A Better Life New York

Global Gratitude, Gym Hijinks, and Gastronomic Memories: A Whimsical Toast to Tradition and Tastes

• George and Steve • Season 1 • Episode 11

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Prepare to be whisked away on a whimsical journey through soundwaves and flavor profiles, as Steve and George raise our glasses to the incredible reach of our podcast. With listeners tuning in from a staggering 11 countries and 147 cities, our hearts are full of thanks for the support that's turned our musings into a global affair. We kick things off with a heartfelt nod to my latest antique treasure, an Edison Standard phonograph from 1902, a testament to the timeless narrative of music and memory.

Ever wondered what high school cliques and the gym scene have in common? We've got the scoop, complete with chuckles and cringes, as we recount the January gym membership frenzy and its fickle flameout come Valentine's Day. We also dish on the burgeoning trend of the home workout revolution, which might just be your escape from those crowded gym floors. Then, buckle up for a sensory trip to the Caribbean, where we promise your palate a future episode filled with the vibrant zest and zeal of tropical cuisine.

To cap off this feast of an episode, we sink our teeth into culinary chronicles close to our hearts—from my epic 20-year quest to replicate the magic of New England clam chowder to the unparalleled bliss of a slice from Hartsdale House of Pizza. As we savor these moments, we honor the culinary icons who've seasoned our screens and shaped our tastes. So, join us at the table for a heaping serving of nostalgia, laughter, and the delightful clink of shared experiences, all wrapped up in the warm embrace of our podcast community.

Steve:

Hello everyone. This is Steve from A Better Life. This podcast is brought to you by our sponsors, premium Botanical. They are the makers of Herbal Spectrum, which is a full spectrum hemp-based CBD. They make salves, liquids and they have a great mixed berry gummy. You can check them out at wwwmypbcbdcom. Now our podcast Hello everyone, welcome back to episode 11. I know it's been a little bit since we all were back here longer than usual, right, george? That's right, welcome back, guys. We received notice from the podcast company, who does all the interactions with all the carriers the Apple, the Spotify that we are in a top 50% of all the podcasts.

George:

That's progress. It's tremendous Guys like us.

Steve:

come on, I'm as shocked as you are. I think we actually have listeners and I think a lot of people don't, or they don't know how to get them or whatever. We've acquired some. Some people listen to us more and more and I still have been contacted by people or new listeners never heard us before.

George:

outran into one episode, the data, the analytics that you get from a click of a button. What is it? We've reached 11 countries. 11 countries and how many cities? 147. That's mind boggling to me 147.

Steve:

There were some countries I had to look up. I never heard of them. I can't pronounce them. They're like the alphabet. I don't know where they're from. They must be someplace in Asia. I don't know where they are. I look through Africa. I never heard of them.

George:

Let's keep the momentum going.

Steve:

So we thank all of you for all your support. I hope you'll stay with us in the new year. We're looking to grow the audience. Of course it's been good so far. We can't complain.

George:

Absolutely. And again thank you for the feedback and really helps us navigate with topics and different things that we like to brush up on.

Steve:

So some of my feedback I hear a lot of that. They like us going back and forth, which we do all day long. We're smoking a cigar or having dinner together. Anyway. They like us explaining things, that we talk about things we made and how they're made and things like that. So that's.

George:

A quick tutorial always goes a long way.

Steve:

Goes a long way.

George:

Anytime I listen to podcasts or YouTube pages and things like that, I always realize oh, there's something to learn, to acquire and increase your own repertoire.

Steve:

Something to look up, because there's so many times I hear somebody talk about something and I have no idea. No idea. I think I listened to the first podcast again and I don't think I mentioned this last time. But I listened to the first podcast again and I'm not sure I ever listened to it other than the time I edited it, and only because the first podcast has more downloads than any other one and I have people tell me that the first one was their favorite and we had no idea what we were gonna talk about. I coaxed George into sitting down and basically pushed the record button and let it rip.

George:

Right out of the gate. I think we were just enamored by this whole technology. First of all, let's take a few steps back. I sit down at the desk slash recording studio and there is this amazing Rodecaster Pro audio mixer. In front of me, there's a transformer, there's about 47 wires going back and forth. We have these amazing head here headphones and these beautiful pod mics.

Steve:

All made by Rode. By the way, the mics and not that I'm doing a commercial, but the mics are the pod mic from Rode and Rode makes the Rodecaster. They make some of the great equipment at a good price out there.

George:

Right, it's within reach, although you do, steve, with items like telescopes and phonographs and cars.

