362: Heems & Throwing Fits

28:10No, these are good. I mean, this is the kind I was asking just because I'm taking notes, man. Yeah. I'm taking the L.A.R.R. out to Hicksville. There's a lot of good food in Long Island. It's slept on. It's definitely slept on. All right. You clearly are paying attention to the landscape here in New York. You mentioned you and Tony talked about a possible project. You've done pop-ups. That's obvious. What's holding you back from doing a full restaurant? Yeah, that was cool. I did like a good test kitchen with the Budmosh guys in L.A. Yeah, those guys are cool, Badmash. Yeah, Arjun and Nakul are great people.

28:44What's holding me back is, you know, in part, it's kind of like Tony being like, you know, like restaurants are fucking tough, right? And that's like the reality. Stuck with you. And like I wasn't doing anything creative for like four or five years and my mental health was in the gutter. And like now I'm coming back to, you know, being creative again, making music, doing a podcast later this year on cricket and have a couple of things in the works. And so I can see myself kind of dabbling with that again. I mean, talking with Avish at PJ Palace about it and like talking with those guys. And like it's amazing because I dabble in like the periphery of these spaces of fashion, of food.

29:29But like, you know, music, I think I need to do the music first and then see where it takes me. It sounds like you've got a good strategy there. You've got a lot of like music is what I hope you do most of and bet your restaurant would be dope. But I really like Narrow Jackets was just a great release. I wish there was more. Yeah, yeah. I am working on an album. I'm working on an album. It's mostly rap, but I'm also doing more things where I'm singing. And that's always been something I've been insecure about. So I'm working on that. And, yeah, I've always wanted to do something with, like, Indian variations on sandwiches.

30:06Give me one. Give me one that, like, what's the number one on the board? Yeah, I mean, I guess, like, a Cuban, but instead of, like, we would use pork vindaloo. So pulled pork vindaloo. What's the bread choice? Pau bread. Yeah, of course. So it's pau sliders, basically. It's all pau. I mean, the pow at Masala Wala and Sons. Yeah. Holy shit. It was like half gi. It was like a half gi. You got to do it. I mean, straight. You got to do it. I mean, it's heavy food. It's heavy. You know, I guess I would lean into the comfort food stuff because I know that, like, that's what I like. And I'm not going to, like, you know, have any qualms about making, like, fattening food and stuff.

30:44It's a cheat day, cheat day diet. Yeah, well, you know, we don't need to frame it that way. I mean, I feel like food is enjoyed in many different ways. and we have our own diets and it wouldn't be hard on yourself about that. And I'm curious more about like, like you're obviously like a lot of what is westernized of Indian cuisine is Punjabi cuisine. And, um, but there's, there's, there's a lot of stuff that we eat at home that isn't really like restaurant fare. And there's a lot of more, I want to look back at kind of more, unearth some more Mughal recipes that the Mughals used to eat and like unearth some more like Punjabi recipes that that aren't really what you get at the restaurants.

31:23Because I am Punjabi. If I was doing something regional, I don't know if it would end up being from the south, from Goa. As much as I love the emergence of what Chintan's done with regional cuisine, what I know and what I would probably do is more stuff like that. We use carrots a lot, bitter gourd, and just these dishes that I don't think Americans associate with Indian food. Speaking of produce, you have a gardening bug. Like you, in your Long Island home, you have a garden, right? You're down. Are you planning? We're recording this in January. Are you planning your spring? You're planting? Yeah.

32:00I mean, it's pretty much like regular, like that. I'll grow different green peppers. Cool. Eggplant, because we do eat bengen bhartha. And, you know, definitely tomatoes. And then I like to use all three of those in the bengen bhartha. I did grow Brussels sprouts, like a bunch of stalks of Brussels sprouts. Those stalks are killer. Those look fun. They took like over a year, and then I kind of lost interest because it was just such a slow grow that by the end of it, like the bugs had gotten through it. I know that's the hardest thing about gardening is the rodents and bugs. Yeah, and just knowing when to get your sprouts out.

32:38Yeah. I did grow a cauliflower last year that eating it fresh was the best gobi aloo I've had hands down. When you can grow one cauliflower and you're going to make a gobi aloo with it, it's like, yeah. I tried to grow okra, but it was just too little of a yield. And then I do like growing like squash. Yeah. So it depends on what there is there. I mean, I'm simple, bro. I go to like Home Depot. I see what they got and then I bring that home. That's what I do too in my garden. I went to Lowe's. I'm more of a Lowe's guy when it comes to McDonald's. Are you? Yeah. Yeah, that's my shit. That's my guy.

33:12It depends on what, you know, if they don't got anything at Home Depot, I'm going over to Lowe's for sure. Lowe's is where I get my tomato plants. For sure. I agree. I'm definitely just getting the ones that in May I'm planting. It was fun to grow a lot of cherry tomatoes because we don't use that in our cooking. So to have like a sweeter taste on the dishes that I would associate with like Indian food was a fun twist. It's cool. Yeah. I like growing those as well. I'm not going to let this pass. A cricket podcast? Yeah. So that's cool. Multi-day tests, guys wearing like the coolest fits in sports easily.

33:44Yeah. I don't know shit about cricket, but I'm interested. Me neither. Interesting. Is that the angle? No, no, no. It's not the angle. I mean, there's, um, shouts out Mangesh at Polidoscope. Can I name another podcast? Yeah, yeah, right. Yeah. So Mangesh, who did Skyline Drive, he approached me about doing a podcast on cricket and this, um, this very specific match and, um, but also the context around like India at that time. Oh, right. Um, so it's, it's like early stages, but I'm really excited to do that. And then, um, and then, uh, yeah, I might do something later on in the year on like India and like Western fashion.

34:17Oh, sick. You're a big English soccer fan too, right? Yeah. Fuck it. What's your squad? Yeah. Arsenal. Right. Arsenal. You got the, oh, you got the tattoo. Yeah. Yeah. I got, I see it. So what's it, what's it about? What's it about football that, that, that you enjoy about it? I don't know. I wasn't like into it traditionally growing up. I guess we'd play FIFA a little bit and stuff. But it was another thing that like after my father passed that I just like needed something to do. I was unemployed for a year. Gardening and planting flowers became one of them. And soccer, just having something to follow that's consistent, something that's global.

34:51And even to like I love the way that the pitch looks. And so as like a wannabe gardener, like that's beautiful. I love the buzz of the crowd, you know, if I'm like falling asleep at 8 a.m. during a match, like the soothingness of those colonial bastards fucking accents, you know, it's just like, I find it relaxing, you know? And again, like global, international, to have all these players come from all these different places and then find like unity on a team, it's like a beautiful thing. Well said. I like soccer that way too. I think it's also only like 90 minutes, two hours. You know what you're going to get.

35:27It's not like an NBA game. And it's good, like, lean back or lean forward watching, you know? Right. Are you into the NBA? I've always been into the NBA. I went to the game last night to see the Knicks lose to the Wizards. I've always been into the Knicks losing. Yeah, Knicks are not. I'm a Nets fan. That's my team, so that's all. We're going to begin it. You've been a Nets fan? Yeah, I haven't since they moved to Brooklyn, like, since in 12, so 13 years or 11 years, yeah. You know, we were trapped in the house during COVID like everyone else, but my mom and I went to the game two, Atlanta Hawks versus the Knicks, when the Knicks were in the playoffs.

