A Better Life New York

Anthony's Feast of the Seven Fishes, New Years Beginnings, Godzilla and Many Culinary Delights

• George and Steve • Season 2 • Episode 1

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As the frost of winter clings to the windowpanes, George and I huddle around the microphone, brimming with anticipation for the fresh slate that the New Year promises. We're not just talking resolutions – we're talking a whole season of savory tales and heartfelt thanks to our listeners whose support has been the meatballs to our spaghetti. In a feast of conversation, we'll unwrap the traditions that make the holiday season a time for connection and culture, sharing the story behind a Christmas Eve seafood banquet that's got history and taste in every bite. And because we know that the perfect slice can be a slice of heaven, we're mapping out an epicurean quest to Connecticut and New Jersey to bring you the ultimate pizza showdown.

Turning the dial from the past to the present, we dust off the charm of antique phonographs, each one a time capsule of sound and sentiment. Cinema takes center stage too, as we explore the explosive narrative of "Oppenheimer" and the monstrous intrigue of Godzilla films, dissecting how the silver screen can capture the zeitgeist of an era while entertaining and enlightening. Memories of home entertainment evolve before our very eyes, with nods to the game-changing days of Netflix's DVD era and musings on the genius of "The Hangover" series – where comedy knows no bounds.

And as the year unfolds, the table is set for a smorgasbord of special guests. Franco will hopefully be whisking us away on another culinary journey, while Jimmy Hank, the Frico King, sets the stage to talk about his triumphs at the pizza expo with his Detroit-style delights. Imagine, if you will, a live recording from Paul's restaurant, Casaletto  where the aroma of fresh pasta will swirl around us as we discuss the simplicity and soul of Italian cuisine. So, tighten your apron strings – we're serving up a platter of foodie insights, laughter, and our ongoing pledge to give back to the community that's given us so much.

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 savs liquids and they have a great mixed berry gummy. You can check them out at wwwmypbcbdcom. Now our podcast Hello everyone, and welcome back to A Better Life with George and Steve. Happy New Year. Happy New Year, Episode one of season two. If you can imagine, what do you think about that, George?

George:

Kind of amazing, Amazing. It's definitely a milestone. We survived. Oh, it was 11 episodes and we're going on strong. Season two, episode one here we come.

Steve:

It's funny because I think even I remember seeing online someone saying don't give up on your podcast, because when you think it's time to give up, it's the time to keep going. You just haven't done it long enough and, strangely enough, we were off for a couple of weeks over the holidays and we had a significant amount of downloads, and I'm almost shocked.

George:

Again. Yes, we go through our ebb and flows. There's days, there's weeks, I should say where we're just hot and we're just constantly wanting to record and get more episodes out. And there's times where life takes over and we have things to take care of and at 1-9, it's just so hard to get together. But we made plans this week. We're sticking to it. It's Wednesday and here it goes.

Steve:

Here goes We've talked about 100 things that we want to talk about today. Hopefully we'll talk at least about some of them. So I just wanted to touch base about something I said in the last episode or the episode before about Chris Receive. So, like I said, I was at my friend's, Anthony's, house for Chris Receive and he got the impression that I didn't have a good time or the food wasn't good and I blew it off. That is not the truth. The food was amazing and he said he was embarrassed for me as an Italian that I don't know what the seven fishes are. He gave me a little rundown. First of all, Chris Receive, the feast of the seven fishes. So he had steamed clams, shrimp cocktail scallops wrapped in bacon. I'm allergic to scallops, so that's why I forgot those. Cramp cakes. Cramp claws he had the. What are the special little claws? You get them in Florida.

George:

Stone cramp claws.

Steve:

They were awesome. Yeah, they were. I tried not to eat them all before anyone else did, but they were really good. He had fried flounder. That was just amazing. He had this fryer outside. He dropped all the founder and it was awesome and he made smelts. And then he did the shrimp with angel hair, with hot peppers, and it was I call it aoy, it's ogre aoy, whatever however it's pronounced Alyo, aoy, alyo, thank you, I call it aoy when your grandmother was Sicilian everything's abbreviated, but I call it aoy with, and he used hot, red, hot cherry peppers. Oh, it was so good, I was so stuffed. But anyway, he finished off tonight. He said we had Italian pastries. Yes, and we actually had some pastries tonight, george and I from the same place. I bought the pastries and they were pretty good, and his wife made his, her famous coconut cake. That, yes, I had some and, yes, it was phenomenal.