Steve:

It's funny you say that about phonographs. The most shocking thing of the first episode that I realized is when we were speaking, is that I told you were like bringing up the phonographs and I had four, so that was in October. Now I have 12, and 13 is already purchased in on its way and I'm negotiating for two more because we're doing the trade.

George:

It's funny, I gotta say they are pretty cool the connection you have with these pieces of machinery. It was high tech 100 years ago and look at us now. Unbelievable that they work.

Steve:

I just picked up and it's people that it was their grandfathers or their great grandfathers and they love this phonograph and they want it to have a good home. It's like a dog. They want it to have a good home.

George:

Or like a violin or a piano. I took a picture.

Steve:

So I got one yesterday and I got it at a good price. I can't complain and I drove out to get it because it was such a good price and it's in a great shape and I don't have to really do anything to it. Maybe polish, it Maybe needs a little polishing and the brake probably needs to be adjusted a little bit, but beyond that it's Edison standard, it's type A. So it's one of the first ones he made and also it was made in May, I'm sorry, in April, of 1902. So you think about that, think about how long ago that was 1902. And I took a video and I sent it to him and he talks to me back and says I'm glad it has a good home. I'm like you think it was a living thing.

Steve:

And somebody asked me actually Bonnie asked me why I collect them and I said I'm trying to preserve something. It is the music. The cylinders are very delicate, the 78s I have almost 500 of them now and everything from 1910. So I'm playing this song and I'm texting it to people and they're like who is that? And I'm like I don't know, I have to look it up, but the song was recorded in 1902. And you sit and listen to it and it just almost brings you back and you wonder that if they had any belief that 120 years later some old fat guy being in his living room cranking the thing listening to it.

George:

And putting a smile on your face.

Steve:

And putting a smile on my face.

George:

It's pretty wild. You think, 100 years ago. So in our imaging everything's black and white, right, that's the era in which we see 1902. And to see this piece of machinery in front of me in full color, right, and to know that, okay, so this was the worksmanship, the detail and the carvings of the wooden box, the platform, and then all of these mechanical pieces that were either bent or molded or forged into these shapes and then able to produce sound Crazy.

Steve:

It is crazy. It is crazy. I find I'm fascinated with the Edison ones. Maybe because I'm fascinated with Edison, but I'm fascinated with the Edison ones. I have the Victrolo ones as well. They date back to the same kind of era. Everything's made in New Jersey, one in Camden, one in orange.

George:

Edison, You've always been somewhat of an audiophile right.

Steve:

I have yeah.

George:

You've frequented a lot of concerts, concerts.

Steve:

You're into guitars.

George:

You're into? Were you ever in high-fi with amps and Ridiculously?

Steve:

Rosewood Clips. Corner Speakers. I used to go to where I grew up in New Jersey. There was Franklin Lakes Audio and it was this little high-fi place that had very expensive stuff. When people were buying things for $20, you could buy it there for $20,000. It was very expensive high-end stuff and as a kid I used to go in there and listen. I used to go in there and watch and ooh. Obviously the difference between that to an acoustic recording from 1902 is probably vast.

George:

but I do, but this was before the digital age, so everything was what the vacuum tubes right, the amps were powered by Absolutely.

Steve:

All vacuum tubes and there's still people holding onto that.

George:

Yes.

Steve:

People that collect that stuff.

George:

The theorists seem to absolutely believe in analog still, and it just must be that much richer.

Steve:

People listen albums, right, People are buying albums all over again. There's such an in surge. I had a pretty large collection that I gave away, but I have about 140, 150 cylinders that I haven't even listened to all to yet. I'm trying to document them the best I can and figure out a way of preserving them, because when you drop them which I just did the other day they shatter into a thousand pieces. There's no, oh, it was in the box. It literally was powder when I opened it up the box and it's gone forever. There's one less of those in the world, and who knows how many there are. That's right. So there's gonna come a point in time. I believe that there's gonna be phonographs with no cylinders.

George:

Oh boy.

Steve:

So there's some museums out there preserving this stuff and I don't wanna get off on this talk the whole time about phonographs, but I'm trying to build my own little museum and it's a music heritage of a time period. Listen, nothing's more American in the world than jazz. Okay, it's totally created in America. To me, the two most American things in the world are jazz and barbecue. And barbecue has two heritages and you can argue which one they come. As far as I'm concerned, they come from the cowboys from Texas. They used to.

Steve:

Before there was refrigeration, they used to bring the cows into Chicago by live. They were before they were shipped in cars. They walked them. So at night they would take one of the cows and they would slaughter it and barbecue it and feed it to everyone. That worked. They didn't have any way to refrigerate food to bring it and had to be live and then cooked. The other is that a tradition from African Americans, and originally how slaves were fed in the 1800s is they would get a live pig if they were lucky, and that pig would be slaughtered and then they would cook it and they would cook a whole hog. That's where that tradition comes from. It's from those ancient times, and today it's a whole different world how we look at barbecue.