35:57Yeah. And just the crowd buzz outside MSG was just insane. That will be the series that they'll always live up. Yeah, for now. Sorry, we didn't mean to get into sports with this podcast. But I did have some good birria tacos and nachos at the garden last night that was surprisingly good. Wait, really? Yeah, and like fresh off the grill, birria. Los taco? Is that who's doing it? I can't even fucking remember. But I know that I've been there a lot the last year or two. I do like going to the garden, and, like, the food has never been anything worth noting. And, like, I did enjoy what I had last night.

36:31Back to New York City, give me three classics, places that you keep going back to time and again, having been raised here. Depending, doesn't matter if you have money in your pocket or not, but maybe if it does, if you have money in your pocket, it's where you're going. Do you have a couple classics? Singa's Famous Pizza. Interesting. Indians have loved Singa's Famous Pizza for like 40 years. There was one in Flushing. And back before modern times, Indians still lived in Flushing. And now I think it's mostly the Chinese folk stayed and the Indians would move to Belrose Floral Park. Then the Indians would move down to Hicksville and then along to Dick's Hills is like the way that it goes.

37:12So Singa's Famous Pizza. And then I think a guy got the Ecuadorian guy who made the pizza and they opened up Belrose Famous Pizza. And Belrose is like, you know, I grew up as a baby in Flushing and always went back to see my grandma and go to the temple. But Belrose is where I really grew up in my adolescence was. Well, it makes the pie good. Like what's happening here with this pie? I have no idea why. I think it might be the like 12-inch personal pie size. It's nice to have your own. Yeah. It's nice. Yeah. Just onions and green peppers. And they started putting like chicken tikka and paneer on it.

37:50And we're like, no, no, no. We don't want any. We just want. You just go straight. Yeah. Vegetarian. Nice. I love that. I still go to Jackson Diner in Jackson Heights. And I remember when it was a small daba with the steel plates and before it moved to like the bigger location and like the Clintons ate there. It was like a moment that I remember. So, you know, I last went there with like Riz for like an interview with the New Yorker. And, you know, and I haven't been there in ages because I like more of like the kebabish. It was like the one place in Queens that everyone wrote about in 1999. Right.

38:27It's like Jackson Diner, the one place. Right. Almost to the point where I'm like, I don't want to separate. No. I mean, it's still decent food. Cool place. All that shit on the ceiling. Yeah. But I think it's because I had this childhood memory of going there when it was just like a very small shop. And that pizzeria on the corner on 74th, that's been there since I was a little kid. You know, it's a bit of nostalgia with Jackson Heights. And I lived there for like two years. Any Brooklyn places? I don't mean to put a neighborhood in your mouth, but I want to, you know. Yeah, got to diversify my— I feel like you have a very interesting and dynamic background in New York growing up here in cool areas.

39:11Yeah, we didn't go to Brooklyn that much growing up. And like Manhattan, oh, I mean, like as a family, my family likes Bukhara in Manhattan. Yeah, definitely. And I don't know if it's because it's popular in India. It's like there's one in India or I don't know if there's more. You know, I haven't been to Diner or Marlowe and Sons, but my years living in Williamsburg, I like those places a good amount you know but I can't separate like growing up from like what I like now so definitely Jackson Diner and Singa's Famous Pizza are like the two that I would take growing up Did you ever hang at the light spots in the East Village the two Punjabi spots those with the lights No I mean Punjabi Deli I gotta mention too because I love Punjabi Deli going to shows at Mercury Lounge going across the street for the samosa and Chole Bhatture.

40:03And then they were in some tough place financially, and then they never cleared the construction that was ongoing for years and years in front of Punjabi Delhi. So me and a friend of mine, Ali Najmi, petitioned the city to speed up the construction and to get a taxi stand around the corner on Avenue A. So that was a thing on the organizing and activism side that I'm really proud of, is that we were able to get a taxi stand so the guys wouldn't get tickets while they go in there to use the bathroom. Yeah. Damn. It's crazy that you have to petition for that in New York City. Yeah. It's crazy that you actually had to take that step and go to the city council and say, let these guys have a bathroom break.

40:45Yeah, Ali Najmi, man, great guy. Yeah. He definitely knew how to do that more than me. I could raise awareness about it and get in publications, but he did the groundwork, yeah. A combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. Can you walk on the side of the street with one of those anymore? You know what? I was thinking about this the other day. First off, I fuck with Taco Bell, right? Sure. Who doesn't? It's the best. There's like, I've been recording in Hicksville. I met this guy at my cousin niece's first birthday, and he's like, I got a studio. And I'm like, this is great. It's five minutes from me.

41:14And there's two Taco Bells on the way home. And I try not to eat it. I've been trying to eat healthier and stuff on my little diet. And I passed the first one, and I'm like, I'm staying strong. But then by the second one, no, I can't do it. Can't do it. You're just like, you're going to the drive-thru. Yeah, and then, like, I make it like, oh, I'm getting the bean Mexican pizza for my mom. You know, and then I get my little Chipotle chicken. It's a good son. You're picking up some Taco Bell for your mom. Indian people love the fucking bean Mexican pizza. There's a lot of fast food as vegetarians didn't do it for us.

41:48You know, it's not my personality. There's a lot of Indian people whose, like, personality is like, oh, don't get rid of the bean pizza. No, I don't give a shit if they get rid of it. But my dad liked that shit, so it's nice for me and my mom to eat that. And then, you know what? I actually fuck with Pizza Hut. Like, I wouldn't have said this the last 10 years, but I'm confident in, like, my poor taste in food. Like, Pizza Hut's got that salty fucking cheesy shit you like. Never fuck with Domino's. Don't fuck with Papa John's. They're racist. Yeah. Horrible racist company. Do not. Caesars, not bad.

42:18I'm from Michigan, so I got to respect Caesars. Caesars, not bad. Crazy bread, not bad. They got the saltiness, too. I like that little saltiness. The Salty is good. I mean, that song is going to be in the Library of Congress if it isn't already. That song is a silly song. But what it did was it brought awareness to hybrid two. Two is better than one for restaurants. Americans just love as much shit as they can get, you know. Did you write that one about the 14th Street one, the one on Union Square? I feel that's the one I always like passed and was like, am I going to go? Am I? You know, I think I've talked about this, but it was a line that was in one of Victor's songs that he wrote.

42:55And then I was kind of like me being like the A &R marketing guy was kind of like, let's make this its own song. And so I think he did write it about that one. And then me mentioning Jamaica Avenue, I had no idea that there was actually a Pizza Hut Taco Bell on Jamaica Avenue. It's just near where I grew up. So I just I just threw that in there. And then so there's a lot of serendipity with that one. Yeah. And we recorded that on one mic moving back and forth. Like, yeah, you know, because it was just you can hear it very spur of the moment. I mean, a single lyric and the way you can sell it is like it's a very difficult song to pull off.

