Episode 109: Restaurants

0:10 everybody, and welcome to another episode of a record, My Father. Here we are. We're almost at 110 episodes. That's pretty crazy. But we're talking about restaurants today and the importance of restaurants and how during the pandemic we discovered something called BBQ chicken, which was nothing short of a godsend miracle. That's how I imagine it felt to be reincarnated and wake up in that cave that day. But. Really. So we're not doing eye bags. No, no, we're not doing eye bags. Maybe we'll do bass brush up too now. No, but BBQ chicken and that's a chain as well. I think it's sort of in Korea and there's about two locations out here in LA, maybe probably more than that. And there's one in Annandale, VA, of all places, yeah. All places it's a non delay for those non rich people. When was the last time you went to the Eaton Center? It's not at the Eaton Center.

1:09 There's another one. It's it's all the way. I'm curious when. The last time you went there? The last time I went to there was probably like 2 years ago. We went and had Vietnam Vietnamese food. I I pronounced it right that time instead of Viet Tamese which you. Do say Viet Tamese with like. Four I don't know why I'm I'm old and smelly and I can't get my head together. Well, they used to say that I had a speech impediment growing up, and I think it was just me repeating what you said. I don't know, you know. Probable stabbin. I know I used to use that one all the. Time. But that's not a word. I'm like what? Do you mean it's not a word? My dad says that all the time. My dad says that but. It's an offshoot of Fracker Rock. Did we go?

1:49 There together, Was that what that was? I don't know. I remember going there with Jeff and he said let's try this new place. And I'm like, and it really wasn't new. It was old. And oh, they're all old in there. No, those places have been there since it opened. Oh no, I think we did go there. We went to one right in the front and we went there after we went to work at Planet Fitness. Remember you and I went to work out. You took me over there over the other side of hell to work out. Like what the hell? You go like an hour to go figure out. Well, I got AI, got an, you know. It's like a 20 minute drive. Yeah, it's $9 a month, a year. And I'm like, dude, you walk downstairs and it's $0.00. We didn't have a gym at that time though. Oh, OK, so we. Didn't have a gym at that time.

2:31 We had maybe a bench press. I think we had a bench press and that was good. And I'm like, I need, I need more than that. I need a little more than that, maybe 1. So in Eden Center, there's a there's a BBQ there. No, no, that's the BBQ I'm talking about. You know where Baja Fresh is? You know where that is. Speaking of restaurants, I mean there's one. There's one in like where the giant is and there was like June. Re Taekwondo, you know that. Yeah, exactly. Nobody bought it was me. That shop was me either. That that shopping center up the street from that across from was, it's not Marshall, it's something else.

3:12 It's some other high school, but it's up there and. Marshall was there, Yeah, it's the left hand side. Yeah, it's across from there and not the ones that it's like the one we're shopping center. What? Marshall is that where the, you know, let's go, Marshall where everybody got all the football players died one year. Oh. That is, yeah. Yeah, forgetting Sarah. I don't know if it's the same one, it's probably a different 1, you know, because like. It's like Friday Night Lights or something, I don't know. Yeah, it's a, it's a bunch of those, yeah, but. Yeah. You know, so that's, that's where that is BBQ chicken, yeah. It is. It is the most amazing food to order after you're half in the bag. Oh, it's even better. Me and Alex ate. It's sober here.

3:54 Really, really, really good. I I, I don't think I'd eat it sober. I have eaten it sober that one time with Alex. I think that that was it. I think. No, no, the other time too. The other time too. Yeah, one other time too. So twice, twice in total. The funniest time that I can think of as far as ordering food and having it delivered is a buddy of mine we had, I think we'd imbibed with all sorts of different drugs. I think we get edibles, you know, which is with alcohol. And we had a lot of alcohol. So I don't remember taking the edibles. It's just they were all gone the next day. So somebody must have taken them. And I went to bed at like 1:00 and he was hungry so he ordered and he ordered Uber Eats from a 24 hour Burger King.

4:43 I didn't know there was 24 hour Burger Kings in I had. I had no idea. It might have been a 2:00 AM Burger King or something like that. That was like a Saturday night something. The wife was traveling. So I was just sort of like, I'm gassed, I'm going to bed. I went passed out. I come down, he's gone, and on the front porch is one of those giant bags, like a giant Burger King bag, filled to the brim, stapled like triple rolled. I'm like what the hell is this? And I look at it and I unfurl the the the receipt and it's just like 3 Whoppers 2 double Whoppers 316 cheeseburgers 4 apple pies 2. And it's just like those people under the sun. Must have been so pissed off.

5:34 It was. It was $99. I don't even know what $99.00 worth of Burger King looks like. Oh yeah, it was, it was every specialty Sandwich times. And he was like he said I would. I just got on my phone and I was looking at it and I'm like, yeah, well, I better get 2 because she's going to want one. Well, I better get, I better get 2 of this because she's going to want one. I better get 2. And he just said, I kept doing that on like almost every menu I and I went through and then I just pressed order because it was easy. And and then I paid because I have my auto credit. And then it was just done. And then and then I passed out and I woke up at 4:00 and I went home and I'm like, you didn't see it on the steps? And he goes, no, I didn't see it because I was sitting right there.

6:15 I mean, probably tripped over on the way out. I was like, what the hell is this? I don't know. I'm thinking about the guy that delivered it to to like an all black house that like there's no lights on or anything. He's just like, man, what is this? Yeah. And he and down our driveway, think about driving down there and he drops it off. He dropped, he dropped it off at the bottom of the driveway. I come out, I get it probably 10:00 the next morning. I bring it in. I'm just sort of like flabbergasted because I don't know why I would have all this. And then I'm like, oh, Jeff was here and he was stoned, you know, so, so I'm like, OK, you know, that that explains everything. And then I, I, I look at the food and I go like, Oh my God, how long has it been out here? And it looked like it was, it was like a 130 order or something like that.