Steve:

Oh and even though I hate coconut, I still had some, because he lost some for the host and Samantha was with me and Samantha loves coconut, so sometimes you got to take one for the team, right, it was excellent. So I've also been reminded that tradition of the feast, specifically the number seven, comes from the following the number of the sacraments, seven sacraments, the seven days of creation, the seven virtues, the seven deadly sins, the seven days it took Mary and Joseph to reach Bethlehem. So I was reminded of these things and I just wanted to say to Anthony I wanted to be sure that our listeners knew what a great time we had that night and then the significance of the fishes and how hard he worked at it and it was great. He also reminded me that, even though we had hearts, hearts still has a piece of for dinner tonight before we got started because we hadn't had it in weeks. But he reminded me that New Haven pizza is amazing in New Haven, connecticut, and I need to go to Sally's Sally's in New Haven's to play.

George:

Sally's pizza Okay.

Steve:

So there's one in Stanford. He says it's just as good. So there there may be a road trip, and I like to take a road trip to New Jersey to go to it's in. Maui it's right over the border from Suffren and my dad used to take me there when we were little kinchleys. It's been there since the 1920s Old school place. You can barely fit in the seats. It's tiny. The line's out the door all the time. It's thin crust pizza and it's awesome.

George:

Got to eat it there.

Steve:

Kinchleys in Maui yeah you gotta eat it there, yeah, we go there in the middle of the day when it's not crowded. So those are the things that I needed to touch based on, just to clear the record. I didn't want Anthony to thank that. I wasn't thankful and happy to be with him on Christmas. You got to start the year right, make amends, make amends.

George:

That's a very good shout out, and I appreciate the clarity of the seven, seven days, seven sacraments. All that makes sense now.

Steve:

Yeah, does Glad you didn't ask me what are the seven sacraments, because I could probably name five or six. There's always one I forget. Anyway, george has been a world traveler since we've gone.

George:

Not really Little trips here and there, but ultimately it's just you live every day to its fullest. I think that's one of the lessons I learned in 23. It was a tough year for me personally. Just perseverance, trying to keep my head up, float and with good friends like you, steve, and just a great network of buddies out there looking out after me and cheering me on, it's been great. Just trying to make the most of everything, be grateful, thankful and humbled, I don't know. It's just one of those things where you hit a bump or a big bump in the road of life and you pick yourself up and try to do the best every day.

Steve:

Yeah, I've certainly had mine in the past three to five years, there's no question about it. But it's a new year, things are great, things are looking upwards, have some amazing opportunities ahead of me.

George:

I'm just trying to make sure, dotting all the I's, crossing the T's, making sure everything goes right and have to believe in myself right, have to believe in ourselves to make the best of things to come, Absolutely.

Steve:

You know me as soon as I see something new. I said oh, here's a new opportunity Eternal optimist, let's add it in.

George:

And not only do you have a plate full, you have a table full of things that you're trying to spearhead and take control of. And it's amazing, this juggling act you do. Kudos to you, man.

Steve:

Samantha asked me that. She was like why do you do all these things? I said listen, there comes a point in life when you realize that you're on the other side of 50% that second half and second half and there are things that happen to you that could have taken your life or could have been whether your illnesses or other things and accidents or whatever and you say to yourself you know what? I'm going to get it all in.

George:

Yeah.

Steve:

I'm going to just grab with both hands as much as I can and do the things, some for yourself, some for others. Certainly, I'm a collector a little bit and I've certainly been out of hand the last couple of months, but my biggest accomplishment of the year so far is when George walked into my apartment, looked around, walked into Studio 3J, as we like to call it, and he looked around and said, oh my God, this place is so clean. Now that's a victory.

George:

I mean, a lot of things have been put away, a lot of things have been strained up and, yeah, the significant amount of room, even though I believe you've increased your photograph collection by 30% to 40% since I've been here last, so I think you're up to 15 now 15, but four, not here right at the moment.

Steve:

One's being worked on that has completed the newest, biggest, coolest one. You didn't see that one with the big corner over the top. No, right, no, but.

George:

I mentioned. You know your eye to the details of each photograph now must be so attuned, you're probably able to pick up certain things that different models, different years, had to not have, and you're becoming a specialist of these Edison's and Victrola's.

Steve:

Yeah, In the back bedroom setting up a little museum Very cool. I ordered some tables so I can layer them in Okay.

George:

Okay, mission right now is free, but Mission is free right. Listen, in two, three years you'll probably have three X of what do you have today, and people will be pinging you here and there wanting to see if you're willing to let go of a certain amount of these trophies, these ancient artifacts.

Steve:

It's funny because last week or the week before, I told Sam, I said I'm only promised to buy one a month this year and she's, you realize that's 12, right. And then this week I said I'm sorry to tell you, I bought three.

George:

At least it honest. Honesty, best policy. What are you?