43:26Production wise, it's tight. It's a great song. What do you think of like food being so prominent in rap music? And like it's always kind of been like that. But I mean, there's it's I guess people are more aware of it now. But like rap music as folk music, rap music as as documenting the mundane. Like it's still to me, it's went to Carvel and got a milkshake. That's the first food line that I ever knew in rap right there. Fife Dog like that guy that is the rap song that started it for me and I think New York City and rap has a cool connection with food because regional food in rap is always interesting I don't necessarily dig the rapper food personality hybrid shit like not gonna name names but like I just don't like when they aren't all in like yourself like you're all in like you clearly care about the shit and you you actually have ideas but when it's just like the guy with the mention of the song i don't dig that as much there's a aspirationalism to like rapping about food now and and like i guess some of what you know like the obviously like rappers like love like the mafioso shit and so i love like the italian references very true good point i think the italian reference is always going to be in rap and always you know it's like it's are you rapping about getting a table at nobu or are you rapping about like picking up like a chopped cheese from the bodega.

44:48So I think that for me, it's more like the mundane daily life reference to eating that I like more than the, I got a reservation at this place kind of thing. Good point. I agree. I think, you know, any sign of vocabulary and knowledge and education in rap is cool. Like, I'm very down on, like, I mean, drill is, is this, is a scene. I'm too old to talk about drill, I don't think those guys are necessarily talking about like like like deep food cuts like I haven't you know am I wrong like let's go like is there a drill rapper who has a good food vocabulary oh I can't remember his name but there was a dude who had a song that was all about this one place in Brooklyn where he would eat and they are known to like give you takeaway cups of like alcohol so it's again going to be like the nutcracker not a nutcracker or something else but I think it was called Apollo's but but no there there isn't that but i was thinking today about lemonade was a popular drink and it still is yeah and it's just like what like it's like that's great like but i was thinking about like did you know that song was gonna be so big because it's just such a like mundane kind of line yeah like i love it yeah it's it's when you i think back to regional like when you when you bring in like your city that you represent on your shirt that you're rapping you know it's like your vibe if you're talking about atlanta or talking about houston and there's like a cool like nifa's a navigation if you're rapping about neemphasa navigation in houston i'm sure like paul wall i feel like paul wall rapped about neemphasa or like roscoe's in la or like when yeah i like that i mean snoop did a little bit of that you know his early albums i feel he has a little bit but i love there's probably more references to food and like rap music than any other genre because you got so many words that you got to put in the song and then because you're repping your neighborhood and because you're talking about the mundane i think often like yeah i mean you gotta eat three three times a day, sometimes six.

46:41You got to do three verses, boom. You got it. You know? Heems, we asked all guests in the Taste podcast, if you could write a cookbook or food culture book without the burden of time, meaning you have no deadline of the burden of budget, you have all the money in the world, what would that book be? Yeah, right. So I've thought about this before. I've had like a conversation or two about it, actually. I'm an ideas guy. I'm not an execution guy, but, you know. Those are the best. Straight up, you hire people to execute. For real, the ideas are hard to come by. I think this year I'll get there. But the idea I had was, again, about like diaspora, Indian history, to have some of my friends that work in food, fashion, film, art, to share a recipe from their mother and to document a conversation between them and their parent about the recipe.

47:25So it would be home Indian cooking, but through the lens of like these people that have done a lot for visibility, but then bringing it back to their family and like what their, you know, family's favorite kind of recipe you wouldn't think of is. But also like where did you go to buy those spices in 1993? What was it like when there were an Indian grocery stores? Like would you have to go to the Latino shop to get one thing and then go to the American shop to get another? And so just kind of like documenting history through like those recipes. I love that. I think that it taps into something that we don't cover in food media as much, which is the before.

48:03Like the before sometimes is like the beginning of a book. Like then you go to the modern. But if you always are dwelling in the before, I like that. It's cool. Yeah. And I think it's just, again, like about like food as documenting history, which is always like where everything kind of begins. Are you going to get that Taco Bell check? Is that going to happen? The only check I ever got associated with Taco Bell was that there was like a show in Korea where the promoter got Taco Bell's like first like Korean shop to pay some money. And there was a fire on the stage. So I guess like, you know, the gods weren't with it.

48:36They weren't. But you got paid in real currency, not like Taco Bell dollars. No, we got paid in real currency and we ate some good barbecue on that trip. Yeah, Korean barbecue. Heems, thank you for joining the Taste Podcast. Yo, thank you so much. This is great, man.

48:58James Harris, welcome to the Taste Podcast. Thank you. Man, I like Throwing Fits. I'm a fan. I enjoy what you guys do. Thank you. For our listeners who don't know, I want to get a little into what Throwing Fits is. It's not just a podcast. It's an online community. You do Patreon and all that stuff. But really, I like it. I'm not really a menswear guy. I wear clothing during the day. I would hope so. Yeah, definitely. I try to. Call an HR a taste, if not. Yeah, it would be an issue here at Penguin House. But I'm, you know, I follow it as much as I want to. But I also think what you and your co-host Larry do is you talk about New York City and L.A.

49:33as places. And food always seems to come into conversation. Yeah. I mean, ostensibly, it's a fashion podcast. But, like, you can only talk about clothes for so long, especially with other people that maybe aren't as obsessed with it as we are. So that's kind of like the portal entry point into just the larger conversations that we're having with like interesting people or the conversations we're having with ourselves. And like the joke is that it's a visual art form on an audio medium. So like we can't really talk about clothes or like the color blue for that much. You're wearing a lot of blue right now.

50:04I'm wearing a lot of blue. It's a blue story. Yeah. But yeah. So it's a weekly interview podcast and then we have our own shit. and then we were like trying to do other things. In IRL stuff, making her on clothing for the first time, which is an insane challenge and has made me really appreciate how hard it is to make good quality clothing that you actually like - It's cool that you actually do it. So you can't like clown on bad brands as much. Yeah. Well, it's not the critic that counts. It's the man in the arena. So yeah, well said. Have you ever done food collabs? Like have you like pitched like Sweetgreen, like doing a collab or any of that stuff?

50:39One of our ongoing dream partnerships for a brand that just needs to give us a ton of money to do it is to partner up with restaurants that we really fuck with and go to frequently enough and we shout them out enough where people will literally go there and be like, hey, I learned about this restaurant and throwing fits. Yeah, like Bernie's for example. Bernie's. You gotta have a house account at Bernie's by now. They do call me the mayor there, or Lawrence called me the mayor there. Shout out Oliver and Rachel, the two maitre d's and managers. So you're getting like a booth, you're getting like escorted in like cutting the line, Cedar Pen style.

51:10I prefer the best seat in any restaurant is the corner of the bar. Just the best people watching. You get to chill with the bartender. You mean like no backspin, no one behind you. Basically, you can look forward. Yeah, it's the best people watching. You can actually watch the people at the bar itself. And then Bernie's, it's a nook, which actually I don't know if you know this, but it's the opening. It's where they shot the very opening scene in The Departed. Yeah. Before it was Bernie's, but it was like a pizza spot. Yep, yep, yep. That was pretty mid. Yeah, there was some mid spots in Greenpoint.

51:37But Greenpoint in general where you are located and a lot of your show and your Instagram is based around Greenpoint. It's a great restaurant neighborhood. I was kind of prepping a little bit just because I didn't want to sound like an asshole. Like, all right, what are my top three spots? I'm realizing that I don't really leave my little bubble of Greenpoint, North Williamsburg. Yeah. Which is maybe something I should work on. Yeah. Is Cool World good? I haven't been there. What's the hot take? Okay. Terrible name. I mean, it's kind of not great. Decent Brunch. Cool. All right. I like that. a beef au jus sandwich, but with a pho broth dip.

