I Tried The Best Street Food In America

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The best food is sometimes on the side of the street.  Get My Cookbook: https://bit.ly/TextureOverTaste  Additional Cookbook Options (other stores, international, etc.): https://bit.ly/WeissmanCookbook  FOLLOW ME: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joshuaweissman Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@flakeysalt Twitter: https://twitter.com/therealweissman Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thejoshuaweissman ---------------------------------------------------------------

Transcript

00:00America has always gotten credit for two things fast food and fine dining but in between those two worlds

00:05There's something that doesn't seem to get any credit street food everywhere else in the world street food is a way of life

00:10But here in America, I think it's often underappreciated and overlooked

00:14Oftentimes the best food in the world isn't served on white tablecloths

00:18It's served from carts trucks and tiny family-run stalls and today I'm gonna uncover what America truly has to offer

00:24So we asked you the audience which cities have the best street food in America after thousands of responses

00:29We have our top four New York, Los Angeles, Portland and Austin, Texas

00:34I'm going to the streets of every single one of these cities, but I'm not going in blind in each city

00:39I've got a local street food expert to guide me through their top five must-try spots and by the end

00:45We'll have our answer the city with the highest rated street food average wins the title of best street food city in America

00:53Starting with New York City. Everyone knows the New York food scene is insane

00:57I eat the food from 20-plus countries in a single day here

01:01And that's why I enlisted the help of Julian Moo aka Moober Eats

01:04One of New York City's most respected street food connoisseurs, and he's gonna show us his top five New York City spots starting with

01:11grills on the sidewalk where I

01:12Rejerk I will say this is one of those things where if you're walking on the side of the street and you smelled what we're

01:17Smelling you gotta at least ask yourself. Should I and the short answer is yeah Cheers

01:22Oh

01:26Succulent fall off the bone the spice levels are wonderful. It's a little sweet

01:30It's seasoned perfectly salt levels perfect texture super moist zero dryness present

01:36I've had jerk chicken. It's a little too over spicy. I don't mean spicy

01:38I mean like they mask the flavor of the chicken this you're getting that like nice chicken fat flavor

01:43And it's perfectly balanced with the smokiness

01:45There's the sweetness of the sauce on there and there is that jerk chicken spicy one of them, but it's not too overwhelming

01:50I've had smoked chicken at barbecue restaurants in Texas that had less flavor and less smoke than this chicken right here

01:55And it's cooked in a barrel on the side of the street. This is

01:59Extraordinarily good. I would travel out to eat this

02:01I'm come travel all the way out to come sit on the side of the road and eat this texture if it's all leg

02:06It's a nine five flavor. I'm gonna give it a nine two out of ten. I mean, this is like crazy. Oh

02:12Unbelievable you gotta come to Texas

02:15Yeah, we'll take you the barbecue guys. You need to show him a couple lessons. I'm ready. I'm gonna be back

02:19I'm bringing my wife moving on an incredibly strong start for New York City proof

02:23The NYC street food is not only served from a food truck or a cart like our next spot Bolivian llama party

02:29There's no dining in it's just a window on the street. Yes

02:32I've never had Bolivian food and I'm pumped to see how it stacks up. So we're at

02:38Problem. It's fine. Just a gun two shots fired. It's all good. Three shots fired. Oh, it's fireworks

02:43Fireworks

02:45We are at probably my favorite place in all of New York City, it's Bolivian llama party

02:50They specialize in Bolivian food what we have right in front of us is the beef salteña

02:54It's a mix of a soup dumpling and an empanada. Wow, it is beautiful dough posted on the bottom. It's braided by hand

03:02I mean, I love it the ideal way to eat it

03:04Take a small bite out of here

03:05Let some of that air out you take a little sip of the inside and then you pour a little bit of that hot

03:10yahweh inside

03:12Wow, this is really something this is kind of perfect for this weather, too

03:15By the way, it's freezing out here. We have this like hot juicy sort of like beef stew in the center

03:21It's spiced nicely the sweetness of the crust. It's got some crunch. There's some softness

03:25There's some chew from the beef little pops from the peas. It's like a god-tier like Michelin level Hot Pocket

03:31I've never heard that before absolutely delicious texture the pastry

03:35I've had a lot of different types of pastries that are similar to that texture on the inside

03:38I would bring that score down just slightly because I wish the beef were a little more tender

03:42It's pretty chewy, but you know, maybe that's the vibe it just kind of is a weird contrast

03:45So I would give it a flat 8 for texture flavor the spices the garlic the onion all the things that were in there

03:51We're just exactly where I wanted to be. It's just felt like I was eating

03:53It's like grandma food in the best way possible. That's a 7.5 out of 10 for flavor didn't blow my mind

03:58But it's still a strong score moving on. We're in midtown right now. We got halal guys

04:03But why are we at halal guys?