6:57 I have no idea. I don't know when it got to the house it probably and he, he said he left at 4:30, so it may not have got there till five. It was, it was like room temperature cold and I pulled out the Whopper and I'm going like it was $100 worth of fast food. There were actually some fries in there, a couple of fries which I I. What did you do with it though? I took. AI took I took a bite of the whopper and it was like no. And I put it back and then I. Swallowed the bite that you took, or did you? Oh, yeah. Then I, me and I'm, I'm, you know, growing up, we would, we would, we, we, when the ham was slimy, we would just wipe it off.

7:41 My, my, my wife has subsequently taught me that when the bread is blue, you just don't break the crust off and eat it because it's throughout. You don't do cheese when the whole outside is purple. You should throw it away. And it's also like, can you afford to do that, you know, and, and just everything. And well, so I then I went to the cheeseburger. I took a bite of that. Then I opened up the farm and I looked at it and I was just like, I can't even take a bite of that. And so each one, because, you know, you're hungover and this is amazing hangover food. And each time I took a bite and each bite was smaller and smaller. And then I think I bit into four different sandwiches and then I'm like, can't do it. And then I just went over and dumped the whole thing in the trash.

8:24 And then Rudy showed up that night and he was really happy. I'm surprised he didn't show up the night before when it was on the. Porch. I would have surprised too that. Wasn't just torn apart in a nightmare. Yeah, and just a mess, but it was, it was like triple bagged. 'Cause when I picked up the bag. I picked that up from the top and it was like this bag ain't going anywhere. This is this is really stable. This is going to be. I bet they were so pissed off making that. Oh my God. Imagine 130. Imagine we. Sorry about the Burger King. We apologize. You should apologize as. Well remember when we ordered 4 pizzas from Domino's at like 10:00 and we get the four pizzas? Well, they close at 2:00, so that's fine. And I don't know why we ordered 4 pizzas. And so we go in and him and I eat 1 pizza and then so I'm not thinking anything of it and I I go pass out once again. Sounds familiar doesn't it?

9:15 This is kind of fun. Is this a reoccurring thing? It sounds recurring. Thing, Yeah, I don't know. Well, he passes out or he doesn't pass out. He stays up. Maybe he had better edibles than me. I don't remember. Anyway, I was like anxious when I came down the next morning because there were, I knew there were at least two pizzas and there were two plus another box plus some in it, you know, 'cause we'd only ate in one and a. Half I was there this time and I was pissed off 'cause there was 2 if not 2 1/2 pizzas in the fridge outside and they were gone and I was so mad. I was so, so mad. And what do you do? You go, you go.

9:55 I mean, the first thing is I'm like, I checked somebody just throw them away, 'cause they're stupid. And then I go over and I see all the empty boxes in the trash and I open each one up thinking like somebody just threw the whole pizza and they're thinking like, wait, it's been out all night. And me eating a a pizza out all night doesn't mean it's bad. So you would go through the trash can to get a pizza? What was that on? That was the thought process. Anyway, I well no, I just needed to know how they got. Consumed because I needed to know as well. I felt like it. Was and I went there and there were like there were little small crusts left, just a few crusts in each box. And I was just like, holy shit, he ate them. And he told me he took like 1234 slices and he was eating four or five slices at a time.

10:44 And I'm just like, I'm like, whoa, he must. Have just been laughing too. You know when you're giggling, when you're in that kind of state, you can never be full. I don't know what it is about marijuana that has allows you to just eat. There's no like anything you want, you would. Really. So do you think that we could blame obesity on that? What do you think? I think so. I think the legalization of marijuana is directly correlated to obesity in America. Do you think, do you really think? No, I just made that up because yeah, I. Think it makes you lazy? I don't think it makes you, you know, oh, you got to use sativa because that's better. And it's like, yeah, you're you're you're a walking zombie as opposed to a seated zombie.

11:25 What the what? What the? Yeah. But then at the same time, like, I don't know, you can say the same thing about alcohol as well. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of people can cope with it. IKEA. No, exactly. I I've never been good, but we were talking about restaurants and food. The one I. Cheesecake Factory. Oh, the fried Mac and cheese balls. Those are a delicate What's my? An American delicacy in culture that will always exist is the fried Mac and cheese balls and how the inside of a Cheesecake Factory looks like ancient. Doesn't the Capital Grill have those? No, that's a lobster Mac and cheese. Oh, they have a lobster Mac. That's really, really good. 900 bucks, but it's 900 bucks and it's about this big. It's in one of those little tiny things. It's got a bunch of big pieces of lobster flop on top. It's it's, it's amazing.

12:11 It's really, really good. But when the wife made that, it was like. Oh, she made a crazy one. That one was Oh my God, that one was the best I've ever eaten. People were like, oh, there's too much lobster in. Here and I'm like Oh my. 'Cause I was the one that bought the lobster and she goes well we need 2 and I bought 3 so 'cause. I remember that and I was like over what? Are you stupid? Like what? The people that were complaining? I mean, yeah. And I was like, what? What do you mean there's too much lobster? Ohh, I'm sorry. My steak is too juicy. Like, I don't know. That's like, that's a that argument. I'm sorry that my life is too good. What do you what do you mean? Yeah, I don't know. It was, I mean, but The thing is, it was really that. Was incredible.

12:52 That was incredible. But it's also incredible. Some of the some of the most amazing Arlington you introduced me to it was Charbroil. They have a charger What you? Mean. Is that what you're talking about it? Was the what chicken? Charga chicken, is that what? You're talking about Charga chicken, That place, when I went there for my first chicken sandwich, I drove to Arlington, he said. We got a drug there. We're going to get it. And I'm like, this is stupid. He's going to drag me to the other end of the world to try something. I I I have never, ever had a better chicken sandwich. Popeyes. To this day, I ain't a close Popeye's best spicy chicken sandwich. Easily. I mean, it's very hard to beat Charga. Popeye's is very close. I don't know if Charga is still open.

13:33 Are they still open? You look it up right now. I'm actually curious. I think Christian actually did say that they were still open, if I remember correctly. But I remember the. Food was just, I mean, we ordered other things occasionally, like what was the other? One, you got it. Well, charga was the kind of way that they cooked the char boiled chicken in a different manner than Peruvian char boiled chicken. The the skin was now crunchy and that was oh, is it still open? Yeah. How do we not go there? OK. Next time you come home, we're going there. We got to, let's not go to like Wally World out in West Virginia again. We went to tutors. Yeah, that was great. Yeah. Oh my gosh, That is the best biscuit I've ever eaten in my life. Best biscuit sandwich, that is.

