EPIC NEW Asian Food Tour & MUST-TRY Korean Pizza (NEW YORK)

This might be the best Mee Kuang in New York City. How do we say it in Mandarin? Sha Cui Feng Gan Niu Rou I don't know why this one hit me so hard. Maybe because it just is not spicy. So it stands out. They're being slapped and pulled and stretched. Oh, look at this. New brunch menu at Saigon Social. Alright, our first spot on New Asian Concepts in New York City is Appa's Pizza. It is a Korean pizza parlor that just opened up. The chef actually was serving American pizza in Korea and now he's come back to serve Korean pizza in the pizza capital of America, New York City. Guys, it's crazy. I'm sure we're gonna see some pizza here that you've never seen anywhere else or at least you can't find in New York City. Let's go. We're getting the kimchi pizza and then we're gonna get potato pizza on the other half. Right, our 14 inch half and half pizza has arrived. Hey man, I love Asian pizzas. I love how they do things differently. They add a lot of sweetness. They add different things. It might not look like the pizza you have in New York City but I think that's what's special about it. I'm excited to try it. Alright, first slice. I gotta try the kimchi side. There is no marinara base on this but there is the sweet potato kind of like outline right there and then the cheddar crust. First bite. Alright guys, as you already know, cheese on top of certain Korean dishes works well. So I think with the kimchi base, this is actually kind of hitting, man. And I didn't even get to the sweet potato crust yet. So I don't know if you remember, there was this pizza chain that opened up around America called Mr. Pizza and it was actually a Korean pizza chain and they would put sweet potato inside of their crust. This is something similar but I really like how it's just kind of like a streak of it and with the cheddar crust right here, man, it makes everything so eatable. I'm not gonna lie, man. It's pretty good. The crust is not super thin. It's more kind of like a pan pizza that you might get from Pizza Hut. It's kind of hitting. Last but not least, I am looking at the potato wedge pizza. This is what I think of when I think about Asian pizza. I think of corn and potatoes on pizzas with sour cream streaks and actually I will say this pizza does kind of remind me of a pan pizza from Pizza Hut because the chef is from Pizza Hut Korea. So let's try it. I love how the crust is sweet and cheesy. The mozzarella and cheddar are coming together right at this point. My rating for the potato slice, I gotta give it a 3.8 out of 5 and the reason why is that I just think the kimchi base is hitting a lot harder. I think you should try both. If I had to recommend anything, come in here, get the half-half pizza so you can try the two most Korean flavors. I know they're still innovating. I know they're still coming up with new flavors because they just opened and that's the cool thing about pizza. If it's a blank canvas that you can just keep rotating different toppings on top, you know? I'd love to see more different cultures delve into the pizza game and Koreans are doing it right now, man. As far as my rating goes on the kimchi pizza, I'm gonna give it a 4.5. As far as the potato slice goes, I'm gonna give that a 4.75. For me, I'm more with the potato slice. They even have their house-made parmesan dipping sauce. Eating this on the potato wedge slice, that's what you guys gotta try, man. I love how they have all these different levels. You can kick it up with Tabasco, the classic crushed peppers, the parmesan garlic sauce. It's delicious, man. Check out Appa's pizza. I need a workout after this. What up, friends and family? We are super excited to announce that actually our Smala chili oil sauce is out for pre-orders. You can click on that Shopify link right down below, but I'm excited. It's unlike anything else on the market. I know a lot of people say that, but even the form factor is different. We want you to take this everywhere and squeeze it on things, you know what I'm saying? And there's actually, it's very easy to clean up. There's no drip from the jar. But anyways, we like to say it's from Sichuan to Sicily because it is inspired by the Calabrian chili oil from Italy, from Calabria, and also fused with Mala chili oil. So it's kind of like a mixture of East and West fusion. Comes in a two-pack, so you can give one to a friend, but trust me, it's worth it. Real truffle, real Sichuan peppercorn, real kick, real flavor. If you guys want to see more pictures and see all the other things that I put it on, check out Smala Sauce on Instagram. Thank you so much for being with us on this journey. You know, it's been exciting and this is our first real product and we want to just sell you a product that you and your family can enjoy. So check it out, Smala. All right, you guys, our next new concept is right down the street. We're at Hunan Slurp