04:05This is one of if not the og street foods of New York City. It's crazy because they franchise

04:10They like started in the street and they got out of the streets and went big-time

04:14Most of these places now have run because halal guys has walked so it better be good one thing

04:20I know a lot of people are gonna say this halal is not a type of food

04:23It's a way of slaughtering animals and that is true

04:25But in New York City, it is a thing that people say I'm going to the halal cart on the corner

04:29Is this one of the best still it's a New York Street food icon?

04:32That's why it's in here, but there's a surprise which we'll get to after we try this

04:36This is the og the halal mixed platter chicken and beef over rice white sauce hot sauce

04:41One of the things I love about halal guys

04:43I'm shocked at how much they've expanded and how well they've maintained just the quality of everything the texture the rice isn't overcooked

04:49It's chewy. The salt levels are good and it's fatty like it's it's just like rich and juicy and the meat is seasoned perfectly with

04:55Salt it's a little spicy from the hot sauce. I mean, this is great

04:58Wow, this is a 9 and I'm not gonna down them for this but their pita has always not been that good

05:02Just give me straight up. I will give you that

05:04Everything else is lovely flavor an 8.8. I don't like giving franchises love but halal guys always delivers somehow some way

05:11We do have something to say we can't finalize this because we have another one. There's a competitor on the block now

05:16We're at the surprise location Adele's some people are saying that like halal guys has fallen off and these are the new ones

05:20Is that right? This is the halal darling right now

05:22It is 25 degrees Fahrenheit and people are waiting in a line for a halal cart food. So this is lamb and chicken

05:29I'm gonna try and get a little bit of everything spicy rice too. That's a big difference

05:32I gotta be real with you guys slightly less good in my opinion because it's not seasoned as well. It's not spicy at all

05:38There's no spice at all in there. This one's missing a little flavor to me. The other one was more flavorful is more fatty

05:43So you're saying that this line we should see in front of halal guys instead or split 5050?

05:47I think it should be split 5050. This seems like a personal preference thing personally. It's not seasoned as well with salt

05:52I don't taste any land. The lamb is not that flavorful

05:54I thought the beef was more flavorful than both of these combined the chicken is under seasoned try both pick your favorite

05:59I don't give a they're both delicious, but I'm gonna give this one to halal guys

06:01That's the one will enter in the competition Wow shout out to them on to the next

06:05Thanks to the video where we ate around the world in 24 hours

06:07I've had some of Queens most famous street food. So I guess Julian had a little curveball for me. We're in a parking lot

06:13Where are we? We're here at Rockstar chicken for halal Korean fried chicken

06:16It is hot Korean sweet chili sauce wing spice level two out of what I think out of two

06:22So max, this is the spiciest sauce that you have. Okay, they bread it to order out. Everything is made fresh

06:28Everything is handmade homemade. That's hard work. These are soft beautiful. This is exactly how I would sauce mine coated

06:33It's got breading on every square inch as it should be. Oh

06:37Yeah, super super super tender almost falls off the bone and the sauce is not too sweet, which I really appreciate

06:42Yeah, it has a little bit of that kick that you really want

06:45I would take it spicier

06:46Honestly, the spice level is good for the average Joe if you were to come here and get a two out of two

06:49I think most people can handle this spice, but it's just enough heat to keep it exciting

06:52First thing I gotta say is the chicken not even considering the breading was unbelievably succulent perfectly cooked

06:57The crispiness I like my wings crunchier

07:00Usually I don't think I've had wings with that thin of a crust from a Korean wing texture

07:04I'll go with the seven chicken flavor was super apparent. It was very chicken for it

07:07I like the sauce didn't overpower the chicken flavor flavor a seven as well, New York City going strong

07:12But with three huge cities to come can it get a boost from the final spot Steinway?

07:16Hello where we not only got this charcoal grilled chicken, but two kinds of rice two soups and a salad

07:22So all of this is like what like 30 40 bucks $15 Wow

07:25Look, I tried everything with how cold it was outside. It did kind of hit emotionally, but the main event chicken

07:31I gotta be honest it dry heavily under seasoned in my opinion the meal itself from a value perspective is incredible

07:38But texture and flavor really just kind of fell flat for me

07:40Just slightly above mid with a 5.5 on flavor and texture sitting at around 5.5. It's not a terrible score

07:47I would count that as mid

07:48We still have some insanely high scores making Julian's top spots hard to beat but we're moving on to the place that I reside

07:54Austin, Texas

07:55we now move on to a new co-host to represent Austin the

07:58David Douglas a prolific Austin food reviewer a buddy of mine who also appeared on our which country has the best breakfast video listen

08:05Austin is a special place to me and I know it's in good hands with his help

08:09We are starting with high expectations here the potato barbacoa breakfast taco at Michelin Bib Gourmand la santa bar Bacha looking good

08:16They didn't skimp on beauty and it's loaded the fuck up. And this is always how it comes by the way

08:22Mmm, I don't know how long you live in us

08:24But I've been in Austin for the better part of six to seven years roughly the barbacoa is succulent

08:28It's fatty the creaminess from the avocado plays

08:30Well, the tortillas are so fragrant like when you lift this up to your mouth