14:14 Did you see that award that they had in the front window? Best biscuit in the South? You never had my Mama. 'S biscuit in the South beats Bucky's, beats everything. Never beat my mama's. My mama's. But your mom's not a restaurant, so I mean. Yeah, we could go. We could go say really totally nasty things about my mother right now. She's dead. She would. She wouldn't bother. You should have such a way with words. Yes, I. Sometimes. Sometimes it just goes. What? Was the last you know what? I looked up the other day to see if it still existed on the border. On the border still exists, you know that. I mean, that to me is just a sloppy plate of Mexican food. Midwestern chain Mexican is what that is. That's what that is.

14:57 I feel like it. So it's like a ton of beans, a ton of rice, and some big giant rolled up thing that's got beef, rice and everything in it. That cost $4.00 to make or something. Yeah, it's a burrito, you know, and, and it's like you eat that and it's the sauces. It's OK. It's Anita's is a big place around here that was local for a long time. I. Don't like it? Original. Was OK, the rest sucked ass. Well, there's a. Thing about Mexican food that is like put together, right, that is concrete. And then there's a difference between Americanized Mexican food that like everything just seems to be a liquid on the plate. I don't know what that even the rice is kind of liquid. Why don't you just make me chili, man? And then like this is literally you put a burrito with rice and beans in a blender and then served it to me. And I don't, I don't get that.

15:46 I don't understand why it needs to be so liquidy. I think it's for old people. I think you're right, I think. And you don't have to chew it because what I had, what was the one you gave me, that was the steak, you bought it back. Oh, Rango's Rango's right. Rango's. I was shocked by how good that was. That was like really, really, really good food. On par with Lt. OS. On par with Lt. OS definitely, which apparently is going out of business. Better. No, no, no better. Better. Better than Lt. OS Oh. Really. You think so? Definitely definitely better. Oh wow Lt. OS is really good. Lt. OS is also most amazing Margarita and I don't know it's because the mix or or you don't taste the mix and you barely taste tequila but half of it is tequila the.

16:28 Frozen 1 You ever get the frozen? One, knock your socks off it. It's the kind of place that you got to take an Uber there if you're going to have a. Mark, I had to leave my car there one time because we drank 224 oz ones to ourselves and then I said I'm 16 years old, I can't drive home and. Yeah, usually if I was, if I was only half drunk, I could drive home at 16 and I remember the good old days. Yeah, no, exactly and. That wasn't a send. I miss those days, you know? Yeah, those great days now. Until people later in. Like, because I almost drove down to the place you used to work at Manny Moons, you remember? That Manny moons, we got to go back there. That's really far away. It's like 7 hour drive.

17:09 No, it's 7-8 hour drive. It's like in California, Virginia, it's. Like an hour and 10 minutes from where we live. If, if, if allegedly. If it's not crappy traffic, but when? When you and I looked you're like, oh, it's 42 minutes and then we get out on 495 and then we're going because we have 495 to 395. And then we cut over at like down by Spotsylvania way to get over to where it's at. It's actually South of Spotsylvania between Spotsylvania and Fredericksburg and it's on route one. We we get into and, and it's like parking lot going South. And this is on Sunday when that was. Juneteenth wasn't it? Was that Juneteenth? I don't remember. It might have been Juneteenth, because that was the. Same pulling over, and then we went to the chili place, which is another one that's a really good chili place. That was it.

17:55 That was bad. Hard times that. Was really bad. No, the food. Jay something Jay smooths or something? Bar J. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It wasn't hard. It was Bar J, It used to be No, no. The thing that's really good there is the chili. The chili. Was the chili was really good? We ordered a bowl of chili. The chili was good and ordered burrito. I ordered burrito. What'd you get? I got a burrito as well and it was. They were. They were old lettuce, old tomato, old everything. The everything was. I got to stop doing this thing where I order Mexican outside of LA or anywhere in the West because I've already had the best Mexican food I ever will have so there's no reason. Where do you have the best Mexican food out in LA?

18:36 Oh God, right down the street from me is crazy. Probably the best burrito I've ever had in my life. You never take me there. Yeah, it's next. You know the pasta place that I drank 3? Glasses of wine we went to in Los Filos that that we went to that was around the corner. From French Place. No, I thought we had we We'd eat breakfast there and I'd get a burrito. Oh, the you mean the the diner, right? The diner and I had a burrito there. Fred 62. Fred 62 is the. That's where I got food poisoning twice. Yeah, well. I mean, it's worth it if it's good. On the second time I was like, maybe I'm not coming back here ever again. I don't know after. The second it was kind of filthy. Right. Yeah, I don't. Know, I just, I mean, when you went to the restroom, it was just a bucket. So I thought that was kind of like a. Hole in the ground per SE.

19:20 Yeah, but they they put a bucket over the hole for me 'cause like, what do you think? 'S the best thing you've ever eaten in your life, the absolute best thing you've ever eaten in your life? It, it, it, it just varies. It varies so much because it's like it all matters about hunger at that particular time. And like if I've just eaten pizza and I get pizza again, it's not as good. But if I haven't had something in a long time, it's really that much better unless it's from a shitty establishment. And then if it's a shitty establishment, it's OK because I'm hungry. So, so my mindset is so different when I go through those. If I start to think, I'm trying to think about around the world where I've eaten. I remember when we were doing the, I was doing the West in Patagonia and they cooked.

20:10 They would just. At night he would throw down the charcoal, whatever it was with. He'd start a little fire at the end of the day, it's a 5:00 and a fire would cook for like an hour or two until it was all just glowing red. And they would come out with mounds of meat and he would just pile them into like a pyramid onto right on the grill. Oh, they do that in Mongolia too. Yeah, And they would just flip the flip the meat, flip the meat, flip the meat, flip the meat. And it's like, are you hungry? And he grabs a piece and he just puts it in your mouth and you're just like, and then everybody gets a fork and then a plate at some point because like, we can wait or you can just eat off the grill. You know, it doesn't matter 'cause we're, we're outside, you know, we're, we're in probably some of the most beautiful country in the world or, you know, arguably.

