You know, people are asking me all the time,
"Hey, Guy, that one joint you checked out in that one city
when you were doing Triple D, how they doing?"
You know, I don't know, we should check it out!
[engine roaring]
[Guy] Over the years I've seen and tasted it all.
This is ridiculous, dude.
But it turns out it was only the beginning 'cause
Triple D joints have been blowing up, and we're going
back to see what's cooking.
Like on this trip, we're fooling around...
Shoopolah!
...all over Flavortown.
We're brothers of another mother.
Everybody's having a good time, it's good vibes.
[Guy] There's a mom-and-pop shop in Chicago serving up
Scandinavian staples.
-[Larry] Meatballs coming up. -Look at that.
A real-deal taco spot multiplying in Austin.
-No one can just eat one taco. -The merry-go-round of flavor.
And a funkalicious joint in New Orleans...
Go ahead and take these collard green melts over
to the dragon table.
...serving out-of-bounds creations...
Wow, that's dino, mm.
...that keep on crushing.
Love the attitude and energy of what you do.
One of a kind.
Familiar faces, new places, and more off-the-hook flavors.
This is "Triple D Nation."
[theme music plays]
Here's one for you, 2018...
I got stuck in the rain outside a funky little sandwich shop
in New Orleans. What time do you guys open?
Peace?
What time -- oh, 11!
Turns out, it was worth the wait
for the over-the-top sandwiches that are inside.
And these days, they even have a few new spin-offs.
This is Turkey and the Wolf.
Ham sandwich is up.
If you're in New Orleans, you have to try
Turkey and the Wolf.
Triple D found a very unique spot.
Everybody's having a good time. It's good vibes.
Hey, got two burgers on fire.
An adventurous eater is still gonna find something really
cool here, but also it's comfortable.
[Guy] And all that is exactly the menu mantra
of chef and owner Mason Hereford.
We're a sandwich shop, based on fun,
and trying to make big flavors and make people happy.
Mason, I didn't think the hair could get any better
since I saw you last. -Stop.
Our culinary director on "Guy's Grocery Games,"
Tara, she goes, "You gotta go to Turkey and the Wolf."
Go there, have the best time.
Love the attitude and energy of what you do.
It's cool -- it's something different than the beaten path.
-Two head cheese tacos. -What are we gonna make first?
The hog's head cheese that's gonna go on our hog's head
cheese tacos. -We got this beautiful hog head.
[Mason] We're gonna go in with some water, celery, onions,
carrots, onion powder, granulated garlic,
white pepper, black pepper, chili powder,
Korean chili flake, paprika, mustard powder.
Copious amounts of garlic.
Hot sauce and a little bay leaf.
Get it rolling and then drop it down to a simmer.
[Mason] 10 to 12 hours.
We've got the meat, mirepoix, sherry vinegar,
Korean chili flake, Creole mustard, kosher salt,
fresh-ground black pepper. -[Guy] That's the key.
[Mason] Hot sauce. We also have reduced down all that liquid.
[Guy] Let's see what's gonna happen.
[Mason] We're gonna start by throwing some tortillas we make in-house.
This is gonna be an American cheese slice right here.
Melt the cheese by steaming it with a little water.
Our hog's head, sour cream, hot sauce.
Hit it with what we call shreddis, which is shredded lettuce.
We find ourselves pretty clever here.
You guys are laughing at your own jokes a lot.
-All the time. -Constantly.
-[Guy] Yeah. -[Mason] Strippies on top.
Jalapeno.
The super unctuous mega flavor head cheese.
This is everybody's taco.
They're gonna flock-o for this taco.
It's all we hope for.
Hog's head tacos for Phil.
Starting the day after the show aired,
Triple D fans came in droves.
Turkey and the Wolf has a bunch of unique and different
items that you wouldn't really find anywhere else.
We've got a chicken pot pie empanada,
or a fried chicken pot pie that fits in your pocket.
What's inside of it?
Slow-cooked chicken.
Season the chicken with salt and pepper on both sides.
Then, right on the griddle, flip it over,
add our mirepoix and garlic.
The chicken's gotta go back into the pan.
A ton of thyme. A ton of rosemary.
-A ton of rosemary. -Maximum chicken flavors.
Chicken bouillon powder. Water.
We're gonna put this in the oven for an hour
at 400 degrees.
Strain our liquid for our gravy.
Add our chicken fat roux, fresh thyme,
and fresh rosemary, put together our chicken filling,
add in our gravy, mirepoix that we sauteed,
sriracha, Louisiana-style hot sauce,
and a little sherry vinegar.
