and it became Di Fara's.
But Dom is still here. The partner is not.
Oh.
- That looks...
- Take a look.
Wow, is that beautiful.
- Look at what he's doing. Hands.
- Look, bare hands.
That's like the legend, right?
"I hear he pulls them
out of the oven with his bare hands."
True.
- He's Iron Man.
- Yeah.
You see? Wow.
I'm happy you're still here.
You're still doing it.
- I do what I like, you know.
- You do what you love.
You do what you love: make the pizza.
I do what I love: eat the pizza.
We just got the basic pie,
but it's got the fresh cut basil on top.
Exactly.
People were not snipping basil
on slices.
- And he's been doing it here...
- Yes.
- ...for more than 50 years.
- Right.
Wow, it's good.
- Dom, you still got it.
- I hope so.
I know so.
Is Julia here? Julia?
Julia, where are you?
We're gonna eat your pizza!
- I'll bet people have bought pies...
- It's a secondary market.
...and they go right outside
and sell it like Springsteen tickets.
Is this some of the best pizza
I've ever tasted?
Yes. It's undeniable.
- Dom.
- Yeah.
We love you. We love your pizza.
Eighty more years to you.
I'm not gonna stop.
Don't worry, Dom. Neither will we.
One of the best things about New York
are the New Yorkers.
- Do you eat over here?
- It's all right.
- It's not the greatest.
- What?
- Not the greatest.
- Who's better?
I like the pizza joint over there
by Madison Square Garden. Pizza Suprema.
- I like it too. Very good.
- Know what?
- He's got taste. He's a man with taste.
- We'll let you live. You got taste.
I make my own pizza.
- Yeah!
- All right!
In New York, you never hear, "I think."
- No, no, no.
- They just say, "That's not the best."
That's true.
These pizzas are classics,
but Ed said I can't leave
without trying his new champion.
And then he tells me that the best pizza
in New York is in New Jersey.
Here it is. This is Razza.
Jersey City. It counts as New York.
If you can get somewhere within
half an hour of the center of town--
- Know your argument?
- Yes?
The Giants and the Jets play in Jersey.
Hey, very good.
Joining us at Razza is Dom Lombardozzi.
Maybe you saw him on The Wire
or Boardwalk Empire.
He is a phenomenal actor,
and he's a foodie like me.
Oh!
The pizza's made
by Razza's owner, genius Dan Richer.
He's self-taught
and kind of obsessed with details.
I tasted 13 different pepperonis
when I was developing this.
I love you.
You're like a mad scientist behind there.
But it's what you want
in a guy making you something.
I want an obsessive character.
Wow.
- Damn!
- Right?
Best pepperoni pizza I ever had.
It's phenomenal.
It makes you excited about pizza again.
I can't hear you
because in my head it is this...
# Ah #
Dan started us out with a classic,
but now we're moving on
to what he's famous for:
completely original combinations.
This is one of our seasonal pies.
It's New Jersey corn, shaved onions,
fresh mozzarella and scamorza cheese.
Wow.
Oh, my God.
Right.
This is change-your-life good pizza.
I'm a purist.
I love the Margherita pizza.
- This?
- Amazing.
- This is amazing.
- Yeah.
- Wow.
- Thanks.
This is so enjoyable.
- This is the pork pie.
- Yes!
We take pork gelatin and cut it into
cubes and then it enables us to put the--
So it's almost like you're putting
soup dumpling filling on the pizza.
So this was inspired by the soup dumpling.
Look at that. Look at his face
light up. Like a Hanukkah bush.
Like a what?
This is not just about the pizza.
It's about this guy's head.
Dan. Dan. Dan. Dan.
Look at these guys
after 20 slices of pizza.
My man can throw down.
- Twenty-one!
- See!
Twenty-one!
Are there any more pizzas back there
that I didn't have?
We have a rotation
of about 60 pies that we do.
I don't think we had 60 pies, do you?
There's a food that made
New York famous before pizza.
And a great place to get it
is in the middle of the harbor
on a boat called "Pilot."
And I'm meeting
a very good friend of mine named Al Roker.
Maybe you've heard of him.
And our friend John Harris.
I wanted to do this with Al
because he's Mr. New York.
He is part of the reason this city
is so nice they named it twice.
How many years now? In New--
Forget The Today Show. Just in New York.
In New York since 1983.
- So you're a New Yorker.
- I'm a New Yorker.
So the company's great, but I
forgot, when I was getting on the boat,
that it would be going like this a bit.
I wish you guys would stop moving.
Are you a little shaky right now?
A little bit.
- I'm OK.
- Here's to your face.
- Hey, now.
- Here's to your face.
Here's to your face.
- Here's to your stomach.
- Love seeing you.
- This helps-- Bitters and soda.
- Bitters.
- Yes.
- Who knew?
Who knew?
But we're not just here
to watch me turn green.
We're here to taste a bit
of New York City's history: oysters.
And we're joined by chef Kerry Heffernan
and oyster expert Julie Qiu.
So when the first settlers came here
and explored this area,
they reported back to Europe that they
found oysters the size of dinner plates.
And a lot of people came here
to experience the New York oyster
because it was that big of a deal.
It was called, New York... The Big Oyster!