Shop. They got a seasonal menu. This is all Hong Kong style. There's also Changsha style in Hunan. Anyway, you guys can look more into it if you want. Yuchen, you're joining me today to break this down. What are we looking at? Because these are very unique dishes. You might not be able to find anywhere else in America right now, right? Yes, so you like frogs? Yeah. Right, and frog in Mandarin is Tianji, right? Tianji or Niuwa. They're not frozen. They're like frogs cooked here to highlight the freshness. All right, moving on. What do we have here? Crispy, spicy beef. All right, how do you say this in Mandarin? All right, moving on. We've got two different types of Hunan Mixian here. What is this? This is the Douhua Rou Jiao Mixian, a.k.a. the tofu with the house-made beef bolognese rice noodles or Mifen. Listen, if you guys know about this region in Yunnan, in Hunan, they put tofu in the noodles and it gives it this really cool texture. They call it in English, their version of Hunan bolognese. All right, and last but not least for round one, what are we looking at? The beef mixed Mifen. This is almost like a Hong Shao Niu Rou Mien, but it's almost like dry style. Oh, look, just look at the volume of garlic on here. The cucumbers, almost like some Zha Jiang Mien elements as well, man. All right, Yu Chen, what is this called again? This is Hen Yang style Niu Hua or Tian Ji. All right, let's go in, man. I do not remember having frog that many times in New York, but I've definitely had it before. Tian Ji. People are going to say this and that, you know, about what Chinese eat. It's delicious, man. You suck the bone, suck the juice, take a bite of the rice. Yu Chen, this is the Hen Yang crispy beef. How do we say it in Mandarin? Sha Cui Feng Gan Niu Rou. Let's go. Whoa, you know what it is? It's a little bit like those Cantonese banquet braised shanks you get, but crispy and fried with a bunch of Sichuan peppercorn. There's definitely some elements of the Thai beef jerky that's spicy, but way more Sichuan style. And it's actually kind of like soft and moist on the inside. Like we said, guys, Hunan Slurp Shop is only like two, three years old and it's really trying to do something new and bring a whole different tier of Hunan food than what was available in America prior, right? The owner, Chow, he was an artist actually, but he wanted to cure his homesick and he's so proud of the food from his hometown because it's rare to find in New York. So he opened this store, like combining all the Hunan Hen Yang family recipes, local dishes here. That's why the food is phenomenal. Yeah. And like we said, most Hunan representation is Changsha style. This is Hen Yang style. All right, you guys, I'm going in on this dry beef, Niu Rou Mian, essentially the amount of garlic in this that was chopped up was amazing. This style is popular in like Hunan as well, right? Putting the tofu in there. Yes, exactly. That's the one. Come get the Hen Yang, Hunan style bolognese here at Hunan Slurp. All right, round two here at Hunan Slurp. We got some other rare Hunan dishes from Hen Yang. Yu Chen, tell me what we're looking at. So we are looking at the summer must-have, it's called winter melon. It's braised in a meaty ground pork sauce and we believe winter melon cools down your body during the hot summer day. Oh, so it's a hot dish, but it's supposed to have cooling effects. I'm going to look up the science on that one. But anyways, what are the spare ribs that we're looking at? The sweet and sour spare ribs. And the wild special, because the seasoning uses lots of Chinese ingredients, of course, Yo, I've never seen a dried plum in a dish like this. I've seen stuff that looks like this, but never had the dried plum. So guys, this is something new. And then here, here, here, what do we have? Salted chicken with two types of pepper, bird's eye chili and cayenne pepper. So it's extremely spicy, be careful. All right, trying the winter melon. Mmm. I want to just pour the rice into the plate. Oh, I love this gravy. Actually, guys, yo, this is, this actually tastes a little bit more, I guess I would say Cantonese in my opinion, but this is delicious. Very sweet and savory, not spicy at all. Tons of garlic, nice little pork. You got a little bit of black bean flavoring there. Now this, I don't know why this one hit me so hard. Maybe because it, it just is not spicy. So it stands out. Mmm. All right, going on, on the spare ribs and I'm going to eat one of these plums. Let me eat the plum first. How is the plum? Plummy. Let me try the spare rib. Mmm. This is maybe my favorite Chinese chicken dish in New York right now. The suan jiao ji, and it has two different types of peppers. Lots of little bony chicken pieces there. Guys, it is not a truly authentic Chinese meal unless you spend 30% of your time picking out the bones with your teeth, right? Look at what I'm looking at. Peppers, scallions, garlic, mushrooms, two