08:33The first thing you get before you even bite it is the smell it's almost floral so nice shoe on the tortillas great

08:39I have always felt the breakfast taco was a bit overrated and I think that if you really want a good experience

08:45You got to do a little place like this. I love it. I mean texture wise such a simple thing tortilla egg cheese meat avocado

08:50And it's getting an 8-7. It's a crazy high number flavor the barbacoa by itself. That's like a 9-5

08:56I do wish there's a little salt on the avo to help bring it together flavor. I'm going with a 7

09:00This is easily the highest best breakfast taco I've ever had in Austin

09:04That's what I like to hear and very competitive and I'm giving Austin the best chance

09:08So I want to see these types of scores every place on that's my hope. That's my dream

09:11Let's make that dream a reality moving on. Welcome to KG barbecue. Holy dude, they loaded us up

09:18I have always wanted to go here

09:19I just want to be really clear the line is always so long and for obvious reasons

09:23I'm glad that they're hooking us up today, though. Holy they don't mess around here

09:27I'm half Middle Eastern and the flavors here are what I grew up with but with Texas barbecue cooking style

09:34So the ribs are made the same way you'd make Texas style ribs

09:36They have a pomegranate glaze pomegranates on top za'atar dusted mac and cheese

09:43Yes, the chef grew up in Egypt when he visited here he fell in love with Texas barbecue years later

09:48He's here the James Beard nominated barbecue spot crushing it

09:52Those are the most balanced ribs ever. They're not too sweet. They're not too salty

09:56They're like a little spicy the za'atar comes in for some fragrance mac and cheese fire cooked nicely

10:01Shells are nice. The sumac pickled onions crazy and the rice is fragrant. It's cooked nicely

10:05Welcome to the culture brother lamb bacon ribs right here. Oh my god. They're so juicy Lucy

10:10Take a little this chimichurri put that right there

10:13That is

10:14That is one of the best bites of lamb

10:16I think in the city anything you've badly associated with lamb is replaced with fat and flavor. It's not gamey

10:22It's just smoky salty delicious melts in your mouth super succulent. Look at this juicy lamb chop

10:28Wherever they're sourcing this lamb from is a godsend

10:30This is so perfectly seasoned with salt and just flavor and smoke and it's juicy

10:34This feels like the marriage of Texas and Egyptian. Oh, yeah together putting on a sauce to be wonderful

10:39But it's so good. It doesn't need it. You never get barbecue

10:43That's balanced like this where you have a little bit of everything overall experience for texture was incredible

10:47But it did fall just a bit because the sliced brisket was not great

10:50I'm not gonna lie David said it was an off day, but I'm still going with a strong nine

10:54There's so many options here. I think it still deserves that

10:56I mean, it's an onslaught of flavor spices sweet sour tart salty fatty acidic

11:02I mean what the else is there you could possibly want in one meal? What would have already been a nine?

11:06I'm gonna give a nine point three out of ten on flavor

11:08We might have a winner on our hands, but there's only one way to find out moving on

11:11We were at discada what I think is the most addicting taco in Austin

11:15We've done a breakfast taco, but the taco scene in Austin is so developed

11:19You really need to experience both and discada does things differently

11:22They actually cook their tacos in one giant stew that are made out of discs and they render out five different types of meat

11:29This is beautiful. Cheers

11:32Oh

11:34Dude what the fuck why haven't I been here? I didn't know that Austin did tacos like this. Yes

11:39I've been shitting on Austin's taco scene for way too long. I'm from Los Angeles

11:42I think the best tacos in America do not come from Texas. I think they come from Los Angeles

11:46Yeah, that said this is blurring that line pretty aggressively for me. The meat is phenomenal

11:51It's perfectly fatty perfectly seasoned with salt. The flavor is wonderful. It's just what I want

11:56It's a little bit of sweet salty spicy this pickled habanero when I put all that on there

12:00I got a little scared and it's all nice and balanced out with that really finely chopped pineapple

12:04I almost said pina colada

12:04I can't pick apart what is or isn't wrong with it because it's kind of all there honestly texture 9-3

12:10There was zero dryness. It wasn't too fatty. I've had tacos that weren't dry, but we're almost too fatty

12:15These were very balanced give flavor 9-2 very good. Delicioso. I might say I cringed myself out on that one

12:21All right, we were driving here. I looked at the map and it said you are headed to cock tea juicy

12:25We're being told that it might be cocktai. I think it's cock tea. I could be wrong

12:29I've never seen fried chicken like this a corn masa flour dredge in a Oaxacan chili sauce

12:34This is either gonna be way too much or a game-changer. We take a drumstick

12:39We take our lime we give it a wee squeeze take a bite

12:42Whoa, that really is cocktail juicy. And then this is where I go right into the house made queso

12:47Okay, so I like it's a very naughty bite. This is naughty, but the queso kind of mellows out some of the spices

12:52Yeah, this is like drunk food, but it's so good. It's rich. It's fatty perfectly crispy. It's spicy. It's sweet

