Some special dishes are so good you can enjoy them over and over again.
Some special dishes are so good you can enjoy them over and over again.
Episode content:
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Find episode transcript here: https://the-best-thing-i-ever-ate.simplecast.com/episodes/more-than-i-can-count-ft-andrew-zimmern-aarti-sequeria-and-duff-goldman
SPEAKER 1: Who doesn't love great food?
SPEAKER 2: It's more than just eating, it's an experience.
SPEAKER 3: We have any more?
SPEAKER 4: This is the best thing I ever ate.
ANDREW: Some people travel to eat, some people eat to travel. I like to eat to eat. I've flown all the way to Birmingham just to go to Miss Myra's to have the chicken. It's that good. How many times have you had? Too many times to count. Slice me thin and call me coleslaw, I'm just addicted to her barbecued chicken. Now, Myra just got a little crush on me, and she knows it's true.
MYRA: Andrew, you're right, I love you.
ANDREW: I'm not going to lie I kind of feel the same way about her. She's there every day, watching over everything. I believe it's harder to make Miss Myra's barbecue chicken than it is to make some of the plates that I eat in three-star Michelin restaurants that are children's portions designed by interior decorators. The simple stuff is often the hardest to do.
SPEAKER 5: To prepare the chicken, I salt and pepper it, and then I place it on the grill.
ANDREW: The wood is very important. Hickory is perfect for chicken because it has such a beautiful, clean, but sharp smoked flavor. But the crucial element with chicken is that you want that fat dripping on the coals. They turns into chicken flavored smoke that mingled with that hickory smoke is seasoning the meat. And I think it lends an intensity of flavor to Miss Myra's chicken that makes it second to none.
SPEAKER 5: And after that, these are ready to flip.
ANDREW: With the white meat is still moist and juicy, and the dark meat is tender and melting.
SPEAKER 5: Put on this bone right here and just twist. The baby comes out, it's ready to go.
ANDREW: Then they make their sauce that is lovingly referred to as Alabama White, the traditional barbecue sauce for chicken throughout the South.
SPEAKER 5: Mayonnaise vinegar, salt and pepper, it's easy peasy.
ANDREW: All the traditional Southern sides are there. Greens, they have an amazing coleslaw. I like white bread just to sop up all of that delicious juice that's on the bottom of my plate. The skin is brittle and crispy. The meat is rich, fatty, smoky moist, and succulent. The white sauce is great. It's an acidic foil to that rich smoky meat. It's so rare to meet a plate of barbecue chicken that checks every single box. It's so fantastic. I just want all of that just to be all over my mouth.
SPEAKER 6: Oh, I love pizza. I love all kinds of pizza. You only wish that I couldn't even give a number to how many times we've eaten that pizza is the Norcia Pizza at Two Amys. Oh, it's so good. I mean I could just eat it every single day. It's that good. The Norcia Pizza is a Neapolitan style pizza. It's a very, very thin. It tastes really rustic, and smoky. My boys and I have tried to count how many times we've eaten that pizza, and I think we've done over 600.
SPEAKER 7: 600, you meant 60.
SPEAKER 6: Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, 600. Somebody have a calculator here. OK 18 years, at least one time a week, so that's 936. Norcia Pizzas that I've eaten. The pizza is sheer perfection. They start with the dough. Once they mix it up, they let the dough rest for 24 hours. And then they take the dough out of their refrigerator, and they stretch it out by hand.
SPEAKER 7: What's important is when you're stretching if not to press the air out. You press everything out, it's just going to be a sad looking pizza.
SPEAKER 6: Then they add the different toppings.
SPEAKER 7: Pureed San Marzano tomatoes.
SPEAKER 6: Big slices of salami, mozzarella.
SPEAKER 7: Nice and evenly distributed.
SPEAKER 6: Strips of roasted bell pepper. And then they add the Grana Padano.
SPEAKER 7: Similar to Parmesan, nice, little swirl of oil, and then we'll cook it.
SPEAKER 6: For just 90 seconds. And then it comes to your table. It's crispy and crusty on the top. But then you have the moist base in the center. Then I take a bite. It's savory, spicy from the salami, sweet from the sauce, cheesy tastes from the mozzarella. And then the soft yeasty taste of the dough. It's ridiculous. I just don't tire of the pizza. That's why I keep on coming back for more.
SPEAKER 8: I had a lot of firsts in Galloway, New Jersey. It sounds like I'm talking about other things. My life was forever changed by a burger in Galloway New Jersey because I've had it more times than I can count. The double
SPEAKER 9: Awesome burger.