different types of pepper, all in one bite. So much fragrance, a little bit of heat. Guys, you can get your spicy levels adjusted here if you want it really spicy or just mild. So come to Hunan Slurp and try these very elegant and well put together dishes that you might not be able to find anywhere else in America. Real quick, shout out to Very Fresh Noodles. I have yet to try this spot, but they are famous for their niromian, aka beef noodle soup, and their hand-pulled noodles. And look at this. They got a whole noodle bar. They got non-Asians eating like it's a lunch break over in Xi'an. All right, everybody. We are here at Very Fresh Noodles over in Chelsea Market. It is one of the highest rated Chinese spots that I have not been to in the city yet. I'm holding a piping hot niromian, Taiwanese style, right in my hand. And then in my right hand, I have a tiger salad, which is a cilantro salad. Take a look at these things. Look at these noodles. They're hand-pulled, nice and ribbony, nice and wide. I love to see it. Tons of scallions and cilantro on top. Different types of beef. They have beef shank and then like fatty beef. So, oh my gosh. No wonder it's such a popular stall. Oh, a little bit of a kick. Not for the faint of heart. Guys, there's a reason why they call it Very Fresh Noodles. The standard is high. The noodles are fresh. Guys, when I said they're very fresh, I'm saying they're very fresh. They're being slapped and pulled and stretched straight. I mean, look at this guy. He is taking so much care and focus. The thing is about hand-pulled noodles, there's actually so much labor that goes into it. I don't know how people make them so affordable. Last but not least here at Very Fresh Noodles, I love their kind of like fusion dishes. This is a staff pick. This is their tiger salad. It's a cilantro salad. Cilantro is a little controversial. A lot of people don't like it. But yeah, as they say in the menu, if you don't like cilantro, keep it steppin'. Mostly cilantro and scallion. Just because they're freshly hand-pulling and slapping noodles back there, it does not mean you can't do fusion. And that's what I really like about this spot is that they're being able to blend kind of very traditional ways of making noodles that you might only think you'd find at like traditional spots, but they're doing it in a non-traditional way. So shout out to them, man. Chelsea Market. Haven't been here in a while. Pretty good. We're at Saigon Social and Helen is always switching up the menu here and adding new things. And what she's doing right now is her take on like a lot of Vietnamese cafe food. So you have the Vietnamese meat pie right here with ground pork. Let me pop the lid real quick. Top off. All right, egg on top. I've never seen it like that, right? And then you have a traditional bánh mì. And I know she does a lot of fusion bánh mì here, but this one is made to be like it is in Vietnam. So I think that's a little bit different. And then you have her special bánh bèo, which is like topped off with so many little accoutrements. Listen, man. There's like all these different shades of color. It's crazy. You got the Vietnamese coffee right here. You got a pink jade cocktail. This has vodka in it. And then you have a jackfruit dessert drink that actually has fermented coconut into it. David, let me just start off with the bánh mì. I've never had it like this. With this bread and that amount of pâté and mayo and head cheese. Oh, it's so delicious. The pork pastry here. And you've probably seen it at some Vietnamese delis. I've seen a version of it, but not like this. And there's not a lot of Viet restaurants in New York that are going to serve this. Oh, look at this. New brunch menu at Saigon Social. This is already my favorite meat pastry in New York right now. It has the peppered pork and all these other things like the wood ear mushrooms. Kind of like the filling of a jazzo egg roll. Bánh bèo, but done in her own way. We've got all these different colors on top. Look at that. This is kind of like a steamed rice cake shot that you take. So let me just shuck it real quick. And then I'm going to shoot it. It's hard to find a really kind of like fancy or done up version of these traditional dishes in New York City. I mean, obviously there are some great Vietnamese restaurants that I still like to go to, but man, that was great. Because we have a brisket dip sandwich. Let me just cut this up. Fried basil, caramelized onions, little fresh soft baguette. Oh my gosh. And then you actually have the mi quang, which is one of my favorite noodle dishes that's very hard to find in New York City. And even if you can find it, no one takes it seriously. It has the signature yellow noodles, pork. It's like a little bit spicier, a little bit more pungent than other Vietnamese dishes, but I love it. This might be the best mi quang in New York City. The yellow noodles made with turmeric