Put it right in the center of this roti paratha dough,
and now they're ready to go in the fryer.
Season it with our chicken salt, tarragon buttermilk,
and that's it.
[riff guitar music plays]
It is 100% roasted chicken pie, and the roti dough is different.
than a regular pie crust, where it's a little bit
crunchier and lighter, like a wonton.
-Yeah. -[Guy] Fantastic.
I have a pot pie.
The crust is really flaky, and the inside's more decadent
than a regular pot pie.
How much of this is really a restaurant, and how much
of this is, like, your clubhouse, hangout?
Ah, yeah, hard to answer. I'd say it's all of both.
-I got two dudes over here. -[Guy and Mason laugh]
Love your whole team, by the way.
-Your team was one of the best groups I've ever worked with. -Thank you.
Three of them have all gone on to partner
in restaurants with me.
And rumor has it, you're opening in Nashville.
We're going to Nashville.
It's gonna be our second home.
As easygoing and as funky-cool as he is,
this guy is a businessman without any question.
And coming up, there's plenty more business up his sleeve.
-You wrote a cookbook. -Yeah.
[Guy] And even crazier creations.
Bologna sandwich up for Rhino.
Bologna sandwich is so sick.
[Guy] You cook like you're tattooed.
You got it all on there, buddy.
Welcome back, Triple D hanging out in New Orleans at a funky
joint you gotta check out called Turkey and the Wolf.
And make sure that this guy's on stage.
I mean, back here, cooking in the kitchen.
And Chef Mason Hereford has definitely been cooking
with gas since we first met in 2018.
-Great success, you wrote a cookbook. -I did -- you blurbed it.
[Guy] Yep, because we're brothers of another mother.
But what happened with Turkey and the Wolf?
You're not open for dinner anymore?
One day, we realized we were able to pay our bills
with everybody on health insurance
without opening for dinner.
We close at 4 o'clock every day, no dinner.
We got a wedge salad for Donna.
The place has got its good little following.
-It's always busy. -[patron] It's eclectic, like fun.
They drop you off all these weird animals as your food markers.
You'd be like, "Oh, this one goes to the dead bat."
"Go ahead and take these collard green melts over to the dragon table."
-I have a collard green melt. -[patron #2] You get a collard green melt.
You don't really see that every day.
-Like a triple-decker collard green sandwich with, uh... -[indistinct]
...some Reuben vibes.
-We have three pieces of rye bread. -Three pieces.
[Mason] The middle slice is the soaker slice.
It soaks up all the juices from the collard greens.
Two of the slices get Swiss.
We're gonna add the collard greens to our sandwich now.
Finish it with our Russian dressing and our coleslaw.
-Soaker slice, there we go. -OK.
[Mason] And that's the collard green melt sandwich.
So everything you want in a Reuben, but vegetarian.
[Mason] Exactly, yeah.
[Guy] I love a Reuben.
But if you're gonna put something in the center,
you gotta put something that's got some texture.
It's gotta have some identity.
And the collard greens are the perfect wingman for this.
Wow, that's dino.
Mm.
[server] Got a collard melt for, Jerbear.
-It is just fun, good food. -Bologna sandwich up for Rhino.
Bologna sandwich is so sick. It's so big and tasty.
All those chips on it.
[Mason] That's the most important move.
We wanna give the diner the opportunity to
crush it down, 'cause it's our favorite part.
So what's in here?
[Mason] Some thick-cut and toasted
white bread with a little butter on there.
We've got our proprietary bologna made from pigs that
have hobbies. Two slices of American cheese.
And then we've got mustard that we make,
a friend's mom's recipe.
Mustard powder, sugar,
kosher salt, white vinegar, rice wine vinegar, eggs.
Throw it on our double boiler, and we're gonna let it
slowly thicken.
Get some airflow around that bread.
We want it to be kind of crispy, so you can do that smash.
Mayonnaise, shreddis, bologna, and melted cheese,
vinegar-brined potato chips.
We slice them here, soak 'em in water,
and strain the liquid, cover 'em in vinegar,
set these in the walk-in overnight, strain them,
and then they're ready to go into the fryer.
We have our top piece of bread slathered with that mustard
that goes right on top. And there it is.
There's two ways that I can describe this sandwich to you.
One has to do with your indulgence
and habits in college.
You understood what I mean, college kid on a budget.
The other has to do with being a kid in fifth grade
and shoving your entire lunch
inside of your -- of your sandwich.