SPEAKER 8: Tony Beef is a burger joint that's doing everything right. They have a wide arrangement of burgers. They have chicken, beef, elk, alligator. They have the bison burger, or they have veggie burgers. I mean, if you're a vegetarian like more power to you. I keep it real. They start by making their housemaid bacon jam. They take some bacon, render that down with some onion. Then they add some mustard seed, brown sugar, and apple cider vinegar. That's the jam. That's my jam. Then I have to make their ghost pepper sauce.
SPEAKER 9: The most fun part about my day, roasting these peppers.
SPEAKER 8: They're roasting homegrown peppers.
SPEAKER 9: Jalapenos, habaneros, ghost peppers, and Carolina Reapers. Now, saute white onions, tomatoes, peppers.
SPEAKER 8: And they blend that together with some balsamic vinegar reduction. Then it's time for the main event, the bison burger patty.
SPEAKER 9: Bison tends to have a bolder taste than beef, but it's a little leaner than beef is. Really melt that cheese, and get it nice and melty and drippy on there.
SPEAKER 8: So good.
SPEAKER 9: When the burgers are done, I'm ready to assemble. First, I start with bacon jam. That's the layer of lettuce. Next, the bison patties. And then the ghost pepper sauce. And there you have it, the Tony Beef bison burger.
SPEAKER 8: The first thing that hits you in the face is that really flavorful bison. It's juicy. It's robust. It's got a nice earthiness to it. That is what beef wants to be when it grows up. And then there's that ghost pepper sauce that has that nice lingering heat. And then that house made bacon jam, it's savory. It's sweet. All of your taste buds are so excited. I feel so satiated and happy. And I can't stop eating this burger.
SPEAKER 10: You know a dish is fantastic if you've lost track of how many times you've eaten it. I'm talking about ham hock and collard, ragu, pappardelle, from Popina in Brooklyn. The last time I went there was three weeks ago, and it's been too long. Pappardelle with ham hock and collard green ragu, which is a take on the classic ham hock and collards with pasta. And at Popina, they do it in a genius way.
They make their own pappardelle in-house. He hand cuts these noodles into thick ribbons. Then they brine the ham hocks for 24 hours. And then they caramelize some garlic. They throw in some onion, celery, and some fennel. And then he adds white wine, which adds another layer of flavor.
CHRIS: Wine is always encouraged.
ELENA: Then they pour that braising liquid over the ham hocks.
CHRIS: We're going to fold the cheesecloth off like a little package, wrap the whole thing in tinfoil, put it in the oven until they're fallen off the bone.
ELENA: Once they're done, they shred all of the meat off of the bones. They cook the pasta in heavily salted water, take the ham hocks, that braising liquid, and collards. Add the pasta, lemon juice, Parmesan cheese, and some parsley. And life is good. Cue the orchestra.
That braised ham hock is a beautiful, luscious, creamy citrusy explosion of flavor. And then you get the collards cooked beautifully so they aren't bitter. Finishing it off with that nutty, creamy Parmesan cheese. It's fantastic. What could get better than that? Thank you Chris.
CHRIS: See you soon Elena.
[MUSIC FADING]
SPEAKER 1: When you find a sandwich this good, you go back again and again and again. When I'm thinking of a dish that I've eaten more times than I can count, it's got to be the everything bagel with pastrami at The Lox Bagel Shop in Columbus, Ohio. It's just delicious. Brisket, bagel, mustard. And they're using wood fire to fire their bagels. You know it's going to be something special. They start by making the pastrami.
SPEAKER 2: The first step with our pastrami is our brine. And then let the brisket brine in it for anywhere from 10 to 14 days.
SPEAKER 1: Adding flavor and tenderizing meat. After it goes through it's brining, it's going to go into a sous vide.
SPEAKER 2: It'll cook in there for about 16 hours. It keeps all the flavor in the bag around the meat, cooks it right to the perfect temperature.
SPEAKER 1: So after 13 hours, they're going to reapply some of those same seasonings from the brine with a little bit of mustard. And then they're going to smoke it for another six hours.
SPEAKER 2: So now we slice the pastrami. We're going to put it on the griddle. It's a nice color on both sides. Put some Swiss cheese on it, melted Swiss cheese.
SPEAKER 1: You can't have pastrami without cheese.
SPEAKER 2: So we've heat up the meat. We melted the cheese, and we're ready to build the sandwich using our house-made everything bagel.
SPEAKER 1: This is a great bagel no matter what way you slice it.
SPEAKER 2: The yellow mustard has a nice tang, a housemade horseradish sauce, and then pastrami. Top it all off with some pickled red onions.