George:

Fascinating you learn so much about people's foods.

Steve:

It's interesting because we were coming into the holiday and I was invited to my friend's house for Christmas Eve and I know we wanna talk about it, but I'll start with Christmas Eve. I went to my friend's who does the seven fishes. Now, when I was a kid, my mother did the seven fishes, which meant that we ate shrimp and Manigahat, manigahati and lasagna and things like that, so there really wasn't much fish. My friend Anthony actually did the seven fishes, so we had fried flounder. It smelled it's shrimp, it's scallops, had clams.

George:

Is this a seven, or is it just make up your seven? No, it's make up your seven, okay, but you need seven dishes representing something about Seven fishes.

Steve:

I don't know what it symbolizes, to be honest. I think it symbolizes fishermen. When you're talking about the birth of Christ and you think about Christ, you think about that. He hung around with fishermen and those fishermen ate what? Bread and fish? Fair enough. I believe that's the relationship they're making there. I'm not really all that sure.

George:

We'll have to fact check this out.

Steve:

We'll work on that for the next episode.

George:

All right, the holidays everyone complains about overeating, stuffing their face, and then, come January 1st, the gym membership bonanza happens and those who go to the gym regularly they avoid, or they just what's the word. The anxiety level of January 1st is so high because it's what like 5X of the norm. It's just completely flooded for the first two weeks and no gym in North America is safe.

Steve:

By Valentine's Day. They're all gone now.

George:

Yeah, that's true but that's a month and a half of a lot of mayhem. I know the gym okay. Maybe this is a topic we can also talk about the gym, the American gym experience muscle heads. You got fitness freaks. You have a lot of yoga enthusiasts. Some gyms have pools, so there's the swimmers. My gym that I go to has tennis courts and now pickleball courts, so we play a lot of racquetball or racquet sports there, but it is a very interesting ecosystem under that big roof.

Steve:

I agree it really is. I'm always amazed, and it's funny because I go in and a few of my friends are very muscular, to say the least, just big Italians. And they're out there, they lift tons of weights and they're. They have all these muscles on their legs and there's me, right, I'm barely standing up. I walk on the treadmill, my trainer takes me around, I can't even use a weight on the machines and these big gorillas are coming over. He says everybody, you know that big? I said no, there are a few others, but it's definitely a cross section of the world.

George:

I would love to take a snapshot of the gym culture in the United States every 10 years going back.

Steve:

So it's almost symbolizing high school in a way, right. So you have one group, you have the muscle heads, right, and then you have the people that wanna be muscle heads, that are pounding and slamming the weights. And then there are other groups, there are the people that have no idea where they are and they're wandering around in their little outfits.

George:

But they know that they need to be there.

Steve:

They know that they need to be there. And then there are the girls that look at themselves in the mirror, and there's guys that look at themselves in the mirror too in today's world, but there are girls that come in these little, tiny little outfits and they wander around so everybody sees them, and then they go on the Stairmaster.

George:

It's like high school, Do I dare say it's almost inappropriate the gym attire today.

Steve:

It's how do you? Definitely gets your attention. You can't focus. Yeah, I think that's why they moved and George and I both though him and I have never read into each other at the gym, we both go to the same gym I think they moved the Stairmasters in back of the treadmill for just those reasons. They used to be in front and the girls used to go on there, and there's all. There clearly could be bikini models, these girls and they all come in and their hair is all blown out. You know what I mean? And they're everything they. Every step they take is deliberate, just like high school.

George:

Yeah, you're right.

George:

It is a quick snapshot of high school At least my high school was. It's been good to me. I spend way too money on gym memberships, but it is a way to help my cardio and my muscle mass and it's led me to look at calorie counting and making sure I get fiber, protein, X amount of carbs and it's really I'm shocked when I do. A little self-reflection is like wait, am I actually counting how many steps I took today, how many calories I took in today, how many calories I burned off today? This is so not me five years ago.

Steve:

Yeah, those are most of the guides. Do I really believe that? When you see those things that how many calories you burned I don't really believe them, but it's certainly a gauge. It's funny, it's. Samantha bought herself a Peloton bike for her apartment and she's totally into riding. She had a treadmill and she got sick of it and now she moved on to this Peloton bike.

George:

So many people, so many of my friends, have Pelotons. I love it. And that community and the classes you're able to log into, and all that.

