- [Chelsea] Are you okay?
- Do you have Tums?
(both laughing)
(beeping)
We're out here in Austin, Texas
and we're about to check out
some of our favorite barbecue spots.
Obviously this place is known for its classic barbecue
but we are really here to find the gems, those lip smackers.
What differentiates Texas barbecue
from any other place in the country is that Angus beef.
We're here for the brisket baby.
We got ramen, we got brisket burgers,
we got some barbecue chicken,
we got some West African barbecue.
So get ready to eat with me.
We're about to check out these gems all over the city.
(upbeat country music)
Let's go eat some barbecue.
This is where the smoking happens.
First stop on our barbecue tour
is this amazing truck called Distant Relatives.
This guy is cooking barbecue that is influenced
by West African flavors.
Wait 'til you see this menu.
So Damien owns this joint.
He's made us some incredible barbecue for today.
- [Chelsea] That's a lot of food.
You are brave for wearing a white shirt.
- I know.
I like to take risks.
This guy has taken some serious risks.
These are some powerful flavors.
I mean this is a mustard butter
to go with this slow cooked brisket.
Pickled green tomatoes,
which is a really unique combination.
To make these black eyed peas,
he's taking the drippings from the barbecue
and this is actually inspired
by a dish that his mother used to make a lot growing up.
Damien's a chef that really pulls from his heritage
and is really bringing a lot of the flavors
from West Africa into barbecue.
A really, really unique combination.
So this chicken has been slow cured.
It has hints of bird's eye chili.
These are some of the flavors Damien really likes
to get down on, some mace, some nutmeg,
and we're gonna give it a try.
That is wild.
This, you can definitely taste the bird's eye chili in this.
This has a nice mellow smokiness.
This sauce has a really nice balance
of that classic vinegar cutting the fat texture.
But then when you have that heat from the chili,
you have a little bit of a rounding out from the pepper.
One of the unique ingredients that he uses in his sauce
is a spice called grains of paradise.
This is native to the West African coast
and you can taste it throughout
a lot of the barbecue on this dish.
Whoa, I've never tried black eyed peas like that.
I've got that smokiness from the meat.
I can taste the ginger.
This is a really, really beautiful bean dish.
These are smoked roasted peanuts
and everyone gets served them with their tray of food,
no matter what you get.
This is a nod to his heritage.
That's why it's called Distant Relatives.
Some of his family who used to actually farm peanuts.
Normally people don't really associate Texas barbecue
with chicken, but Damien, he's got it going on.
He's figured it out.
Top quality product here and I will definitely
be coming back for more and fanning his wings
for the rest of the time with this spice combination.
Wait, no Chelsea, don't you dare leave me.
Chelsea, we still have to take this to go.
I'm not finishing this by myself.
- [Chelsea] Are you okay?
- Do you have Tums?
(both laughing)
(upbeat country music)
Our next stop on our Austin food tour
is a spot called Leroy and Lewis.
These guys are known for their sustainably sourced
and responsibly raised meat.
Today we're gonna be eating their beef cheeks.
They also have incredible sides, some kale slaw,
they also have this thing called a Frito pie.
I have no idea what it is yet,
but we'll find out together I guess.
Their pastrami burger is really word on the street
the thing to get.
So even though I came here for their beef cheeks,
we're gonna have to give that a try too.
Oh yeah, thank you, Evan. - Thank you.
- That looks incredible.
(upbeat country music)
So very excited to try this.
We came for the beef cheeks.
This is a really interesting menu item.
I haven't seen it on a lot of barbecue places around here.
And Evan, the chef, really wanted to find something
that was just as tasty but not quite brisket.
He's got some really interesting techniques that he's using
but he's actually spiced it quite traditionally
with pepper and salt.
So we'll give that a try with this beef barbecue sauce.
Never eaten a beef cheek, here goes.
Insane.
The quality of meat is really, really high.
The tenderness, it just melts in your mouth.
So this barbecue sauce has a really nice balance to it.
We have a little bit of mustard,
the sweetness from the beef.
You have some vinegar, really pepper forward flavor.
Frito pie.
So this is a slow cooked chili he's made.
There's no beans in here.
It's got that really nice smoky flavor.
I can definitely taste some juanjilo,
definitely taste some ancho.
The cheese on top is melting nicely
from the warmth of the chili
and we got that good onion cut.
For my first Frito pie, really into this.
I'm actually not a huge fan of beans in chili
so I like that this is just straight beef
over- - [Chelsea] That's Texas,
baby.
