Everything Paul Feig Loves About London
Today, 'Jackpot' director Paul Feig joins Condé Nast Traveler to share his favorite things about London. Although he hails from the US, the 'Bridesmaids' and 'A Simple Favor' director is now a London resident. From the grand halls of Claridges to Twiglets and HP Sauce, Paul Feig breaks down the best things about living in London.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hey, I'm Paul Feig, London resident, and here are some of the things I love about living in London.
00:05We're going to talk about places to see, we're going to talk about food,
00:08we're going to talk about drink, and I'm going to make you a Vesper Martini.
00:21So, let me tell you about some places in London that I love.
00:25Wow, look out. Hello. It's too long. Let me lower that. There we go.
00:31First and foremost, my favorite place in all of London is Duke's Bar.
00:35It's in the Duke's Hotel, which is right off of St. James', which is right there, I don't know.
00:41It's right in here somewhere, where you can get the best martini in the world, made by Alessandro Palazzi,
00:46and he will pull up a cart next to you, inside this bar,
00:50and he will make a table-side martini that is really good and really strong.
00:56They're so strong, because they have no ice, that they limit you to two.
01:00I love Claridge's Hotel. It's one of the most traditional hotels, probably the most traditional hotel in all of London.
01:06Every famous Brit has been in there. You've seen pictures of the Queen in there.
01:10You've seen pictures of Churchill in there. You've seen all American movie stars, British movie stars.
01:15It's the most opulent lobby. It's a beautiful hotel. Go have tea there.
01:20It's a beautiful place to have a little romantic meet-up.
01:24Another favorite place of mine is a great Italian restaurant, right there, that's right,
01:30over by Covent Garden, called Giovanni's of Covent Garden.
01:34And if you go there, ask for the... how do they say it in Italy? Is it pollo or polo?
01:38I think it's polo, a la Paul Feig. That's right. I have a dish named after me there.
01:42My friend Patti LuPone has a salad named for her.
01:45Start with a Patti LuPone and end with a Paul Feig.
01:48And I'm also a big fan of German Street. It's right there. It's right there.
01:52And that, if you are into men's fashion and clothing, that is the Rodeo Drive of men's fashion.
01:58All kinds of amazing stores, a tie shop and shirt shop called Turnbull & Asser is there, which is wonderful.
02:04If you're into cigars, there's the Davidoff store.
02:06Franco's Restaurant is right across from that, where you can have a great Italian meal and smoke a cigar if you want.
02:11And also New in Lingwood, which sells great pajamas, great slippers and amazing dressing gowns.
02:17So there you go. That's just a few of the places I like to go in London.
02:20I could go on all day, but I won't because you'd be bored and I would lose my voice.
02:29Okay, we're going to take a look at some London landmarks.
02:31I don't know what they are yet, but let me just say, if I like them, I'm going to tell you why.
02:34And if I don't, I'm hitting this buzzer and you don't have to go see them.
02:37Okay, here we go. Number one.
02:39It's Big Ben. Big Ben's really cool, but you don't have to go see it because you see it everywhere.
02:45So just look up and you'll see the thing. It's a big clock. Come on.
02:48The next one up is, oh, look, it's the London Eye.
02:52It's a big Ferris wheel. You can go on it.
02:54It's really cool, but I'm going to say skip it.
02:57Why? Because when you get on it, it takes about an hour to go all the way around.
03:02So by the time you get about here, you want to kill yourself and jump out of it.
03:05But it's really pretty.
03:06Next thing up is the Stanford Bridge Stadium where the Chelsea football team plays.
03:12I happen to live in Chelsea.
03:13And should you go to see a football game?
03:17I'm not a sports fan, so if you're into it, go ahead.
03:20But I'm not going anywhere near that place because it's filled with crazy people.
03:23Hey, look, it's Buckingham Palace. Wow.
03:26Buckingham Palace is kind of awesome.
03:28I'm going to say you should go see this.
03:29But with a caveat, try not to go when everybody else goes.
03:33Everybody goes in the middle of the day to see the changing of the guard.
03:35So I say for the daytime, but go at night.
03:39It's not very crowded.
03:40It's all lit up.
03:41It's beautiful.
03:42And you will have the best time.
03:43So that's my tip to you.
03:45Oh, look, it's the Tower of London.
03:48Any XTC fans out there?
03:50One of their best songs, Towers of London.
03:52When I was a kid, we went to the Tower of London because in there are the crown jewels.
03:56And we waited about four hours to see them.
03:59And they rushed us past them so fast that we could barely see what it was.
04:03Sorry, Tower of London.
04:05Next one up is Westminster Abbey.
04:08That's where all the kings and queens get coronated.
04:11It's also where the royals get married.
04:13There's a lot of dead dudes buried under here.
04:15I mean, it's awesome, but it's crowded.
04:18Come on, you don't need to see that.
04:20You watched the royal wedding. You saw it all.
04:22Hey, look, it's Trafalgar Square.
04:24That's really fun, and it's big.
04:25It's always crowded, but it's kind of cool to see.