52:10Sounds like a French dip. Yeah, but with like kind of like pho flavors in it. The first time I went, I wasn't really a fan. The second time I went was with all the fellas, the freelancers, our groms, as we call them. Lawrence and I took them out to Cool World, and we got the off-menu fried chicken, which is fire. Yeah. And that was just like a fun, fun like group time. What's crazy, though, is that like no shots at five leaves, but I was having brunch there in the window and it was pretty empty. And it was like, we walked right in, no reservation or anything, which is rare in New York now. And, uh, people were waiting outside five leaves.

52:44Like we sat down and when we left, people were still waiting that we'd seen like pull up, like when that were waiting when we pulled up. So they're like doing real quotes because you know, like there's the fake quote and the real quote, but they're doing like real quotes, like three hour wait, two hour wait. I think it's just like on some like some European, like must hit list or something. I mean, five leaves is good. and I'll go there and get a fucking bowl of beans every once in a while. Sounds great. I haven't been there since, like, they opened. It's been a minute. They're still doing crazy business, and they're still doing egg and beet on the burger.

53:11Did you go to D &D ever? That was my spot for a while. Yeah, it's also, I mean, this is kind of like my take on reservation culture is so fucking out of control. It's so hard to walk in to a, quote, unquote, regular restaurant in certain neighborhoods, right, in certain neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Manhattan. James, we talk about it a lot on the show. We talk to John Bonet, who runs Rezzy's editorial, and we've spoken with editors at Eater about it, too. I'm not just imagining this, right? No, you are not imagining this. Some of the toughest cultural, I would say, cultural tokens or cultural indicators are the restaurant reservation right now, meaning the most coveted when you say toughest.

53:53Well, yeah, and everyone wants to get in there and put it on their fucking IG story, make a TikTok. But it's crazy. Like the worst thing is when people are you walk in and like, oh, sorry, it's all reservations. You know, even at the bar, they're doing reservations for bar seats, which is absurd. Yeah. I hate it. I mean, it's tough. I think on the flip for the restaurant operator, you know, they got to like space out the flow sometimes like their kitchens get crushed. They don't have the staff. That's like the flip side. All right. You're saying you're saying some truth. So I think a lot of people are frustrated by the restaurant reservation.

54:22Why? Go to the small guys. Go to Chinatown. Go to places you can walk in. Yeah, for sure. But they're not as cool. Yeah. I mean, they're just as tasty, but it's also just like, even like neighborhood spots are tough to just walk in. But that's why Cool World is kind of this weird anomaly, because it is like a, no pun intended, cool restaurant, but you can kind of walk in. Name's tough. Yeah. It's a tough hang. Tough hang. Okay, Dr. Taco, that is your Instagram handle. What's the story? Is it a culinary reference or something else? It's actually, okay, so I lived in Thailand for a year near Chiang Mai.

54:52Sweet. Just after college, no job, no idea what I wanted to do. You fuck with Muay Thai? You box? I did a little Muay Thai, and it was truly in some old man's backyard where there's chickens running around, and the real guys are getting their shins beaten with metal rods, and we were just like, ugh, now we have great cardio. Yeah, right. Getting shredded here. Yeah. I mean, it was fucking tough, and I would love to get back into it, but I feel like every Muay Thai place in New York, people are actually training to fight. Yeah. Which I don't really want to do. No. You want to just hang. So tell me about Thailand.

55:22So I lived in Thailand and there's a potato chip brand called Dr. Taco, which I thought was hilarious. And it was pretty tasty. When I got back to New York and I actually started up the first, started up an internship where I first met my now Throwing Fitz co-host Lawrence. He was like, yo, you should get on Twitter. I'm like, what? I was like, this is fucking stupid. All right. I don't need like a real name like James Harris or whatever. So I just did Dr. underscore Taco MD. Okay. Became known as Dr. Taco, Doc Talk, Taco, whatever. Yeah. And then Instagram came around and I just kept going. And people think it's like a sex thing.

55:57Yeah. It's a potato chip thing. Exactly. I like that. Even better. I like that even better. Do you ever get these chips in mail order style? Do you ever get them? Like the Dr. Chopper chips? Yeah, yeah. No. This was like literally 14 years ago. Wow. I don't even know if that chip ran into so bad. It's probably out of business. All right. I want to ask you about the men's wear fashion crowd. Like where are they hanging out? Where are you hanging out right now in Brooklyn and the city? I think Finnelli's is still ground zero. So Finnelli's is still ground zero. Finnelli's is still the one. Wow. It's a joke.

56:26Like, if you want to, the stop and chats are fucking rampant there. Is it over Lucian? Yeah, I'm not really a Lucian fan because, like, again, it's just too hard to get in. The food is kind of whatever. The vibe, I guess, is great. But that's probably more like art crowd. Okay. I like the parsing of the crowds. It's nice to hear this. Yeah. It's really articulate. of it. I think right around here Rock Center is still trying to become a fucking thing and good luck. I'm not trying to pay$25 for some little snails or anything. Monkey Bar is a reopening, I heard. I think it's open now. I don't know what's happening.

57:01There's a roller skate rink instead of the ice skating rink now. I don't know what's going on. It's been minutes since I've been up here. Where do you like to hang then in New York? I'm going to get into some top threes because I really want to get into some of your brain.

57:14I mentioned this, but I'm not really leaving my little bubble, which I like. It's like this kind of off near like McGulrick, between McCarran and McGulrick on like this like, I guess, eastern side of Greenpoint, which is off like the Franklin Ave Crazy Strip, which is now just Takiyo Ramirez lines down the fucking block. It's crazy to see Ramirez have such long lines. Dude. It's good stuff, though. It's really good. Yeah. It's the closest Taco New York without going like deep into Brooklyn or Queens that I've had that tastes similar to something in Mexico City. Yeah. But the lines, It's tough.

57:46It's just. Lines are a real crush. And now after the, they were like number, I don't know what they were on that New York Times 100 best restaurant in New York. Top 20, I think. The lines are always like to the corner. Now they wrap around the corner and go down the block to the next corner. Damn. Pete Wells actually, I think he did a good job with that list. Did you actually dive into it a little bit? I skimmed it. Yeah, yeah. I didn't really sit down with it. I really want to go to the, I have been really wanting to go to the number one one. Yeah. And like link, I guess another fucking town one.

58:13Absolutely Tatiana by Kwame Nwashi. Yeah, it looks so, so good. But now I'm not even going to try. No, it's a tough reservation. I'm sure you could get in, though. Now, what places are super out? Because I think you follow, like, the trends and the way the ebb and flow of restaurants and bars and stuff. I don't know. I don't really – this was, like, a good exercise just prepping for this because I don't really – I don't know if I really, like, chase, like, what's hot and what's not. But just, like, I'll just love a single dish at a place. and like as a, my OCD will just like make me go back there frequently just to get that one thing.

58:45Mm-hmm. I'm really sick and tired of like very expensive overpriced French brasserie. Yeah. Classic fucking like steamed fish with a cream sauce. Yeah. Yeah, for like 48. Exactly. I'd rather just get like, I miss just like, I don't know, like really spicy Vietnamese food or something. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, New York, there's some spot. I mean Koreatown's got – I went to a place last night that was literally on fire. So I think Spice is nice. Now I have to ask like Balthazar. Like it's a theme on your show. You guys go there with your gang, with your crew. Are you into Balthazar? Let's be honest here.