Steve:

She has no idea about that yet or whatever, but she got the shoes that fit into the thing.

Steve:

They clip in. Yeah, I have to go there and put them together, but really she's so excited about it, so looking forward to it and good for her, it's good for you. She doesn't want to go to gym, she doesn't want to spend that money. I don't blame her. She's very thrifty. That's why she's attracted to me, because I'm as equally as thrifty. But I was attracted to track. I was attracted, but it's funny. It's funny. We're actually we've been talking about having her on because she's from the Caribbean, from St Lucia, so we want to talk about Caribbean cooking Her. When she talks about things she made, she mentioned to me a fruit yesterday. I couldn't even pronounce it, less than ever Tropical fruit, huh, some kind of fruit?

George:

I don't know. Yeah, the world is so mysterious, all these different climate zones, different foods, basically different humans. Right, we all grow into different shapes and sizes because of our surroundings.

Steve:

Yeah, it must have been nice in St Lucia to go to the beach every day. You can walk to the beach from your house every day.

George:

Now, is that Caribbean food that's not Creole is it?

Steve:

No, she speaks Creole, Regular Creole and French Creole. I guess they're different. Okay, she speaks that. She speaks French.

George:

The days of colonialism.

Steve:

Yeah, and English, obviously, and then something else too, but I can't remember what it is.

George:

But yeah, that'd be interesting to hear a little bit about Caribbean food, the various different islands. Clearly right, it's a hodgepodge in my mind but clearly not in the lives of locals.

Steve:

It's so alien to you and I we're not even gonna understand. She made me pumpkin soup the other night With Caribbean accents. Yeah, I don't know. It wasn't like like you would take a pumpkin soup like a cream of something other. It was chicken soup with pumpkin in it, pretty much, but it had all these different flavors and these seasonings that I had to ask her about of seasonings that I wasn't familiar with and this was something that she would normally have.

Steve:

Correct. She cooks with some things all the time, One of them, which is coconut and I hate coconut which is coconut milk, coconut water, coconut shavings. She bakes. She bake cakes with shavings on it, all for everyone.

George:

she works with A coconut cake is pretty awesome, steve, I hate coconut.

Steve:

What can I tell you? When I was a kid I don't know I think it goes back to this. I don't know if I've talked about this before, but it goes back to this when I was a kid, everybody was going on vacations through an island and they would bring back a coconut. Who went to Hawaii, went to Florida, went where I went, nowhere. I went to Howe Caverns, if I was lucky for one day. So we went and everybody's got a coconut. So I hate a coconut and I think that's why I hate it today.

George:

All right, fair enough. We somehow peeled off some layers there and got down to the real world. Yeah, we'll edit that out.

Steve:

What did you do Christmas?

George:

A buddy of mine invited me over to a small family gathering and it was really nice. They're Italian and I've never been to an Italian Christmas dinner. I wouldn't say everything was Italian, but fair enough, it's an Italian family Italian dinner. He made meatballs, sausage and red sauce, some pasta, beautiful salads. His father brought some beans baked beans, no, not baked beans, what are they called? Casserole beans and some artichoke, some broccoli. Father, or is father-in-law His father? Yeah, I think that in-laws were still down in Florida, but anyways, it was really nice to just sit down and relax a little chilly outside. But we're all friends from the cigar lounge so we had to go out and smoke a little some davidoffs. You went to the lounge? No, it was outside in the patio.

George:

Yeah, nice relaxing Christmas dinner.

Steve:

Yeah well, I made prime rib. We actually ate it for dinner tonight. George made some. I had leftover prime rib. He made sandwiches with horseradish. It was really good, but he made killer and I wish you'd tell these guys how you made your clam chowder.

George:

So I've been obsessed over newing and clam chowder for about two decades. I can remember the day I first had Boston's legal seafood newing and clam chowder for the first time and that tasted nothing like the clam chowder I had in the high school commons during lunch hour. That was a Eureka, epiphany moment and I've always. I always choose newing and clam chowder anytime I see it on the menu. Ever since then I wanted to somehow figure out the secrets in and out what made it so appealing to me. I like the viscosity. I like having a little bit of starchy texture, not just the cream. I like the flavors and the aromas that you get from fresh seafood. Trying making this soups over and over again. But the secret really is fresh clams. If you can find a purveyor, a grocery store that has in their seafood display some freshly shucked clams and just chopped up, that's when you know, oh, tonight's going to be newing and clam chowder, a bunch of that mirepoix, carrots, onions, celery, a nice russet potato. Some people swear that they need bacon, but I think if you have just really nice clams, just let them shine. If you have canned, then maybe you need that little oomph right, that little push. But today's clams were wonderful and I was able to get a pound of freshly shucked clams. That was a home run.

