Everything Paul Feig Loves About London

Hey, I'm Paul Feig, London resident,

and here are some of the things I love

about living in London.

We're gonna talk about places to see.

We're gonna talk about food.

We're gonna talk about drink,

and I'm gonna make you a Vesper Martini.

[upbeat music]

[romantic music]

So, let me tell you about some places in London that I love.

Wow, look out. [chuckles]

Hello. It's too long.

Let me lower that. There we go.

First and foremost, my favorite place in all of London,

is DUKES Bar.

It's in the DUKES Hotel,

which is right off of St. James',

which is right there. [pointer stick clacks]

I don't know. [chuckles]

It's right in here somewhere,

where you can get the best martini in the world

made by Alessandro Palazzi.

And he will pull up a cart next to you inside this bar,

and he will make a tableside martini

that is really good and really strong.

They're so strong because they have no ice

that they limit you to two.

I love Claridge's Hotel.

It's one of the most traditional hotels,

probably the most traditional hotel in all of London.

Every famous Brit has been in there.

You've seen pictures of the Queen in there.

You've seen pictures of Churchill in there.

You've seen all American movie stars, British movie stars.

It's the most opulent lobby.

It's a beautiful hotel.

Go have tea there.

It's a beautiful place to have a little romantic meetup.

Another favorite place of mine is a great Italian restaurant

[pointer stick thumps] right there, that's right,

over by Covent Garden called

Giovanni's of Covent Garden. [graphic pops]

And if you go there, ask for the...

How do they say it in Italy,

is it Poyo or Pollo?

I think it's Pollo Alla Paul Feig.

That's right. I have a dish named after me there.

Also, my friend Patti LuPone, has a salad named for her.

Start with the Patti LuPone and end with a Paul Feig.

And then I'm also a big fan of German Street.

It's right there. It's right there.

And if you are into men's fashion and clothing,

that is the Rodeo Drive of men's fashion,

all kinds of amazing stores.

Tie shop and shirt shop called Turnbull & Asser is there,

which is wonderful.

If you're in the cigars, [graphic pops]

there's the Davidoff store.

Franco's Restaurant [graphic pops]

is right across from that,

where you can have a great Italian meal

and smoke a cigar if you want.

And also New & Lingwood, [graphic pops]

which sells great pajamas, great slippers,

and amazing dressing gowns.

So there you go.

That's just a few of the places I like to go in London.

I could go on all day,

but I won't because you'd be bored

and I would lose my voice.

[upbeat music]

Okay, we're gonna take a look at some London landmarks.

I don't know what they are yet,

but let me just say if I like them, I'm gonna tell you why,

and if I don't,

I'm hitting this buzzer and you don't have to go see 'em.

Okay, [claps] here we go.

Number one, it's Big Ben.

Big Ben's really cool but [graphic pops]

[buzzer buzzing]

you don't have to go see it because you see it everywhere.

So just look up and you'll see the thing.

It's a big clock. Come on.

The next one up is,

oh look, it's the London Eye.

It's a big Ferris wheel.

You can go on it. [graphic pops]

It's really cool, but I'm gonna say

[hand thumps] [buzzer buzzing]

skip it.

Why?

Because when you get on it,

it takes about an hour to go all the way around.

So by the time you get about here,

you want to kill yourself and jump out of it.

But it's really pretty.

Next thing up is the Stamford Bridge stadium

where the Chelsea football team plays.

I happen to live in Chelsea,

and should you go to see a football game? [chuckles]

[hand thumps] [buzzer buzzing]

I'm not a sports fan, so if you are into it, go ahead,

but I'm not going anywhere near that place

'cause it's filled with crazy people.

Hey, look, it's Buckingham Palace. Wow.

Buckingham Palace is kind of awesome.

I'm gonna say you should go see this.

But with a caveat, try not to go when everybody else goes.

Everybody goes in the middle of the day

to see the changing of the guard.

So I say for the daytime...

[hand thumps] [buzzer buzzing]

But go at night.

It's not very crowded, it's all lit up, it's beautiful,

and you will have the best time.

So that's my tip to you.

Oh look, it's the Tower of London.

Any XTC fans out there?

One of their best songs, Towers of London.

When I was a kid, we went to the Tower of London

because in there, are the crown jewels.

And we waited about four hours to see them,

and they rushed us past them so fast

that we could barely see what it was.

So, sorry Tower London. [buzzer buzzing]

Next one up is Westminster Abbey.

That's where all the kings and queens get coronated.

It's also where the royals get married.

There's a lot of dead dudes buried under here.

I mean, it's awesome, but it's crowded.

So, [buzzer buzzing]

come on, you don't need to see that.

You watch the royal wedding, you saw it all.

Hey look, it's Trafalgar Square.

That's really fun and it's big.

It's always crowded, but it's kinda cool to see.