Steve:

gonna do good deals, I ran in. I I'm a sucker for the same story. I meet people that and that's pretty much how I got involved in after I bought the first one. I meet people that say this is my grandmother's, this was my great-grandmother's, this has been in our family for 60 years and we'd like to give it a good home. And I ran into a few of those and they're not looking for a lot of money. They're looking for people that's gonna love their care for it, what's been part of their lives, their whole life, and they know you'll be a great steward of that piece of history.

Steve:

Yes, as you see I've been. George came over to me and I'm polishing one of the ones that I'm like. Look at this, george.

George:

Look how nice Processes great of the woods look at look how it gets old.

Steve:

This is 120 years of grime and of American ingenuity. It's amazing how they still run. You wonder what we make today will still run. I mean, you look at the pieces. Everything is so Simplistic and it all works and bounces and the least amount of mechanical parts right not overly engineered, but it's Made to work, made to last, with quality Products or quality material.

George:

You take a look at a dishwasher today. Good luck five years from now, but yeah, 120 years of so, even the Edison.

Steve:

So Edison made one brand, one one model was called a standard. So I have three different versions of the standard and One is the original version and you could just see his mind progressing as you get to the final one. And it really is something in this case, something you hear, and you hear the song choices they took to record and I don't know, maybe I brought another hundred cylinders this week, but you, everyone is like finding a gift, right?

George:

And you know, coming to today's recording, I was thinking a lot about Movies. I had happened to catch Napoleon on In theaters I watched Oppenheimer twice now and the second time is better than the first and then my girlfriend, I, we stumbled upon Monarch on Apple TV and this is the Godzilla TV series that they just released and that kind of propelled me to introduce Godzilla to my son, andrew, and we ended up watching three Godzilla movies this past weekend because One was better than the other and it just continued. And I'm on this like Godzilla Renaissance. I'm absolutely obsessed over this Toho Production, although the ones that we watch where the Hollywood remakes, if you will, but they are fantastic.

Steve:

Yeah, I was looking at that because I he told me he's watching it. So I started watching Monarch. I'm on episode four, I think, and it starts Kurt Russell, which is who everyone loves. For some reason everybody loves Kurt Russell. He's it's like Mr America and it's really good. And then I started looking back. When I was a kid. They used to be an afternoon movie every day on Channel 7. I think it was, and I don't know if it was after-school movie or at late, early, early movie or some story like that, because it was an early movie, then it was a late movie, then it was a late movie. That's how it used to be. So this is like the early movie, I think, or afternoon movie, and they would do Godzilla week. Oh wow, and you would get five Monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday.

George:

Friday the old Japanese Productions is. That was like claymation right.

Steve:

So I looked at that and I realized they made a move from like 1954. They made a movie a year to like the 70s, everybody made a Godzilla movie in.

George:

Japan and I had no interest in Godzilla until seven days ago and now it's Completely taken over my mind, my mental space and this Godzilla and the special effects and then the storyline and the history of this whole Monarch universe. I can see how they took a page from either Star Wars or Marvel and then now they're recreating this Monarch Universe that they're calling it and it's it's captivating man.

Steve:

When you think about when I first started in Japan, you're not. You're less than ten years after the drop of the bomb. Entire cities wiped out in Japan.

Steve:

Yes, I can hear the theme of radioactive energy is Widely in everyone's mind and it's the middle of the Cold War and everyone scared the death that we're gonna blow each other up right. So in the 50s you had all this going on at once and the thought of the radiation creating or mutating or Creating this huge monster. And it's almost a metaphor Because the bomb is the, and you bring up Oppenheimer. But they realized they're creating, creating the end of the world. He realizes the whole time, absolutely we rinse reads the Hindu text in Oppenheimer. That's the famous story where he writes I've become the destroyer of worlds. Partly from revelation, partly from the old Hindu text. But it's really pretty, pretty interesting because you really see the mind. So when you look back at those old Godzilla movies you really see the different mindset of the world at the time. But Monarch is great. I've been watching it since you told me about it. So, like I said, I'm an episode.

George:

It's definitely very. You get hooked within two episodes and then you just craving more and more good. Kudos to the guys who revived the whole Godzilla series. Apple.

Steve:

TV plus Apple.

George:

TV.

Steve:

I love Apple TV. Yeah, so I love the morning show. Ted Lasso is ridiculously funny.

George:

I love Ted Lasso on so many levels.

Steve:

I mean to think that was just a character that he came up off top of his head with ESPN as a joke. No kidding and somehow yeah, it was an E a joke he did on ESPN, huh, and Next thing that's a series and next thing wins every award Emmys, golden globes, him. Whatever. The writing is Ridiculous. The cast is talented as can be. It really is quite amazing. It's such a funny show, you can watch it hundred times. I.