59:22Not the food. I think like New York has a ton of places where the vibes are on 10. Yeah. But the food is like pretty fucking mid. Yeah. And I think Balthazar is right there where it's like you're going to have a great time. The lighting is great. Everyone looks good. Everyone's getting fit off. But at this point also, it's, again, just such a tourist place. There's, like, TikTok girlies. There's the people that are going there because they saw it on TikTok. Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of content being created within those walls. On that zinc bar. Yeah. Lots of, like, stands and phones being set up.

59:52I mean, the amount of selfie sticks and even tripods at Balthazar is crazy. But, like, the burger's fine. Burger's good. I don't know. French onion's good. Seafood tower's overpriced. Yeah. Yeah. And like just grabbing a drink there with some friends and like maybe getting a fucking bowl of fries or something is good. But for a whole meal, it's just like very mid food. But the vibes are just very high. New York is chock full of that. What's up with jeans? Alex Delaney has been on the show. I hear about jeans. I haven't been yet. Is the food there good or is it just a club? I don't know if the restaurant's open.

1:00:24Oh, it's not even open. It's not even open. Shout out Benny and Ash. But like I don't know. I think now there's just a bit where they're like, oh, jeans not open yet. It's like, all right. It's just a club space. It's just a club. It's fair. It's a good, nice space, good location. Alex and Giavos, when they do love club, it's a lot of fun. Yeah, shout out Richmond, Virginia. I like that. Yeah. I like that Giavos guy. But I would love, he's awesome. You should have him on the show. Yeah. He has a few restaurants. He has Stella's in Richmond, which looks phenomenal. I think he has one in Charleston as well.

1:00:55My sister-in-law, Maya, runs a spot named Dinamo down in Richmond. So I have nothing but love for that town. It's like a little gem of a food town, right? Yeah. All right, we're going to do our first top three. Okay. Top three slices. Let's just go. Okay. This is hard because my number one, just based off memory, was this place called Frank's on 22nd and 1st. No longer there. It's probably a fucking bank or a subway or something. Into the retro, maybe not open list. It's a good way to do it. It was just like greasy New York slice. It was$1.50 a slice. But right now it's Leo's. Yep. Or just, sorry, just Leo.

1:01:29Yeah. Shout out to Joey. I think their potato pie is phenomenal. and their chopped salad and beans. Another place that's like rarity where the food matches the vibes. You can have a great time there. It's loud. It's buzzing. Great wine. Great beer. Great pies. So Leo. I would say Scars just because just recency bias. Just had Nick's watch party in the back there. Oh, in that little back space? That's kind of a restaurant but never really one? Which is just a lot of fun. Hugo, this guy, the brand director at Awake New York. He just invited some friends and was passing out Presidentes. And it just felt like a, like, I don't know, like experience you can't really get anywhere.

1:02:09Yeah, I mean, that back room and the way he like art directs it, it's definitely scars. You got to give that guy scars some credit for like creating this mood. Is the restaurant open next door yet? It's across the street. I don't think it's open yet. I think that they're still working on it. But from what I hear, it sounds like it's going to be pretty, a pretty cool, like kind of one-two combo. Yeah. Howard Sushi, is that true? Japanese? I don't know. Have a scar on. We're doing Plywood Report here, James. We're doing Plywood Report back at Eater 2010. Shout out. And then I was, I don't know. See, like, I'm not a pizza snob, so I was kind of struggling with this one.

1:02:48But the last time where I, like, traveled to a different neighborhood to get a slice was probably Mama 2's on the Upper West Side. So fucking good. Applause, applause. I love that place. I think their Pomodoro slice is one of the top. Yeah, I think I only had the Grandma slices. Grandma slices up there. Great call, James. I knew you'd come with some spots. Thank you, thank you. Have you ever met a chef who actually dresses well? Matty Matheson. Not just for a chef, but for a big boy, for a big dog. Yeah. He puts that motherfucking shit on. Yeah. Whether it's like the vintage, thrash vintage tees and gigantic vintage Carhartts.

1:03:23Carhartt or like he's been doing his suit shit now that he's on the red carpet for the bear. Yeah. And everything. He's been getting his suit on and he looks fantastic. He looks great. And he's got great ink. I mean, he looks nice. Yeah. Like his arms, he looks nice. And just the funniest guy. And then I would say Flynn McGarry of Jem. I can't afford Jem. Flynn. Former guest. I can't afford Jem. I went once and was like, all right, I need to fucking. Jem Wine. You go to Jem Wine at least. I can't get in. Okay. It's another one of these like TikTok places where I think now they're finally open on the weekends.

1:03:49Yeah. But maybe when like outdoor seating opens back up this summer, which is actually exciting just because it means like more opportunities to like go to places. Yeah. Maybe I'll give it a shot. But like it's another one of these places where I'm just like I'm not going to wait an hour and a half to have a glass of wine. I know. So what's the Throwing Fitz line on Dime Square? I don't know. It's like it's a fun. It's just white Chinatown. Like it's a funny. It's a funny little phenomenon. I really like Servo's. I think Servo's is still like one of my favorite restaurants. I always say that when we talk about Dimes Square with other guests, Servos is always, and Dimes 2 is actually a good restaurant too.

1:04:23Yeah. Oh, you pause. I love it, James. You pause. I've been there a few times and never really was like super blown away. Probably because like an ex-girlfriend was always taking me there and I was just like, all right, like this is okay. Restaurants are like that. They have connection to people and you just don't want to be able to. But it's like sitting outside drinking a 50-50 Servos martini and some fucking fried prawn heads, like sopping that butter sauce up with that bread. when you're sitting outside and the sun's setting and it's like hit it's going like straight down Canal Street it's a great fucking time yeah I really want to try the new Parcell beer shop too yeah the retail down there is great I mean not just not just for food obviously but there's like stores there's like a store there's like great vintage leisure center leisure center of course street rack Chad just wheels out a rack on the weekends yep and right outside Ladive and he'll just like have awesome stuff yeah and it's just like a good it's a good little area to just like bop around for an afternoon you know yeah absolutely I mean it's good for out-of-towners too we have a lot of out-of-towners who listen to the show just to come by and hang out down there yeah in terms of like the dime square like lore i'm not really that tapped into like all the newsletters and all the fucking yeah burner accounts and all that shit so i don't yeah i don't i don't really well like that i like that about you you obviously have a real strong point of view with food but you definitely aren't like food media or like nerding out on that shit like you definitely have your own point of view yeah yeah i mean it's just like just eat what you like I don't know.

1:05:44Agree. I want to get into your background. Did you have Japanese food in your home growing up? Not really. I think because my mom's Japanese, grew up in New York City, and like obviously there's like tons of great Japanese here. Yeah. But I don't know. She like always thought that American food is so oily and greasy and heavy. So when she was cooking for us when we were kids, I think she like kind of pared back on that. And then I was lucky enough every summer to travel, my whole family would travel to Japan and like hang out with the family there for like a week. And so that was really cool. Amazing.

1:06:15Cool. Yeah, to like eat fucking sushi as a seven-year-old and like appreciate it or eat a fucking 7-Eleven ramen and be like, oh my God, this is phenomenal. Why don't we have it over breakfast? Having eel for breakfast. Do you ever have eel for breakfast? Eel for breakfast. My uncle one time came back. He just like caught a fish and came back and just like we had sashimi with wasabi just like on the fucking kitchen table that he just caught. So that was cool. That's cool. So where did you grow up? I grew up in Stuy Town. Oh, Stuy Town. Peter Cooper. Yeah, Peter Cooper Village. Yeah. So when you were growing up, did you go to school, high school here too?