The bread's dynamite.
House-made chips, if you're gonna eat a potato chip,
eat a great one. The bologna is spot-on.
What a dynamite sandwich!
[server] Fried bologna sandwich.
The house-made chips make it so much better.
It's not like regular chips.
Smashing it down to eat it is crucial.
You cook like you're tattooed.
I mean, you got it all on there, buddy.
This is one of my favorites.
This is the wolf with the turkey tongue.
That I want a T-shirt of. I'll look for you in Nashville.
-It's gonna be a blast. -Heck yeah, thanks, man.
-[Guy] Keep it up, man. -I appreciate you.
You are awesome. One of a kind.
And coming up...
-What was it? -To do that?
-Dance move or what was it? -[laughs]
...a top-notch taqueria...
-There is so much flavor. -It is fire.
[Guy] ...putting out their passion...
Quality ingredients handmade and natural.
[Guy]...all over Austin.
That's about as real deal as it goes, man.
You go anywhere in the Southwest, someone's gonna
try to pitch you on their buddy's taco truck.
But when I was rolling through Austin, Texas, in 2019,
I ended up in a spot that had graduated from food truck
to real-deal taqueria.
And since I was there, they've grown even more,
exploding into eight locations. This is OneTaco.
Taco yucateco and a street corn.
If you're gonna get tacos, you better go to OneTaco.
[Axel] Tony, I'm gonna need more trompo.
We have a lot of Tex-Mex options in Austin.
This separates itself because it is so authentically Mexican.
[Axel] Barbacoa taco!
I actually saw it for the first time on Triple D.
I try to follow Guys' advice, and this one really tops the list.
-Liking those steak tacos? -[patron] Oh, yeah.
Tony calls it OneTaco, but no one can just eat one taco.
[Guy] He's talking about Tony Avila,
who, along with his buddy Axel Beverido,
moved here from Mexico to open this joint in 2009.
-Who's the taco aficionado? -We both are.
[Guy] So what makes good tacos?
We brought the recipes from Mexico.
Quality ingredients, handmade and natural.
At the beginning, when we created the menu,
it was what we like.
And we tried to do it really well.
Gringa taco.
I like the gringa taco the best, super cheesy.
The al pastor tasted really good.
-[Guy] What's first, build the pork? -[Tony] Yes.
What are we gonna marinate it in?
Vinegar, oregano, garlic powder, pepper,
chile color. -[Guy] Chicken base.
And some cinnamon.
You let it marinate for like 24 hours.
-We get it to like... -I'm sorry, what was that?
To do that?
Was it a dance move, or what was it?
Now I'm gonna stack it up on the trompo. Yeah.
You gotta hold onto it so you don't dump all the trompo
and have all the meat fall on the floor.
I've been waiting to say it all day.
The pineapple will go up on top and it'll go to the rotisserie.
[Tony] Yes, sir. This is al pastor.
Holy quesadilla is what you're talking about.
[Tony] Flour tortillas, pineapple, onions,
and the cilantro, salsa taquera.
It's based with tomatillos and a lot of chilies.
[Guy] There is so much flavor...
inside of that taco.
It's cheesy and creamy and meaty.
-Delicious. -Thank you.
I got a gringo pastor taco.
The pineapple has a nice sweet tanginess with the pork.
It's really good.
[patron] The gringo's been one of my favorites,
but now I'm getting the quesa birria,
and it is fire.
I got a quesa birria for you.
[patron #2] I like the consomme that you can dip it in.
The beef is really good.
So we're gonna make the quesa birria, which is
a quesadilla of birria. Start with the water,
five pounds of neck meat.
We're gonna add some peppercorn here, some oregano.
I got the onion here, garlic, the bay leaves,
the cumin.
Now that we have the sachet ready,
add some chicken bouillon and some salt.
Cook the meat for two hours, and then we're gonna add
the marinade, which is pasilla peppers,
ancho peppers, and guajillo peppers.
We also have water and garlic.
We're gonna cook for one more hour.
Now we're gonna shred our meat.
It's very tender.
I'm gonna take the raw flour tortilla, and we're gonna cook
it first, and then dip it into the consomme, and then we're
gonna add the cheese and the birria.
Fold it up.
Add some onions and cilantro, the consomme on the side,
and here's the quesa birria ready.
-It's really juicy. -Nice rich flavors.
I usually take the dip and pour it on all the other tacos that
I'm eating, too. -Chicken taco, pick it up!
-What do you think of the tacos? -I love them.