George:

Think I'm on my second or third no third Cycle of Ted Lasso and it's funny every single time I watch it. And it's actually not just funny. They hit on so many human elements of being a man, being Mary, being separated, being a mentor, being a coach. There's just so many aspects of things you can relate to and see yourself in and that that connection you get from all those different characters is really well delivered.

Steve:

I agree it's really good and besides that's ridiculous funny and it's funny.

George:

Yeah, it's so. Yeah, those have been my winding down rituals for the past few weeks. A great way to fall asleep.

Steve:

I haven't seen Napoleon yet. I was kind of wait till he came out. I thought it was gonna come out on Apple TV plus for free. I don't want to Let anyone think that I'm on a budget, but especially when it comes to movies. But so I haven't seen it yet and I'm dying to.

George:

I would say, wait for the director's cut. So my only take from watching it in theaters and it's the first release, although it was what? Three hours and change, or was it to and change? But anyways it was severely cut according to the internet and I believe it, because this storyline, the character development, I think was not up to par with the caliber of the director.

George:

Right Ridley Scott legend, the guy can tell a story and yet the version I saw in the theaters I felt that somehow the editing they just weren't able to get the full bravitas, gravitas of each character and you could feel the lacking. I'm not taking away the movie by any means, but when you compare it to gladiator or, for me, fierce or all those other greats, it's not where it could have been and I think the director's cut probably will be significantly richer in In in all senses of cinematography. So that's my two cents. I am by no means a movie buff but I could tell that from a storytelling standpoint some things were a little rushed and I watched it back to back with Oppenheimer and the way Oppenheimer was told was shot and edited and just the chronology of the storytelling man.

George:

That that was just Magnificent and there's really not too many other words that you can use to describe the the magnitude of Oppenheimer.

Steve:

So it's funny just to get back to Ridley Scott for a second, how prolific he is. He has 72 movies in and what is he? 80 right 72 movies. He's currently working on others. Producer or director.

George:

Yeah, he has another one coming out this year.

Steve:

Just ridiculous. He's doing alien Romulus, he's doing gladiator 2, he's doing Blade Runner 2099 and it just goes on and on. Emperor the son of a moon Wow, he's doing a movie about the cartel. It was just ridiculous amount of movies that he works on it. One time we did talk about we didn't really talk about in depth, about Oppenheimer. I had the same feeling you did when I saw it in the movies. I don't know. I went on an opening day, went to the IMAX, got my tickets ahead of time, went in the day and I don't know if there was just too much going on or it's just too complex or the solities of what he's trying to do with the story are just not made for the theater. And I know they're re-releasing it now for IMAX. But when I saw it at home I thought it was one of the best movies I've ever seen. It's so different because you get the black and white and the color perspective and the subjective and objective viewpoints.

George:

I think watching it in the theaters you have some sort of free notion or your perspective, and it probably hyped up to a point where you're not able to absorb everything and anything.

George:

I think for me the hardest part was keeping the characters straight. There were so many important characters in the whole story that just keeping tabs on who they were, it took a while for me to even understand who they were the first time. And unless I went on Google and googled the important characters, they were all pretty much important and understanding the depth of each individual scientist, their wives or their significant others, perspective and the officers and all that the second time around I had a little bit more knowledge of the pace of storytelling and what to anticipate. And still I would pause at home and pick up on oh so who was Dr Teller and oh so he's the guy who wanted to do the H bomb but he petitioned it and no one took him seriously and whatnot.

George:

And I did that for maybe five or six characters just to get an idea of who his inner circle was, who were in the secondary circle and who were up against him, who were supporting him. It was just a lot of information to digest. I think it's one of those movies, like you said, you watch it numerous times. It's going to get better and better because it's just so interwoven, everything is just so packed in and it's a whole different way of storytelling, I think.

Steve:

I agree, it definitely is, and I think we've talked about this before. And Christopher Nolan is known for telling two versions of the story at the same time, and that's why it's color and black and white, one subjective, one's objective, and so he tells the same story from two different viewpoints. Like he said, he did it in a momento, he does it in interstellar, he does it all along, and it's brilliant. Sometimes it's so brilliant it takes you a while to catch onto it.

George:

Kyle is just so unique and so awesome. Without watching Inception, I don't think I would get as much out of watching Oppenheimer. You get a sense of the style of storytelling and then you pick up on the story itself.

Steve:

Inception I'm still trying to catch onto.

George:

Yeah, I'm sure I only have 5% of what Mr Nolan was trying to get.

Steve:

Every time I watch it I have a full sleep, because it's so much to watch or there's just so much to it. But it's an amazing job. He does an amazing way. He is a different kind of storyteller.

George:

And I get the fact that directors have their favorite actors. I can see that the Nolan and Murphy combo is absolutely masterful, but the first time you ever starred. But he always plays a key component, true.