and there's a lot of flavor, kind of pungent, a little bit spicy, and it's kind of like a half soupy dish. Like I think it is considered a noodle soup, but it's not like as much soup as pho. Here's the French dip. I believe you have the Saigon social pho broth and the brisket dip. Let's go. This is more of a fusion dish of Vietnamese American. Damn, that is decadent. Soft shell crab sandwich. Juices, spicy aioli, crunch, the crispiness. Oh my God. Got the traditional com tam plate. It's the broken rice plate, guys. And you know, obviously it's origins. It comes from, you know, not having a lot of things. So that's why you're eating broken rice, but you're eating a whole like smattering of different things. And that's what I love. It's like compartmentalized. It's almost like a salad. And what I love what Helen does, she gives you a side of chicken broth. The com tam plate, it's like a staple of Vietnamese food. And oftentimes some of the best food comes from origins of people who, you know, didn't have a lot at their time. And sometimes that's all you need. Saigon social, Vietnamese American, a lot of traditional dishes, also fusion dishes. She's doing everything. Shout out to Helen. Come by if you can. All right, everybody. Our first spot is Little Mad. It's actually a new American restaurant, but with a Korean soul because the chef is Korean American. And he's just bringing all these different influences that he's picked up along the way from working at different restaurants. And they actually have one of the best deals for a tasting menu in New York City. It's extremely high quality. The food is aesthetic. It's delicious and it's not too expensive. So let's check it out. All right, I'm sitting down with Chef Sol in the first course of the tasting menu of the Mad Experiences here. It's only $95. And I think that obviously for like a regular dinner, $95 maybe is like on the higher end for some people, but to get what you get here with the artistry and the quality of ingredients is crazy. That's exactly what we are doing here. It's not just the quantity, it's the quality. So we have snacks that change every single day. As you see it over here, we have the Alistado shrimp. That's from Spain. We top it off with a little XO sauce. Over here, we have the Kim Mari, which is traditional, which is Kim means nori, Mari means roll. So we add some glass noodles, some tofu. We roll it, fry it. So it has some texture on top. We put a mixture of spicy yellowtail and tuna. Then over here, we have the tempura fried eel. It is finished with wildflower honey, bee pollen, a little Meyer lemon juice, and some chives. From day one, every single guest who's eaten at Little Mad has eaten our signature scallion pancake flavored bungeoppang. The only thing we changed here is the butter. Right now, we're rolling with a black garlic butter we make in-house. All right, let me try this shrimp real quick. This has XO sauce. I saw him grill this by hand. It's got a little bit of juice still on the spear of it. Oh my gosh. It still has a lot of that shrimp head juice, but it tastes really good. That was like creamy. That's a nice mixture of textures. A little cold, a little warm, a little chewy, a little bouncy. All right, this is the eel. It's a small bite, but it packs a lot of flavor. And what I love is the detail. You know, it's super actually crispy on the outside, super soft on the inside with a little burst of sweetness and a little garlic. And here, I think this is just a fun little treat at the end where you're pretty much going to put this black garlic butter on the scallion version of essentially a Korean takoyaki. Mmm, look at that. Yo, that butter is so good. All right, so what I just ate, those four pieces of food were actually the snacks. And that was actually already the beginning of the tasting menu. But now we're kind of into, I guess, the bigger plates. And we're into the little cold plates. Little cold plates, yes. Over here, we have the yellowtail, which is sandwiched between Asian pear. So it's Korean pear we get imported. In the center is Japanese yellowtail. We dress it with olive oil, salt, lemon juice, and a sesame seed dressing. This dressing is a homage to my parents' restaurant that they've been running for 25 years. I kind of want to elevate the game. So we brought the dressing. All right, this is the yellowtail with Asian pear. Yo, I love all the elements of that. The scallion oil, to the little sweetness, to the burst of juiciness from the Asian pear and the crispness. Over here, we got the scallop crudo. Right now, it is already lightly cured with a little salt and sugar. We're just going to put a little finishing salt, a little olive oil. It's always olive oil before lemon because it coats the protein. And then when you add the lemon, if you do it the opposite way, the lemon cooks the scallop. Right, it becomes like ceviche or something. Exactly. So we coat the olive