1:06:49Yeah, I went to Stuyvesant. Oh, name check. There you go. You went to the down. It's funny. Do you know school with Ryan Muir? Yeah. Photographer? Yeah, yes. I think so. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm putting you on the spot. Do you know Ryan Muir? I don't know that many people from high school, but yeah. And the Industriese's guys. Yeah, yeah. Heems, Dash. Yeah, definitely. Manchu just had his fake going away party. He's in L.A. now? No, he's staying in New York, but he had a going away party because he was going to move to L.A. He's like, actually, I changed my mind. I'm going to stay in New York, but I am going to go to India for three weeks.

1:07:21He's over in India now, just chilling. That's a great episode. I'll link it in the show notes, Heems, on the Taste Podcast. Now, so growing up in New York, okay, this is even a broader question. Were there any Japanese spots that you were going to with your family in New York? Yeah, there was a spot called Choshi on 19th and Irving. Are you serious? Do you know it? Uh, yes. So fucking good. My God. Before Irving Plaza shows, I used to always go to there. Yeah. Yeah. And like weirdly affordable for where it is. Oh my. I don't know. I guess like I had a job working at Sunrise Mart one summer. Nice.

1:07:53I was a delivery van driver, which was awesome because I got paid by the hour, but I wasn't supervised. So if I finished all my deliveries, people would call in over the phone, grocery orders. I would pack up the van, drive around Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, drop these off. Mostly like Japanese families. Yeah. And then if I got done, I would just fucking find a quiet street park, take a nap for an hour. Yeah. Make an extra 16 bucks. It's the best. Yeah. Sleeping, get paid to sleep. I definitely had jobs in my past. Yeah, I got towed once, but the owner of Sunrise Mart, I forget his name, but he's a legend.

1:08:30He was like, the policy was like, you got to pay for it. He's like, don't worry, I got you. Oh, that's nice. That's generous of him. Now, let me ask you this. Growing up and going to all those spots in like little Japan in the East Village, I feel like Sunrise Mart was almost like Erwan before Erwan was Erwan. And they like kind of missed the boat. They could have been Erwan. Yeah, I think, but what's cool is that the guy was like, he still has Sunrise Mart in Industry City now. Oh, cool. He's just kind of like, yeah, I don't want to like spread my time. I'm like 70 something. I'm just going to retire and chill.

1:09:01I forget his name, but he's just kind of a legend. And like quietly was like the Don of like little Japan on like East 9th Street. Yeah. All the little places on St. Mark's. Oh, another funny growing up in New York Japanese story. Went to Nobu for the first time. I have a rich eccentric uncle. Yeah. We like to take out my family when he was in New York when we were kids. And we went to Nobu, and we're, like, fucking eating the, you know, black cod. Black cod, yeah. So whatever. My mom is like, hey, my Japanese mom, she's like, do you have any white rice that I can just have, like, a side of with, like, all this, like, salty-ass food?

1:09:32And they're like, uh, no, we don't. And she's like, but this is a Japanese restaurant, right? So whatever. Shout out Nobu. That's funny that they would not even do that. They wouldn't serve you. Were you sitting next to anybody? Anybody big there at Nobu back in the day? No, but my eccentric uncle ordered some fucking expensive scotch. And I apologize to the producers and listeners for doing this. But he was like, he took a sip. He just goes, and everyone in Nobu just like looks over at us. Like we're the crazy people. And then later on, they couldn't find my dad's coat. And my uncle, it was for my dad's birthday.

1:10:05My uncle had bought him a headlamp for like doing shit around the I don't know what. I don't know what. And so he puts on the headlamp and is going through everyone's, like, minks and, like, fucking, like, overcoats. This is the eccentric uncle. This is the eccentric uncle. He's standing on a chair. He's, like, pawing through everyone's, you know, multi-thousand-dollar overcoats and furs with a headlamp on. I love this guy. Is he still here? Is he still in your family? Yeah, he's still kicking it out in Seattle. But now he's, like, a big, like, a prepper guy. Oh, he's a prepper guy. I was going to say crypto, but probably prepper is more accurate.

1:10:35But what's crazy is his, him and his wife, his wife was a nurse and she was a nurse and doctor here. She was a pistameleologist, I believe, during like the AIDS epidemic in New York. So when she saw that shit happening in China in like January 2020, she sends an email that we're all just like, she's overreacting. It was so prescient. And like, it was so like, yo, stock up on toilet paper, medicine, prescription pills that you're going to need. This is like, this looks like the big one. Wow. And then we were like, oh, whatever. Did you actually buy the toilet paper? No, I fucked up. All right. Now, you worked at Complex.

1:11:10I wonder, did you cross over with First We Feast and Chris and those guys? Yeah. I feel like with Hot Ones coming out of First We Feast, what a miraculous story. What a great, I love Chris. He's such a great guy. Yeah. And still the same dude he was before the ship went nuts. But I was friends with Sean Evans. I actually was one of the, he was a freelancer for a lot of channels, mostly sports but he would do some stuff for complex style which i oversaw yeah just like more like jokey stuff and we became friends he's like yo i think they're like offering me this position i was like yeah come to new york bro like wow come do it wow no he was still in chicago wow and then this i mean sean is like the goaded interviewer and like the amount of research they do is nuts and second to none but uh at the time lawrence and i actually had a youtube show called fashion bros where the whole ethos was we'd have on a guest and kind of ask them like left field questions which now is like pretty standard but back then it wasn't like hey migos like what's your inspiration for the next album it's like yo how much weed do you smoke yeah yeah what's on your netflix um and it would like kind of actually elicit like human responses not just like well i love your show throwing fits you do i mean it's that that's why it's so great like you guys just go in and you do some research but you also just have great on your feet style thank you but sean and i we used to be uh f train buddies we take the f train home together nice and he was like yeah like the show like I don't really know if like asking people questions and I was like yo just ask crazy questions like don't ask the questions that everyone else is asking ask the questions that you as a person actually would want to know and then like you'll actually connect with them and get it out of them and now like I'm not you get producer credit here James I mean I feel like there's some like producer credit John is just the homie the last time we hung out it was like he invited us uh to his crib for like a fight night yeah ordered like an insane amount of maria takeout yeah so wait that's funny that's probably more maria takeout the amount of maria that's like too large probably well the amount of maria takeout probably exceeds the monetary value of whatever i would have gotten as a producer oh sean i mean i they deserve it all those guys worked their ass off for many years chris and the team yeah justin all those guys yeah definitely all right next top three top three spots just for like a good drink with a friend that has a vibe that you just want to feel the vibe.