Steve:

He loves him.

George:

Yeah.

Steve:

It's so funny he is in the only actor that he had in mind in that whole set of scenarios of people he liked. He has long relationships with actors and the big part is still in his head sometimes and that's how it was for Killian Murphy. He always had the idea that he would be at that big part when that bright part came along.

George:

In the beginning I'm like, oh, what's Tom and Shelby doing here?

Steve:

Because Peaky Blinders is the greatest that is so good, you need subtitles to catch on what he said, even though everyone is speaking English. But they talk fast, they have slangs.

George:

I went deep on Peaky Blinders too. I'm grateful that there was what five seasons of it, yeah, six, but I hear they're working on a movie. That's what I hear.

Steve:

I don't know if that's true or not true, but I guess I don't look to see if it's true or not, because I keep my fingers crossed.

George:

I'll take it. It's not going to. I don't know how it's going to live up to the series, but I'll take it.

Steve:

And Polly was a key part of it.

George:

She passed. She was amazing.

Steve:

When she passed. It was difficult.

George:

Yeah, what an art form. Huh, I really have become so appreciative of this TV series slash cinema type of product. Netflix really killed it. They really nailed it out of the park. They knew that this was something the audience wanted and they started creating. They created a monster, let's be honest.

Steve:

They have a funny line when they talk about people starting businesses and people to, everyone tells you it's crazy. They say we used to rent DVDs Right Through the mail. Right, that's the line that the CEO says we used to rent DVDs through the mail, and now look what we do that was like blockbuster 2.0.

George:

Put blockbuster out of business, put them out of business Sending out CDs, three CDs at a time.

Steve:

Think about how revolutionary. You just have to get in a car and everybody got down there and no one wanted to go and you never remembered to return it. So you need to still in the mail.

George:

That's right, I was a subscriber for those DVDs. Three at a time, three at a time what a luxury.

Steve:

Three at a time I used to have them all the time.

George:

And then they went digital and rest his history.

Steve:

Everybody would come home or come visit or whatever. What do you got? What movies do you have?

George:

Yeah.

Steve:

And me, of course. I had this big time burning thing going on. I had hundreds of movies that I burned. I had built my homemade menus and then I linked them to the Apple TV so that anywhere in my house you could just go to a menu. And then I went even further. I hooked it up that you could go to over through the internet and we'd be in the summer house and be able to reach out to it and watch any movie you want.

George:

And when they went screaming I'm like, oh, who's going to do that, who's going to do that? And everyone does that.

Steve:

now yeah, because we have the bandwidth now. And then I went farther than that. I took my iPhone and I used to film concerts and I still have the films, but I don't have them set up the way I did. And then I converted them in a way. So U2 and Adele on that U2 tour where they had that Somit Madison score garden and they had a screen that was the length of the garden and the stage was in the middle of the screen and they were all videos playing and they were walking around playing inside the video. It was a real trip. I don't know really what it was, but look what they're doing now. They're in the globe, there in Las Vegas.

George:

So you must have been a Napster person. I wasn't. You were not, I wasn't.

Steve:

Because it was illegal.

George:

All right fair enough.

Steve:

But I so I filmed concerts and stuff and then I would convert them to the same kind of files, like you would convert DVDs, and then I would load them on my computer that you could stream the concert from and any. So people say, oh, did you see you? To the other night I said, yeah, I happen to have a version right here. I remember my brother-in-law, my old brother-in-law, being in the car and he'd be like, how about when they played Bullet to blue sky? I was like, oh, yeah, I pull out my phone on the way from the concert and I got the video on my phone and I'm playing it through the, the sound system in the car. And he's like, how is it? We're listening to something we just saw. And I was like it's really pretty easy, but not everybody does.

Steve:

Well, I Geeks yeah, I always was, I always will be it's fun. It's it really is. I can't hack like I used to, but and I'm, and I missed that, but I know it's illegal now.

George:

That's some of the reason why I don't do it anymore. It's frowned upon. I think that's the technical term.

Steve:

I Think about when what's his name? Says that in hangover when he goes. It's not illegal, it's just frowned upon. We'll leave out what it would be talking about. It's just frowned upon, it's not illegal.

George:

So anyway that's a great movie. That's a great movie that's gonna.

Steve:

I remember the first time I saw it. I wouldn't see it in the movies, everyone was talking about it, and Then I sat down at home and watched it. Yeah, and it was so over the top. It's pretty hard to do over the top and make it work. Usually, when you're over the top, it's just over the top, yeah, but hangovers over the top and they make it work.

George:

I mean, remember when a hot tub time machine, oh, another first one ridiculous.

Steve:

The first one was great and I love John Cusack first of all, but hot tub time machine was great.

