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Well, it is my favorite thing in the whole world
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to make, spaghetti with clams, that's it.
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I could make that, I could eat that every
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single day the rest of my life.
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Squid ink spaghetti, zucchini, lemon.
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Life is the combination of magic, and pasta.
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My name is Marc Vetri and
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I'm chef-owner of The Vetri Family.
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Vetri just kinda started off with my vision of
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what food from Italy looks like.
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I never liked food that was
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kinda too complicated and too thought out.
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I always liked to simplify things.
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It's all about product and technique, and
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that's it.
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So this one is spinach gnocchi.
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This is all spinach.
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We actually just blanch it off
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stick it in a robo tube.
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Just hold it together with a little bit of
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flour, egg, little bit of bread crumb, little
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bit of parmesan, nutmeg, and you know, that's it.
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That's why we have to make them to order
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because it's just like, like otherwise they're,
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they're just gonna fall apart.
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My family's from Italy and you know,
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I was raised on that simple type of food.
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You know, you just take two flavors and
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like, that's the dish.
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We're highlighting one ingredient.
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Vetri basically was the first restaurant,
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this is, you know, what my whole life led up to.
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I started off working in restaurants when I
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was probably 15 years old, washing dishes.
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In 1990, I actually moved down to Los Angeles to go
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to music school.
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In order to make a living out there,
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I used to work evenings at a restaurant.
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I was actually working for Wolfgang,
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he was like the hottest, really,
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chef in the nation.
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And sometimes I'd skip school,
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head into the restaurant a little early,
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just to watch and learn.
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That was really my restaurant school,
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you know like, I never had
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formal restaurant school training.
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The music thing was you know, sorta not heading
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anywhere and I was really liking restaurants.
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So I had this opportunity to go to Italy and
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I just went.
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That's where I really started to think that,
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wow this is,
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you know, this is really something that,
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that I would love to do the rest of my life.
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I worked all over the place and then in 1998,
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I was 31 years old, and I was like, this is it,
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I'm ready to open up.
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So I looked around a little bit in New York
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but I ended up coming home to Philadelphia,
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cuz this is my home.
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The restaurant scene when I opened was spotty,
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here and there.
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Nobody was really talking about Philadelphia as
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a restaurant city.
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When I opened up Vetri, that was like, the goal,
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that was like I had, you know,
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sort of reached the mark.
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And I was like, well, I have my own restaurant.
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As the years went on,
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it got a little bit more refined, and
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it was a little bit, not accessible to everybody.
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And I decided, well, let's open up something
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a little bit more accessible, you know?
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And that's when we,
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the Osteria concept started to happen.
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And after that it was just like,
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it was a roll out, you know, started, and
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we were like, wow, this is kinda neat, you know?
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I liked to opening up restaurants.
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The pastas have changed,
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the pappardelle is off the menu this evening.
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Adam Leonti started with me eight years ago now,
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he was like, 21 years old.
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He just kind of stopped in here and he was like,
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hey I'd love to hang out.
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And I, you know, saw he really loved it,
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he really thinks like I do about food, and work.
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He's actually been the head chef here for
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the last four years.
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It's a really awesome you know,
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relationship we have.
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We're all about evolution,
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we're all about learning.
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This place is ever evolving.
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And I think to keep the restaurant at
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a high level, you have to reinvest not only the,
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the money, but you also have to reinvest
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the thought that actually goes into the restaurant.
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So last night we started off the evening here,
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at Vetri.
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Me and Adam decided to head over to Morimoto.
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All right.
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Sitting at the sushi bar and
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just like letting them make whatever.
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That's awesome.
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I never even order.
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I just like, make me some, some sushi.
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You're gonna get something that like,
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there's no way you could ever have here otherwise,
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you know?
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I think it's right up here on the left.
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Yeah, there it is.
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That's pretty good.
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Morimoto is one of my favorite restaurants in
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Philadelphia.
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Since it opened,
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I've had a lot of my most memorable meals there.
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Sitting at the sushi counter,
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that's always where I like to sit.
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And those guys, man, they just always blow it out.
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I've been waiting for this.
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They just always have the freshest items.
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Some sushi, sashimi, whatever, yeah.
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Chef's choice.
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Salud.
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So I think he actually started us off with like,
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the baby eels with a little bit of the egg
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yolk and a little bit of soy sauce on there.