They remind me of Mexico, where I grew up.
what's the little setup I see over here,
the merry-go-round of flavor?
That's a rotating griddle for the tortilla making.
It's pretty fun to see.
I need a flour tortilla and a corn tortilla for number two.
Back then, we were doing 1,000 per day.
Then Guy came to the store,
and now we're making 10,000 tortillas per day.
They've expanded. They have eight locations now.
They've stayed true to who they are.
But there's such a great variety of tacos here.
Two cauliflower tacos.
Our main job is to keep the quality and freshness
of the tacos every single day.
Taco norte coming up!
I got to try the taco norte. It was so good.
The chorizo and the steak is really juicy, and the pico on
top is just, like, amazing.
[Axel] So we're gonna make the taco norte.
It's a house favorite.
It's been since day one, and people love it.
We're gonna start marinating the sirloin,
oil, unsalted meat tenderizer, a blend of peppers,
onions, and garlic, a little bit of water.
And we like to let it marinate for at least an hour.
And we're gonna start grilling it.
Steak is ready. Dice it up nicely.
Start making the tacos.
Put the cheese in the griddle, and then we're gonna
add the chorizo.
I'm gonna add the sirloin to the corn tortillas.
Add the chorizo with the cheese.
And then, we're just gonna top it with fresh pico de gallo.
-And we got taco nortes ready. -Taco norte, number nine.
[patron #3] That blend of chorizo and steak,
it just hits something a little bit different.
Mm -- that's about as real deal as it goes, man.
[Axel] Tacos Yucatecos.
Having the Guy stamp of approval,
that was a experience for us,
and we wanna continue to make this a success story.
[Guy] I love what you guys are doing. You're taking it really serious.
The attitude is correct.
-Nice job, buddy. -Thanks, man.
[Guy] Up next, a Chicago spot...
You got something fantastic going on.
[Guy]...spreading the love for Scandinavian specialties...
Come down here and try those.
...all the way down to the dessert.
-It feels a little like home. -That's outstanding.
I'm here on the northwest side of Chicago at a place whose
building was built in 1896.
It sits in a predominantly Scandinavian neighborhood,
and this place is owned by a first- and second-generation
Scandinavian couple.
Now, guess what kind of cuisine they cook?
You got it, Scandinavian.
And since my visit in 2009, they've had to spread out
to keep up with all their new fans
trying their regional recipes.
You gotta come check out Tre Kronor.
Waffle, table 23.
Triple D did a great job representing
one of my favorite restaurants.
I've been coming here almost 23 years now,
and food has always been good.
[Larry] Reuben's up.
I'm from Sweden, and it's very similar to what you get
in a restaurant there.
[Guy] That's because husband and wife owners Larry Anderson
and Patty Rasmussen have Scandinavian roots
and did their research.
[Larry] We went to Scandinavia for the first time,
and we discovered there was a whole world of food out there. -[Guy] Oh, right.
And that's, what's really sort of made the restaurant take off.
[Patty] When we opened, the majority of people
who lived in these, like, four blocks were Scandinavian,
but Triple D allowed us to share it with everybody.
We've got a quiche, duck, and a gravlax appetizer.
The menu has not changed at all.
I've been making gravlax since we started.
For folks that don't know what gravlax is, I mean,
we're thinking cured salmon.
-Lox means salmon in Swedish. -Oh!
-[Guy] Let's go. -[Larry] All right, well, we start with the two salmon
for a little aquavit. -[Guy] So you do a shot of that?
One for the chef, one for the salmon, yeah.
Then I like to rub it in a little bit, massage it,
spank it.
Then we're gonna make the curing mix.
Three to two, sugar to salt. Pepper.
-Totally cover it. -It's liberal.
[Larry] Yeah. The salt does the work.
-And that's pulling out the moisture. -Yeah.
Then a lot of dill.
Flip this piece on, and I'm gonna put the rest
of the salt mixture right on top of the skin of this.
[Guy] How long are we gonna let this cure?
-[Larry] Three days is perfect. -[Guy] Look at that.
Look at the texture of the meat.
It's already starting to get a little bit hard.
Now you're gonna baste it over the top?
[Larry] Baste it, and then we're gonna flip it.
-[Guy] That'll go another day? -[Larry] Yep.
[Guy] Look at that. Gravlax made fresh,
just where you expect to find it, in Chicago.
[Larry] We're gonna serve it with some dill cream potatoes,
and then we got the little Wasa bread.
[Guy] Pile that up on top.