George:

It checks out. Stupid movies really have a place in my heart. What about dumb and dumber Tommy boy? Tommy boy is pretty good. These are just classics. Ace Ventura.

Steve:

It's for sure. It's really that making that movie with him must have been a strange escapee just coming out.

George:

And who is this guy? Yeah, who is this guy.

Steve:

It's funny.

George:

Yeah, but you know me, I rarely chime in when we talk about movies, but you got me going man, this, this whole Godzilla thing is metamorphosized. My take on the good old golden screen, yeah.

Steve:

I watch everything. I still I'm going. Sam and I are going through Mr Robot and you know I'm a Mr Robot freak and she loves it, so I don't even know what to say anymore. I've never been with anyone that actually loved Mr.

George:

Robot. It's way beyond everyone does.

Steve:

She saw things. The first time she went through it she thought saw things that I didn't see when I first went through it. And I'm like amazed, because I'm obsessed with the damn show, the whole genre is your thing, yeah, I. I love Mr Robot. I'm up to the part of Robbie Carnivali and I love Robbie Carnivali. I remember I saw him on Broadway and Clean Gary Glenn Ross.

George:

Wow when.

Steve:

Aaron Sorkin rewrote the script and Al Pacino was in it and we're Bobby Carnivali and one of the guys from West Wing and it was just so good. It was so good, but you had to lift. You had to put the parts on her head because Al Pacino was an original movie, but in on the Broadway stage Al Pacino was playing the Jack Lemon part from the movie. So you have to keep.

Steve:

If you saw the movie a million times like I said you have to reset your brain, just like when I saw Kat on a hot tiff roof with with Elizabeth Taylor's part being played by Scarlett Johansson. Okay, that was really good too. Yeah, she was phenomenal. I didn't expect it, how good she was.

George:

Yeah, I guess I don't give a scar Joe that much or enough credit, but apparently she's a bona fide actress.

Steve:

Match, whatever the tennis that was, it match she was in, which was the one where they end up killing her at the end. Oh Sorry, I won't bring up which one it is, so you don't know so I don't give away the end plot, but I think it's match All right. What else? What else you want to talk about? I know we have some food ideas. I'm moving forward tonight.

George:

It's just so cold out there today. I think it hit 18, but it felt like negative 60. It's so miserable out there today.

Steve:

It was. It was in a city. I parked across the street, thank God. I parked across the street from the doctor's office, just walked over, but people were wandering around aimlessly in the city, even the card vendors on the side of the road they were. They had no interest in doing anything. It's tough, but so what do we have planned for this year? I need some guests, don't we?

George:

that's a good. That's a good idea to think about. Guests are always welcomed. I think we had a few in queue, but you know the holiday season and right yeah, schedule we never went back to Franco.

Steve:

We never talked to him again. He was phenomenal.

George:

Yeah, he's always on top of our shortlist.

Steve:

I know, but I haven't talked to him about it. Then we got to have your pizza guy on too.

George:

Yeah, Jimmy Hank. Jimmy, if you're listening which I know you are well, we're gonna have you on soon. We'll talk about a little bit of your Detroit style pizza, your fermentation Madness and that Frico that you do. You are known as the Frico King. What's Frico on a Detroit pizza? It's on like a Lloyd Pan, it's high wall. And then that extra cheese crust, the crisp, that's the Frico. Oh, oh, and Jimmy's Frico is legendary amongst the pizza nerds out there. He competes at the pizza expo in Vegas in March and, yeah, he's whoever knew there was such a thing.

George:

Come on, there's the thing for everything in Vegas, right? Yeah, I guess so yeah, that pizza competition. There's eight or twelve different divisions of pizza and last year, I think, was his first year competing and he placed. He placed in a Respectable number and more power to you, jimmy. We're rooting for you. We can't wait to have you on our podcast. Let's geek out on pizza absolutely.

Steve:

I Also I remember I sent you something on Instagram for my friends restaurant. They were making a nookie and he's. And you were like, oh, that's a nice craft. And then next day I run into Paul who owns Costellano in Elmsford, where he is, and he says, why don't you guys do a podcast from our restaurant? And I'm like I don't know, I don't know he goes listen, we'll make food, we'll keep bringing you food while you're doing your podcast, so I'm like, and you could talk about it?

Steve:

I'm like, alright, I'll talk to George, but I think Paul's such a good friend I love him like a brother that we're gonna have to go there anytime.

George:

People are making fresh pasta from scratch. You know the nookie that he was making. I'm sure they make a wonderful and your lotty Telly, telly all these when I eat there.