George:

Clam juice and heavy cream. Basically, you saute the mirepoix first, you dice up the potatoes, throw them straight in. I then sauteed it in olive oil and a little bit of butter the extra fat. Don't freak out about it, because you will then throw in some flour and you're kind of making this instant roux along with your sauteed vegetables. Then you hit it with the clam juice, deglaze the bottom of the cast iron dutch oven. You'll have basically enough liquid there to cover the veggies. But now it's this really light roux that you've created. You know that it's going to give you some body. Then you throw in the clams. If you're adventurous, you want to throw in some oysters or some chopped shrimp, go have at it. Then you hit it with the cream, simmer for maybe 10 minutes and it's done. This is going to be a weekly staple for me. Now I think I cracked the code. I was very happy with today's outcome. Like you said, I could eat two or three bowls of that easy.

Steve:

I don't even like doing the clam cheddar. I thought it was amazing. It's all thing practically lick the bowl. It's funny because I'm really a Manhattan clam chatter guy and I used to.

George:

What's the difference between a Manhattan clam chatter and an Italian cioppino from San Francisco? Like a fisherman stew that's in red broth to middle broth, is it similar or?

Steve:

It is similar, you know what I'm talking about.

George:

Yeah.

Steve:

I know Manhattan clam chatter is. Usually there's just clams and chunks of cod.

George:

Okay, whereas trapeeno might have lobster or depending on okay gotcha.

Steve:

It used to be a place I started telling George about it before in Southampton called Silver's. It was only open for lunch. It would open like 11 and close at three every day, and I think it was closed like on Wednesdays or maybe some other day, and they had a bowl of clam chatter there. I think it was $28.

George:

Whenever I hear the word Hampton, whether it has a prefix of Southeast, whatever, it's pretty bougie, right Hamptons.

Steve:

I mean all the bougie people would be waiting online to get in this place. They never rushed to. You went in. There were only a few tables and it was an old pharmacy and they still had soda fountain.

Steve:

They still had the bar People could sit at the bar and they had some tables the summer when it was warm and they had a couple tables outside and the guy that owned it I think his mother owned it before him he made everything fresh. The best BLT I've ever had in my life? Really no, and I know there's a lot of places people swear by the BLT. One is Black Dog in the village. Everyone says it's great.

George:

It is good, it's not like Silver's was, you also have the ambience. You can't beat that South Hampton summer beach vibe.

Steve:

They had a burger with Gruyere. I was out of this world. I love to serve at Rot and I always used to make them cook it medium and I used to drive them insane but I didn't care because I was a pastise. Once I got food poisoning from a rare hamburger which isn't there anymore either.

George:

It's back. Is it back? Pastis is back.

Steve:

Can't be as good as it was.

George:

I haven't been, but I remember. Before closing I made it sure to go as many times as possible one of my all-time favorite New York restaurant experiences.

Steve:

The hamburgers were always raw and they were insulted if you asked them to cook it more. And the eggs were always runny and they got insulted if you told them to cook it more. It was a strange place.

George:

To this day, I think still, the best chocolate mousse I've ever had was from Pastis. I never had it.

Steve:

After the food poisoning experiment it changes everything.

George:

It also helps out sitting next to Julie Ann Moore. Yeah, that'll do it for me, holy moly she is beautiful. What an attractive lady.

Steve:

She was there at the next table.

George:

Right next to me. I think that chocolate mousse went down a lot easier.

Steve:

What did she have? Did you notice?

George:

Oh no, I just stared at her face. I really noticed all that stuff. No, pastis, though I know honestly what a great restaurant from yes to year, I remember. Do you remember a place called Chanterelle? Yes, that has to be one of the greatest restaurants I've ever been to. And the guy chef, david Waltnick he, self-trained, never went to culinary school, didn't really do much in terms of maybe it's just the PR side.

George:

They never really pushed restaurants he stashed or worked at, but the type of dishes that they would put out daily specials were incredible. And the funny thing is on New Year's, his New Year's menu he would have a private I was never invited, but this is just hearsay and he would cook a Chinese feast. How obscure is that? This French chef, on New Year's, cooks a Chinese feast in his apartment for his friends and family?

Steve:

It's interesting, that's for sure, yeah.

George:

I miss a lot of these smaller chef proprietor restaurants. It's getting harder and harder to operate a restaurant without major financial backing from whether billionaires or restaurant groups, and then you're tied to so many. Can't do this, can't do that.

Steve:

Not to tend to subjects, but I just want to be a pizza one more time.