The Big Oyster?
Before the Big Apple,
it was called that.
I think it's a better title.
Back when you could eat
oysters from these waters,
they were sold
from street carts like hot dogs.
And they only cost five cents an oyster.
They're a little more expensive now.
Cheers.
And so you guys know
how to eat an oyster properly?
- No.
- Let me.
- OK.
- Tell me if I'm right.
Yeah, okay.
You want to sip that liquor.
You want to savor that.
Slurp it down. Chew it.
A lot of people don't chew that meat.
It drives me nuts.
It actually allows--
- It releases the sweetness of the oyster.
- Terrific.
Why are some oysters briny
and some are literally sweet?
When they're
next to more fresh water,
they're going to be
a little more sweet and less saline.
But when they're grown,
like, very close to the ocean,
that's when they're super briny.
- It's like eating the ocean.
- Exactly.
- High tidal flushes are giving that--
- I had one of those last night.
Yes!
- Ooh. Oh, my God.
- Yay! Oysters!
- Yay!
- The best I've had.
How about in New Orleans
where they grill them?
- It's good. Have you ever had that?
- Chargrilled oysters.
I've never had that before.
Is it delicious?
- When we go to New Orleans.
- Next stop.
I think we're
just going to travel with Phil.
Unmoor this.
Here we go.
New York is
the very definition of city.
Bustling, loud, non-stop
with buildings stacked
on top of each other into the distance.
It's exhilarating.
But some of my favorite places
have the opposite effect.
New York City has
some of the best parks in the world.
This is the High Line.
Running for a mile and a half
along a reclaimed elevated rail line,
is a wonder and a marvel
of urban planning.
Then at the northern tip of Manhattan,
near where I had my first apartment
after college, is Fort Tryon Park...
with its beautiful views
of the Hudson River
and the cliffs of New Jersey.
John D. Rockefeller built the park
and he bought the view.
He bought the entire Jersey side
of the Hudson River
so that no one could build on it and it
would be forever preserved like this.
That's money!
Each of these places is spectacular.
But they still can't hold a candle
to the park to end all parks.
My favorite park in the world
is Central Park.
Maybe my favorite place ever.
And it's in the middle of the city.
My wife, Monica, and I spent
a lot of time here when we were dating.
And we still come back here
every time we're in town.
Here's what I love.
You're on this bridge
and if you look here,
you're completely lost in the woods,
you're in nature, it's gorgeous.
And you look here...
you're in the city.
A lot of people just think
that there was wildlife here
and the city built up around it
and just left that park alone. No.
Every single thing has been designed.
Everything.
It's cinematic. Everywhere you look
is a perfectly composed vista.
It's so beautiful and you walk through it
and you're transported out of the city.
It's beautiful, huh?
That reminds me
I want duck tonight.
Oh, Philip.
Steve Cohen's been
a Central Park tour guide for years,
and he knows everything about everything.
- This--
- All is man-made.
Think of the labor.
- For recreational sake.
- That's right.
- To get rid of the chaos.
- Right.
To lose yourself.
- I love getting lost in the city.
- Well, that's the intention.
Imagine the most prime real estate
on the face of the Earth
left alone for the people.
And as full of attractions
as any museum.
Like these 19th century sandstone reliefs,
considered the first public art
in the country.
And Bethesda Fountain's iconic angel,
created by sculptor Emma Stebbins
to celebrate
the city's clean drinking water.
So now we're in the woods.
We are in the Ramble.
Philip, come on.
- We're frolicking in Central Park.
- Oh, my God.
And look up.
Look at the engineering.
Look at the romance.
- I'm looking at the engineering.
- We're frolicking!
It's a beautiful ideal...
ideally realized.
It is romantic, I have to say.
Yeah, it is.
Oh. Lovely meeting you.
I've had it.
Oh, marriage.
You've got to kiss her! Go!
Yeah, right?
- Come on! You're in New York!
- Philip.
All right! Terrific!
He's a good actor.
After you ramble
through the Ramble,
you got to go just west of the park
to the Upper West Side.
And one of my new favorite places in town.
Especially popular with carnivorous types.
Oh, geez. Do you need help?
- No, I got this.
- That's bigger than you.
I'm very impressed.
That's actually what I was going
to have. I was gonna order that.
On a roll.
Erika and Jocelyn
are world-class butchers
and they run their shop called White Gold.
How much does that weigh,
what you were just carrying?
Like a hundred pounds. One-fifty, maybe.
- That's nothing.
- Yeah.
- You were a vegetarian?
- Growing up, you know.
And what turned you? The sight of this?
It's funny.
I was an animal rights vegetarian.
Now I consider myself,
like, an animal rights butcher.
- Hi, guys.
- Oh! It's Judy!
- Hi!
- Judy Gold, White Gold.
- White Gold was your rap name, wasn't it?
- Yeah.
My friend Judy Gold
is a great comedian
who actually lives in the neighborhood,
so I'm excited to introduce her
to this palace of meat.
So, I'm vegan.
Oh, God. Look at that meat.
Oh!
So, here's why White Gold
is the best butcher shop ever...
They also serve idealized versions
of the classic New York food
you'd find at the corner deli.
Bacon, egg and cheese.