SPEAKER 1: As soon as you crunch through that crispy chewy bagel and get to the fat of the brisket, you just got to give me a moment. Whooh. OK. All right, I'm good. That perfect bite is crunchy and salt and smoked brisket fat. And that's followed by onions, fresh horseradish, and the yellow mustard kind of cleaning up your palate after you had that ridiculous wood-fired bagel and the smoking meat. Take another one to go. Don't tell anybody you have had one while you're on the shop.
[LAUGHTER]
[MUSIC FADING]
SPEAKER 3: When it comes to the best things I've ever eaten, my favorite things to eat, it's always ice cream. I'm going to get my usual, salted malted in a cup.
SPEAKER 4: Perfect.
SPEAKER 3: This is the cookie dough ice cream that you grew up with kapow. It's not gelato. It's not soft serve. It's not a sorbet. Pa-tuey! This is the best thing I've ever eaten over and over and over and over again. The salted malted chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream at Salt & Straw. And you can come fight me after I eat my ice cream.
It's really hard to find people as excited about ice cream as I am. Like I'm holding myself together right now. But I think I've found my people at Salt & Straw. The total ice cream dorks. It's just like super next level ice cream making. So first, they make malted cookie dough. It starts with some butter, some brown sugar and some salt.
SPEAKER 5: I use two different types of salts from different regions of the world. Cane sugar, cream, tapioca syrup, molasses, and vanilla.
SPEAKER 3: Toasted flour.
SPEAKER 5: And then the secret ingredient, malt powder. It's got a really intense caramel flavor. And lastly, my Ghirardelli mini chocolate chips.
SPEAKER 3: That sounds incredible! Then they make a molasses vanilla ice cream base. Then they fold in cookie dough and salted malted fudge. They freeze it, and it's usually ready the next day. I love doing almonds and sprinkles on top because I'm fancy.
SPEAKER 5: Enjoy.
SPEAKER 3: Gimme, gimme, gimme. Hello. Oh, my gosh. It's so creamy. It's toasty. Just so ding dang good. It's so good. It's chocolaty, crunchy, malty. There it is. It's like I'm stealing the cookie dough from my mom's bowl. But I've also gotten a big bowl of ice cream at the same time.
SPEAKER 4: Are you going to save some for us?
SPEAKER 3: Sorry. I mean, yes, of course, I will. Here. You want some?
[LAUGHS]
[MUSIC FADING]
DUFF: I love crab cakes. The reason why the East Coast is depleted of blue crabs, this guy. The best thing I've eaten more times than I can count, it's got to be Faidley's crab cakes in Lexington Market in Baltimore, Maryland. Baltimore has these public markets that are all over the city.
Lexington Market is the big one. It's like four stories, and you can get anything. You need to go to the very top floor because that's where Faidley's is. It's tuck back there. Shh, don't tell anybody. They start by steaming Maryland blue crabs, cracking them open, and removing the jumbo lump meat.
NANCY FAIDLEY: I'm going to sprinkle a little Old Bay on my crab.
DUFF: Can we talk about Old Bay? Paprika, celery, salt, cayenne-- that is the flavor of Maryland. I love Old Bay so much. I carry it around. Mmm.
NANCY FAIDLEY: Now I'm going to put in the Saltines.
DUFF: Then they add a house sauce.
SPEAKER 6: Are there any ingredients in that sauce you want to share with us?
NANCY FAIDLEY: No, it is mayonnaise based. I'll tell you that.
DUFF: And then the hand form the crab cakes. Nancy Faidley, who is 85 years old, has made every crab cake that has come out of Faidley's.
NANCY FAIDLEY: They all come out the same size because my hands don't change.
DUFF: Nancy, great job.
NANCY FAIDLEY: Thanks, Duff.
DUFF: They take those crab cakes, flash fry them. You just want crispy on the outside.
NANCY FAIDLEY: It's ready.
DUFF: Faidley serves the crab cakes with a little salad and some Saltines.
NANCY FAIDLEY: We actually have some like jumbo lump crab cake here.
DUFF: What? Oh! If loving crab meat's wrong, I don't want to be right. In a good crab cake, the crab meat is the star. You have all these salty big flavors next to super sweet, super soft crab meat. The outside is super crispy, a little bit of heat from the Old Bay, a little bit of mustard, a little bit of mayonnaise. That's it.
I've definitely eaten over 100 crab cakes from Faidley's. This is my favorite crab cake on the planet. Do we have any more? I'm almost out.
[MUSIC PLAYING]