20:56 And 'cause we were Tortoise Delpine, we were at the Fitzroy where I mean Argentina, Chile, it was just like, wow. I'll throw a door on the board. I'll throw a door on the board. Peeking in gourmet. Best Chinese I've ever had in my life. Best stuck, best duck, best lamb chops I've ever had in my. Life Lamb chops best fried. Rice I've ever had in my. Life I don't know about Fry I I. Gourmet I. I'm trying to think I would say probably the best pizza I ever had is $0.99 pizza in New York. Really. Yeah, it's really funny. You go, you, you come out, it's on. It's on like 46th and Park, I think, and there's there's all these little stores and there's also one in Midtown, there's one downtown. They're all over the place, but.

21:42 There's cheese and best condiment it's no, it's. Just it's just a great slice. They pulled out cheese. Right there, pizza. You can add shit on it if you want. And yeah, add stuff on that. It's generally. Garbage. It's a dollar five, you know, it's $1.10. You get 2 slices. Yeah, I mean, and then you can eat it there and it's great. It's kind of like when we were at the beach and we go to Grotto's. If you eat it before you get home, it's great. If you get wait till you get home, it's it's past its due date. 100% a kind of great. It's like a it's a grotto's pizza was like a 30 minute pizza to eat. What else? What was? What were the ones we had? Best ampanadas down the street as well. It's something Veracruz and they have the best ampanada I've ever eaten in my life.

22:28 I'm trying to think about all the great restaurants we've been to cause we've been to like a ton. Of them, Capital Grill is definitely the steakhouse I've ever been to. And yeah. I I would say. That plumbing sucks. Plumbing sucks so bad. There's one in New York and it's the original. The Polo Club or something? No, Jack. And what the heck is? It Jack and Ruby's. No, I mean everybody says sparks and stuff. I've I've never. Been, but this one is It's a really New York famous steak house, Peter Lugar's. King Peter Lugar sounds familiar. I yeah, I'm not quality meats.

23:13 Lugar's, Keens, Gallagher's, Del Frisco's, Rocco's, West Side House, Maestro's, Ben and Jack's is probably that was that 5th and thirty, 28th, 28th and 5th was Jack's, Ben and Jack's and we would go there and it was just amazing. There was another one that had a green place and I can't remember and I thought it was going bankrupt, but it was like the place it was right at Skadden's Old Smith and Wilensky. That's the one that I went to the original 1. And I think it's also timing in your life because when you're when you're younger and you've not like experienced, you know, I've probably eaten a couple 100, maybe even 1000 steaks in my life and probably 100 of those in a really high end steakhouse. So like right now if I go to high end steakhouse, it's like whatever, you know, I don't, I don't get to. See even Capital Grill you feel the same way. Capital Grill's good, but I would tell it, oh. Good.

24:17 You know, my best steak ever by far long thing was Tokyo at the top of that building and we had the Wagyu steak and you, you saw a picture of it. I took a picture. Yeah, I do remember that. We went there and that was just knock your socks off. And it wasn't only the steak, it was the presentation because they have a grill right in front of you. They're making it right there. They take the garlic, they cut it, they, they razor thin cut it with their knives and the guys are Ching, ching, Ching, ching, Ching. And they're making all the noise and everything like that. And there's like 3 guys working it. There's eight of us sitting there. They're they pull out the steaks. You pay some fixed price. It was crazy. I think it was like 600 bucks. Oh my God. Oh yeah, it was, it was nuts.

24:59 But. But with that included about, you know, 15 scotches. So yeah. Well, there, yeah, a lot of the time it's the drink order. But then in the background you could see Mount Fuchi, and we climbed that two days later. So we were like, whoa. Well, that's, that's great. I think the band was amazing. I I ate a lot of great sushi. There I'm trying to think of there was a really good, let me think. We went to a place in India and I don't know if it was KFC or it was, but we have been eating. We went to India in this in the 90s. I remember the story after the KFC, yeah. And we ate, we ate it like we ate Indian food for 17 days. And it was, it was different.

25:53 Some really, really wonderful things. The best. What are those little spicy rolled up doughy things with samosas, Samosas, amazing, butter chicken, amazing, all that kind of stuff like that. But that's not what I've grown up on. So when we all, we went to a place that served burgers, I had a hamburger and it was like, Oh my gosh, it was the best thing. You know, where Seth and I went to after we did the China wall, we've been eating, you know, great. Once again, Chinese food that was made by a group of guys that were cooking food the whole time there. And then we went to hotel and and we ordered, I ordered a burger there. And I just remember it being something that was like, it was borderline orgasmic, you know, but you're like, those are the things that I remember.

26:45 It's more, it's more time and place that actually, wow, this is the best one I've ever had. Because they, it changes, you know, it's like, remember when we were in Sicily and we were looking around at all the different restaurants and we went down the hill there and we just popped into that one restaurant. Oh, yeah. Somebody said, oh, you should go to, you know, Bilbo Baggins, I think. She had found the recommendation for that, Yeah. Yeah, and we went there and that food was amazing. That was the best food we ate the entire time, but that's not saying a lot because all the food we ate sucked. We. Went to a Michelin star restaurant the night before and it did not even compare. Not even compare. And I'm sure Michelin star is because got a ambiance and light And what's the historical? Value of the.

27:30 Property that's. What it is? But the it's. Also the historical. Value and it was not amazing, so I got to say hey. It's also where the the hotel was. Stacking, you know, we had a balcony that was 80 feet long. Wasn't that crazy, That was crazy. Overlooking the waterfront, you know, wow, that was amazing. Anyway, but thinking more about different places that I've eaten, the wife and I, when we went to Seattle, I was at a show there. She came and we used to always cook salmon, medium always. Never had it any other way. Never got it served on the East Coast any other way.