This was my staple diet in the '80s.
- It's unbelievable.
- Good.
Beef pastrami Reuben
with house-made kraut,
house-made Thousand Island.
Oh, my God.
Can we just look at the layers here?
I mean, that's perfect.
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God. No. This is--
Homemade hot dogs
with kimchi sauerkraut.
Roast beef
with something called beef butter.
- Oh!
- That's fresh?
And an upscale take on
a local sandwich I didn't even know about.
Who wants
to look at the chopped cheese?
You throw, you know,
the pickles and the jalapenos on it
and then you chop.
And then the cheese goes on it.
You let it melt a little bit
and onto the bun.
It's a cheeseburger.
- Mm.
- Yeah.
Who thought it?
Chopping the meat
and the cheese together.
Yeah, it's like
a classic Harlem bodega sandwich.
- Didn't know.
- Yes.
Mm!
You're doing God's work here.
Thanks, girl.
I am in this area all the time.
And I will never walk by here
and not come in.
That sounds like a threat when you say it.
Full of meat now, Judy and I
will have the energy we need
to attack
the most important store in the world.
The deli of delis.
The super deli. The uber deli.
Zabar's.
It is the be all and end all to
everyone's life in that part of the world.
This is a little something
I like to call "two Jews run amok."
Oh, the German Swiss
is actually very good.
Now that they've-- You know,
they're sorry, I get the German Swiss.
You'd think the pre-made bagel
with cream cheese would not be as good.
- Thank you.
- Sure.
Mm. Mm. Mm.
Oh, my God! It's so good!
Hello. We're just dancing.
Look at this.
Oh!
Can I have half pound sliced
thin?
- I'm trying to fit in.
- Louder.
Sliced thin.
Can I have it sliced-- Thinner!
- Thinner!
- Is that the best?
Thinner!
I used to manage a deli.
- You did? Were you good?
- They would come and they'd say,
"Is this what you have?"
- Yes.
- No.
This is what we have. Yes.
That's why you're seeing it,
because we have it.
And they would say,
"No, no. Is there more in the back?"
- Yeah, we're hiding it from you.
- No, we have it.
We do have more in the back, but--
"Yeah, is it better?"
"Yeah, but it's me. It's me.
You can tell me.
Tell me if it's better..."
- This is the secret tunnel.
- I love a secret tunnel.
Now this opens you up
into a whole new world.
- # It's a whole new world-- #
- We can't afford that.
Oh.
And what do you get when you come?
Usually things to eat, snack on. And...
- Things to eat. Good idea.
- What you get?
- Getting things to eat.
- What you get?
I got some-- What you call it? Ru--
- Rugelach. Say it right.
- Rugelach. Isn't it the best? Say it.
- What did you think it was? Rude-a-gus?
- Rude-a-gus.
- Say rugelach.
- Rugelach.
- With a "ugh" at the end. Ugh.
- Rugelach.
- Rugelach.
- Okay.
Do you come here a lot?
Do I come here a lot? No.
- Why?
- Why not?
I buy kosher, I'm kosher.
You know there's ham in that.
Is that all?
We're buying that for you today.
- No.
- Yes! Absolutely.
Yes! Suzanne!
- Yes.
- Why?
- We have to give!
- You're on TV.
- I wouldn't accept. Thank you.
- Okay.
Bye, Suzanne. Shabbat shalom.
You don't like this?
- This is the 100 percent--
- Oh, that is--
- Because you have to have.
- You bet. That's in every Jewish house.
- Are you going to make egg creams?
- Yeah.
Yeah, why not?
- If you get this during Passover...
- Yes.
...it doesn't have corn syrup in it.
- That's not kosher.
- It's better?
Yes, because it's corn.
- Thing is, it's better without corn syrup.
- It is?
- Yes.
- I learned something today.
That's interesting.
Yes, it's very interesting.
We also found out it's not true.
- Okay. It was fun.
- It was good.
- For playing with us today...
- Yeah?
- ...all this is yours.
- No way!
Yep.
Can I do another episode?
Nope!
Don't be
selling this on the street.
That's old New York.
So how about some new New York?
A perfect place to see
the city's rising stars is Chefs Club.
It's kind of a performance space
for chefs.
With a new one taking over
every few months.
Tonight I'm coming for JJ Johnson.
At his last post, Harlem's The Cecil,
JJ earned a James Beard award nomination
for his elevation of Pan-African cuisine.
It's his personal home-style comfort food
served in a hip, downtown setting.
How hungry are you?
I'll taste everything.
Okay. I got some goat noodles.
I love goat.
I think goat is the most underrated meat.
It's the most consumed animal
in the world.
But here, people don't know.
They don't know what they're missing.
So this is based off a dish
coming from Brazil
that has high Japanese culture
and West African culture
living together on the coast.
So it's West African peanut sauce,
braised goat and bok choy, edamame beans.
If you were to say, like, who I am,
you can get
everything about me in one dish,
this is what I would say.
Wow. If this is who you are,
you are delicious.
You're great.
The next dish is JJ's take
on a West African classic: jollof rice.
It's spicy rice
with a stewed eggplant curry.
Deceptively simple.
Unbelievably delicious.
People have Twitter wars
about who makes the best jollof rice,
Nigeria or Ghana.