So I would say go see that.

Check out these places. See them if you want.

Take my advice with a grain of salt

because I'm just a cantankerous old guy.

So, there you go.

[upbeat music]

Hey, look, everybody, it's London foods,

and we're gonna talk about them.

These are Jaffa cakes. [bell dings]

Brits love Jaffa cakes.

With their tea, they are delicious.

They're dark chocolate on top,

orange, kind of jam in the middle.

Mm, look at that.

You believe that?

Delicious.

Thank you, Britain.

[hands tapping] Next up...

Wait, we had dessert first. What's wrong with us?

Now, it's a sausage roll. [bell dings]

What I love about a sausage roll,

is kind of a meal all in one.

Did you see inside there?

There's a little sausage peeking through,

wrapped up in a beautiful pastry shell.

Now, what we are missing is HP sauce. That's right.

HP sauce, which is basically British A1 sauce

for you Americans in the crowd.

So wait, do we have some?

Look it. We've got HP sauce.

What does HP stand for? House of Parliament.

I believe that is actually what it is called.

I'm guessing Britain. Don't kill me if I'm wrong.

They also call it brown sauce.

All right, here's how you eat a sausage roll.

You dip it in the HP sauce, and then you get a big bite.

Mm, oh boy. Ain't that good?

Okay, put it down, Paul. You're on a diet.

All right.

Next up on our hit parade

is Lucozade. [bell dings]

Lucozade is sort of the British version of Gatorade,

but it's got a little bit of fizz in it.

It's very hydrating.

I believe it's got electrolytes in that.

It's very delicious.

It's orangey and it's very sweet.

And this is the great cure for hangovers.

Trust me, I've had plenty of bottles of Lucozade.

Mm. Mm.

Next up, are Twiglets. [bell dings]

Now, if you've ever been to a London pub, a London bar,

you'll know, no visit to a bar with drinks is complete

without Twiglets.

Twiglets are kind of the British version

of little pretzel sticks,

but they're covered with Marmite,

which is a very bitter but delicious...

It's almost, I would dare say, like a beef stock,

but a little more bitter than that.

But, it sounds terrible,

it's one of the best things ever.

[Twiglet crunches]

I defy you to stand next to a bowl of Twiglets

and not empty the thing.

Now let's take an experiment.

What if we took a Twiglet and dipped it in HP sauce?

[Twiglet crunches]

I'm running for Prime Minister next year.

All right, I think I'm gonna eat everything on this table

unless we go to the next segment.

So save me for myself, here we go.

[upbeat music]

All right, my friends,

today we are gonna make a Vesper Martini.

Now, what is the Vesper Martini you ask?

Well, it's a drink that was made famous

and kind of invented by Ian Fleming,

the writer of the James Bond books.

And the Vesper is what we like to call an ass kicker

because it's got not one, not two,

but three types of pure liquor in it.

[claps] Come on. What's better than that, right?

And I'm gonna show you how to make one right now.

It's got three parts of gin.

So actually we can put three ounces of gin. There you go.

So there, you laying on a nice firm base, right?

It's not boozy at all. It's three ounces of gin.

So what would we put on top of that?

Well, we're gonna put vodka in with that,

'cause why would you not?

We're only gonna put in one ounce of vodka.

Gin has a flavor to it. That's why it's gin.

It's a juniper based.

Vodka on the other hand, is made to have no taste.

It's actually regulated so it doesn't have any taste.

What's the best kind of martini?

A gin martini.

Vodka martinis aren't real martinis.

You heard it here first.

Talk amongst yourselves.

And now, to make it a real Vesper,

you gotta put in a little bit of Lillet blanc.

Lillet blanc is like a fortified wine.

It's a beautiful aperitivo.

But for this, we put on a half ounce of Lillet.

So there you go.

And into our Vesper it goes.

First of all, I didn't do it,

but this should be a frozen glass,

or you should put ice in it and get it nice and cold.

So pretend that that's frozen.

I let my guard down. [spoon clanging]

But now the biggest thing you wanna do

is make sure that your drink is really cold.

And I would dare say,

that I think we might be cold enough now.

[spoon clanging]

All right.

And now, what you wanna do

is just pour in your Vesper Martini

that's spilling all over the place.

One of the secrets to using a mixing glass

is you have to pour really slowly like this.

There you go. There's your Vesper.

And now, it's optional,

but you can also put a twist on top.

And now, you have what I would like to call

the perfect Vesper.

And guess what, I get to drink and you don't,

but you can make your own.

Cheers. Mm.

Oh, it's good. That's a good drink.

Thanks Ian Fleming and James Bond.

Well, that's it.

Just about does it for me.

I hope you had a great time

and I hope you can try out some of the places

that we talked about in London,

and try out some of the things I told you about

because you're gonna have a great time.