28:11 We would just say whatever, cook it. We went there and we had COP Copper River was running and they had Copper River salmon and we ate that and they brought it to us. Rare. I'm like, and so I ate it. I'm like, Oh my God. And and we both meet looked at each other and said we have been cooking it wrong since we were born. I'd never, I'd never had salmon until I was like 20 years. Old I don't like sockeye. I don't like it. I don't like it. Man. Yeah, well, this was Copper River, so it's a little different, you know? But I'm saying sockeye and. I'm not a brand Gino fan. I'm not like I had. Whitefish, that's what. It is.

28:52 I love. Well, I love fish and chips, you know, which is haddock, I guess, you know, or cod. Want some cod, some cod? We had some amazing fish and chips in London. First time my wife and I went there, we were on a big tour. We went through Europe. It was raining, of course, in London it's supposed to always be raining. It was drizzling and we'd come out of a show and we were in an over thing and it was like it was just we, we did an afternoon matinee. It was like 530 or something like that. That's what I remember. And I remember it was kind of like the sun was going down and it was a stand there that had what is it? They had fish and chips.

29:33 Let's give fish and chips. So they give us fish and chips, one order and a rolled up newspaper because that's the way they serve it there. He puts these. Do you want anything on it? I said whatever you should put it. He didn't say it like this. Hey, oh, you want anything? You know, he did the English thingy and and I'm like, yeah, whatever, whatever works. And he does that. He hands it to me and it's we're standing there. We had a we had one umbrella and we're eating the fish and chips off to the side of it and it's raining and it was just like it. The food was. I was like Zurich when I got the the hot dog in the baguette for like $12.00. I remember it was funny because 2009, 2010 Zurich is probably the current state of the US and how expensive the US is because I remember it was like $12.00 or something for like a hot dog in a baguette and I was like this is insane. This is never going to be referential to the rest of the world.

30:26 Actually funny enough in LA it cost damn near the same amount now. Yeah, it's pretty. Yeah, but that was 20 years ago, so it. Was yeah. Or 15 years or 15 years like that. Because it's Hotel Borough Lock, right? Yeah, yeah, I was outside of there. And we went, that's where we went to the great restaurant Reef Ghosh. I mean, I don't even. Remember that. We went there and it was connected to the Borlaq, and the reason I went to it is because American Express says you can't go anywhere and go eat it, read Coach. Because that's supposed to be this really hot, trendy French whatever. What did you order? A bunch of little things that came in the middle of the dish that you ate that are aren't memorable. I don't remember anything. I I remember the hot dog and the bread. That's.

31:09 It I remember being hungry. That's what happens too is a lot of those Michelin star chef tasting menus that are 12 courses are not really like sizable entrees. But we did, we did that in Venice because we when we're in Italy for our 10th anniversary, we're tooling around there and we go to different places and they serve by the course. So it's a 5 course meal or seven course meal and it's a fixed price. And you go in, you sit down and they give you, they give you like a little bowl, they give you a little sorbet and they give you a little bowl of spaghetti and they give you a little, a little piece of beef, you know. And then they give you a little this and a little this and it's, and it fills you up by the end and it's like a 2 1/2 hour ordeal.

31:53 But then when we go to where the hell was it? Florence, where we had our, our dinner, or was it Florence? No, might have been. It was in Venice. That's right. And we went to the hottie Toddy restaurant and the guy it's, it's five times as expensive as every other place we've been. And we're ordering our food and, and we're thinking it's like a 5 course meal. So we ordered each one of the courses and he's looking at us like what? Oh, you want spaghetti and steak and of this and of this, you know, and you want to, you know, and I, and it was like, and I thought that's what you were supposed to do. Well, each, each course they brought us was a full meal in and on itself.

32:37 The, the bowl of spaghetti that came as like one of those giant serving bowls that you would eat, but it was heaped and you're like, oh, and you, you and it's really, really, really good. The steak they bought me was, you know, almost 2 inches thick and it was, it had to be a 14 ouncer. And I was just like and I. We can talk about something real quick. I would just like to defame Flemings real fast. Yeah, I went there on my birthday and no steak restaurant should serve 1/2 inch cut of steak. That's all I'm going to say. Yeah, that's not good. Unless it's like. Not unless it's a sandwich. Not unless it's a sandwich. Yeah. Flemings, I hope you make this right one day.

33:18 I'm never going back, but if you could give me a discount code so that I could never use it, I would really appreciate that. That was awful. It was. The name always curses me out. Yeah, that is fair. Yeah, when you say Flemings, I'm just like, I just, I when my brother went there, you and you and me and him went there and that's when he had his four baskets of bread and it was just so funny. That was awesome, £800 Porterhouse. I tried keeping up with him and just for fun and no I I could not. For like 30 seconds and then you're like, I'm full. No, I was like, I think me and you talked in the garden. You're like, you should try. And I'm like, OK. And then he ate. I think there's four baskets of bread, a 24 ounce steak, two appetizers.

33:58 I think we split two appetizers though, so that doesn't really count. And then a dessert. I think everybody got a dessert or something. Yep, 5 drinks I was. Like that is impressive. Yeah, yeah. Just I don't think we were drinking alcohol though. You guys weren't drinking alcohol, were you? No, I think I probably had two or three. I was I was driving, so I didn't I. Was I had like 6 or 7? I just tell you we wouldn't. Have to drink, then you're getting hammered. Then I would have been a little lighter on it you. Know. Yeah, so you probably wouldn't have been drinking that much, just wine. No, no, just one. One for the 11 year old. There's a there's a really good Greek restaurant over there that I've been to Nostros. Nostros really really like where? Even is that it's like in an office park or something?

34:38 It's over by Tiffany's, right across the street from Tiffany's. When you're going on Route 7, where the old Morton's used to be, Morton's has changed into trash. Same thing with Yeah, I just don't. I last couple times I've been there, they've been it. It goes back to the rule that you told me. You said, hey, if I can make it at home as good or better. What, what, you know, service is one thing. Then then they got, it'll be off the hook on service. Morton's used to be. I used to love it. I mean, I went, I've been there. Oh my gosh, 20 * 30 times. Capital Grill is the only steak that I can't make at home. That's the only one. That is stayed as an amazing steak place and it has not teetered. You know what I mean?