You!
That's delicious.
That's comfort food and spicy and hot.
So I'm going to bring over
these, like, crazy, crazy short ribs.
Like Fred Flintstone.
Yes! Beef ribs, look!
Here's
where JJ's Caribbean roots really shine.
Braised short ribs and peanut sauce
with rice, beans, and roti.
This is
my great aunt's roti recipe from Barbados.
Oh, so you can make a thing.
That's what I recommend.
We'll bump it,
and then we'll deconstruct it.
Look at that. Butter knife.
Yeah, I'm in heaven.
That's good.
The meat's beautifully cooked.
That is spicy and nice.
And that peanut butter sauce, come on.
- What are you having?
- Bass. Veggie burger.
- Did you have the short ribs?
- Not yet.
You're giving it to them?
I give one to them and I give one to...
Nice.
- Thank you.
- Sure.
- It's like I dipped it in a piranha tank.
- So I told you you could do it.
It's Saturday morning
at the Ganesh temple in Flushing, Queens.
I have no idea how things work
at a place like this,
so I'm very lucky that
Rupa Balasubramanian is in town.
I know Rupa from L.A.
I just wrote to her,
"Would this interest you?"
She goes, "Would it?
That's the temple I went to
as a kid growing up in Queens."
I had no idea.
I was a little baby
walking through these halls.
Joining us is
the amazing Indian chef Floyd Cardoz
of Bombay Bread Bar in Manhattan.
I first came here because of the food.
And then my wife used to bring me here.
We lived not far from this temple.
It's one of the biggest in Queens.
- So wait a minute.
- It's the crown jewel.
- You came because of the food.
- I came because of the food, yes.
Just downstairs is some
of the best Indian food in the city,
but first, Ganesh beckons.
Thank you.
They give you one flower as a blessing.
This is Dr. Uma. She's in charge.
I brought flowers today,
but other offerings might include
incense, milk, and fruits,
notably coconuts.
So what is
the significance of the coconut?
- When you break the coconut...
- Yeah.
...you're letting your ego go.
- Therefore you surrender to the...
- You sure you want to do it?
This might be very difficult for me.
It's not so easy. It has a technique.
- Is there a coconut breaking area?
- Yes, indeed.
- Here it is. How convenient.
- Go, Phil.
Put that bicep into it.
- I guess my ego's pretty sturdy.
- Throw it.
- Throw it? Like...
- No! No.
Or that.
- My ego is now shattered. Good?
- That's good.
- And now comes the eating?
- The good part.
Floyd and Rupa
lead me and my shattered ego
down to the temple's
famous community canteen,
which specializes in dosas,
South Indian vegetarian pancakes
made of fermented rice and lentils
and then they're stuffed
or served with dips and sauces.
Floyd seems to be ordering all of them.
- Rava masala dosa.
- Mm-hmm.
- Mysore masala dosa. One paper dosa.
- A paper dosa.
- With the uttapam.
- Yeah, the onion chili uttapam.
In fact it's so much,
it all can't fit on the table.
We need to annex another country.
Okay, what will I start with?
First thing I'd eat
is the rava masala dosa.
- Yes. That's my favorite thing.
- It's made from semolina.
What's that?
That is onion.
- Yeah.
- And chili.
Oh, yeah.
And curry leaf.
- Mm! Never had this!
- So good.
- Now you got to get this.
- Paper dosa.
Oh.
- Now my inclination-- To dip--
- Dip. Dip.
- Dip in sambar and chutney.
- Love it.
That's the coconut
that you broke outside.
In that chutney.
It's so good.
Never had this.
When growing up,
I had people say,
"You're Indian. You're so lucky.
You get to eat
chicken tikka masala all the time."
No. That's not what South Indian food is.
That's not what real Indian food is.
So everything that I get from the Indian
restaurants that I know is northern?
It's Northern Indian
and most of it is not home food.
This is home food.
- What I grew up on.
- So different.
And Rupa turned out pretty well.
I'm gonna make you something.
Okay.
Are you going to put--
Potato inside?
In India we love starch on starch.
Rice dosa with potato.
Rice and potato curry.
- Starch on starch.
- Rice.
The equivalent of putting
the french fries into the sandwich.
Right.
I'm loving this.
It's like a thick scallion pancake.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
Super pancake.
I dressed as that for Halloween one year.
Coney Island is this magical place.
Steeplechase Park. Luna Park.
This is where New York went
for recreation a hundred years ago.
And they had this ride
that was just a spinner,
and people would just get shot out.
Like this.
This was before the invention
of the lawsuit, by the way.
That's what I think New York is like.
You're spinning around, then you get--
When you can't take it anymore, you're
shot out to where you're supposed to live.
For me it was Los Angeles.
For people, it's all over the world.
For some people they can hang on.
And they live in New York.
One of the benefits of hanging on
is this place right here.
I had coupons.
I think it was three hot dogs
for two dollars and 25 cents in 1983.
Yeah, and because it was a deal,
I would eat three hot dogs at lunch.
Very smart.
A hundred years ago this genius
named Nathan Handwerker
saw that all the hot dogs were a dime.
And he thought "What if I made
a better one and charged a nickel?"
