Hey, I'm Guy Fieri, and you know what I need?
I need you riding shotgun.
I'm on my way to flavor town.
This is Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.
This trip...
Wow. Oh, my gosh.
...we're going from Midwest to Northeast.
Get a little geography lesson, folks.
Hitting up joints, crushing all kinds of flavor.
Holy cheese, Batman.
There's Malaysia Mania in Cincinnati.
It's a passport.
Legit Salvadorian in Port Chester, New York.
That's bananas.
Plus, an Omaha family doing things Detroit style.
It is crust vacation, bro.
-And taking the bus... -Adios.
...to pizza town.
This is a top-notch pie.
It's the real deal.
That's all right here, right now,
on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.
So I'm here in Omaha, Nebraska,
right off 108th Street off of the I-80
to check out Food Truck Corral
that was an old burger franchise.
But there's this one particular truck here.
See, it's a family, a husband and wife team
came out of Las Vegas during COVID,
wanted to bring their daughter back to Omaha
to be closer to family.
But they needed a job,
so they studied up the world of pizza.
They bought themselves an old school bus,
and the rest is history.
This is Izzy's Pizza Bus.
Cherish, how's that Izzy special coming?
Everyone in Omaha is chasing that bus around.
The oven's in the bus.
This is such a cool experience.
Hey, guys. Here's your Red Harvest.
Pumps out some of the best pizza you've ever had.
[Guy] Detroit-style pizza, to be exact, in Omaha,
brought from Vegas by Brett and Cherish Geiger.
All right, so you guys are in Vegas.
How did you get here?
We wanted to get Izzy here to be with family.
-How old are you, Izz? -I'm 11 years old.
So where'd you learn to make pizzas?
Just at home, kind of obsessed with it.
We do a Detroit-style pizza, pan-proof dough,
try to get it in nice and fluffy and airy in that pan.
It's like a thicker-style pizza, crunchy on the bottom.
I am obsessed. [laughs]
[Guy] Get us into it.
Cold water for this more hydrated dough.
Patent flour, which is like a bread flour.
The other flour is a white wheat flour.
This is my thing where you kind of
came up with over some time and a lot of dough testing
and getting all pizza-nerdy and all that.
-Pizza-nerdy. -Yeah.
-[Brett] Bloomed, activated yeast right here. -Got it.
Sea salt.
Turn it on low, kind of start to mix everything up.
Mix for 12 to 15 minutes.
-[Guy] And then hit the olive oil. -Yep.
[Brett] We'll give it usually a few hours in the bus bin.
Give it a couple stretch and folds.
Throw it in the walk-in for 24 to 48 hours.
[Guy] What pizza are we going to make?
The honeypeno pizza.
Have your honeypeno here.
It's like a perfect combination of nice, tasty pepperoni
along with some heat and some crunch of the jalapeno.
Look at the bubbles on that, huh?
[Brett] Canola and olive oil. Cut it out of here.
Get it a little bit oily
so it doesn't dry out. Put a lid on it.
[Guy] And it should fill the pan by the time it warms up.
-What are we going to make next? -Some pickled jalapenos.
White vinegar, water, minced garlic, sea salt,
and a little bit of agave.
[Guy] Agave, great.
Set that up for a boil.
Brine is ready. We're going to pour it over
our jalapenos and let it rest overnight in the fridge.
-Last step. Okay. -Pizza sauce.
Ground tomatoes, sea salt, some minced garlic.
That's all she wrote, huh?
Izzy made this sauce at eight years old.
Now we're just going to top the pizza.
-So we're going to-- -Do you always top on the scale?
Yeah, we like to weigh our cheese,
try to get the most consistent product.
So we're going to put 235 grams
mozzarella and brick cheese.
Holy cheese, Batman.
And you're fresh grating this?
Yes, we're shredding that in-house.
Like I said, we blend the two--
All the difference in the world.
That is fresh. You can taste it. Excellent.