35:24 Same with the service. The service is amazing there. Used to be there was a great place downtown DC called the Caucus Room and we used to go to that. That was right around the corner. And they had during what was it Restaurant Week, it was like 20 bucks for lunch and you'd get a steak, you know, a steak, baked potato. You get like a three course meal for with a salad. I mean, the whole thing, what what you did is you didn't eat breakfast and you probably wouldn't eat dinner too, you know, back in my fat days. But then I think about the different things that I really, really liked. I rollback the clock. Then we first start a business. The thing that I love more than anything was a dirty water dog, a chili dog with with all the fixings, you know, relish, mustard, onions, until it was just like almost a sloppy goopy mass.

36:12 You are a hot dog man. You were born a hot dog man, and you will die a hot dog man. 1/2 smoked man and it just killed me. It was so good and it was like whoa, oh, if we're going to talk about hot dogs, we have to talk about top. What is that? No, it's, it's the what's the one in Rehoboth Beach, Oh. Doggy style. Dog is style. That's the best hot dog I've ever eaten in my life. Easily. Yeah. Yeah. No better hot dog. Best Venezuelan food I've ever eaten too, if that's of any count. Yeah, because they had a repos there, too. And those, those were really good. Yeah. Yeah, I, when I ate those, I was like, wow, I, I hate to say this, I they're almost as good as the hot dog. Everything there is, there's nothing bad that's.

36:54 So off the charts that you're like best. Restaurant in row, but I'm going to say it, I don't care. Yeah, yeah, I would, I would say so I would say doggy style stuff there's. No better restaurant there. There's some that can masquerade as saying that they're good, but they're not. I love Frankie and Louie's for certain things. I've never been there. Frankie and Louie's the sub shop. When we bring Subs home, the ones that they don't put in, we don't put anything. We don't have No tomatoes now. That's all onions now. No lettuce. No, no, no mana. No, that's just the way to it. Well, it's because tomatoes and. All that stuff is you got to. It goes bad, right? But they just cut meat. It's meat and cheese on a big piece of bread, homemade bread, and it's. Well, there's Peppers too, right? They put Peppers. Peppers they put really, it's really a a good sandwich, but if you want to eat go better. I well, you know, back in our last thing we're talking about sandwiches.

37:41 I would go back to Litteri's. Litteri's nothing. Still haven't been back. I haven't been back in years. Yeah. There's another one there in Char Charga. We got to go there, but we're talking about I have business, a pandemic, but I think about restaurants like what's a new restaurant that you've been that you would want to go back to? A new one that I, I, I've been in a, you know, I go, I go to the Italian place in the corner, the one I went with you and mom and Jordan. What was that? When you guys came and visited me for the the what was Italian? Oh, that was really good. That place was fantastic. Yeah, that was shocked. It was upstairs open. That's the thing.

38:23 That's the kind of cool thing about LA. Everything was half the restaurant was always out on the street, you know, you know, and half inside. And yeah, it was kind of. This is not during the pandemic, though. No, I mean, the pandemic started that though because. George Yeah. So now they're all in Georgetown, but. It started in Georgetown, like and. Then, well, they had them all over the place then, and then a lot of them have gone back to parking out there and it's sort of like who wants to eat in front of a car? Nobody. Nobody. It's nobody wants. To do it, I want to eat. In front of a gutter where I can see a bum come up and be there, you know, or something like that. That's always much more. I want to feed him like my fork while I'm eating. If you go international, I'm trying to think international places you've been, what about do you remember anything when Silver Seas when we were doing Galapagos? That was some of the probably the best cruise ship food I will ever eat in my life.

39:10 Yeah, but that. Was an everyday thing I mean. It was 5 star meals every single day and not one was bad. There's not one thing that was. About, you know, remember the. Next day you get breakfast ordered to your your room on a cruise. Ship. On a cruise ship you can get breakfast or. Oh my God. Room on a cruise ship? We were five different breakfasts, remember that. Sometimes I feel like. We're I want the. Masquerading as people who are affluent. Like, I don't know what it is because we were there and I was like, we are not rich people. Well, yeah, I don't know. I don't know what's so funny. I don't know me and you were in our T-shirts and we had a guy in like a 2000 where you went. To school. And they were. They would, yeah. Yeah.

39:50 I was like, you're smart, I think they thought. We were very smart. I went to good school. I think they thought that we won like the cruise on The Price is Right or something. I think that that's what it felt like. I. Pissed him off and I told him it was free. Oh yeah, you. See, that nobody talked to us freaked him out. And nobody talked to us. What do you mean you didn't pay anything? I paid. I got 40% off and it was only 12 grand. I'm like well I got 100% off and it was 0. Yeah, no, that that that made some enemies. I'm not going to lie, that made a lot of enemies on the boat and nobody talked to us really after that. I'm. Not going to lie. Yeah, I was going to say that. Well, I mean, it wasn't my fault. They they offered it because they cancelled it the day we were going to Antarctica. That was so messed.

40:32 Up. We had packed everything up. It was Christmas Eve, wasn't it? And we had everything packed. We're going to be gone for Christmas and New Year's. We're going to, we're going to go to Antarctica and COVID. They called and said, you know, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. We'll do this. We'll refund. And they didn't only refund, they said you can have a free cruise anywhere comparable to what you've done now. And we were, we were doing a cruise that was not so expensive. What I think is crazy, too is somebody while we were there got COVID on the boat. Yeah, yeah. And nobody else got it, which is very surprising. They quarantined the the heck out of that. Yeah. Remember we went on Quark, Quark, the food was the liquor was good, but. Consistent. 3 Wasn't that good?

41:21 Yeah, it was, it was, it was, it was OK. Yeah, it was that it made me cough occasionally. I I was not going to overeat there, I remember, no matter how I would order. Two entrees because generally when you the other thing you ordered was bad. So then I would get the other one, yeah. Yeah. And then all the desserts that looked good tasted like they were. Oh, they were really bad. They were really bad. Everything tasted not great the. Food was not not good at all. I. We stopped eating breakfast about one day in. And then we went to Punta Renas and remember that we went to that. Steak Place. Oh, that was the worst pizza I've ever had in my life. You worn pizza? I had remember the pizza, what they said was a steak. Oh, at the steak restaurant. The best steak restaurant in the town. Yeah, and it looked like it looked like somebody hacked the shoulder off a dog.