That's why you've heard of Nathan's.
I wish I had a coupon.
Which one do you want?
- Come on. Really?
- No, for real.
- Here.
- Aren't you sweet?
- What's your favorite thing?
- Actually, I prefer the fish and chips.
With the coupon.
Coupon!
Have a good one.
You're the best!
I got ten hot dogs. I don't know
what you guys are going to eat.
Aren't you great? Thank you, dear.
Who wants a hot dog?
Thank you.
- Lindsey, that's for you.
- Thank you.
All right, dear. Share with the people.
Oh, my God.
And we're back.
Oh. Hello, old friend.
It's the perfect thing.
These crinkle-cut fries...
were always part of the experience.
What is it? Why are these so damn good?
This is New York to me.
This is New York.
And here's another famous New Yorker.
One of the greatest comedy minds
in our lifetime
is Elaine May.
Perhaps you've
heard of Nichols and May.
If you haven't heard of Nichols and May,
they revolutionized comedy.
Elaine went on to do
A New Leaf and The Heartbreak Kid
and she ghostwrote Tootsie.
And I'm a friend of hers.
I don't know how that happened.
I wanted to do something special with her,
so I took her to my new favorite
ice cream place called Ice and Vice.
These are the flavors today.
We're going to taste all of them.
And then the one you like,
we'll make a thing out of.
A thing
like one of these crazy cones
and the outrageous flavors
that helped Ice and Vice win awards
and go from a small street cart to
a Lower East Side ice cream destination.
I consider this the Academy Award
of ice cream tasting.
It is. They already won the Vendy's.
- The next stop is the Oscars.
- Exactly.
I would suggest trying the vanilla first.
Look at those nails.
Who needs a scooper?
Mexican vanilla with black lava sea salt.
Hm.
It tastes very white.
Creamy, yet with a slight fruity taste
that I can't define.
It has a lot of textures, a lot of depth.
I love how serious you are about this.
I've never seen you
so serious about anything.
My favorite one is
buckwheat honey with turmeric
and sunflower seed butterscotch chip.
The next nominee?
Mm.
Really dramatic taste, yet with humor.
- I love that.
- Yes.
Very good for you.
- You know turmeric?
- I eat it all the time.
I'm almost yellow from it.
This one right here is Opium Den.
Oh.
Inside is lemon bread crouton
with poppy seed and white sesame.
It is an opium-like flavor
from my experience.
Have you ever been to an opium den?
Of course. I picked the best opium.
So this is 9AM.
It is a Vietnamese coffee
with donut truffle.
Well. There are hints,
oddly enough, of Cuban tobacco.
- Just the lightest bit. Yes.
- Wow.
This is some palate you've got there.
I've tasted a lot of things in my life.
So, Shade
is a smoked dark chocolate.
Yum.
Yum is a good--
Well, I'm trying to be brief.
Next come
the most unusual flavor nominees:
peach jalapeno,
yuzu with coconut milk,
and Swedish Fish.
As crazy as that flavor is,
it's delicious, isn't it?
I want to say this now.
No matter who gets the award,
it's an honor just to be nominated.
- Is that the last one?
- Yeah.
They're all delicious.
This is going to be so hard.
I like that you put
this undue pressure on yourself.
It's relatively important.
For complexity, for depth...
- Yeah.
- ...for originality,
I will have to go with the 9AM.
Congratulations, 9AM.
And you've all been wonderful.
If nothing--
You've all been delicious.
Every one of you.
And I think 9AM shares this
with all of you.
I think Blue Purple
is giving you the finger.
Good?
- I just ate some paper around the--
- How was that?
- Delicious.
- Even the paper is good.
Look, I got three scoops!
I love you, Anastasia. Look at that.
Excellent.
You have some cone in your hair.
Of course she does. She's Elaine!
You can draw
a straight line from Elaine May
to America's comedy institution,
Saturday Night Live.
And one of the greatest
all-time performers is this guy.
Tracy Morgan, everybody.
This is Russ and Daughters.
He said, "What is this?"
I said, "It's soul food."
I didn't say your soul.
In 1914, Joel Russ opened
a small appetizing shop
on the Lower East Side
selling Jewish delicacies
like lox, cream cheese,
pickled herring, bagels, and more.
Four generations later,
his descendants still run the place,
and recently they opened a beautiful
sit-down restaurant around the corner.
- It's history.
- Yes.
So, that's what I love about New York.
- History.
- Yeah.
You look at it.
- Yeah.
- The curb on every street is this big.
- Right.
- You go to L.A., it's this big.
- That's how old this town is.
- Oh, we've worn it down.
Yeah, we worn it down.
- Hello!
- How we doing?
- That's for me?
- That is for you.
Chocolate egg cream.
- I don't eat sugar.
- No sugar?
- No sugar.
- All right.
This is an invention.
I think it comes from Brooklyn.
- There's no egg, there's no cream.
- Excuse me.
- You can't have it. It's sugar.
- I have to.
- No, it's sugar.
- No, it'll be fine.
He never had an egg cream before.
It's chocolate syrup,
usually Fox's U-Bet.
Milk. And then when you add the seltzer,
it has this chemical reaction.
You like it!
Way beyond liking it. I love it.