George:

I hate myself even more for liking pizza so much these days. It really irks me, but I can't get enough of a really good pizza. And, don't get me wrong, I have average pizza and this is wasted calories. I do not need to ingest this, but when you have again heart's dale house of pizza.

Steve:

The story goes, I had hurt my hip and I needed some help lifting stuff. George is going to meet me at my house. He says meet me at heart's dale house of pizza and he basically texts me pictures of slices he's sitting down that are waiting for me. I leave work and I go over there whenever he's eating this pizza and he can describe to you what's in it, because I still don't know, but it was like a tap dance in my mouth. It was a Detroit style pizza.

George:

Right. So Detroit style, I guess, is more. It's not like a Sicilian, it's probably more like on a focaccia. And they threw on what was it? It was sausage, crumbled sausage, pepperoni and marscapone cheese, on top of maybe a little bit of pink sauce like vodka sauce. This fluffy, pillowy focaccia, if you can imagine, is then smothered with delicious fennel sausage, spicy pepperoni and then spooned with dollops of marscapone cheese.

Steve:

So I'm going to say it again Everybody needs to go to heart's dale house of pizza, and when you go in there, make sure you tell them that you heard about it.

George:

A Better Life with George and Steve. A Better Life with George and Steve, because this is where legends are made.

Steve:

Absolutely, and the funniest part about it is so I was on. I'm on Facebook Westchester pizza lovers or something like that. Everybody's talking about all these pizza places. Nobody brings up Westchester. Nobody brings up Heart's Dale house of pizza. All right, so I put our podcast out there. Next thing I'm seeing everybody reviewing Heart's Dale house of pizza. All of a sudden, everybody's saying how great the pizza is and I appreciate the response. But please give us a little bit of credit of the love of waking waking up Westchester to Heart's Dale house of pizza.

George:

We started with that Detroit style. I think the Detroit style pizza is baked in a rectangular. I guess they call them pans, right? Yeah, it's like a cookie sheet, but it's high walled on the side. They call it frico and they just throw in copious amounts of cheese and it basically fries up and crisps up, and so now you have this wall of cheese on the perimeter of the whole pie, the rectangle pie, and that's what makes it a Detroit style.

George:

We then went and had a standard New York style New York slice pepperoni. But the thing today is cupping. You want to see the pepperoni cupping, and they drizzled with a little bit of Mike's hot honey. That was interesting. And then, finally, we did a mama's pie, grandma's pie, grandma slice sorry. Finally we did a grandma slice, and that was also marvelous. You can't miss. Everything they put out there is made with purpose, a lot of thought and a lot of love, and you can tell the guys behind the counter when they're Taking your order, when they're slicing it, when they're plating it, when they're throwing it in the oven. They know that you're about To awaken your palate and get rocked with some delicious pizza.

Steve:

So the day after we were there, I went and got an Italian hero from there. It was really good. I Need to eat something I hadn't eaten all day, but it was really good. Nice of that place. It's funny because I saw something on YouTube today and it was I forget the guy's name, I Joshua, something like that. A few follow food recipes. He's pretty good. He's pretty well-known, matter of fact. Well, I was doing the food reviews in New York. People kept interrupting and saying hello and things, but he went the number one one place he picked and what do you remember? The name For pizza and scars.

Steve:

SCAR posh vias it looked good, we need to go we mean need to go out for some pizza, right?

George:

But everyone who's worth anything in the world of food, who's been to scars, they just immediately proclaimed them the champions of the world.

Steve:

They said they, they mill their own flour, so it's perfect to their specifications. Listen, if you mill your own flour, even your baking bread, especially when you're baking bread, you're gonna get a high quality product. It's gonna be fresher, it's gonna be mills, not mill you understand what you're working with, correct?

George:

Yeah, oh. So I was a funny thing, man flour.

Steve:

Humidity and flour.

George:

That's what's funny where the wheat's from. You know, like when I was in the noodle business, we were adamant about getting North American wheat flour for noodles as opposed to flour like North American, meaning Canada as opposed to in the United States or even parts of Africa or elsewhere. But Different flour from different parts of world yields different results for different Ingredients absolutely so what's funny?

Steve:

yeast to different yeast, yeast is a big deal. So what's funny is one of our former guests, nicole, who became obsessed with sourdough after she saw us do it. She told me her starter kept dying, so she told me what it looked like. I'm like throwing out start again. So she decided to bake bread with yeast and Out of the clear blue sky, she decided to make baguettes, french baguettes. I Everyone that was there called me and said Nicole made these baguettes are amazing. People were taking bread home the next day. They looked amazing, I saw. She sent me pictures. She made these amazing baguettes. Meanwhile she's saying oh, I can't break bread. I couldn't get the sourdough, I couldn't. And she's making baguettes which are Incredibly difficult not as much as the dough is to keeping the shape together when you're baking them.