Mm. Delicate texture.
That's outstanding.
Scandinavians order gravlax, right?
And after that show, everybody wanted to try it.
Order up. Oslo omelet.
My wife's Scandinavian, so I come in here because
it sort of feels like a connection.
[server] This is that Jansson's Temptation.
The Jansson's Temptation is one of my favorites here.
It's like a potato casserole.
Jansson's Temptation is a classic Swedish dish
I'm gonna get started with the potato on the mandoline,
and I'm gonna salt the potatoes a little bit.
We've buttered the casserole dish.
First layer of the potatoes, sauteed onions, heavy cream,
and Swedish anchovies.
They're preserved in a vinegar and sugar.
So now, I'm gonna go for a second layer of the potatoes,
cream, breadcrumbs, melted butter.
Put it in the oven at 375 for an hour and a half.
We serve it with house-made pickled cucumbers
and our Prince Corp sausages.
mildly smoked beef and pork sausage,
garnished with parsley.
Here's our Jansson's Temptation.
The sausage, it's kind of a savory meat,
and it's got a lot of potatoes.
There was, like, a crispiness, a creaminess of it.
Deliciousness.
-[Guy] Where do you put everything? -[Larry] It's pretty tough.
This is a one-stove kitchen.
There's a lot of people that work in here, too.
After Guy, we moved into the building next door,
which used to be a dentist's office.
It gives us a little more space, but most of the work
still gets done in this 300-square-foot kitchen.
Meatball's coming up.
I love the köttbullar, aka Swedish meatballs.
Swedish meatballs.
-They're called köttbullar. -Köttbullar!
So what are we gonna serve with these?
[Larry] Some mashed potatoes, pickled cucumbers,
little lingonberry, top it off with the gravy.
[Guy] This is kind of like Thanksgiving dinner.
-You gotta mix the lingonberry in for the whole experience. -OK.
The meatball has got nice texture on the outside,
but it's light and tender on the inside.
Come down here and try those.
We still sell thousands and thousands a week.
Order of pancakes up.
You can get breakfast, lunch, and dinner here.
It feels a little like home. Comfort food.
We have the saffron ice cream -- enjoy.
I just love the ice cream here.
-It's really Swedish ice cream. -The ice cream is fabulous.
Nothing like I've ever had before.
We are gonna make our homemade ice cream.
Three traditional Scandinavian flavors, saffron ice cream,
cardamom ice cream, and we're gonna do
a lingonberry ice cream.
Start with a simple ice cream base, sugar, and egg yolks.
Then I'm gonna add about half of the milk.
The other half, I'm gonna add to the heavy cream
that I've already been heating.
Add some of our hot cream to our base.
Add our mixture back to the hot cream.
It's starting to thicken, so we're gonna strain it.
Add some vanilla to this.
Separate it into three containers to make
our three different flavors.
This last can is gonna be our lingonberry,
and we're just gonna freeze this solid.
These two big containers are for our cardamom flavor
and our saffron.
Now we're gonna batch freeze our ice cream.
Turn the compressor on and let it go.
Cardamom's done.
Now we're gonna add our saffron base.
It's looking good.
Put this back in the freezer so it hardens.
So our ice cream base for our lingonberry ice cream
is frozen solid, and now we're gonna add lingonberries.
We're gonna attach the canister to the machine,
and it's gonna mix the lingonberry
and ice cream together.
Put this in the freezer and let it get hard.
Ice cream's ready.
We have the saffron, cardamom,
and the lingonberry ice cream.
The cardamom ice cream, it's got a nice balance
of a little bit of sweet and a little bit of savory.
The saffron, it's fun.
It's got, you know, the yellow color.
The lingonberry is sweet,
and it's a classic Swedish fruit,
so it's great to have it in the ice cream.
Aye, captain, you want me to take this -- I'm sorry.
Oh, you're back.
This is just a taste of what the food's like in Scandinavia.
I can't be any more impressed, man.
-Congratulations. -[Larry] Thank you.
You got something fantastic going on.
Bologna coming down.
-Three gringa tacos for the "Triple D Nation." -Wow.
Yeah, there's plenty of personality poured into all
these Triple D dishes. Hey now.
Oh, and I was just starting to fill up.
And there's even more places to park the Camaro next time
on "Triple D Nation."
Are you a mayonnaise guy?
I'm about to get a giant stomach tattoo
of a mayonnaise jar.
-Jar? -The whole jar, and then foods that taste good
with mayonnaise, hugging the jar.