What are some of the, like, just most incidental,
biggest surprises you've had in going different places?
Like, places that you might think
you might not have liked so much
and then it ended up, you really did,
or vice versa. Tokyo.
Tokyo, have you been? I have.
When you step off the plane in Tokyo,
you step out into the city,
it's like a giant pinball machine.
It's like, oh, my, God,
what's that square where the five roads meet the Shib...
Shibuya. Yeah.
Yeah.
You're like, oh, I think I should hide in my hotel,
like Bill Murray in the movie, right?
And 'cause you've seen the absolute sea
of humanity crossing every time the traffic,
you've seen that a hundred times, you know?
And it's intimidating.
Yeah? And when you realize there's
like a hundred of those squares-
Yeah. in that city.
Yeah. And what is the center?
What's happening?
It's a pinball machine. Yeah, yeah.
Until you have your first meal.
Yeah.
And you realize how perfect it is
and the lesson that you get rather quickly is,
oh, I can't control the outside,
but I can control the inside-
Yeah. on every level.
I take what I can control
and I make it as perfect and beautiful as possible.
Yes. That's the culture.
Yeah. And I fell in love with it.
Yeah. And I got it.
So that was the first big surprise to me.
Yeah. Because I hadn't been
to that part of the world at all.
That was the first time.
Did you like Japanese food pretty well?
Love. Yes, me too.
I love every bit of it-
But by the way, we're lucky if you like sushi.
Yeah. We're in LA.
With the best sushi towns in the world.
I don't think I had better sushi in Tokyo
than I've had at the best places here.
Yeah. I mean, we have
so many amazing-
Yeah. spots.
Yeah. Do you want to say
your favorite?
I still really like...
Well, there's some really good ones.
There's a little one...
I live in Burbank.
There's a little one in a strip mall
in Burbank called Mishiya.
Yeah. Do you know that one?
I don't. It is in the back corner
of a little strip mall,
and it is literally a mom and pop business.
I love it. A mom and pop omakase.
And you tell them, you know,
if you have any particular things you do or don't like,
bring it to me and then they feed you to your full.
And you say, okay, stop, you know.
But I mean, but there's no bus boy.
There's just the man and his wife.
And you know, and they got to close down for a month
'cause they go back to Japan, you know, it's just...
So that's like- That's great.
But as fancy went goes I still Matsuhisa in La Cienega.
First place I've ever had sushi in LA in 1989.
It's so, so fantastic, I just-
It is still great.
There's first place,
they have a crab kamameshi that we got once,
which is like a kind of, almost like a porridge,
like a clay pot- Yes.
rice thing crab in it.
And that just- Spectacular.
One of those things...
I mean like one of those dishes
that you just remember for the rest of your life, you know.
Have you been a Sushi Zo? Uh-uh.
So there's one in Cheviot Hills,
and there's one downtown now.
Okay. Spectacular.
I'll remember, yeah.
'Cause my son's, you know, my son's the one...
My son, I cannot say to my son,
hey, have you heard about this new,
you know, Congolese, rice porridge place?
And he'll be like, "yeah, yeah, yeah.
I know that, I was there".
I'm going to an Indian Italian mashup
in Silver Lake tomorrow. What? Wow.
Where like the rigatoni is in chicken masala.
Wow. Sounds good, right?
Yeah, it does sound good.
It sounds like a fridge cleaning exercise.
You know what I mean?
I hear it totally works. Yeah.
I can't see why not. Yeah.
Yeah, it's, you know, sauces on starches, you know?
Yeah, and then a curry, like sauce pizza.
Yeah. They have it.
See that's, I...
I just love that you love food so much
because I just don't understand people...
I mean, and I probably love it too much, you know,
but I just don't understand people that don't...
It's like not liking sex or something.
Yeah, it's just not used to say, oh, you don't like music?
How do you feel about colors?
Yeah. (laughing)
I just don't understand.
It's like one of the things we got to do, why not-
Enjoy it. Yeah.
Why not, like, search out every little nook.
The cranny of it to just make it interesting
and make you feel alive and make you feel like,
you know, the alpha species on earth.
Like nobody else's, you know.
Listen, selfishly, I automatically,
because I love to travel,
my favorite thing about traveling is the food I'm gonna eat.
Yeah. And I plan my trips around-
Absolutely. where I'm gonna eat.
If I hear a place doesn't have good food,
just forget the show,
just life. Yeah.
I'm not going. Right.
Because that's the main thing I want to do,
is taste that culture. Absolutely.
But then, I realized it's universal.
Yeah. It's everyone.
We all got to eat, first of all.
And I've yet to meet a culture
that hasn't told me, nobody eats like we do,
you come to our country. Right.
You're really good.
We agree-
We have the most refined palettes on earth.
Yes. We're Greek
and you don't see any space between the dishes on the table.
Yeah. Right?
Or we're Italian, you know we are gonna eat.
Oh, we're Chinese, you've never seen a banquet like this.
Oh, we're Jewish, we're gonna feed-
We're Puerto Rican.
We're- Exactly.
So who says this?
Everyone. Yeah.
So, it's when you're, especially when you're doing a scene
with people and you want to hear
about them and their culture,
the food is this great connector.
And then left are the cement.
Yeah. That's we're we fun, right?
If we share a meal and if it's good,
we're all ready a little happier
than when we came in.
And then if we laugh, now we're friends.
Right. So that's the whole thing.
Plug the new version of the show because it's-
It's called "Somebody Feed Phil", it's on Netflix.
There's five seasons out right now,
and a sixth one is coming in the fall.
And a book, correct?
The companion book with recipes
are 60 most requested recipes from around the world.
So it's gonna be one of the great cookbooks,
not because of me- Right.
but because we got the best chefs in the world
to all give us recipes.
Oh, I got to get that, yeah.
Do you cook? Not at all.
Not at all? No, and people say,
how do you have a food thing and you're...
I said, well, listen, I meet the great chefs in the world
that came out of sitcom. Right.
So we all contributed our way.
That's right. And I couldn't be
a bigger fan of theirs. Yeah.
They need me, they like me because I love them.
Right, I love to cook. Oh, good for you.
I cook, I mean- I have such respect
for anyone who can.
It's, you know, it can be almost
like a meditative thing. Yes.
And there's sometimes when I am,
not necessarily feeling down,
but just like, I don't know,
there's stress, anxiety, don't know what to do with myself,
and I'll just be like, I'm making a curry.
You know, like- Nice.
And then, you know, and then you have, you know,
I live most of my daughters
with me half the time- Yes.
but you know, so there are...
I do now, like, I will have curry then for four meals,
but you know, it's like, it's still, it's pretty good.
And you know, like curry gets even better
as you leave it in the fridge.
That's right. Yeah.
I love these foods.
The street foods, the foods that came
from necessity. Yeah.
Those are the most delicious because they have to be.
Absolutely, and what I love too, and this is something
that you see so much with shows like yours.
All this fancy schmancy you got to have this thing,
you got to have this machine, you gotta have that.
Some of the best food in the world is made by people
that cut things on their thumb-
That's right. with a knife
that's 60 years old. Yeah.
And they cook it in basically
an aluminum bucket. Yeah.
You know, it's like, you don't need fancy stuff
to make delicious food.
You can have any, you know...
That like I say, the best cooks in the world
are cooking on the cheapest stuff
that you get at the dollar store.
A dollar is what a bowl of cow soy costs
in Chiang Ma. Yeah.
At Ashok. Yeah.
Maybe I always talk about it.
It's maybe the most delicious thing I've ever had
in my frigging life. Yeah.