12:58Salted nicely. Ooh, it is spicy Wow. So I prepared a little surprise for us. What goes well with fried chicken? Oh, wow

13:05Sparkling wine, dude. You're a naughty boy

13:07He's been toting this around all day for this fried chicken and champagne or sparkling wine is one of the greatest combinations in human existence

13:14It's dare I say

13:16Finger lickin good. Let's talk about the texture the cook on the chicken. Perfect. It was very juicy. No dryness present

13:22The crunch was perfect. I didn't want any more. I didn't want any less. I like that

13:25It was a firm stiff crackly crunch

13:27That's how I make mine personally love the addition of that sort of like flavor paste on the outside if you will seems like they're

13:32Dunking it in a Nashville hot oil. I'll give it a 9-2 because I have had better textured fried chicken, but not by much flavor

13:38Unexpected it's sweet. It's spicy. It's salty. It's garlicky. It's fragrant might be one of the best fried chickens I've had

13:43I mean, it's also a 9-1 I would say on flavor Austin rolling after four spots

13:48But the final spot needs a 12 or higher to take the lead against New York City and our guides choice could be a little risky

13:53Street food with sushi hand rolls Cheers

13:57After trying all three rolls my top choice with the hamatoro. I love hamachi

14:01It was wonderfully seasoned crispy shallots the whiskey ponzu, you know, the flavor was really an 8.5 now

14:07Let's talk about texture as I was chewing. I started to realize something

14:11I think this was just a simple mistake and it happens from time to time. I honestly don't even blame them

14:15Maybe they had a rough day, but the rice was undercooked and crunchy and sometimes that happens

14:21I wouldn't hold it against them and I absolutely will be going back but I've got to say that really hurts my score here

14:27so I'm giving the texture a flat 5 which is still pretty high considering the rice is the most important part when it comes to

14:33Eating sushi that's gonna happen. Sometimes. I wanted a perfect day in Austin, Texas for Joshua Weissman and I couldn't get perfection

14:39But I got as close as I could and I hope we put up a good fight against those bigger batter cities

14:44Oh, man, Austin's total average takes a big hit with that last score, unfortunately

14:49But it's still in the lead as we head to Portland, Oregon. It's a city. I've never been to but supposedly the food is great

14:54We'll see about that

14:55Our Portland guide is Mike Thielen a longtime food writer former James Beard judge food festival founder and let's be honest General Portland food expert

15:04He's starting us off with Korean food at one of Portland's most iconic and longest-running carts Kim Jong grilling now

15:09Originally, we're gonna try the Galbi Bibimbap box that you see here

15:13But midway through the owner Han surprised me with a Korean inspired hot dog that he thinks will steal the show

15:19Oh, dude, it's bread. Holy shit, dude in the sauce in here Wow

15:25I'm sorry bigger, but this is like totally demolishes any Chicago dog. That's ever

15:29I never ever want to see a white hot dog bun ever again after trying this because the baguette is like somehow like crispy

15:37But the crispness is so thin and the inside is so soft and fluffy. It just it doesn't fall apart

15:42It's just nice

15:43But then also that banchan daikon and then this creamy sort of like

15:47Acidic a little bit sweet with a little bit of spicy umami sauce in there brings it all together

15:51It's like glazed spam. We take spam and you put a little goddamn sweet soy glaze on that

15:56This is giving that vibe, but in a totally new way. I think the texture is solid like nine

16:01We're just so weird giving that to a hot dog

16:02But it's like the sourcing of the bread so much better than any hot dog bun you'll ever have because it's not even a hot dog

16:08He's using a bond me bun

16:10I mean, it's genius the crunch from the banchan at the bottom and then that soft like almost juicy pickled mango on top

16:16I don't know that a hot dog could be better than that score for flavor. I think it's solid nine as well

16:20Two nines anything above a seven. I'm usually bewildered. But right now I'm I don't know how we're gonna find a number one here

16:25Moving on. We are at the Midtown beer garden

16:28It's specifically what we're trying here is being me which is the only place in Portland that really specializes in northern Chinese style

16:34Young Bing these in particular

16:36It's like a super crispy thin crepe filled with egg kind of a nice spicy sauce a crunchy wonton cracker that you know

16:43You can literally hear people bite into from across the room

16:45I heard him cutting it. Yeah, literally freezing out here. I was warming my hands up probably

16:50I don't know 10 to 15 feet away from the cart and I heard a crunch and I turned and it was that man

16:55We have two types you have the sort of classic one that everyone kind of raves about the most

16:59That's the roasted duck. And then this one here is the Chinese sausage. Yeah, my favorite things. Oh

17:05Yeah, I want to rewind to when we went to New York. We got John Green in New York

17:09This is way better than that one. There's a perfect amount of duck in here

17:12It's super fatty and rich within that you've got this nice refreshing crunchy cucumber and it's seasoned beautifully

17:19You've got the Chinese sausage Cheers

17:21Which one's your favorite? I kind of like the sausage but it has the same kind of sweetness as the duck