- Straight beef over Fritos.
Damn, that is delicious.
Kale Caesar slaw.
What a genius move.
Taking everyone's favorite salad, Caesar salad,
and making it into a slaw.
I'll eat this any day.
It really breaks up these rich flavors around it.
So we had to listen to coffee guy
and try the brisket burger.
That blows you out of the water.
When they say fat is flavor,
you can just see that oozing
with all the fat from the brisket.
I got another rec to try it
with the barbecue sauce
so I'm gonna do that right now.
Mic drop.
This guy knows exactly what he's doing.
You gotta come here.
These beef cheeks are insane.
Great alternative to brisket if you're looking
for something a little bit different.
And I've never seen a brisket burger
quite like this and this might be my new favorite.
So watch out, Corner Bistro.
(upbeat country music)
We had to change up our barbecue routine a little.
So we found a barbecue ramen spot
and I'm really excited to get into this.
As you can see, these are some hand pulled noodles.
This is-
- [Chelsea] Why did you wear white?
- Oh yeah, thank God you're here.
Okay, so dip don't dump.
Basically that means that we are picking up our noodles
and we are going to dip them
into this beautiful barbecue ramen broth.
Here we have a 48 hour pork and beef broth.
It has pickled bamboo, smoked brisket, charred scallions
and a chili oil on top.
We have our ramen noodles, we have our pickled,
smoked jalapeno, we have our lime, we have our Ajitama egg,
which is a soft boiled egg marinated with soy.
And of course we have our nori.
This is a little bit different
because we are dipping not dumping.
So we're gonna pick up our noodles like this.
Look at those beautiful hand pulled noodles.
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You can really taste the smokiness of this broth.
It's no joke, this has been cooked for 48 hours.
I can tell that this is just rich in a bunch of aromatics.
Let me just get one more bite in here.
I need to get that brisket, ah.
At this point, I could really just.
And another very important thing
we were instructed on is not to squeeze
this lime at the beginning.
Amateur move.
We wanna have a new food experience
so we're only gonna squeeze the lime
about halfway through eating this.
So this is the kind of place you want to come to
if it's the only meal you're gonna eat that day.
It's comforting, it's got a lot of bold flavor.
And we're in Texas baby, so we had to,
we had to slip in the barbecue ramen.
Who would've thought?
After the ramen we had to go for something refreshing.
So we went for the mellow bird.
I'm tasting a little bit of grapefruit,
some ginger forward notes.
It almost is a little bit like a Aperol spritz
but with ginger and a hint of plum.
It's about 80 degrees here in Austin,
so it's a good time to be drinking a refreshing drink
and this is exactly what you want in summer.
So in short, get your barbecue ramen.
It's new on the menu here.
And get back to your next spot to get some more meat sweats.
(upbeat country music)
So update, some of these guys
have been waiting in line here since 4:30 AM.
It opens at 11.
We've been waiting here for over an hour and a half.
Aaron opened up his trailer with his wife in 2011.
By 2015 he had won Best New Chef
and it's been pumping ever since.
I mean this is unheard of that people have been here
since 4:30 in the morning.
So I'm very excited to try this.
Well obviously we've got a huge spread here.
But we came here for the brisket and we came here
for the jalapeno cheddar sausage.
So Aaron Franklin really changed the game
when it came to barbecue out in central Texas.
Those smokers that we just filmed,
those that he built himself, designed and built himself.
This brisket has been cooking
with a type of wood called post oak wood.
In other areas of Texas you'll find mesquite,
you'll find hickory wood,
but here what they really want to do is highlight the beef,
that Angus pure beef flavor.
Okay, so we're starting with this brisket.
- [Chelsea] It falls apart.
- Falls apart in your mouth.
I mean I can just taste that fattiness.
I can taste that gelatinous flavor.
The pepper is so perfectly balanced.
This is just so soft.
Maybe worth trying with this really interesting
espresso barbecue sauce.
Aaron is a huge coffee fan himself he just told me,
so he said just a tiny bit because if you're a purist
and your meat is really good
you don't really need sauce.
Interesting though, really interesting.
I like it plain.
That's the best brisket I've ever had.
- [Chelsea] What?
- That is. - [Chelsea] The brisket?
- That is the best brisket.
- [Chelsea] Wait, that's the best brisket?
- That's the best brisket I've ever had.
- [Chelsea] Are you not gonna give me a bite?
Wait, where's my fork?
Okay, here she is.
Oh.
- Forget Passover brisket.
Forget Passover brisket.