04:27So I would say go see that.
04:29Check out these places.
04:30See them if you want.
04:31Take my advice with a grain of salt because I'm just a cantankerous old guy, so there you go.
04:41Hey, look, everybody, it's London Foods, and we're going to talk about them.
04:44These are Jaffa Cakes.
04:45Brits love Jaffa Cakes.
04:47With their tea, they are delicious.
04:49Dark chocolate on top, orange, kind of jam in the middle.
04:53Look at that.
04:55Can you believe that?
04:56Delicious.
04:57Thank you, Britain.
04:58Next up, wait, we had dessert first.
05:00What's wrong with us?
05:01Now it's a sausage roll.
05:03What I love about a sausage roll is it's kind of a meal all in one.
05:06Do you see inside there?
05:08There's a little sausage peeking through, wrapped up in a beautiful pastry shell.
05:12Now what we are missing is HP sauce.
05:15That's right, HP sauce, which is basically British A1 sauce for you Americans in the crowd.
05:21So wait, do we have some?
05:22Lookit, we've got HP sauce.
05:24What does HP stand for?
05:25House of Parliament.
05:26House of Parliament.
05:27I believe that is actually what it is called.
05:29I'm guessing.
05:30Britain, don't kill me if I'm wrong.
05:32They also call it brown sauce.
05:33All right, here's how you eat a sausage roll.
05:35You dip it in the HP sauce, and then you get a big bite.
05:41Oh boy, that's good.
05:43Okay, put it down, Paul.
05:45You're on a diet.
05:46All right, next up on our hit parade is Leucasade.
05:49Leucasade is sort of the British version of Gatorade, but it's got a little bit of fizz in it.
05:54It's very hydrating.
05:55I believe it's got electrolytes in it.
05:57It's very delicious.
05:58It's orangey, and it's very sweet.
06:00And this is the great cure for hangovers.
06:02Trust me, I've had plenty of bottles of Leucasade.
06:06Next up are Twiglets.
06:08Now, 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.
06:16Twiglets are kind of the British version of little pretzel sticks, but they're covered with Marmite,
06:22which is a very bitter but delicious...
06:25It's almost, I would dare say, like a beef stock, but a little more bitter than that.
06:30But it sounds terrible.
06:32It's one of the best things ever.
06:35I defy you to stand next to a bowl of Twiglets and not empty the thing.
06:38Now, let's take an experiment.
06:40What if we took a Twiglet and dipped it into HP sauce?
06:46I'm running for prime minister next year.
06:48All right, I think I'm going to eat everything on this table unless we go to the next segment.
06:52So save me for myself. Here we go.
06:58All right, my friends, today we're going to make a Vesper Martini.
07:01Now, what is a Vesper Martini, you ask?
07:03Well, it's a drink that was made famous and kind of invented by Ian Fleming, the writer of the James Bond books.
07:10And 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.
07:17Come on, what's better than that, right?
07:19And I'm going to show you how to make one right now.
07:21You've got three parts of gin.
07:22Actually, we're going to put in three ounces of gin.
07:24There you go.
07:25So there you go.
07:26Laying on a nice firm base, right?
07:28It's not boozy at all.
07:29It's three ounces of gin.
07:30So what will we put on top of that?
07:31Well, we're going to put vodka in with that because why would you not?
07:34We're only going to put in one ounce of vodka.
07:36Gin has a flavor to it.
07:37That's why it's gin.
07:38It's juniper-based.
07:40Vodka, on the other hand, is made to have no taste.
07:43It's actually regulated so it doesn't have any taste.
07:45What's the best kind of martini?
07:47A gin martini.
07:48Vodka martinis aren't real martinis.
07:50You heard it here first.
07:51Talk amongst yourselves.
07:52And now, to make it a real Vesper, you've got to put in a little bit of Lillet Blanc.
07:57Lillet Blanc is like a fortified wine.
07:59It's a beautiful aperitivo.
08:00But for this, we put in a half ounce of Lillet.
08:04So there you go.
08:05And into our Vesper it goes.
08:08First 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.
08:14So pretend that that's frozen.
08:16I let my guard down.
08:18But now the biggest thing you want to do is make sure that your drink is really cold.
08:22And I would dare say that I think we might be cold enough now.
08:27All right.
08:28Now what you want to do is just pour in your Vesper martini that's spilling all over the place.
08:33One of the secrets to using a mixing glass is you have to pour really slowly like this.
08:39There you go.
08:40Here's your Vesper.
08:41Now it's optional, but you can also put a twist on top.
08:45Now you have what I would like to call the perfect Vesper.
08:49And guess what?
08:50I get a drink and you don't, but you can make your own.
08:52Cheers.
08:55Oh, it's good.
08:56That's a good drink.
08:57Thanks, Ian Fleming and James Bond.
08:59Well, that's it.
09:00Just about does it for me.
09:02I hope you had a great time and I hope you can try out some of the places that we talked about in London
09:06and try out some of the things I told you about because you're going to have a great time.
09:11Cheers.