17:25But it's a little more salty

17:26I think it just sort of works the palate a little more

17:28It gets you the extra saltiness to get the rest of the way there and the fattiness from the Chinese sausage and look out thinly

17:33Cut it is it's so thin it almost like melts on your tongue. You got a little bit of spiciness from it, too

17:37It's sweet. It's like almost caramelized in a way

17:40I've had both easily the Chinese sausage one is the hallmark one to me

17:43I'm gonna give the rating to this texture solid 9.3 flavor 9.1

17:48Jiangbing Wow, one of the top scores of the entire journey. I should probably go before I eat this whole thing

17:55Moving on. We're in the Nob Hill food cart pod in Northwest Portland

17:59We're here for Bajala, which is one of the newer food carts that we're trying today

18:02They're known for seafood centric Baja style Mexican food and we tried three total tacos here first sturgeon, which was a bit odd

18:08I gotta be honest not expecting that then the fried shrimp, but our final taco was by far my favorite

18:14We're also doing the gubernador, which is flour tortilla with really really nice cheese fresh vegetables and cooked in a lot of butter

18:21Oh my god, this is way better than I thought it was gonna be. We did a taco very similar to this

18:26I don't know if you remember this was when I almost shat myself in Mexico City and we had a taco that was very

18:31Similar to this with cheese quesadilla a little bit of butter

18:33I think maybe that was their inspiration of it being like a Baja inspired one

18:36I don't know. This is ten times better than that

18:39It's salty get a little bit of a crispy skirt of cheese around the taco

18:43the texture is wonderful because you got all this vegetable and like you've got some fresh tomato would perfectly cook shrimp and then little

18:48Pieces of poblano that are charred and nicely softened but still they're not so soft that they're gooey. This like takes the cake

18:54This is something special. So this is what I'm gonna rate texture

18:56The butter adds this unbelievable crispiness to the outside of the tortilla while remaining that elastic chew

19:01Then there's all those different textures the fresh tomato. It's juicy. It's cheesy

19:05It's got a little bit of tooth some this from the shrimp some texture

19:07I'm gonna give a solid eight point nine out of ten flavor

19:10Oftentimes when you see tomato in a taco like this

19:12The first thing that happens is you lose salt because the tomato then dissolves the salt and dilutes the intensity of flavor

19:17That's not happening here. The seasoning is throughout flavor. The shrimp is fresh. It's not fishy. It's oceanic. It's got brightness

19:23I think this is also a nice Baja

19:25Bring the Baja to make me go

19:29Moving on we are here at the little America food cart pod and we are at a Korean fried chicken place specifically called

19:34Fry baby owned by Sonny Hatch. This is like his rookie endeavor was fried, baby

19:39That's the first thing he ever did and immediately is the most talked-about food cart in the city of Portland, Oregon

19:43We tried two items the classic gochujang wings and these snow cheese wings little unusual

19:49But supposedly they say mac and cheese meets chicken wing and it's one of the most talked-about street food dishes in all of Portland

19:55Yeah, I mean it looks almost like an unfinished gem

19:57It feels like if you ran this through a polisher what would spit out is possibly a chicken wing shaped diamond

20:03They also gave us a dime bag of what they call Korean sparkle. It's like ramen powder

20:08Love that so they were nice enough smart enough and kind enough to give us what I like to call condoms for eating

20:14Their gloves. Here we go. The snow cheese this giant

20:19Monstrosity, where do I even begin? Wow?

20:21Whoa, dude, what the hell a little sparkle in there with wings?

20:25One of the hard things about it is you kind of get like a wet crunch

20:28This is a really nice dry crisp crunch that immediately hits you and I don't know what the they did

20:35Like you can see the separation of the seasoning and the chicken. So the seasoning form like a crispy barrier that is substantial

20:41I'm not picking up tons of cheese notes

20:42I'm picking up a subtle toasted Parmesan flavor and I really like it

20:45And then if you use a little bit of the Korean sparkle you add a little bit of umami a little bit of salt a

20:50Little MSG and then it's really hitting I will say like if I were to have one critique

20:53I wish it would there was like a touch more salt before I go any further. Let's try the gochujang

20:58This is another Portland versus New York situation Korean fried chicken in New York in the freezing cold

21:03We're in the freezing cold again, but this time in Portland

21:05We have two great

21:07Goliaths in the fried chicken world and the question is who had the better of Korean fried chicken to me by far

21:12The one in the lead is Portland. It's got more depth of flavor. It's got that rich pepper gochujang flavor

21:18This is like how I would make mine

21:19I hate that I'm comparing it to the way that I make mine

21:21But if I were to rate one of these I'm honestly gonna go with the original one

21:24I hate to be a bit of an outlier. I know everybody's saying that the cheese one is their favorite

21:27The cheese one is delicious and I will come back for that

21:29I think it's a unique offering but if we go to the classic, this is a banger texture not easy