[Brett] Sprinkle it with a little bit of oregano,
house pickled jalapenos,
and then we're going to add some cup and char pepperonis.
Get that nice, cup-y-grease goodness.
-Is that how they market it, cup and char? -[Brett] Yes.
I didn't know that was the name.
That's a well-adorned pizza.
Stick it in the oven. About 12 minutes.
-Honeypeno. -[Guy whistles]
[Guy] That's some crispy edge on that, huh?
[Brett] And then we cut these into four. Everyone gets a corner.
Listen to that crust.
That is a lot of pizza and a lot of cheese.
Got more goodies to go on there.
You put more stuff on it?
[Brett] We got to get that red sauce we made on there.
Parmigiano Reggiano.
-Final, hot honey. -[Guy] Wow.
Now, if they want it to go,
you have these really cool boxes.
[Brett] So you rip this out, it becomes a bib.
[Guy] That's hysterical.
I tend to do a much bigger adventure than I anticipated.
That weighs a pound.
That's not typical deep dish.
That is so light and airy.
The crusty edge is nice.
Go. Spot on.
If you're going to call it the honeypeno,
you've got to have great jalapenos on there.
Good sized slices.
Not too hot.
-This is a top-notch pie. -Thank you, man.
I got a honeypeno for Theresa.
[man] You're excited to get to the crust part.
That's like a cheesy crown on the outside of it.
The charred cut pepperoni, the hot honey. Just perfect.
Nice little mild burn to it in a good way.
The honey really adds some sweetness to it.
Favorite pizza they make.
-Pretty legit. -Yeah.
Brett makes some of the best pizza
in the Detroit style here.
We also own a New York style pizzeria.
Basically, created a little metropolitan Omaha pizza alliance.
-It's got 15 different pizzerias in it. -Amen.
I'm just trying to put good pizza on the map,
so I'm here to support Brett and his wife, Cherish,
because they're not only awesome,
but his passion for what he does is right here.
[Brett] All right, I'm ready on a Miss Mona.
[man] Chicken, bacon, and ranch on a pizza.
You can't go wrong with that one.
[Guy] So what pizza are we into next?
Miss Mona, which is our chicken, bacon, ranch.
So we're going to make our house-made ranch.
Sour cream.
-Mayonnaise. -Buttermilk.
[Brett] Granulated garlic.
-Dill. -Gotta have dill and ranch.
[Brett] Black pepper. Ground mustard.
Onion powder. Salt. Sugar.
Worcestershire.
Paprika. Parsley.
And we got chives here. White vinegar.
We're going to let this sit typically overnight.
Now we're ready to put together our Miss Mona.
255g of the cheese blend.
Mozzarella and brick.
That's a game changer right there.
[Brett] A little sprinkle of oregano.
Diced bacon. It's pre-cooked.
The chicken is smoked and pre-pulled.
So we got some good smoke flavor on there.
[Guy] So it saves you a little bit of that time.
[Brett] Yeah, and out on this bus,
We try to have everything as prepped as we can.
Some of our house-made ranch on there.
Barbecue.
Some green onions to finish it off.
There you have our Miss Mona.
It is a crunch vacation, bro.
The skirt that it makes on the edge of the pan
is addicting.
The ranch dressing is dynamite.
It's got a lot of really good flavor in it.
I get the dill.
Piece of bacon, piece of chicken in every bite.
Dynamite.
And your Miss Mona.
It is delicious.
It has a nice dill taste to it.
The smoky bacon and ranch combo...
It's just a delight to eat.
We got a Vanilla Ice coming out.
Izzy's Pizza Bus is just the funnest food truck to support.
I got nothing to say, but congratulations.
It's the real deal.
It puts a smile on your face.
I'll take it to go, please. I want the box, souvenir.
Adios.
Up next, a Malaysian oasis in Cincinnati.
Oh, that is so good.
Flying high with some bird.