I don't want you to drink
that whole thing because I care about you.
I killed Tracy Morgan today.
- Oh, here we go.
- Oh, God!
- What's going on?
- Your potato latkes.
Latkes! You know what it is?
Is that like a knish?
It's like a knish. But not a knish.
Potato pancakes.
Well, you should've put
some mozzarella cheese on it.
He never had what was called appetizing.
I love this!
I love turning people onto stuff I love.
You're going to try this.
You see how thin they slice it?
It's an art form.
We got to fry this. You got to put it
in some flour and fry it.
That's my thing.
I understand.
You want to know what's my favorite meal?
- Yes.
- Can I tell you?
- Yes.
- Besides high school school lunch.
Because school lunch is still in effect.
I love school lunch.
- I love school lunch.
- All right.
I love school lunch!
Now, my favorite meal, of all time,
I call it
"hot dog and pork and bean casserole"
on a tin plate... with a fork.
You know what my dad said?
Try everything in life once.
- Herring?
- No.
How's your health now?
It's been how many years?
Three years since I got hit by that truck.
How long after the accident
did you host Saturday Night Live?
- A year?
- No. 14 months.
Fourteen months.
I thought you were better than ever.
Thank you.
You were effortless that night.
It wasn't like that, Phil.
It wasn't like that.
- There are two shows on SNL.
- Uh-huh.
The dress show. Air show.
During the dress show, I flubbed a lot.
I spoke to Lorne.
Yeah.
Now Lorne is like a dad to me.
I said, "Lorne, I'm not sure
I can do it."
He said, "Tracy...
people don't care about funny.
They're just glad you're here."
- That's right.
- "They're just glad you're here."
That's a very sweet thing
to say and true.
But you're also funny.
I told you, Phil, when we first met,
"We are friends forever."
I ain't ask why I felt
a connection with you. I know why.
Because in the last life,
we were probably cousins like this.
Phil coming over at the family picnic?
Phil coming over? Yes!
This is my picnic
in Central Park with ballerinas.
There was an event at my hotel
and I met these real ballet dancers.
Elina dances
with the American Ballet Theatre.
Abigail's a freelance dancer
and a teacher.
And Georgina is a soloist
with the New York City Ballet.
And I see the way they're eating
and I'm like, "Wow!"
I was impressed. I didn't think
they ate. "Well, sure we do!"
So, I thought,
"You eat, I eat. Let's eat a lot."
I would do what you're doing
if I weren't dancing. I would go--
- You're doing it now.
- We are.
How about-- Let's start
with Charles Pan Fried Chicken.
- Hell yeah.
- Nice!
I'm here to tell you
it's a myth that ballerinas don't eat.
And I'm going to show you
with some of New York's finest takeout.
- Good fried chicken.
- Mm.
- Do you know Faicco's?
- No.
They make giant hero sandwiches.
Yes, thank you.
Holy cow.
Brilliant!
We're gonna have pastrami sandwiches.
This is the reigning champion.
- This is-- Katz's?
- Katz's.
All right. Here we go. You ready?
Do we like it?
I like it!
Here's the challenger.
This is Harry and Ida's.
What do you think?
I appreciate the classic...
but I'm into this.
Then we have more sandwiches
from Harry and Ida's.
- There's so many sandwiches.
- But know what?
This one is smoked bluefish.
- You're into it. You are--
- I'm into this one.
You're from Finland.
You like smoked fish.
I have a specialty.
Chocolate egg cream.
This is from Han Dynasty.
These are called dan dan noodles.
Sorry, technical difficulties.
I'm going to have to literally just...
Very impressive.
Do you think ballet dancers
are stronger, more powerful now
than they were like 30 years ago?
Absolutely.
Yes, it's becoming less art and more--
- Gymnastics--
- It should go to the Olympics now.
- Look at how ice skating has changed.
- Right.
It used to be a double axel,
now it's triple axel.
And now men do like quadruples and...
- So that--
- Till somebody dies.
Did you have enough savory?
- Oh, yeah.
- Um...
- My goodness.
- Paulette, everybody.
Hi!
Paulette Goto is a great friend
and a fantastic pastry chef.
She gives New York food tours
and is on the Cooking Channel
and Food Network.
Oh!
- Ready? One, two, three!
- One, two, three!
That's what's up.
- That piece is bigger than you!
- I'm ready.
This is chocolate with chocolate...
and more chocolate.
- Amazing.
- It's brilliant.
- This is-- This is called heaven.
- It is heaven.
If I had to choose between dance and food,
I'd choose food.
On that note...
Yes, this is how I always imagined
my life in New York would be.
Shall we dance? Let's go.
Whoo whoo!
I can't do any ballet moves
because literally my pants are splitting.
Just one.
No, I can't!
Come on. Come on. Come on.
New York has everything.
You could see a new type of theater,
show, ballet, opera--
You could eat in a new restaurant
every meal. You'd never catch up.
There's so much
and it just keeps spreading out
further and further and further.
In fact one of my favorite places is
actually a half hour north of Manhattan
in the Hudson Valley.
So, Stone Barns...
was a Rockefeller estate,
and it's now an agricultural center.
And Dan Barber and his brother have
a restaurant in there called Blue Hill.
