Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives – “You Picked ‘em”

On this episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Guy visits Oklahoma, Texas and California.

First stop is Okarche, Oklahoma to a local fried chicken restaurant named “Eischen’s” that’s been serving the same recipe for fried chicken for over 110 years and serves over 24 thousand pieces of fried chicken per week. Wow, that’s a bunch of chicken for one local stop. And as the menu says… they only serve up one whole chicken at a time. There’s no coming in and order just wings at this place. Along with the chicken, the locals rave about the chili. And they have a strange way of cooking it. All the meat in a pan… cooked on top of the stove. The spices and flavoring are added near the end of the cooking time. Kind of backwards, but the locals love it. Here’s the chili recipe.

The second stop is in LA at “Mom’s Tamales”. Mom’s Tamales serves up tamales 8 different ways for chicken to pinnacle to spinach. Guy seems to really like the Masa that the tamales are made of. And with restaurant cranking out over 1500 a week, I think it’s a fairly successful little place. Here’s a Chilli Relleno recipe shown on the show.

The 3rd stop is my home town, Houston Texas. Guy visits a local NY style deli named “Kenny & Ziggy’s”. Kenny & Ziggy’s serves up traditional NY deli style (Jewish comfort) food. Ziggy (the owner) runs through the preparation of one of his favorites, Kreplach. He then shows off one of his monster sized sandwiches that you basically have to pull apart to eat. Here’s Ziggy’s Kasha Varnishkas recipe. This place is on the other side of town from where I live but the next time I’m in that area I’ll be making a stop at Kenny & Ziggy’s.