The duck is probably
some of the most tender duck you'll ever try.
And a specialty where the fix is in the mix.
Such a beautiful dish.
And now you have me destroying it.
You know, one of the things I love about Triple D,
of course, is all the great food.
But even more than that is the people
that make the food, especially when they're immigrants
and they come to the United States
looking for that American dream.
So I'm here in the Mount Lookout neighborhood
of Cincinnati, Ohio, to check out one such dream.
This chef came from Malaysia when he was 41 years old.
So he opens up this restaurant.
What people are saying, when you taste this menu,
it's a one-way ticket to Malaysia.
This is Sago.
BBQ pork dry noodle.
Sago is this little hole in the wall place.
The food here is just like five star restaurant.
Working the Curry Mee broth.
I'm always looking for authentic Malaysian food,
and I found it here.
[Guy] From Chef Paul Liew,
who went from working as a skilled chef in Malaysia
to fire things up in Cincinnati.
You're doing Malaysian, which is an influence of Thai,
Chinese...
Indian, all different countries.
Getting a little geography lesson, folks.
One nasi lemak.
The best thing on the menu here is
the nasi lemak and beef rendang.
It's curry beef stewed for hours.
Some sambal, pickles, a superb dish.
-[Guy] What are we making today? -[Paul] Nasi lemak.
-Nasi lemak? -Yes.
We're going to pressure cook the beef knuckle
for 35 minutes.
-Lemon grass? -Lemon grass. Water.
[Paul] Once it comes out, we will chill it, dice it,
before we put it into the braise.
-What do we do next? -The fresh spice for the beef rendang.
[Paul] Oil, lemongrass,
turmeric, galangal, onion.
And then we have dry spice.
Star anise first. I'm going to break it up.
-Break the pod open, yeah. -[Paul] Yeah. Cardamom.
-Coriander. -And black pepper.
-[Guy] Fennel. -Clove.
-And... -Cumin.
[Paul] Grind the dry spices.
-Puree that for the beef rendang. -[Paul] Yeah.
Next step.
-Coconut rice. -[Guy] Okay.
This is, uh, jasmine and long grain rice mixture.
Ginger, onions, lemongrass, pandan leaf, coconut milk,
salt, MSG, and water.
-Stir it up, let it cook, then we'll finish the dish. -[Paul] Yeah.
-We put all this together, and you have beef rendang. -Let's see it.
Fresh spice mix, chili powder, spicy chili powder.
You can add more if you like it spicy.
-Liquid from the pressure cooker. -[Guy] Okay.
[Paul] Diced beef, dry spice, lime leaf, coconut milk,
toasted coconut paste, salt, sugar.
Then cook for 15 minutes.
[Guy] What are we on to next?
Tamarind sambal, the chili sauce
that goes on the nasi lemak.
-[Guy] Great. -Oil,
lemongrass, onions, spicy chili powder.
This is tamarind.
[Guy] Tanginess of the tamarind, got it.
Now we put it back in the pan, salt, sugar.
Smells so good.
Cook this until you can see the oil
separate from the solids, 15 to 20 minutes.
15 minutes of torture.
Next?
The spicy pickle, salt, sugar, water, vinegar,
onion, cucumber, sweet pepper, carrot.
-Okay. -All right.
[Paul] We are plating now.
-Peanuts, eggs, the spicy pickle. -[Guy] Right.
Coconut rice, tamarind sambal.
This is the beef rendang that we cooked.
Toasted sesame seeds and fried onion.
Traditionally, we eat it all mixed together.
[Guy] It was such a beautiful dish,
-and now you have me destroying it. -[Paul chuckles]
Oh, that is so good.
Wow.
You have to mix it together,
because when you're biting into this
and you get this tender beef with a little bit of spice,
and you get a little bite of the pickle,
and then the next thing you get spicy...
That's really, really delicious.
Nasi lemak and beef rendang.
You have this rich texture with the beef,
the fluffiness of the rice.
