- This is something that'll make you wanna
slap ya mamma.
- Whoa.
- You know?
- I know what you mean.
(laughs)
(upbeat music)
- Live and direct from Hollywood is Feast on Hunger Squad.
- We're gonna be traveling all over southern California.
- We're gonna go to one soul food spot.
- You eat their soul food.
- And at that soul food joint, they're gonna tell us
their favorite soul food joint.
- And then you follow that trail and go on and on and on
until you find
- The best soul food in Los Angeles, can I get an amen?
- Amen.
- Perfect.
- Let's go.
- I got soul.
Gonna say that all day.
- How are we gonna judge these places, by the way?
- Do you feel it in your soul?
- I got sa-- (laughs)
- Taste/flava.
- [Colin] Flava.
- And then the last one.
- Colin what's your last one?
- Comfort.
- Can I get an amen?
- Amen.
- Whoo!
- 'Bout to pull up to the spot, The Boiler.
- Chino Hills, what up?
30% Asian out here.
- Stephen did some Wikipedia on the way.
- Today we're on this like, soul food adventure
and we're trying to find the best soul food
in the whole L.A. region.
- Oh, it's gonna be pretty tough to beat here.
- We'll find out.
You're an Asian dude.
- I am an Asian dude.
- How did you get in the soul food business?
(laughs)
- I just fell in love with New Orleans,
decided to try to bring over to southern California.
- He doesn't really know much about soul food.
What do you think he's gonna learn today?
- It's all about the trinity spices, like you know--
- The trinity?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Like, the holy trinity?
- The holy trinity of spices.
- Whoo, I'm already feeling the spirit.
- All right, let's do this.
- This is what I got so far.
We've got oysters on the half shell.
We've got shrimp po-boy.
We've got gumbo.
And then we've got some bacon-wrapped
delicious looking morsels over here.
- All right.
- Let's dig in.
- How do I eat this?
- Slide it down you gullet.
- Mm
- There ain't much better than a good oyster.
- Whoo!
- That is fresh.
- Can I get an amen?
- Amen.
- Okay, let's do the pan house signature dish.
- Going down the hatch.
- Oh.
- Wow.
- Big kernels of seafood in it.
- Not expecting that.
- That right there, that's soulful.
- As per the yoosh, I'm eating too much.
And we have two more stops.
- I'm gonna cut Colin off here.
- No way, you don't get to cut me off.
As far as comfort goes, I'm feeling warm.
Flavors exploding all over the place.
They're getting four in flavors.
- No, no, no, you're not saying flavor right.
It's flava.
- Flava.
- I'm gonna give 'em four,
we still have two more places to go.
- I'll give it five, a straight five.
I mean, we talked about the trinity today.
When you're not eating soul food at your own spot,
have you heard of any good places in L.A.
that have really good soul food.
- There's a great spot called Mama Soul
down on Pico in L.A.
- Back to Los Angeles.
- We're going to Mama Soul.
- Mama soul.
(glass clinks)
- All right, you guys ready to go to Mama Soul?
- Yeah.
- Are you okay?
- I'm fine.
- You don't look okay.
- I feel very full.
- I feel ready to eat another two rounds.
- I'm ready for some like, mac and cheese though.
- I got soul.
- All right, so we finally made it to Mama Soul.
We have Starr here.
- Our niche is that we do all natural.
So our meats have no pesticides, no hormones
and we work with local farmers for our produce
so we're very proud of that.
I took the yummiest things in soul food
and put it all together.
Mac and cheese, yams that I love,
black eye peas that I grew up with.
So, it's flavors from all over.
(high energy music)
- Let's just dig in.
- You guys, whoa, I got my--
- Tarter sauce.
- Soul food ranch (laughs)
- I love that here's a turkey leg floating in the collards.
- These beans remind me of something,
I don't know what it is.
But it's comfort.
- Whoo, kick.
- Wait, this cornbread's got a little sticky top.
- I'm lost.
- Mmm!
- Don't interrupt the woman, she's eating.
- Yum.
- I can't make any judgements yet
until I taste the catfish though.
- There's not one thing we're eating here
that's the same as anything we ate at the last joint.
Yet, it's still soul food.
- Still soul food.
- You forget that soul food's kind of
a big wide variety of stuff.
- I literally feel like I'm in my Aunt Canary's kitchen.
- You have an aunt named Canary?
- I do.
- That's amazing.
- Um-hm.
- You comfortable.
- Feel like I'm at home.
- There you go.
- 4.5 on flava
- 5's all around.
- Are you convinced Freddie?
- I'm comin' around.
- You don't have to go back to Virginia
to find soul food, Freddie?
- I don't.
I feel like this was like a family reunion experience.
Love, comfort, good food, good vibes.
Gotta keep goin'.
- Look alive, Stephen.
- Come on, we don't have time for your shenanigans.
- No, I can't go anymore, I quit.
All right, I'm getting in the car, Freddie.
You want me to get in the car, I'll get in the car.
- [Freddie] All right, so we are headed to Chef Marilyn's
on Crenshaw Boulevard.
- So we are here with Chef Marilyn of Chef Marilyn's
(laughs)
The Chef Marilyn.
27 years, you still love it?
You wake up everyday excited.
- I love it.
I work seven days a week.
I wake up everyday and the fulfillment part
is that people love the food.
- Favorite thing on your menu.
- People love everything.
Soul food is good and it's from the heart.
- That's probably the easiest way to define it.
- Yeah.
- From the heart.
- Yay, thank you so much Chef Marilyn.
So we got mac and cheese, yams, black eye peas,
spinach, smothered chicken.
- Smothered chicken.
- And pork chops.
(sings)
- [Stephen] All right guys.
- Our last stop on the soul food tour.
This is a take out only joint,
so we're eating in the back of the car.
I have to say, I think this catfish is better than Mama Soul
- No way, her catfish had longevity.
After like 20 minutes it was still good.
- Wait till you taste this.
- The cornbread is really getting me excited.
The crispy edges, I love crispy edges.
- Mm
- Yep.
- Sure is.
- You can tell she's put a lot of love and butter in here.
- Butter is her main ingredient.
(laughs)
But that's what soul food is.
- I gotta say the soul factor here is a full throttle five.
- I give a five. - [Colin] Yeah.
- As a soul food, now connoisseur, five.
- There's a lot of soul in this joint.
- I think it wins.
- Is that meaning of soul?
- Soul is community.
Soul is family.
Soul is like legacy.
- Seoul is in South Korea.
(laughs) - [Colin] This guy.
- What have we learned about soul food today?
- It's really diverse.
- It's really diverse, way more diverse than I think
anybody give it credit for.
There's a lot of things you can call soul food.
- We out!
(laughs)
- They can't see us.
(jazzy music)