George:

Making baguettes Because, I guess, of the repetition of the quantity, the daily quantity the boulangeries need to pump out and With the price cap that they're only able to work with, it is the probably the most challenging bread discipline that I can think of.

Steve:

Yeah, she sent me pictures. I don't know where they are. I wanted to show you. Amazing job, nicole, nice job. Baguettes are really hard. I don't know if she had the pan or she used the fabric like old school to To put them in the oven and make them rise proof just the New York City baguette Conversation is really something.

George:

Did you ever happen from Panera?

Steve:

No, they're makes great stop.

George:

I guess, stop, really.

Steve:

They bake, and fresh, every day Panera, panera. The global chain Panera the global chain, going there one day and buy a baguette. Ask them when they're coming out of the. Oh boy, I'm telling you. I used to buy them for my mother-in-law, my ex-mother-in-law. She loved them Thin, thin. I want them thin, she used to say, and not too dark. I don't want them burnt, even though I like them burnt. Yeah, but they were good.

George:

I wish there was a bread baker, a Boulangerie, up here in Westchester that Did it right.

Steve:

It's funny. There's one that goes to the, it goes all to the. I know it's here and in Port Chester, the farmers market here.

George:

There's someone need right.

Steve:

There's like a yeah, the one in Port Chester is amazing. That's what I hear the bread.

George:

Okay, maybe there is hope, maybe there's amazing different kinds of bread there.

Steve:

Yeah, it used to be across the street from Lydia's son.

George:

Bastianich. Bastianich, lydia's town.

Steve:

Yeah, he had a restaurant there called Terry town, something, no parking. Yeah not a great menu, but everybody's. He had a liquor store too, where so they sold their wine legendary wine drinkers, him and Mario like easily. Mario killed that and then you know he's Mario's trying to make his way back at her. That's a rough road and she has a new show. It's the old school, where she goes through everything again.

George:

Yeah, I hope it's not just recycled material. But I gotta say back in the day when Food Network first came out and days of the original Japanese iron chef, dubbed in English, and then you have. Emeril with his bam and his craziness. But those guys, and also Mario with Molto Mario and his educational Italian TV show Jacques Papin Jacques Papin, that's even older, that's with Julia Child, great chefs of that PBS series, I think that's, though. That is the tops.

Steve:

He turned 88 today. Good for him. I think it was today or yesterday, I saw it 88.

George:

He's beyond. He's like Yoda in the world of gastronomy.

Steve:

I met him once. I told you, I met him once.

George:

Good guy Humble With my mom he was nice to me.

Steve:

Amazing, amazing. Yeah, it was nice.

George:

Yeah, and then now we have just celebrity chefs here and there.

Steve:

Oh, now they got Susan's farm girl cooking where meanwhile. It's just like a joke. And then they'll recycle Gianna for a hundred times, They'll put her in another country and she's very recycled.

George:

It's terrible. She made enough money.

Steve:

She made so much money.

George:

She doesn't care.

Steve:

And Bobby Filet takes on somebody else.

George:

Takes on the world.

Steve:

Some of those were pretty good in the beginning, but it just got overdone.

George:

The Food Network. They know what drives viewership and I hear he is actually a very, very good guy Just his riff with Morimoto and Iron Chef and all that Made for good television. But all in all, everyone says that he's very polite, remembers everyone's names and he's always on time. He's not a MIA type of guy and takes his job seriously, which everyone should but not everyone does.

Steve:

You can't be a chef and not take it seriously. It's impossible. You should not cook as a religion. Yeah, you really need to.

George:

And people rely on you.

Steve:

I don't care if you're making sandwiches, I don't care what you're doing. There is a certain I don't care if you're making burgers. There's a certain thing about it and if you put the care and love into it, it'll come out in the product.

George:

Yeah, remember that scene in the chef, jean Favreau, and his son. His son's a good cook, he's just going to eat it or whatever, and he's an old man and then he has that moment outside the cart, the food truck, he tells his son about the spirit and the meaning of why he's the chef and why he loves it so much and he can make a change in someone's day and that's some good stuff.

Steve:

That's what I always think about barbecue and it all comes back to barbecue with me. But they you could tell in a minute when you mass produce, when a place mass produces, something you could tell in a minute. The big machines, the automatic, you really just it comes down to even the last step.