You get some of the spice, and then you get the egg
that can cool it down.
You take a bite and keep going.
So when you found this place, what did you think?
I thought it was the best food in Cincinnati.
Something new, outside of our comfort zone.
Plating prawn mee.
To find authentic Malaysian food, it is life changing.
-Have you been to Malaysia? -I have, yes.
This reminds me of home.
I would try every Malaysian place
in every city I would go to,
and this is the best.
[woman] Dumplings are done.
You know I'm not gonna leave. I'm going to sleep back there
on the bag of rice.
Then we get back up. We're gonna make something else.
Make yourself at home.
This is to balance out the sweetness
and the umami.
This will definitely balance out your mommy.
I wouldn't leave home if my mommy cooked like that.
Welcome back.
Triple D hanging out in Cincinnati with this wild cat.
Chef in Malaysia for years.
-Come over here and start Sago, -[Paul] Yeah.
which is the name of the ingredient
from the palm tree that goes in a lot of the desserts.
-Correct. Perfect. -How did I do?
[man] Chef Paul really wanted to let people know
what Malaysian food is all about,
and he does an amazing job representing that with
every dish he puts out.
Two minutes left on the duck.
Best thing on the menu is definitely the duck.
That sauce is just rich and delicious,
and then the noodles are just so tender.
[Guy] What are we making next, Chef?
-Dry rub for the roast duck. -Let's see it.
Ginger powder, black pepper powder,
-cinnamon powder. -Cinnamon.
-Ground up star anise, okay. -[Paul] Kosher salt.
-[Guy] Chicken base. -White pepper.
-Dry rub in every cavity that we can find. -[Paul] Yes.
Shaoxing wine.
[Guy] How long is this dry rub going to go on, Chef?
At least 24 hours.
-And then we're going to skewer it. -[Guy] Okay.
We're going to make the maltose solution.
Maltose is sugar from wheat.
And that's specifically the type that needs to be used
for making the Peking duck.
Correct. To give the duck the color.
Just regular white vinegar.
Water.
We will blanch the skin.
This is just hot water.
-We're just sealing up the pores on the duck. -Correct.
And we'll put the maltose solution inside,
and we'll do the same--
-[Guy] We do the same thing with the duck now? Ah. -[Paul] Yeah.
[Paul] Hang this out to dry two to three hours.
-What, you just hang them around here like laundry? -Something like that.
[Paul] After the duck is air dried,
we will brush some Hoisin sauce
in the cavity of the duck.
How long is the duck going to cook?
[Paul] 45 minutes at 350 degrees.
-So it'll crisp up the top of the duck. -Correct.
-What's up next? -Sauce for the noodles.
Water, kosher salt,
-sugar. -[Guy] Chicken base.
Dark soy sauce, sesame oil, white pepper.
[Guy] That's the noodle sauce?
-That's the noodle sauce. -Okay.
-And the noodles are just regular egg noodles? -[Paul] Yes.
Delicious.
So it's out of the oven.
Now what's the final step?
[Paul] Crisp up the skin.
Duck's been through a lot.
Now we're going to cut up the duck.
[Guy] Look at that.
-[Paul] Hoisin sauce. -From a happy duck.
[Guy] The duck is probably some of the most
tender duck you'll ever try.
Not served medium rare like we typically do,
but there's a ton of moisture inside of the duck.
The fat's rendered down nicely.
The skin on the outside is the bomb.
And complemented with a little sweetness of the Hoisin,
but it's not one particular note or flavor.
Outstanding.
Roast duck dry noodle.
As soon as you take a bite of the duck,
it just snaps in your mouth.
It's somehow crunchy and crispy,
but tender at the same time.
It's got a real depth of flavor.
Curry mee with Hainanese chicken. Table five.
The food in here is just amazing.
You can pick just about anything
and you're going to get a killer meal.
This is the kind of place that,
I said it a million times,
You would blow... you drive by this every day,
not knowing it's here.