1:13:29Oh, man. First up, I think, is A-Bar. You know this place? Yeah. It used to be called No Name Bar. Yeah. My brother-in-law owns that spot. Are you serious? Like, for real, yeah, yeah. Dude, the place is awesome. I say above it, yeah. It's a fucking hole. It's a shithole, which is what I love about it. It's a great bar. But it's also, like, weirdly classy and, like, well done. It's just, like, dark wood. But it's all just metal guys, like, crazy fucking face tattoos. Yep. Sounds about right. Never crowded, which is great, but always a good amount of people. so there's always like a little bit of buzz but you can always just walk in and get a fucking bud um love that place especially in the summer because it's like a cool little yeah backyard it's great and yeah and i hear i hear through the family grapevine through the family group text text maybe there'll be some food in the backyard it's being worked on i think they've i think i've had like a pretty sketchy hot dog it's back there when they've had like pop-ups or something yeah they could improve it but i think yeah just just like okay what's the number two spot uh number two just because i walked by it today i was like oh shit i can't wait to like started hanging out here is the lot radio again kind of just my like north green north williamsburg greenpoint bubble you ever hung out there no i haven't been over there it's great uh it's just an open fucking lot that they have a shipping container where on one half of it it's just like djing and they have like a live stream radio radio online radio show just constantly going and then the other half is like beer wine sake a few like bites potato chips coffee in the mornings and then it's just this open space which is like a hodgepodge of chairs they have fire pits going it's not like twee and millennial and horny um it's a little like wild west brooklyn like back in 2005 kind of like people just smoking weed you can smoke cigs um a lot of times people just byob which is kind of funny interesting for a bar that's not the great business model but they they've like done a good job of like slowly extending out seating it's like porta potties yeah they're Building out seating on the street there.

1:15:20Do you ever go to the yard in Gowanus back in the day? It sounds similar. No, I don't think so. But yeah, it's just always a fun time and good for a big group. And also you end up just meeting people and talking to people. So it's a good spot. Okay, one more three. Yeah, one more three. Maybe. Okay, I had a few contenders. One was Commodore just because that's literally the only bar I still go to in my mid-30s. I was going to my early 20s. I remember that place opened. hasn't fucking changed and the hot breast is still still slaps it's good they were like hot chicken before hot chicken before like the meme yeah yeah for sure um good spot good choice I mean it's still dark and kind of dingy yeah so like I wanted to kind of maybe do a non-dingy spot but then I was like oh uh I was like looking around like a place I've been recently Nancy's in Tribeca just cause that's such an outlier for Tribeca yeah and it's such I only go there when we're like waiting for a table at French Head yeah so it's like alright gonna go to a overpriced fucking fancy spot let's go to Nancy's before I had to save money.

1:16:18Damn, Frenchette. That's a tough hang. That's an expensive table right there. We do business with one guy who has the bat phone there. And not that they, like, hook it up, but he'll always put it on his company plastic. So, like, we'll go. Well, it's the end of story. Yeah, that's why we're still doing business with this guy. Let's move on. I mean, yeah. And it is part of your business. And the men's world in fashion industry is all about the plastic. Exactly. And then, sorry, so then, like, a non-shithole, I would say, like, maybe Four Horsemen just because it's, like, just in the window. Again, it's one of those places where it's hard to walk in now, But if you get there early enough or an off hour, you can just sit in the window and like drink some wine.

1:16:51Yeah. Some great James is there, you know, just saying. Sure. Other James. He's been on the show. We've talked to that one. It's a that's a that's a one from a few years back. Our interview with James Murphy and the chef there who's still I'm blanking on his name. Place is excellent. Yeah. Love for us. There's another spot. Fra Day in Fort Greene. Yeah. You know it. Yeah, I do. Four Horsemen alum. Yeah. One of the best steak tartars I've ever had in my fucking life. Yeah. I didn't know if it was like how to classify it. It was like Italian or French or whatever, but it was. What? So it was tartare.

1:17:22I think egg. I think really great beef. I think capers. I think maybe shallots or light, mild onion. What it was? It had some pickled daikon on it. So it's going that route. Yeah. Cool. Which was like not in like an Asian-y way. I can say that, but I can say that. But it was just fucking like very funky and delicious. I don't know. I mean tartare when the beef is nice and it's like fatty and you can taste the beef. It's not just cold. Yeah. So nice. They named it twice. Appreciate you doing this research. You were just in L.A. I was just in L.A. We were messaging back and forth. You got stuck in going to some pretty middle-of-the-road restaurants, it sounds like.

1:18:00So my question is, L.A., where do you like to go there? First and foremost, it's a Matty Matheson recommendation is El Russo Tacos. Yes. In Echo Park. Yes. Fucking phenomenal. Yeah. I mean, wait in line. Yeah. Like, wait in line at El Russo. I've never actually experienced a line there. Even on Saturday at noon or 1 o 'clock. Which is nice. I mean, not walking right up, but I think I went there twice in one day the last time we were there. Damn. That's a lot. That's a lot of carne asada. I don't really know. It's like when we're in LA, the schedule is so fucking packed that it's like, all right, we know El Russo.

1:18:35We know it's fire. That's definitely a must hit. And then it's like in terms of driving around and experimenting with other taco spots, I would love to do that. And I'm always getting recommendations and ask people recommendations for their favorite taco spot. I'm the doctor after all. But it's just always El Russo, literally number one. And then from there, sorry, excuse me, we can't really, don't really have the time. And this past trip fucking sucked because as we kind of bring on more guests of like a higher celebrity caliber, you enter into this fugue purgatory of like nothing's confirmed.

1:19:10Yeah. They're going to be fucking late like I was today. Sorry for being on my All good, yeah Star behavior Yeah, yeah, yeah A little rock and roll there, buddy So we fly there And we're like just waiting around the hotel And we can't commit to like Going to dinner with friends We can't try out a new restaurant Or like a place we want to go to We can't drive out to a taco truck Because it's like we need to be near the hotel Near the gear At our action stations So it's just eating at the fucking hotel Oh, brutal Which is Trash So you've channeled The frustration of business travel in LA I feel like it happens to a lot of our listeners who've been there for a variety of reasons, and you just have to do the work because you're traveling there, but you can't eat the food, which is on SGV or, you know, Westside.

1:19:55I really want to try Pea Shop Palace. I was just going to say. How was it? Great. I mean, lots of great things going on there, including the owner. He's incredible, and I think you should have it on your show. He's got a lot of shit to say. Okay. Not to produce your show. Unless he shows up on time. Have you had any good Throwing Fitz food crossover episodes that we should know about? I guess Matty. Matty Matheson. He was talking about the bear before anyone knew what that was. So we were like, what are you talking about? Was he like, this show actually is going to be good? He's like, yeah, I got a show.

1:20:25We're like, what? So we didn't really have anything prepped for that. Matty was awesome. I'm trying to think who else. I think it's just like we always just end up talking food with everybody because everybody has their favorite spots. If we're in L.A., we'd be like, yo, what are the best spots in L.A. right now? if someone's, we just had on this fashion editor from Berlin and we're like, where are we going to Berlin? And she's like dropping things and it's like, alright when I do go to Berlin I'm going to listen back and take notes right now I have no fucking idea what she's talking about but I think Maddie Matheson's probably the most, and then I guess Chris Storer, the You've had him on?

1:20:59Oh nice, we've had his sister on, Courtney. Yeah, yeah. So there was definitely some food talk there with just like him being the bear and also just a food lover. Let me ask you this you're a man of tattoos and we're working on a story about bad food tattoos tell me what's the weirdest oddest strangest worst food tattoo you've seen in the wild oh man when I think of food tattoos I just think of like the stereotypical like radish oyster yeah those like super twee stick and poke ones yeah not even that but like kind of like the more traditional American ones like every tattoo era looks so dated at a certain point I know and right now like I mean the shit I have is going to look dated at some point fucking stupid.