Steve:

You know what? I have spaghetti, meatballs Okay, because the sauce reminds me both, remind me of my mom's. That's great. So I have spaghetti and meatballs, but he has great. I love his stuffed zucchini flowers stuff. Zucchini flowers are great. He has great crab cakes, but they're not all crab, they also scallop in them.

George:

So you have to be careful with me, yeah and the clams are good, every pasta is more of a northern or southern style, or is it more of a hodgepodge? I would say it's.

Steve:

It's parts of Sillian, I think the blossoms are more of a Roman right.

George:

Naples, roman dish, yeah, perhaps some southern side of but they have all these Specials all the time. That's the best you get to hear the how it was created, the inspiration behind the dish. I love that stuff. I love when the chef Talks about what inspired him or her to make that particular dish. The elements that you go in and how some of the elements is just so much greater than anything else.

Steve:

Of course the menu is in Italian, I'm not gonna pronounce all these words, just the anti-pasta. Clam cocktail, shrimp cocktail, jumbo, crab meat cocktail, italian ham and melon, pujo, do idea, melon, mozzarella, fresh tomatoes, basil they do a whole thing with clams. Shrimp, eggplant, burlattini stuff, mushrooms, they do baked clams, they do clams and tomato and wine sauce, clams, mussels and tomato and wine sauce, stuff mushrooms, just goes on and feels called Castelletto, castelletto okay, and it's a little weird corner in Elmsford.

Steve:

Elmsford they have ten different feel of it. You know field cutlet feel sauteed white wine, feel a batter flower with egg and lemon. Vile scalp feel scalapini, feel so Tade more salad, deal with prosciutto eggs, just goes on. And on breaded chicken, he just has a fantastic menu and that's just the regular menu. I.

George:

See that spaghetti and meatballs. I got a laser focus on that as well, so he has flounder.

Steve:

He has filet a soul. He has shrimp, shrimp fried a volo, and I really love over pasta ship francesse, shrimp, scampi, shrimp and scallops and mussels and thing. The whole soup of the Pesh Goes on and on. That's great, it looks great. So I guess that means we're coming your way, paul. I know, I saw it the other day. Paul works 500 jobs even though he owns a restaurant. Yeah, and it's a big restaurant. You'll see it when we go. It's a big restaurant and he does 500 things. He has a vending machine business. He's got four kids. I think when he's working to, he's the man. He's the man he's killing himself. I see him at night in a cigar lounge. He comes in at 10.30 and he's exhausted. Sure he is, he's exhausted. He falls asleep with a cigar in his hand sometimes.

George:

Exhausted. What's better than a hard day's work? Sit down with your buddies for a cigar.

Steve:

Quite nice. Yeah, he's a big guy too. Just a few over on the bad end of a punch with him. He definitely needs plastic surgery.

George:

You got me excited. I'm looking forward to a nice Italian meal.

Steve:

He does a good job.

George:

I love to talk about food. I love to talk about just the passion behind each dish.

Steve:

All right, so I'll work that out.

George:

Fantastic.

Steve:

What else we got to do this year.

George:

I think, on the overall theme of a better life, I think we touch up on what makes us happy, what makes our clocks tick. I think giving back is such an integral part of being a good person, being someone that's benefiting society rather than just absorbing and taking I don't know. I hope that at least just one person out there feels a little bit more relieved or a sense of togetherness, for lack of a better word. But again, anytime someone or any of you needs an ear to talk to, or just to shoot a text or a line over, please do. I've all been there. I think Steve and I are great examples of people that just won't give up and would love to just be someone to run an idea through, or just someone, a safe haven where you can just talk and not be judged.

Steve:

That's funny. I ran into somebody from it's called the Westchester. I should know because I send money every month the feeding Westchester food bank. And you would think here we are, Westchester, a very affluent place and nobody's really for food. But I think it's every Thursday or one night I don't know if it's a week or a month in my planes, along my route to my office, there's a food truck and people line up and can get groceries and the first time I saw it I didn't know what it was. And then I see this long line of people and it's usually a woman with a few kids waiting in line trying to get a basket of food.

Steve:

And I recommend, if you live in Westchester or work in Westchester, that you donate money to a feeding Westchester food bank. You don't have to give a lot, you could do whatever. It is 10, 20, $30 a month. If everybody does that, they would have more money than they need and they set it up monthly and I don't know how much I give a month, but they take it out every month and they call me and thank me all the time. Every bit helps, right.

Steve:

Every bit helps. And if you're not in Westchester, for wherever you are, I know we are 160 countries now, 160 cities and five continents, right Listening. If you can imagine that, five continents, I don't know who you are out there listening to us, thank you.

Steve:

But, thank you, I want to say what you have something better to do with your time and listen to us talk now. So, no matter where you are, there is some food bank or something like this. You could donate just food or a little bit of money or whatever it takes, because hunger is a real problem out there, especially for children, and good food, nutritious food, is very is scarce.