We found out about it. I stopped.
I get a place to park.
And you walk in, and you get
almost transported to Malaysia.
-It's a passport. -Thank you. Thank you.
I'll get the rest of that duck to go.
Coming up in Port Chester, New York.
Trying to make that perfect bite.
A Salvadorian spot with deep family roots.
You and your brother sticking to the traditions,
Putting their cultural spin on tamales.
-Delicious. Absolutely delicious. -Yeah, really--
And serving up pupusas, just like mom made.
That's the game changer.
All right, Dad. So we drive all the way out here
to Port Chester, New York. Where are we going?
[Guy] El Salvadorian food. You're going to love it.
I mean, it's got a great story.
Two sons took over the restaurant from their parents.
And their parents had taken it over
from one of their uncles.
And I hear the food is amazing.
So find a place to park.
Just remember the name.
Rinconcito Salvadoreño
[speaking Spanish]
The food's amazing,
like, I'm excited to come here every time.
Costilla asada. Rice and beans.
Salvadorian food, it's unique in its flavors.
It's the best.
[Guy] The best coming from brothers David and Edwin Sorto,
who are keeping their Salvadorian roots strong
with generations of family recipes.
So how do you explain Salvadorian food?
[David] You know, simple ingredients, but comfort foods
from, you know, people in poverty, right?
It's poor food. But if you treat it the right way,
-it's got tremendous flavor. -It has a lot of flavors.
-What are the specialties of the house? -Pupusas.
Pupusas is like having hot dogs
in the street of New York City down in El Salvador.
Pupusa revuelta.
The best one is our pupusa revuelta, pork and cheese.
Kind of like a tortilla filled with cheese and chicharron.
We are preparing our chicharron for our pupusa revueltas.
We got our pork shoulder butts.
We do some dried oregano, adobo.
Granulated garlic.
Parsley, chicken bouillon.
-Cook this down. -For about maybe an hour and a half.
Now we're going to get into our picadillo.
This is the sofrito that goes along with our pork.
Corn oil, some tomato, green pepper, red pepper,
white and red onions, celery.
Never seen celery in a sofrito.
Cilantro. Garlic.
[David] Bay leaves and some chile guajillo.
Oregano, some adobo.
[Guy] Red chili flake.
-Is that sazon we're going with? -This is some sazon.
[Guy] Let this cook down.
And we go ahead and grind our chicharron and our picadillo
for pupusa filling.
So once everything is blended down,
-we have some mozzarella cheese. -Okay.
We have our masa here and what we do,
we shape it into form.
-On the flat top. -Ready to go.
So what else goes on the pupusa?
We serve it what we call as a curtido.
-It's a coleslaw. Yeah. -Curtido?
[David] Cabbage, carrots, red and white onions,
fresh cilantro, salt,
red crushed peppers, dried oregano,
and red wine vinegar,
along with some tomato sauce that we made.
-[Guy] What's in it? -Onions and garlic.
Once those are translucent enough,
we throw in the whole peeled tomato.
Once that's cooking down, we put in tomato paste.
And we add some chicken bouillon powder,
adobo, oregano, sugar.
So we just wait for it to get to a nice simmer.
Then we finish it off with some cilantro.
-Puree? -Yeah.
We have the coleslaw ready.
We add some of our tomato sauce and pupusa--
I love my tomato sauce in my coleslaw.
[David] There you go.
It is just hot to hold.
Mmm. First crispy,
then creaminess of the pupusa, then the cheesiness.
But then all of a sudden, you get the contrast
of the slaw with the tomato sauce,
cooling it down and adding a little bit of acid.
-It's dynamite, dude. -How's the pupusa revuelta?
When you bite into it, you can really taste the pork
mixed in with the cheese.
The curtidos and the salsa de tomate,
It's great. It adds some freshness.
Jeff is my agent at WME.
This is his beautiful family.
If you watched Triple D 13 years ago?