42:08 I had never seen anything like that. I did. And the bones weren't right. None of it was right. It didn't look like, you know, And I was like, that's not a, that's not a, that's not a cow that I've ever seen. Well, it's like a big rectangle, right? Yeah, it might have been a capybara, who knows, but. Did not taste good. Yeah, no, it was not extremely. Tough. Too. It was yeah, yeah, they, they, I said make it rare and they made it well done and I think they made it well done because they need to kill it because they probably was infected with something. I. Think so, Yeah, I completely. Agree. I mean, I remember looking at food in India where we were going around and I, I was visiting Neil and his wife with my wife and he was talking about that they had a person that bought vegetables for them and then they had the egg lady. And then they had and only certain people in his family and other people's family, if you'd only pick certain ones that would buy meat.

43:04 And we went and we were in Nepal, we traveled into the north, her and I, and we go to the city where it's Baklata, whatever, it's a Bakhtavia. It's a really, really cool city in the north there. It's from like the 13th century and it's got all the Karma Sutra around everything. It's really just amazing. But there they were selling meat and I, I've never seen it being sold in public. And, and it was literally, it was a dead goat on a table and, and people were coming up and sitting down in a chair and he was cutting off pieces and putting them on a balance beam. And now there were flies everywhere. And he would cut off the outer part and that was cheaper than the inner part. And it's like, no, no, I'm not, No, Although I'd have to say some nasty food that I ate Scotland. Did you ever eat the haggis?

44:04 No, I think I got it and I got a little piece of it on a plate and I tasted it and I said I don't need to vomit right now. Even one of those or, or another one was the English breakfast that we had in Canterbury when we were on the train. And we stopped because I, I, I, I, I don't know if I mentioned this, that I read Chaucer and so I wanted to see him and we went there, but we had an English breakfast there and it was like £3.50 to get it. We get, we get the English breakfast and it's cute, it's huge. It's, it's two of those link type sealed pork sausage things. But they weren't, they, and the meat wasn't ground up. It was kind of gristly. The, the eggs had been basically floated in a pan of grease and the grease was on the plate.

44:49 And see, when I'm growing up, that's what my father used to do. He'd put an inch of grease into the pan. It was leftover because we had a grease bucket on the, on the stove. And he'd float the eggs in until they looked OK, until they were hard and then he'd take them out. And this is what that was. And then they had mushy peas. So they had this green slop that looked like the vomit from Exorcist. And then beans. They had pork and beans, just beans at the very top of the plate and the syrup from the beans had sort of sloughed through everything else. So that was the breakfast. So I kind of picked out the eggs that I could eat and they were, they were not done. They were runny.

45:32 And I'm, I mean, not just the yellow runny, I'm talking about the white runny. And when the whites runny, it's like, yeah, there you go, there you go, that's what it was. And then you're eating that with pork and beans and it's and it's like 9:00 in the morning and all I can think is just like, give me 3 cups of coffee and I can eat anything. I started skipping breakfast recently. I just do. I just do lunch at noon. Well, if you ate that one, you'd skip it. For me, it was just like, wow, wow. It's funny. We have some bad foods and some really good foods. I mean, I've eaten. I'm trying to think of like, I mean, Chinese. We used to have that Chinese delivery place here that was just amazing. That place sucks and now it sucks. Peking Gourmet and will never be bad. Nothing's going to touch that that nothing consistently really good.

46:17 Well, I feel like you've been to China. Is is the food at Peking Gourmet better than no No than food in China? China, the food we had was we kept eating authentic Chinese food and I would tell you that it sucks that is authentic. I didn't, I didn't. I didn't really like it. It wasn't. It was kind of like, remember when we went to Vietnam and we're going to go get some Vietnamese authentic and they took us and they had dog and stuff like that on the menu. We all ordered and it was mediocre. It was like Chinese food that. Well, they also took us to the worst possible restaurants because one the worst possible restaurants can seat 40 people, 2 and. They were empty. They have a giant deal with those people, definitely. I would say that a really good Chinese restaurant that I went to was in Montreal and this is when we when we tried to see if did you know that if you take a full mattress and you throw it off the 10th floor, it will actually go down to the ground like a helicopter?

47:16 Oh, that's so cool. And I found out that and with the same thing with pillows, but we went there and, and also the cool thing about that, and I think it was the Holiday Inn that we were in the the price of a beer was the same at the store. I mean the same at a bar as it was out of the mini bar. That's shocking. So. So why would you not just drink all the beer in the mini bar? Mongolia, that's what we did as well. The beers were $0.50. In Mongolia, the beers were $0.50. Really. And it was a stock fridge. A beer, Christian gets on the phone. Christian gets on the phone, calls down and says, can you bring up 40 beers, please? And they're like, they said four. And he said no 40, please.

48:02 And they said four and he said no 40, please. And they said, OK, They sent nine women up with beer, like, in their own, like, no bathroom. Oh my God. We, and I think the the room service bill, because we ordered food too, was like 30 bucks or something. OK, or like 20 bucks Montreal went there and Canadian money and remember Canadian money with worth less or whatever than what I had a guy tell me once when we went across, he goes, Oh my God, it's a dollar. I got a dollar seven for my dollar, Said why doesn't everybody come up here and just make money? And I that's so awesome. That's so cool. But that's another story. That was when we drove up and smoked a pound, a half pound of weed on the way. But in, in Montreal, we were there and we had a show and it was Christian and I and Jose.

48:51 And that's when I threw the we, we, we, we tried to see if mattresses would float and stuff like that. And it was kind of crazy. And, but we went to a Chinese restaurant there and he walked in and it was in Chinatown, of course. And it was in the Montreal circular tables, white, circular white tables with like 90% of the people in there were Asian. And they had two or three big bowls and they must, I think they're all Chinese. And they had two or three bowls in the middle and everybody threw it in and they scooped it. And they're all just like down eating. And we ordered Chinese food there. And it was just exceptional. It was, it was, it was a dirty restaurant. It was. It has to be dirty you.