21:33This has been sitting here with the sauce in the cold if it were my wings

21:37They would have been soggy by now the fact that they're still crunchy. I think speaks volumes to them flavor

21:41It's got all the flavors that I want

21:42I almost wish there was just a hint more saltiness like maybe a little bit of soy sauce flavor flat eight

21:46Which is strong Portland our Korean wing champion and through four spots Portland is killing it

21:51But our next spot Matt's barbecue tacos. Listen taking a Texan for barbecue and tacos. That's risky behavior

21:58But here's the real question

21:59This spot could backfire and completely ruin Portland's average and thus kick them out from even winning Matt's needs to score

22:0613.5 or higher to hold Portland's current lead and two tacos will decide that the brisket breakfast taco and the barbecue pork belly taco

22:13What makes this really special is they make their own flour tortillas

22:16I will say a lot of the places even in Austin don't make their own tortillas. So they've got a leg up

22:21Immediately first bite the promise is there and they delivered first of all, this brisket is look really nicely

22:26It is chopped brisket

22:27Which I should say kind of gives them a little bit of a leg up chopped brisket is the easiest to make good because you're

22:31tossing with barbecue sauce and you're chopping the lean with the fatty so you can hide all the

22:35Imperfections with all the fatty cuts that said I got a big chunk of lean in that and it was moist

22:38It was tender. It did not have a steak each you but one of the first thing I noticed was that nice smoky flavor

22:43The eggs are cooked nicely. They're not like super rubbery. They're nice and tender. It's like flaky almost

22:48You can see there's a little air pockets going on in there and I like that

22:51That's adding the density of this taco and it creates a formidable base to hold all this meat

22:56And also by the way, potatoes are really good. Yeah. Wow. I'm like nervous almost

23:01Unbelievable the importance of this is picking the right cut of belly. It's not too fatty. It's got the perfect ratio of meat and fat

23:07It's really hard to find pork belly like that. It's almost got a bacon II here to it

23:10I don't know if you feel that way. I'm gonna vote for the breakfast taco is my favorite of the two

23:14This is a top 10 breakfast taco firstly

23:16It's the homemade tortilla, but more importantly the eggs were actually properly seasoned with salt

23:20This stands at a solid 8 for texture and 8 for flavor, but Austin chefs more specifically the one serving breakfast tacos

23:26Please hear me out time to step it up guys

23:28If you make breakfast tacos in Austin step it up. I'm gonna show these guys up

23:31I gotta say I had much better of an impression than I expected from Portland

23:34Not that I thought it would be bad, but it exceeded my expectations

23:37Which means it's now in the lead after conquering two of America's top street food cities

23:41Except there's one more missing that we have to see and that is where I was born Los Angeles

23:48It's a city celebrated for its street food

23:50But it's faced troubling times devastating wildfires in early 2025 that left

23:55Unimaginable destruction behind and as an LA native witnessing this was heartbreaking to say the least it's one thing to see it on the news

24:02It's another thing to see it in person

24:04But even in tragedy food is at the heart of this city chefs line cooks street food vendors

24:09Restaurants despite being part of such a vulnerable industry are among the first to step up feeding those in need without hesitation

24:18Today we're joined by memo Torres of LA taco a James Beard award-winning publication that not only shares the best taco spots

24:24But also covers the true community behind the beauty of food during the fires

24:29They were on the front lines and they were on the front lines

24:31During the fires they were on the front lines amplifying the stories of the tragedy the recovery and the taco vendors who turned their food

24:39Stands into relief stations one of those taco vendors on the front lines is our first stop today

24:45Marisco's Jalisco arguably LA's most famous taco truck. Thanks to honestly a very simple creation. Just a shrimp taco

24:52How good is it gonna be really?

24:55This is one of the most addictive tacos you can get a memo and it always hits it's always the same and never disappoint

25:02I would say Oh seafood tacos of underrated, right?

25:05Cuz a lot of people don't order them and I always try to push people to order a little bit more seafood tacos

25:08Just try them if anyone were to start here, you would never want to order a meat taco again

25:13This is bonkers like phenomenal. I've had over a thousand tacos in LA. There's very few

25:19I crave and I run back to this is one of them. There's so many things going on

25:23the first thing I noticed is like the

25:24Temperature you've got this like really beautifully like hot on the inside a little bit warm on the outside and then that cold

25:30Refreshing salsa on top the cold refreshing avocado. It plays really well together temperature

25:35I don't even think it's been a topic of conversation until now

25:38This is the first time that we're talking about it in the whole video texture is

25:41Unbelievable by applying this sort of like a little bit more moist a little bit more wet salsa

25:45It calms down the crunch without losing the crunch

25:48You now have a little bit of chew and then of course the inside is just like this luscious moist ooey-gooey

25:53I don't even know what the fuck is in there to be honest with you, but nobody knows what's in there

25:56It's a secret people have tried to pry it out of him. We don't know what it was in this

26:02Memo also recommended the Poseidon tostada, which looks insane. It's very tasty

26:07But truthfully I really was more focused on the shrimp taco texture. I think it's a 9-4. Honestly

26:12It's like the best textured shrimp taco in human history flavor, dude. It's a 9-4

26:16That might be the highest rating I've ever given crazy work moving on. We're at tacos de vida la unica

26:21Which is one of the og media trucks?