oil with the scallop. What is crudo? I think a lot of people see this on nice restaurants' menus. What's a crudo? Crudo is just another word for raw. So raw dish. Okay. This is dashi. We infuse a little basil puree and then we make it into a foam. I'll just finish the dish. Oh, just with the foam? Yes. This reminds me of one of those molecular restaurants. Similar. There's some elements to it. There are some techniques involved. Honestly, you could do this at your home. That's cool, man. Guys, scallop crudo with the basil sauce. Let me just taste this first. The bubbles. Salty umami. Let's get it all one piece. Nice and cool in my mouth. Umami with a little bit of citrus sweetness. Wow. I'm mind blown, honestly. All right. We have a dish that I have to eat very urgently because you said it's going to change soon. Yes. The foam on the bottom is a lobster sabayon, which is going to be flat because right now we make a lobster sabayon in-house. It's a lobster stock with some egg yolk, some cream. We put it in an ISI. We charge it so it becomes a fluffy sauce versus a thick sauce. Around the outside is a tarragon oil. It's a chou farci. Chou farci is a classic French dish where it's a stuffed cabbage. In the center, we put the technique of using French but using Asian ingredients. So in the center, we have blue crystal prawn. Then we have some ginger, some chive. Wow. A little foie gras for a little fatty richness. So you're going to taste Asian using French technique. Oh, wow. I'm going to get some of this foam. All right. Now we're at the stage of Chef's Hansang. What is Hansang? Hansang is in Korean translated to a table with... You always have rice, a soup, and a bunch of banchan. Banchan means side dishes in Korean. So over here, we try to kind of elaborate on that. Okay. The tail end is roasted with pine nut garlic butter. We save all the tamale of the lobster. We make a fried rice. We stuff it back into the head and we roast it whole. I'm one of the people... I mean, like a lot of people, they like to suck the juices out of the shrimp and everything like that. Crab head. Right. This is really good, man. So you know how to eat. Right. Drink it all down with the lobster miso soup. And then to brighten it up, you have the white kimchi salad. This is almost, you know, every other restaurant you leave heavy and walking out or rolling out. Over here, this is our take on bingsu, which is shaved ice. We make our earl grey shaved ice. On the bottom to add a little fat, we have a passion fruit cream. Oh, I see that. And then we have some very fresh fruit on top. Just dressed in a simple syrup finish with some mint. We want to call it a palate cleanser. You leave satisfied versus you leave heavy. And just to have shaved ice with the cream, I think is a little bit different because a lot of people, they'll pour syrups on top or maybe some of them will put the cream on top, but have it kind of... Definitely need some kind of cream or some kind of fat to balance out all the bright acidic and all the fruit. Dude, smoking like a real chef, man. Thank you. See, they're thinking about the balance, not just what tastes good or like not just like, oh, that tastes fatty. People like fatty food. Let's give them fatty food. No, no, it's too much. I am absolutely positive that Ichibante is the best place you can get a steak at 3 a.m. in New York City. All right, next up on New Asian Concepts, we're outside of Sunny & Annie's. It's a classic deli out in the East Village, Korean owned. You guys know and known for their sandwiches, especially their pho sandwich. But this one right here, this is the Phak Tin. This is the new sandwich that was reviewed by famous food writer from Eater, Robert Saitsema. He said this is the only sand... The only 11 ingredient sandwich that actually works. Guys, 11 ingredients, obviously, for a sandwich is a lot. Usually that's too much. Try to put 11 things on your subway and see how that goes, right? So this is a breakfast sandwich. It was like $14. All different angles here. Sweet, eggy, creamy, bacon. This is a new item. Check it out. I honestly, once you get into the middle of it, you can get all the sauces and you get all the flavors. It's pretty fire. If you're a person that's into sandwiches, I definitely recommend you check it out. Sunny & Annie's always reinventing, adding new things. Fun crowd out here. You know what it is. On to the next spot. I like the mozzarella cheese one. And another coconut one. It's a sweet one. Okay. But this one is a savory. What do you call this in Korean? In Korean, it's a coin bun. Oh, coin bun. Like the Chinese yen, right? You have a coin. Korean coin and the Japanese yen coin. Inside the coin, I designed this only for me. Only for Manhattan, New York. Okay. Yeah. So this is the only one in the world. In the world. Hey, only place in the world, Shingani. We're about to try some goddess buns. All right, you guys. We are in