Whenever I go,
if you go at a different season,
you know, you're going to get
a different meal.
I'm going to go ahead and say
this is my favorite restaurant
in the United States.
Yes. This place.
Everything is from this genius
named Dan Barber
who's not just the chef,
but he's a visionary.
He and his team have developed
a more nutritious wheat...
a more nutritious butternut squash.
He's working
towards nutrition and sustainability
and making every single thing delicious.
That is until he decided
to get me involved.
I feel like a lady in the 1800s.
Comedy is your thing,
sausage is his thing.
- There's probably a lot of overlap.
- They're very similar.
Never show someone
how you write a joke,
and never show the sausage making.
- So turn off the cameras, right?
- That's right. Go ahead.
- All right. So ground pork.
- Yes.
Beets that have been
roasted, chopped, pureed.
There's no art to this
other than you got to get in there.
This is it.
Okay, there is an art to it.
Go for it.
- You really wanna get in there and like...
- Am I not?
You want to get the stuff
from the bottom to the top there.
Yes! That's how I made my fortune.
Going from the bottom to the top.
- Now's the fun part.
- This is it.
We're going to stuff this
into a sheep casing.
That's sheep intestine.
- All right? Here we go. All right?
- Yeah.
Oh! Oh! Magic!
It's like an organ grinder and his monkey.
All right.
It's beautiful! Look at it!
This is sausage. Come on!
As a 20-something year old,
I would read in The New York Times
about these magical places
called four-star restaurants.
And once a year, on my birthday...
I would save up
to go to one of these places.
And my friend Rob, my roommate,
he was also stupid like me.
And we would save up,
and we couldn't afford dates.
We would split a girl.
We'd take one girl.
But the point is... the sharing of this.
Oh, Phil!
And so tonight
I'm with the great chef Alon Shaya
and the date we're splitting
is his wife, Emily.
And you have not been here yet?
- No, first time.
- I couldn't be more excited.
Eating at Blue Hill
can be a three, four-hour--
Five-hour meal I've had there once.
I usually don't like this kind of thing.
I get tired. My back hurts.
Wait a minute.
Vegetable sushi.
And then you taste the food.
It's--
You've never had anything like it.
Tastes like sushi.
Because the vinegar and rice.
I love bites like this
where they're so pure.
Yeah.
This answers the question,
how do you make vegetables exciting?
Nothing is too ungapatchka.
You know what ungapatchka means?
It means when there's
too much stuff on something.
Ungapatchka.
Look at this.
This is dinner and a show.
You're never in one spot very long.
- It's like Game of Thrones.
- Yeah.
- These are my enemies.
- Yeah!
This is a beet hot dog.
I actually helped make these today.
- Really?
- Yeah.
I also love that we're
in kind of a big splurge restaurant,
- eating hot dogs.
- I know.
We're eating hot dogs.
Best hot dog I've ever had.
Amazing.
The view's not bad, too.
This was the original manure shed.
It's where you're
having your next course.
Oh.
Wow.
Look at this manure shed.
It's nicer than my house.
Oh, wow.
The world's most beautiful
manure shed, everybody.
- This is really magical.
- We have live compost in this bin,
- chugging away at 142 degrees.
- Whoa.
Oh, oh.
- Raccoon! Did you see it?
- Get him back here.
By the way, that's our next course.
Very nice.
Straight from the farm.
What's happening? To mushrooms.
So, on your plates are mushrooms
that have been cooked in the compost
that we have right here.
When compost breaks down,
it naturally generates heat.
And so Dan thought, "Why not cook in it?"
'Cause he's a genius.
It's the ideal temperature
for poaching eggs.
Oh!
Beauty. Get in there.
Oh, yes.
- Isn't that amazing?
- I like it.
There's such thought behind everything.
You're learning stuff,
you're entertained by the presentation,
and it's delicious.
And so we come to our finale
in the place where it all started.
Oh, it's the fish head.
- That's good stuff.
- This is great! We're in Japan.
Oh God, and there's
so much going on in the rice.
The ingredients are the stars
of every single dish.
Oh, that is beautiful.
Duck breast can be so boring, right?
- Not this one.
- Yeah, not here.
Mm-hmm.
Emily!
Smoky...
So good.
Sweet.
Crispy.
Ducky.
Ducky.
We had a squash breeder
ten years ago for dinner.
"If you're such a great breeder,
why don't you shrink this thing
and make it actually taste good?"
This is honeynut.
This is now in Costco,
Whole Foods, Trader Joe's.
So it's concentrated nutrition, flavor...
I'm going to give you the next generation.
No one has ever had the next generation.
This is the thing,
we just got it yesterday.
Ah!
This is the craziest thing I've had.
I didn't add salt. I didn't add butter.
I didn't add pepper.
Where is it getting the salt from?
- I don't know.
- Amazing.
- This is phenomenal.
- Isn't that crazy?
I learned the thing that makes the fruit
or the vegetable most nutritious,
also makes it most delicious.
- You know what's stupid? He left the pan.
- That is stupid.
- Before he's back.
- Or we get in trouble.
That was supposed to serve
three more customers.
Whoa.
A roasted Gruyère oyster
with eggplant broth.
- What?
- Let's all do the oyster dance.