1:21:41What are you going to do? What's the plan? Nothing. Nothing. Cover up. Keep hiding them. Yeah, keep hiding them. Get more. Lean into it. I don't know. But like the traditional American ones are like chef's knife. Like fucking a turnip. Yeah. Primals of the cow. Yeah. Exactly. Like the fucking the pork cuts. Yeah. I don't know. It's kind of this weird like whiskey and boots era of masculinity in the early 2010s. It's pretty funny. Eliza's working on Story for Taste and I'm going to link to that if it's live by the time we do that. Now, let me ask you, you guys, when you open your show, you always talk about what you're wearing, but you also talk about what you're drinking, which I appreciate.

1:22:16The fact that you're thinking about what your beverage is that we do this show many times a week and we don't actually talk about the water or the water or the water we're drinking because of the Diet Pepsi. You got so you got Pepsi, Diet Pepsi. Nice choice. What drives you to think about your beverages? I don't know. I think like during the pandemic, we were definitely boozing more on the pod. and that was kind of just a fun way of like oh like I got this wine and the wine guy at the wine store said it's just like shit from Portugal and da da da da so just like another again vino verde energy yeah just a portal of entry into a conversation and I think like with food and drink and style and how you like present yourself or how you consume there's definitely similarities and also with cooking especially I think when we talk about like what the guest I mean usually it's it's pretty boring it's like all right we're drinking tap water yeah i guess one of the seltzer yeah you get something but you go into like you know sparkling water seltzers it's to me it's not boring i think bottled water cultures is like snobby bullshit but uh it's uh i don't know i think that it's important to like kind of keep levity of like the fact that yeah like we're we're an online podcast and mainly online community but like linking up with your with the homies for like grab a drink or something is still like everything should still be rooted in the real life actuality and not just only existing online.

1:23:38Right, and just having you're talking about emojis and shit. It's like real life shit. We want Modellos with the Fellows and Buds with the Buds. Yeah, I like that. Speaking of Buds with the Buds, last top three group hang New York. Three spots. Yeah, I know. I'm putting you in a spot. You're doing a good job though. Appreciate it. I mentioned Servos. I still think that that's one of the for real go-tos. If someone's visiting that's a must hit. Although it's It's kind of hard with a big group. Yeah, so that's the question, right? So we're going six plus. Maybe resi isn't working because six plus is hard on resi, even for a Tuesday.

1:24:12I would do Hot Pot, maybe like Peking Duck, do some classics. Oh, Peking Duck House? Yeah, Peking Duck House. My favorite big group spot in Chinatown closed down during the pandemic was called Sonor. It was actually Indonesian, like a restaurant basement. Bernie's is still my number one. That credit, the house credit's really getting upped right now. Oh, yeah. These references. Oh, yeah. Great. Worth the wait, even though, again, like, the line's crazy. No, I love it. And then I guess another place that's great for a group is Astoria Seafood. Have you been there? Just, like, showing up, picking out your seafood, what you want, and it's like, all right, you want it fried, roasted, blackened.

1:24:49Like, it's pretty simple, but it's just a great fucking time with a bunch of people. And getting out to the borough, too. Outer borough? Yeah. You said Astoria Seafood? It's in Astoria Seafood, but it's, like, not, it's pretty South Astoria, so it's not too deep into Queens or anything at all. Absolutely. What are you cooking these days? Yourself. Usually pretty simple, just like salmon. Really? My doctor's like - That's like the health. My doctor told me I had high cholesterol, but I think it's because I drank coffee before my blood test. James, are you on statins yet? I started, but I went off them.

1:25:15Five MGs? I don't know. Okay. It's generic shit, because I have terrible health care. Like, what's the dose, though? Oh, I don't fucking know. Okay. Big, is it a horse pill, or is it like tiny pill? Tiny. Yeah, so you're doing like five MGs. I mean, there's a - I think so. There's a time in a man's life or a woman's life that you get on the statins. But I stopped taking them because I'm convinced, I'm pretty sure that I drank coffee before my blood test, and that's why my shit was so fucked, because I didn't know that I was taking a blood test. Oh, yeah. So I stopped, and I'm going in tomorrow morning.

1:25:40Ooh, the fast is on. I have a reminder at 7 a.m. to not make any coffee. Yeah. So I will be fasting and grumpy. Yeah. And, yeah, so it's been salmon over, like, rice with some Japanese pickles and, like, a roasted veggie. Like that. On the weekends, I'll just take kind of like whatever's left over in the fridge and do like a, just chop up whatever vegetables and make like a pasta sauce. I've been doing a lot of salad freak. Oh. Shout out Jess. Yeah, Jess, guest of the pod. She's been on the show. She's great. I'll try to make like, I guess you'd call it meal prep. Just like, all right, one for tonight, one for tomorrow.

1:26:15But I'll end up just eating both servings. I mean. It's be out of, shit out of left. It's truly the worst thing about meal prep is like, I want to go like one and a half. Yeah. And then I got half left and half doesn't work. And then I'm like, wait, I just ate two pounds of Brussels sprouts. Am I going to be okay? Because you can't stop because it's good. And it's like in the moment. I'm with you. I know what that means. And then I did get sucked into the TikTok chef abyss. Yeah. By this guy Laurent Dejeuner. Oh, wow. Do you know him? No. Yeah, the TikTok chef thing is interesting. I mean, it's definitely obviously.

1:26:45Laurent Dejeuner. Oh, there he is. There he is. Check him out. Yeah, I'll check him out. So you're actually cooking from his recipes? More just like taking a screenshot of what he posted in his caption and just kind of like figuring it out myself. But like watching it like once or twice. But he's doing it in a way that's like actually makes it look very fun. And I know that sounds incredibly corny. Nah, I follow it. Do you follow Pierce Abernathy at all? I don't really follow any food people because then I just get too fucking hungry watching like scrolling. I respect that. Yeah. James, we ask all guests on Taste Podcasts if you can write a cookbook or food culture book without the burden of time, meaning you have no deadline, or the burden of budget, meaning you have all the money in the world to create this book.

1:27:22James, what would that book be? I'm sure this has been said many, many times. But again, going back to my year in Thailand and the amount of like street food there, which is like literally just that's what you eat for every single meal. Just like going to that market or whatever, just every market or as many markets as possible throughout Thailand, the north of Thailand, Indonesia, just that whole region. and just kind of like, I don't know, I think it would be better just to have them, like, well, have them do the work. Right. Have them write out the recipes because, like, I'm not going to fucking be like, oh, and then I experienced this, like, I befriended this guy who made the best lek hang I've ever tasted and he would always give me extra fish balls and da-da-da.

1:28:07Just let him tell his story and, like, get him paid, I guess. Oh, so you're, like, altruistic and you're giving them some of the money. I would suck Random House dry by giving them as much money as the author, the American author, would get paid as well. So everyone just makes the same amount of money. Respect that, James. I appreciate it. I think the Southeast Asian cookbook is in your future. Southeast Asian, yeah, for sure. James Harris, throwing fits. Thank you for joining the Taste Podcast. Thank you.

1:28:39This is Taste is hosted by Eliza Abarbanel and me, Matt Rodbar. The show is produced by Shalia Harris and Pat Stango and edited by Clayton Gumber. Theme music by Steve Rydell. Visit Taste Online at tastecooking.com and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter for updates on all cool things that are happening.