Shingani in the West Village right now. I've got a Korean Yoshinban right here. This one is the chocolate nut flavor. They are in the shape of a coin. This is not traditional. This is their own design. This is the cheese one right here. I was more going for the nut one originally. Oh my gosh. Oh my goodness, guys. If you guys have ever had a hotteok, which is a Korean like honey nut dessert. This almost has the nut in it, but with more chocolate right here. Listen guys, this is fresh. It hits, especially I can imagine on a cold day. Man, it's so warm. And it totally reminds me of the street foods that I remember eating in Seoul. All right, let's get into the cheesy bun right here. Guys, it's like eating fresh pancakes, but more like savory. You guys will pop up the Yelp right now. Come check out Shingani. He's got a great message. He's got a great product. These are fresh. He's painstakingly taking the time. But I'm telling you, it pays off. Got a chai spot that just opened up on Kenmare. It's a little bit outside of Chinatown, but I would still say Chinatown Extended, by the way. Here, we're at Kolkata Chai. They're doing an egg roll, a breakfast paratha, samosas, and their famous oat milk iced chai right here. Let me check it out. Oh, that's pretty good. That's smooth. So this breakfast paratha right here is $7.50. They made it fresh. The paratha came out uncooked, and they cooked it in the pan. I'm pretty excited to see what's inside of it. The owner told me he really tries to recreate the Indian street food experience, especially from Kolkata. And Kolkata is actually way far out west, and it used to be the British capital of India. And what would happen is that all the tea from the Assam region would come through and get exported to that city. So there's a really strong chai culture out there. Here, I got the egg roll, not to be confused with the Chinese egg roll. This is more... I mean, does the paratha kind of feel like a scallion pancake? Of course, it does. It's definitely similar. Could be related from back in the day. Lots of green and chutney on there. That's definitely worth it. That's giving me breakfast burrito vibes. Here, you got a samosa for $4. Let me break this open. Ooh, potato. You got that chutney. You got that tamarind. It's sweet and it's tasty. I gotta give it up to the guy. If I was opening up a spot in New York City, that's kind of how I would want to do it. It's very Americanized for everybody, but still serving you authentic flavor. Still trying to weave in that authentic street food experience, while obviously delivering it in a very like, you know, commercialized way. So shout out to them guys. Everything here was about $23. So definitely, I would say check it out if you've never had stuff like this. All right, you guys. Next up, we've got Sake No Hana. Typically, we do not actually go to these like hotel Asian fusion spots. But one of the most interesting things about this one is it's located in an Asian neighborhood. Inside of a brand new moxie hotel. So, you know, I had to check it out to see if it was maybe like a notch more authentic. This is a wafu carbonara. They've got uni. They've got truffle in it. This is udon stir-fried dry. So I'm not the biggest fan of Asian fusion food, but definitely done well in its lane. All right, you guys. This is a raw beef steak tartare and it's got truffle on top too. So like we said, you know, these Asian fusion spots, you know, they are what they are, but they can be really good for what they are. Last but not least, we've got the garlic chili oil edamames. You know, they, you know, they're putting their own twist on there. They're stir-frying them with the chili crisp. Listen, guys, a lot of people always want to know, are these Asian spots worth them? I think they're cool for a birthday. They're cool for a vibe. But, you know, I would say as far as Asian spots go, it was quite good. I mean, this was about $28. I want to say this was $24 and the edamames were $14. You know, they are certainly more expensive than other options, but you can't beat the vibe. Overall, I'm gonna give it a 7 out of 10. As you can see, the bone marrow's in there. We got big beef chunks, carrots. It's almost like a carrot stew mixed into a Japanese fried rice. I like it because it's hearty, but the flavors are still pretty light. All right, you guys, we got A5 Wagyu rolls. This is new, guys. You probably thought this was chutoro or some sort of tuna. Wrong. This is A5 Wagyu beef. I'm sure it's American Wagyu. You've got caviar on top. Usually, I'm more into more traditional sushi. That is a good version of non-traditional sushi. This, we got a crab taco right here with the seaweed shell. Listen, guys, they did need sort of a midtown style spot in the LES. So, you know, of course, a lot of people are gonna have mixed feelings about, you know, a tower opening up in the LES. But overall, man, I gotta say they did a pretty good job.