George:

It's more of a scarcity than you'd think. Let's put it that way.

Steve:

It's so funny because when I'm driving, the first thing that goes through my head is they give all the money we give around the world.

George:

Trillions, billions of dollars or missiles.

Steve:

Or weapons and things like that. And I see here's a handful of people that live right down the street from me and they don't have enough food to eat. How?

George:

is that.

Steve:

Right, you know that you ever hear that joke, that you never see the military having a bake sale to raise money to run the school to run their third bake.

George:

Yeah, yeah, they seem to have a blank check, yeah. I think, the whole theme is do good. Just sometimes take a moment, reflect and just do good.

Steve:

Yeah, get back a little bit. Get back, especially if you're doing well, especially if there's always somebody less fortunate than you, and I think that's real important. If you're like I said, if you're here in Westchester Food Bank, please tell them. You heard it on A Better Life with George and Steve, where we talked about it. Like I said, I give every month and it's nice because we all get busy, we all get dumbed down in our lives and what we're interested in, or watching movies or collecting photographs or whatever crazy crap I do. But then I know that at least automatically every month, that some money goes to a good cause, and there's so many good causes out there. I mean, there's a church in NIAC. I know very well that they run a soup kitchen and I would say they're always looking for donations as well and that's in Rockland County.

George:

Yeah, it just comes down to the fundamentals, fundamentals of humanity.

Steve:

We all came here yeah, my family, my father. I was reading my grandfather's naturalization papers and he talks about what he came here and who he knew and what all that and it was really just all bull. I don't think he knew all the people he talked about how he had jobs. I think he had any of that. I think he said it and filled out the form so he could get better. He could get in and when he got in he was a hardworking guy and he got a job and yeah, like so many families right.

Steve:

Did whatever he could do. He met somebody. They all spoke the same language. He was from Austria-Hungary, czechoslovakia at the time. I'm sure he found other people who were like him from that part of the world and he got a job because he worked hard and I think he started his own business and he was building the houses and stuff when he passed, because he passed before I was born, but one of those things. So here we are going to a new year, all of our new year's resolutions. We've talked about people saying in the gym, and I think our new year resolution is try to reach out and to help somebody less fortunate than yourself, whether it's physically, whether it's monetarily, whether it's support and just people are going through tough times mentally, and it's just reach out there and try to help them. Believe me, you'll feel so much better for it.

George:

Absolutely.

Steve:

It's going to be a better place and I firmly believe in through the idea of paying it forward. I have so many people that said to in my life and when I became out of labor. I'm an arbitrator by trade now attorney and arbitrator and at a famous arbitrator's name is Roger Marr, and he helped me get in the arbitration business. He helped me become a better arbitrator, he helped me make connections, he recommended me to people and he would say to me the only thing I want you to do is pay it forward. One day you're going to have an opportunity to help someone and you should help them and I do. I absolutely believe that and I try to do that and everything I do, because we all had tough times. We've all gone through difficult moments. Look where we live in New York. We went through 9-11, we went through other things and our families, and still families, are paying the price for that, as we know, many people around us. So, on that terribly upbeat note, there's hope, right, there is hope.

George:

Let's just leave it at that. There's hope for everything, and if we can just take a step back and look past and not be so short-sighted all the time, paying it forward, is a huge blessing. It's a blessing that you can actively participate in. We can leave it at that, yes, so we'll be back next week. I'm thinking lamb stew, I don't know why that just popped in my head, but a nice hearty, red meat type of stew I think would be very apropos.

Steve:

Those of you who know me out there know I hate lamb. If we do make it, I'm sure George will tell you how it is All right, we'll make it a beef stew. I'm in for beef. I love beef. I love pork.

George:

Yes, no scallops and no lamb for Steve.

Steve:

No scallops, no lamb and green peppers.

George:

And pineapple, not pineapple, coconut.

Steve:

So that made me this really great dinner and had all these vegetables in it and right afterwards I started not to feel well and I was trying to hold it in and it just got out of hand and I was sick all night. I was sick the next day, I was sick for three days and a day or so went by and I said to her May I ask you a question, Was there any green peppers in there? And she was like, yeah, there were lots of them. I said, oh, I forgot to tell you I'm allergic to green peppers there you go.

Steve:

So, on that note, growing pains, growing pains. On that note, I wish you all a happy new year.

George:

Season two, episode one.

Steve:

In the camp.

George:

Yeah, All right guys.

Steve:

Good Wish you the best for years and this year, and we'll hear you in a week. Thank you so much for listening, thank you all You've done for us over this time period, and we'll see you again soon.

George:

Thank you for listening.

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Steve - "The Judge"

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