[woman] Yeah.
[Guy] This is a tradition now.
We have a reunion, and we've come back to a Triple D joint.
-So far, what are your first bites like? -Amazing.
It's incredible. It's really, really good.
[Guy] Have you had a pupusa before?
-[woman] No. -What do you think?
I like the spices.
Tamale is out.
-And these recipes came from where? -My mother.
[David] Tamalitos de elote.
They're cooking from where they came from,
and it tastes great.
It's amazing to see them spreading, like,
the Salvadorian culture here in New York.
-Chicken tamales. -Our tamales.
They are a little bit bigger than your traditional tamales
that you would have in Mexico. Oh, they're so good.
I never knew that there were tamales in El Salvadorian food.
[David] Yeah.
-And so you-- -Dude.
I had to park over the bridge, around the corner--
-This is my son Hunter. -Sorry. How you doing?
Nice to meet you. Sorry, I'm late.
All right, Jeff. What's next?
We're getting into our tamales de pollo.
Water. Chicken.
Red peppers, green peppers, some white onions, cilantro.
Celery again.
Garlic and chicken base.
-How long is that going to go for? -45, 50 minutes.
-[Guy] Until the chicken's shreddable. -[David] Yeah.
Now we're working on the sauce that goes inside the tamales.
-Okay. -You know, we want to keep it nice
and juicy and flavorful.
-So this is what we-- -Juicy.
-He just has all my favorite words. -I was going to say moist.
So this is what we call recaldo.
Water, green peppers.
-[Guy] Tomatoes. -Onions, and red peppers.
[David] Toasted pumpkin seeds, toasted sesame seeds.
-Dried oregano, achiote water, annatto seeds. -[Guy] Okay.
Toasted guajillo, cumin and cloves.
-We have some toasted garlic, some toasted bay leaves. -[Guy] Got it.
[David] We blend it. We put it on a stock pot.
We let it cook for 25 minutes.
-Where are we at? -Prepping for our masa.
[David] We add the strained chicken stock.
Let me guess. Red bell pepper,
-green bell pepper, cilantro, and onions. -How'd you know?
Ah, I've been hanging out for a while.
[David] So we throw that all together.
Fresh garlic.
-Let's make the masa. -Yes, sir.
-[David] Some of our chicken stock, corn flour, our masa -[Guy] Masa.
[David] The marinade we just prepared.
Have you ever heard of loroco?
-No. -This is a bud,
you know, in El Salvador before it blossoms.
[Guy] Let that cook. Let it cool.
And then we start to stuff the tamales.
[David] We wrap them in banana leaves.
-[Guy] Not in corn husks? -No.
That's bananas.
Recaldo. Chicken.
Bell peppers. Roll this up.
We wrap it again in some aluminum foil, nice and tight.
This is going to boil, not steam.
[David] We let this cook for about two hours.
Trying to make that perfect bite.
That masa is nice and creamy.
Wow. Not dry at all.
[Guy] And the flavor from the salsa recaldo,
that's the game changer.
-Delicious. Absolutely delicious. -Yeah, really--
[David] Finishing the tamales de pollo.
The meat is tender.
The sauce puts it all together.
[Guy] You've had Mexican tamales.
-Yeah. -What do you think of this one?
I think they're a little different but they're super flavorful.
[David speaking Spanish]
The love that they put into this place
is the same love that they put into this food.
It's not just the fact that El Salvadorian food,
I don't think, gets enough recognition.
That's one thing.
You and your brother sticking to the traditions,
you are a beacon, my friend.
Was that a road trip or what?
But don't worry.
There's plenty more joints all over this great country.
I'll be looking for you next time on Triple D.
Mom and dad know this is happening?
They're probably watching you right there.
Filomena and Fabio, they're doing great.
-Thank you. -Okay, that's what I was supposed to say,
-right? -[laughs] Yeah.
-He'll sign you a check right after. -Just smile.