26:23I know beaters exploded everywhere, but these guys have been doing it for a long time

26:26What is the special thing about these guys that other beta trucks don't do that?

26:28They do go and they do beef and on top of that they make their own handmade tortillas

26:32I like that they do both beef and goat because I feel like oftentimes anytime I've gone anywhere

26:37It's either one or the other and most of the time nowadays is beef. You don't really see goat anymore

26:41That's obviously the more traditional route. I like that. They're kind of trying to cater to both parties

26:45Nothing much. You got your console man there too. So you do it. Oh

26:49This has flavor

26:50I want to like try and persuade you here for anybody who has had beer yet before you really should be looking for the goat

26:55Variety, I think you're gonna get a more authentic flavor, but it's really not like I think what everyone's afraid of it's gonna

26:59Oh, it's gonna be gamey. I'm not gonna like it

27:01But first of all, you gotta try it before you start talking

27:03Second of all beef to me is so mellow that it gets lost in all the power of this flavor

27:08You've got chili. You've got the onion the fresh cilantro. And of course that nice consomme

27:12That's just like enrobing this rich bite

27:14But the beauty of having goat in there is you can actually taste the meat. So now it's a whole experience

27:20I think this is great. This would definitely go in one of my top contending beer

27:23Yeah, it was far better than the one that we had in Mexico City in my opinion the whole history of beer

27:27Yeah, it was created to tame the gaminess of goat if you ever get a goat taco and you still taste the goat

27:32They didn't do it, right?

27:33I'm gonna break this down texture super crisp on the outside and a lot of tortillas

27:37This is why you can tell that they're making them here when they try to get that crispy exterior and their older

27:41Tortillas, they do get a little crispy, but they're kind of like leathery. This is like a nice snack

27:45It's still a little bit elastic from the tortilla. You've got the cheese in there

27:48That's kind of promoting that chew even more and the meat is so soft and melts in your mouth not too spicy at all

27:53I almost wish it was a little spicier for me personally, but that's what the sauce is for. So there you go

27:57Honestly, I'm gonna give the texture 9.1 out of 10 flavor. I almost wish there was just a tiny tiny bit more salt

28:03I wouldn't say this is under salted even without that though. The flavor is so intense

28:07I think I'm gonna give the flavor an 8.8 out of 10. Very very very very strong start

28:11We have much more to go moving on. So I'm super excited to bring you to this spot

28:14It's one of my newest favorite spots

28:15We're in Cypress Park down the hill from Dodger Stadium and this is one of the first tacos

28:19I bit into immediately was like this is a winner

28:22This is their Al Pastor taco and one of the unique things that they do here is they're the offspring of a good franchise in

28:28Tijuana called Tijuanazo, which used to be called Taconazo. So like the tortillas, they're all from Tijuana

28:33He's got his great marinade on it. And one of the most unique things that he does and you won't see anywhere else

28:37Is that cilantro cream on top? Yeah, I love that. There's two sauces basically go ahead and take a bite

28:42Better than any Al Pastor that we had in Mexico City by far

28:45This is exactly what people imagine when they see that juicy trompo hot and sweaty

28:51Seasoned to the maximum with salt. There's zero dryness. It's nice and fatty. It's luscious

28:56It's unctuous and then all that richness gets cut by the acidity in the pineapple the sweetness of the pineapple

29:01It's nice and acidic in the crema too. The crema is not overwhelmingly creamy. Exactly. Because I think if it was it might almost be too much

29:07Yeah, it's also very fresh. I'm like drooling over here

29:09Yeah

29:09One of the most unique things about this taqueria though is that he takes after his father who taught him this trick

29:14He has a specific salsa and a specific tortilla for every meat that you want

29:18This is why I always say the best tacos in America do not come from New York. They do not come from Texas

29:23They come from California in Los Angeles, and this is an exact epiphany moment. You'll have you come meet here

29:29You'll know what the f**k I'm talking about. I'm not joking. I know a lot of people are gonna think oh you're so biased

29:33I really don't give a f**k. That is what I believe because when I put it in my mouth

29:36I want to take my pants off. You understand?