- That is so good.
- Yum!
Then they kicked us out
for dancing in the kitchen.
We can't leave New York without visiting
the birthplace of the blues,
my mother's kitchen.
Dad, you want soup?
How many people are we feeding?
Just us.
- Well, how many of the crew?
- Don't worry about the crew.
Put in two more balls each.
Max.
I make fun
of my mom's cooking. I've always done it.
It made its way into Raymond.
It's part of the schtick.
She does make something very good.
It's her matzah ball soup.
I'll do it.
Max, I'm the chef.
You didn't have anything to do with this.
- That's right. You did it all yourself.
- Right.
You made the soup yourself?
The matzah balls yourself?
- Yeah, with no help.
- Right.
Now whose recipe is this?
My own.
This is-- It wasn't adapted
from your mother?
- No. No, I really--
- No?
So this is not like some nice thing where
it's passed from generation to generation?
- No.
- Yeah, you can say it. So say it.
What the hell? It sounds better.
Now I've always thought
this was your best dish.
It is.
- No.
- You think so?
You have no competition.
Let me taste it.
Yeah.
What does that mean? Yeah.
- I like it. I think it's very good, but...
- But what?
I might be partial.
I might need a second opinion. Hold on.
What is this?
- Hello.
- Hello.
- How are you?
- Good.
- Who's he?
- Come.
Who's he?
- Hi, Phil.
- This is my friend Dan.
- Hi, Dan.
- He likes soup.
Pleased to meet you.
This is Daniel Boulud.
One of the world's greatest chefs.
Matzah ball soup. That's my favorite.
Good.
So he's gonna try
Helen Rosenthal's matzah ball soup.
Do you know who this is, Mom?
What?
You know nearby we have
Épicerie Boulud?
- Yes.
- And Boulud Sud?
- Yes.
- Right?
- And the restaurant Daniel?
- Yes.
This is Daniel Boulud.
- I'm Daniel Boulud.
- Nice to meet you.
Pleased to meet you, ma'am.
I have on occasion made matzah ball soup.
Not that I grew up with it, but...
Yeah.
I love that-- Oh, my God.
This is very, very good.
Wow, Ma!
- See?
- You put herbs inside?
- Yes.
- Some parsley?
Or there was some dill? What was it?
Parsley. Mostly.
But do you put dill also?
Yeah, I use a lot of dill.
So you see, I brought the dill oil.
Oh!
- She wants it.
- Thanks.
- She loves it.
- This olive oil's made with dill.
Add a little bit on your soup
and you'll see.
It's going to float on the surface.
- Liquid?
- Nice.
- Liquid dill. You want some?
- No thanks.
- Oh, you should try it.
- Taste it!
- All right.
- Amazing.
- I think you're going to like...
- Thank you.
Daniel Boulud is in your kitchen,
giving you something, and you say "no"?
- Okay.
- It's good.
It's nice, right?
What do you got there?
Oh, this is my matzah ball recipe.
I had a question because in my recipe
it said that we put grated onion
- in the matzah. Milk.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- Some egg, some water.
- Some chicken fat. The schmaltz.
- Right.
But you don't put fat
inside the matzah balls?
No. I take it out of the soup.
But once I took it out of the soup,
I put it in the water.
She freezes the soup
and then it's laying on top
- so you just take it off.
- Yeah. Absolutely.
One would think
you had something to do with it.
- No.
- That's the thing he is watching.
- I'm watching.
- You see? He is.
- He say nothing, but he was watching.
- Right.
I have to confess to you,
I use chicken bouillon too.
Oh. Okay. Chicken, chicken.
You made a double chicken stock.
Yeah.
I always make fun of her cooking.
I do it for a living really.
But I have to say
that the matzah ball soup is...
And now we have verification.
I'm so glad we do.
I would say this is
a four-star matzah ball soup.
Bravo.
Merci.
Maybe it should be
on your menu, Daniel.
- Helen's matzah ball soup?
- I will.
Helen's matzah ball soup.
I will. I promise.
Mm.
Look at this!
- Yeah.
- There's meat left over there.
- Yes.
- Should've given you some.
Wanna take some home?
Now you know
how much I love New York,
its food, its culture, its attitude.
But here's the thing:
New York is New York because this is
where people came for a new life.
My own parents had to come
through the Verrazano Narrows
before the bridge was built...
into New York Harbor,
past the Statue of Liberty.
So it looms very large
in our collective memory
of what it means to be an American,
to have come from somewhere else
and to have settled here.
For my birthday a few years ago,
my wife bought me a bench here
in my favorite place.
And then a few years later
when she hit that same birthday,
I bought her the bench next door.
So I'll always be grateful to New York
for the life that I have.
You got to be grateful to a place
that can do this to you.
# So come sit at his table #
# If you're happy, hungry
Willing, and able #
# To see how breaking bread #
# Can turn a stranger
Right into a friend #
# He will drive to you
He will fly to you #
# He will sing for you
And he'll dance for you #
# He will laugh with you
And he'll cry for you #
# There's just one thing
He asks in return #
# Somebody feed, somebody feed #
# Won't somebody, somebody feed Phil #
# Oh, please somebody
Somebody feed Phil #
# Somebody feed him now #