49:34 Don't want to eat that go anything but the food was knock your socks off good. You know which I mean. I don't know why filth and good food in China are, are the same, but that's just the way it is. The what are the little things that you roll up? The dumplings? We had those at the bottom of the like the really famous part of the China wall that everybody goes to. We camped there and our guys made those over the night. They, they, they made. And he said, well, how many can you have? And they're like, I think it's how many can you eat? And I was there with Seth and I was like, don't say that they were cooking.

50:14 And, and I mean, I had about, I think I had, they had a bunch of other things to eat. And I had about 20 of those. And they were all vegetarian. And they were just, Oh my, I'm just, they were making them. They were making them as they were talking to you. They made them. They and they, they do something, roll them and then they with their fingernails and then they take them and then toss them in the pan, toss them in the pan, toss them in the pan, toss. And you're just like. Holy, you ever see the Kung Fu Panda movie where the the panda he makes dumplings but then he eats a lot of dumplings as well? These were just crazy and the great ball beer was good. The wine sucked ass. Don't drink the wine. The red, the the white wine was like had a little bit of kerosene in it. The they had AI remember they had a liquor there and a small bottle.

51:06 I had a red top and was in like a green bottle that you, you know, you could barely see through and that tasted exactly like kerosene, but it but it was like it it it was like moonshine called it. It's moonshine. Take a shot. You know, you take it, you're like. Oh geez. Yeah, the good old days. What do I have for? Time on this. Oh my God, you've been talking. It's we're a little over 50 minutes. Oh, wow. What other kind of what other kind of restaurants do you, I mean restaurants, not sandwiches, because we talked about that before, but restaurants. I mean, I, I think of like one locally that's always been a really good one is Kazan's. Yeah, that's a really. Good do Afghan food.

51:47 That's really, really. Is it Afghan? I like that Persian it is. It's Afghan Persian. No, Persian is Aracosa. They have a meat platter that'll no. It's reversed I think. No, Aracosa is Afghan. Now Aracosa is Persian. No, no, look it up right now. I'll bet you. I'll bet you. Oh, you know the place that's really cold there is the Cuban place. Cuban place? What Cuban place? Oh, that's my place is really good. Oh my gosh, what is that? Here, let me go Aracosa make me clean restaurants. Look at this.

52:28 We're just best restaurants in McLean, Wendy's, Oh, Fogo de Chao, that's like one of your meat places. You like to go through Capital Grille. I've never been to the Ren. You ever been there? That sounds really familiar. Yeah, Nestros Bombay. Well, you know, you have to find downtown, downtown down town. Downtown. Downtown. Yeah, that would be the union matchbox that still exists.

53:14 Yeah. The Union. Great Burger. Great Burger. Hicatio. Latin American. That's really good. Risk it there. That's just knocks your socks. That's really good. I was really shocked. But what else we got? Wow, I can't think. Not a lot. I mean, Rocco's is your favorite. Right. Thank God that was the worst piece I've ever eaten in my life. I don't know how that place still looks. That's a drug front, Easily. Yep, without a doubt in my mind, that's a drug. There's like 3 people in there a Friday night. I went there at like 9:00 and that's when I ordered that pizza and it was no place open and it was a deep dish. I feel like there's some like ultra rich millionaires that have bought some of these restaurants because they really like them or they really like the owner Well, and I think. He's the son of the owner and he's been running it for 40 years.

54:10 Oh wow. OK. And I just talked to him and he has the waitress here and they were, they were arguing about a pay raise for her. And then he's like, why I just can't pay that? And I was thinking. Whoa, jeez, he's going. To go across the street because everybody will pay more. Yeah, I know. No, exactly. I do everything. I clean the toilets and I'm like, and he's making a pizza. Tells me because I didn't, you know, I don't know about you, but that's just that's not the time to tell me that you do that. I actually changed you could urinal cakes. There you go. Picking your teeth or picking your nose. If you do that in front of me when I'm eating, it's like it just, it grosses. But I always love when I went over to somebody's house one time and he was making, oh, I'm not going to say the name, but he was making Ratatouille and his right hand was in his pants, in his underwear. And he his other hand was was like moving like the pan over the thing.

55:02 And I was like, he's like, and I'm like, what are you doing? He's like, I'm thinking, I'm thinking. That's my thinking hand. I'm like, what are you talking about? You're thinking hand, I'm thinking. Well, everybody says the guys think with their wee wee, so you know, you understand that's true. That's definitely it. That's got to be it. You know, I. Think it's tough? Man, I think about any other restaurant that would come to your mind, that would just pop out that we feel like we, we missed, you know what I mean? I'm sure there are other ones. And if I asked my wife, she'd probably give us 20 more. If you tell me why ours, I mean, we would. We went to J Gilbert's forever and they were the best for martinis. And so I can't really judge the food there because we were always and used to be able to smoke, you know, and this is before I quit smoking cigarettes.

55:52 So we would go to the bar after we we, we had. Scouts. It was so funny. We were in our scout uniforms and we would go there and we would drink like 4 to 6 martinis. That's so awesome. And smoke like 12 cigarettes, you and Jeff. Yeah. And then, and then and then we had a congresswoman's wife who was also there and I won't mention her name, but and she was getting hammered with US1 time and we're all smoking. And she's like, oh, I probably shouldn't be doing this. Like, what do you mean is if somebody mentioned this, it would not be good. Billy's Billy Bob Congressman's wife was out getting hammered with these two guys.

56:35 What were they doing? Were they? And it's like she was a she was like a, a scout mom and, and I was assistant scout master and he was a scout master. And we were like, hey, let's go get, let's go get a drink. And she's like, oh, OK, what the hell. And she was really just a wonderful lady, you know, all that kind of stuff. But. That's fantastic. Her kids were totally disgusting, but that's another story. Well, on that note, thank you guys for listening. Record my father on all platforms. Check us out and have a great rest of your day.