29:40Flavor, the meat I taste the unctuousness of the pork and the spices and it's garlicky and rich and you can get that a little

29:46Bit of that achiote. It's got that cream

29:48Herbaceousness from the cilantro cream flavor 9.6 and I think I'm gonna give the texture a 9.5

29:53This is the highest score of the video so far

29:55That means that we've only got a few more places left to see if that can be beat. Moving on

29:58Okay, so we went a little bit off the path here. We went to Kogi. I picked this out

30:02It's been around for a long time

30:04Actually, it's been around so long that I would argue it might as well have been one of the first most important food trucks of

30:10The United States of America. They kind of kicked off basically the food truck scene

30:14I grew up eating off of these growing up with my dad and you know working around LA after Kogi took over the truck style

30:19And did his thing. Roach Coach is no more

30:20It was like the fusion trucks, the food trucks and the whole scene exploded all over not just LA but the US

30:26It made the public comfortable with eating street food. Yes in a big way across the US in other countries

30:32It's very common. No one thinks twice about it, but in America that we're all about sanitation and oh my god

30:37I don't know if I can eat that off the streets. So we got the sliders

30:39We got the Korean Kogi dog. What we're gonna do is we're gonna try these whichever one is better

30:42It's the one that we are gonna rate

30:44Okay, it's good. Yeah, the Korean barbecue sauce on that when I saw the bag shredded cheese scared you a little bit

30:49I got scared. Yeah, but that fear turned to joy. The meat is super tender

30:53It's not chewy. Nice little sear. The Korean I guess barbecue sauce or whatever is on there. It's sweet. It's salty

30:58It's perfectly balanced. It's a little bit acidic too. I like the acidity in there. That's really important

31:02You got the crunch from the fresh cabbage. It's got a little bit of like a kimchi flavor to it

31:05But this bun is like remarkable. I don't know where the fuck they're sourcing these buns

31:09This might be one of the best slider buns I've ever had in my life

31:11It's not like a Kings Hawaiian roll, but it's very similar

31:13Yeah, it's not as sweet, but it's soft like it and it's buttery

31:16I honestly forget the Kogi dog because that thing looked whack as fuck. I'm just gonna vote for this

31:20Sure. I mean you want the glizzy the way that that is slung over. Let's just let them have this win and call it a day

31:25I'm curious man. I'm gonna give it a try. This is who really wants this

31:30Was that right? Yeah

31:32That bun was not it man. Okay. Okay texture. Can I get a drumroll, please?

31:36We're going with an unbelievable 9.2 and flavor

31:429.3 maybe one of the most surprisingly tasty sliders I have had in a very long time

31:49Kogi still got it good for you. Just maybe not the dog now Ellie's score might look big

31:53But remember this is just the current average this number could go down depending on how the final spot goes

31:59And yes, it could still lose the lead

32:01It all comes down to me and me a shawarma if they score a higher than a 13

32:04LA will officially be the best street food city in America the energy emanating off of these guys is crazy

32:11They've been around for under two years. They're still very new

32:14They've got that excited energy that kind of goes away after you run an establishment for like four or five years

32:19And you've been killing it for so long, you know, it kind of goes away the magic and they still got the magic

32:23So there's a strong chance. We could have a winner

32:25So this is a Jordanian style chicken shawarma that got its start at Shemorgishburg, LA

32:29This is my most favorite street food festival ever. It happens every week. It's massive

32:34There's lots of people everywhere and loads of very unique food by some of the most passionate people I can think of in restaurants

32:40But for Chef Yaz, the magic really started back home in Jordan. He brings this bread, which is like this beautifully thin translucent bread

32:48That's handmade from Jordan and the spices. Here we go. Cheers

32:54At first I was like

32:55Why is there a line of people on the side of the road in front of this car wash parking lot?

32:59And then I see these hot long crunchy boys going to people's mouths. I think I'm getting it

33:04Oh my god. Garlic aioli he puts on there too. Mm-hmm some pickles. It's like a perfect bite

33:07That is exactly what I was gonna say. This is a perfect bite. God that bread is so thin

33:12It's so delicate because it's so thin. It's really just doing the bare necessities of its job

33:16It's holding everything and all the goodness together texture really crispy here super soft and chewy almost like a super thin tortilla

33:23Mixed with the naan the inside the protein is salted

33:26Perfectly you're getting crunch from the pickle. The meat is moist. It's got a nice tooth some this to it. It's fatty

33:31It's not dry at all. I don't even know what kind of meat it is. Come on. Look at this. Look at this

33:35It's so thin Wow, I

33:37can't

33:38Believe we've arrived at the final moment after four cities endless flavors

33:45It all comes down to our final score which city is our champion of American street food

33:50It's so difficult

33:51Think about New York arguably many people would look at that place as the greatest place for a dining experience

33:57in the United States of America

33:59Globally people would say that but then again Portland has won over the hearts of culinarians around the US

34:05And Austin a bit of a newcomer, but still killing the game. I mean I live there for sake

34:10I love the place but if Mia Mia scores higher than a 13 Los Angeles wins the competition. All right, texture 9-5

34:18Flavor though solid

34:209.4 out of 10. This is a banger. That means LA winner only one it is what it is

34:26Here's what I'll say

34:27We've been all over every single place has blown out our

34:30Expectations every single place that we ate at easily has gotten the highest ratings that we've ever done period out of any video

34:35We've eaten all over the globe by far this video. We've rated food the highest of all time

34:40So I think everyone deserves a round of applause great food doesn't have to be made over a shiny cooktop

34:44Just needs to be made with great ingredients and some good intention. I love you subscribe. Bye

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