- [Chelsea] That's so good.
- I also am very curious
about the way I was instructed to eat this,
which is basically you make a little brisket taco,
I don't know if that's like blasphemy here
but little bit of pickle, little bit of onion.
I'm gonna try this barbecue sauce with this.
This is more of your classic South Carolina style
with a little bit of vinegar.
- [Chelsea] Yeah?
- That's the good bite.
I'm giving these beans a try.
Herby, classic.
You can tell these have been cooking
for a very, very long time.
They're super, super soft.
This potato salad is kind of a sleeper.
It's got a really, really nice high acid
pickly sort of flavor.
I really didn't think I would like this so much.
I'm not a potato salad bro, but.
- [Chelsea] When at Franklin's.
- When at Franklin's.
I had some chats with some of the pit masters out back here
and the guy told me that his favorite was the pulled pork
so have to give this a try.
I think he knows what he's talking about.
Enough about all that.
What we really came here for is the jalapeno cheddar.
Let's give it a try.
That's fire.
Wow, that is a taste sensation.
This is literally a meal for an army.
I don't know how people come here
and are just like, oh, two people can get into this.
This can feed you for a week straight.
- [Chelsea] You gotta save room.
We're going to one more place.
- We got another place to go.
(upbeat country music)
It is with a heavy heart that I report to you
this is the last stop on our food tour.
We are at Interstellar Barbecue.
It's a little bit north of central Austin
and we're here to try the pork belly.
Also their brisket gets a good shout out
so we might have to get stuck into that too.
(upbeat country music)
So we've got a beautiful spread here obviously,
one of the nicest trays I've seen
while I've been out here.
But this is what we really came here for.
This peach glazed pork belly.
I mean, you don't see pork belly
on a lot of barbecue menus, so this is pretty rare.
Very excited to try that.
And also we gotta come here and try the brisket.
At this point, Chelsea and I might be brisket experts.
- [Chelsea] Oh, just eat the whole thing.
- I'm tasting a lot of flavor here
but the truth is really what's on here
is just some salt, pepper and garlic
and the control of temperature is really what's making this
succulent and juicy
and giving it that beautiful, smoked flavor.
I mean perfection.
To cut it, I want to try it with a little bit of the pickle,
pickled onion.
Mm, that's what's up.
I'm needing a refreshing bite.
We're gonna try some of the zucchini salad.
I mean this is a perfect summer dish.
It's light, it's refreshing,
it's got a teeny bit of that acidic vinegar,
some light parsley.
It's got that same kind of feel of a Caprese,
but with very thinly sliced zucchini slices.
Very beautiful.
This is what I'm most excited to try, this scallop potato.
Madness.
This just has this nice crust on top.
I can taste a lot of the smokiness.
The potatoes are just so sweet.
I've made this kind of a dish a lot
and you really, you can see just the technique
that he's using just to get all these potatoes
perfectly even.
I got all crust and that's my favorite bit.
I'm the girl that, I'll eat the end of the bread.
That is my favorite part of the bread
and this is my favorite part of the brisket
is just the edge smoke part.
This type of wood that they use to smoke this brisket
is called post oak
and that's what's really giving that color,
that beautiful, dark color.
Night and day to any other brisket I've tried.
This is definitely going head to head with Mr. Franklin,
I have to say.
This is a hard decision to make.
I can't say which I like better.
- [Chelsea] Can I?
- Do you want it?
- [Chelsea] Yeah, okay.
Oh.
- I think I like this better.
- [Chelsea] I mean oh, but that's so hard.
- I just feel, my feeling about this place
is just the creativity here is just on another level.
I mean, I have never seen the zucchini salad before.
Peach glazed pork belly, the scallop potatoes.
I mean.
Oh wait, we forgot - [Chelsea] They have
mac and cheese. - About the mac and cheese.
- [Chelsea] That's for me, right?
- Oh, sorry.
Mac and cheese is for Chelsea.
- [Chelsea] Can I do it? Can I do it?
- I have faith in you.
- [Chelsea] All right, give a real review
'cause I think these are delicious.
- Okay, let's try.
Yeah, I'm blacking out.
This is, this is really good.
I've come to one very solid conclusion.
You basically have to order the whole tray,
get the sausage, get the brisket,
get a little bit of the sides,
try it all in one because then you're really getting
that full flavor profile
as opposed to just a slice of brisket.
You're kind of getting one word of the sentence.
Let me know what your favorite barbecue spots are
here in Austin in the comments below.
I'll catch you later.
(upbeat country music)