George:

Before you're even plating on someone's plate how the chef is cutting it, are they just chopping it up and hacking it? Are they really taking the time to figure out the angle of the grain and how they want to slice it, so that your final experience, when you're tasting that bite of barbecue that they've slaved over all day, that you're getting the maximum enjoyment?

Steve:

Wes's Ribs in Providence, Rhode Island. I'll never forget it.

George:

Really.

Steve:

Yeah, I think the name's still there, but the place isn't. It was like in a commercial area and it was the first time I had killer ribs in my life. So you walk up the stairs it's like you know all commercial area with warehouses and they're open at 4 o'clock in the morning. And you walk up the stairs and all of a sudden you see a glass room, all glass, with this huge open fire with all these ribs on it.

George:

And it's mesmerizing. Pit masters.

Steve:

And you sit down and you're angry because you're full. I used to drive because my friend moved to Providence from when I grew up in New Jersey and he still lives in Rhode Island and we used to go up there and I like to throw everybody in the car. Come on, we're going for ribs and we'd drive up there four and a half hours or whatever it is, and just go to Wes's Wow.

George:

That's a commitment.

Steve:

We'd call them in the car. We're on our way up. We're going to go have ribs. Make sure you're home when I get to Wes.

George:

Wow, and just the ribs.

Steve:

Just the ribs. Cornbread Cornbread was great. Collards, maybe Collards French fries were good. What other meats? They had lots of other meats, but the ribs were amazing.

George:

These like a St Louis rib, st Louis ribs.

Steve:

They were good and they did the right way. They trimmed the top, not like I do when I cook them, I don't ever trim the top. I need to start doing that. I know I have to get my smoke or rock, and again I think in the spring we're going to start doing some rib dinners. Of course, my girlfriend doesn't eat pork, which is certainly a problem for the guy that makes the best ribs and pork bellies.

George:

How ironic.

Steve:

It is ironic. I guess we'll have to do more of those short ribs which came out really good.

George:

Last year.

Steve:

But we're at the end of the year and we're real thankful for our podcast, we're thankful for our listeners, we're thankful that we have some direction in what we're doing here. We hope to expand things in the future. I know that we talk about certainly a few guests and I already mentioned Nicole and Franco that we want to bring back on a more regular basis. Certainly, franco, we spoke to him about it, he was interested. We sometimes don't know what our schedule is. We record all different days and nights. We try to do it every Wednesday and we don't seem to do it. Sometimes we record a couple of days and then release them.

George:

Granted, this was also a very busy part of the season part of the year not to make any excuses, but for me this was also a personal journey, not knowing what I'm coming into, talking about just thoughts and riffing back and forth. It's been really eye-opening and therapeutic in a way. I'm so grateful that there are people out there taking the time to either use this as background audio and just doing daily chores here and there Driving, driving, commuting morning or in the evening back home. It's really nice to know that we share the day with you. Again, more of your feedback, any input and any topics that you like to hear from us Very much appreciated.

Steve:

You can find us on Facebook, please make sure. You can find us on Instagram, please make sure. On whatever you listen to Spotify, apple or the other dozen or so. I was showing George a dozen of his show. These were on that you like and subscribe. If you enjoy yourself, please put a review. I met someone yesterday who told me oh, did you read my review? I was like no, because I don't even look at the reviews. But I'm going to go in there Now we do Now we do.

Steve:

I'm going to go there. I didn't think anybody was reviewing anything, to be honest.

George:

Now you have that notification set, so we'll get every one.

Steve:

I do have the notification set. It's funny because there comes a point when you realize that it's organic, that I don't know this many people. There's no way I know all the people that are listening to me.

George:

We don't know the technology well enough to punch it out on a scheduled launching date and whatnot. This organic journey has been pretty awesome.

Steve:

When we come back after the new year, we're going to have a lot of new things, some surprises that are probably going to be surprised as well, but we're hoping that you're going to stay with us, please. If there's anything you'd like to hear us talk about or would like us to do, please drop us a line. You can do it on Instagram, you can do it on Facebook We'd love to have your comments and you can do it on the pod services themselves.

George:

We wish you a happy new year, a safe, happy new year, and definitely hope you eat one.

Steve:

I definitely hope we eat well. Do you know what you're doing in New Year's Eve? I don't know what I'm doing.

George:

I never do. I hate these. I know I promised my kids I'm going to cook them a feast. Okay, this is going to be all day, the day before and the day of. We're going to really rock it out this year.

Steve:

If you want my ribs and pork bellies and my freezer, I'm more than welcome to give them to you, because I've been in there for too long already. Anyway, that's not your problem out there. We look forward to seeing you in the new year. Have a happy and healthy and stay safe From George and Steve. Have a good night. Good night, guys.

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