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So fresh.
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And after that,
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we went into like a steamed abalone.
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We went into some Japanese mackerel.
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I think we had some Japanese snapper.
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All right, boom.
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Boom.
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Oh, fantastic.
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Mm, man that one's for the races,
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it's like a little warm.
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Fucking unbelievable.
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Everyone talks about rice when they eat sushi, but
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this rice is just, like, a little bit warm,
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and it's just like the perfect texture of rice
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every time.
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I love just, like, sitting and
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just watching how they use their knives.
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When I was in LA,
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I worked at a sushi bar just to learn all about
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like, knife work from the sushi chef.
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And man, they just taught me everything.
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They were so immaculate with everything, so
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precise with everything.
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They always like, make a slice, and
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then they wipe the knife down, and
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they always like, place it in like the same area.
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I often tell my line cooks to just head over
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there, sit at the sushi bar, not even eat,
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just like learn,
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just watch how they work, you know?
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That's the right way to work.
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How are you doing?
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Good, how are you doing?
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While we were eating there,
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Adam's friend Steve, from high school, just
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happened to be rolling in to Philadelphia.
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Have a seat.
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All right. These
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are the maestro chefs right here.
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That's unbelievable.
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Yeah, and they're no joke.
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Look at that.
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The beef, that the belly?
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It's tuna belly.
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No.
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Cheek.
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Look at that.
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It looks like kobe beef.
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Holy shit, I gotta take a picture.
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Hold on.
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It does, I mean look at it.
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Fucking ridiculous.
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Super toro.
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Or, holy fucking shit toro.
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Oh, this is like a piece of gold.
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Dude, that was ridiculous.
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Holy shit.
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Jesus Christ, this is like-,.
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Yeah. The best meal I've ever
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had in my life.
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Just by accident.
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We gotta eat after this, just saying, so.
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I don't even want him to stop.
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I know. For fear I'll throw up or
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something.
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Shit fuck balls.
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There's just nowhere like it anywhere.
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I think that we're so
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lucky to have that here in Philadelphia.
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Thank you so much.
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We asked the chef, Hiroki San,
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to come hang out with us.
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He was happy, you know, he hadn't eaten yet.
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Man, that super.
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Supertoro? Man.
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Too greasy, but...
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But for one piece...
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Yeah, but for one piece.
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Yeah, that's great.
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Now we are heading over to Kanella.
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Yes.
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That's a lovely place.
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Have you ever eaten there before?
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Have you been to Kanella?
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No. Oh my God, dude, really?
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Oh yeah.
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Oh, you're gonna love it.
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Cypriot food, not Greek, Cypress.
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Kanella, another, you know one of my all time
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favorite Philadelphia restaurants.
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It's all Cypriot food, food from Cyprus.
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The chef owner there, Konstantinos,
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is just an amazing friend of mine, and I've known
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him since he's opened up his restaurant there.
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And he's just like, the real deal.
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You know, that guy, he's there every night,
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just making incredible flavors.
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Kanella I started about seven and
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a half years ago.
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Kanella means cinnamon in Greek, Portuguese,
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Italian, French, you name it.
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Being from Cyprus,
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I'll say it's a Greek, Cypriot cuisine.
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Cyprus is in the eastern Mediterranean.
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12,000 years of history.
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We've been conquered many times by
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different nationalities.
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With the Turks, the Venetians,
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French, the Arabs were there, all
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those influences came all in one plate, at Kanella.
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That's what I explore.
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But at the same time, I keep it simple and
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I keep it as traditional as possible.
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I have the lamb dumplings,
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Mediterranean style.
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Holy shit, lamb dumpling.
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It was just like lamb,
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kind of sausage meat, with some yogurt.
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What's the spices in this?
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Aleppo, sumac...
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Sumac.
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Cayenne, paprika.
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Cayenne I saw.
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Mint.
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Mint.
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And something else.
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Woo, that's spicy.
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Yeah.
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It was just like, the right amount of heat,
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the right amount of lamb,
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with the right amount of noodle.
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It was amazing.
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After that, he put out some, some octopus.
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Which was just like, as tender as you've ever had
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octopus before, and has flavorful.
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Octopus here, we serve it grilled.
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As I'm doing that I'll be sauteing the giant beans.