by Guy Fieri
He has a special contraption that’s inspired by beer-can chicken stands that holds the turkey upright, cooking from the inside and outside in the oven. He doesn’t season the bird, but he makes a homemade gravy seasoned with California bay leaves and serves a stuffing with cumin, white pepper, seasoned salt, and veggies, and mashed potatoes, sweet and white. The turkey is super tender, and the gravy is money.
WALKING INTO A DEN OF HUNGRY LIONS…BRAVE.
This is the kind of place people want to keep lining up for, and a big part of that is basic American home cooking, Thanksgiving any time you want it. Jay says he feels like he won the lottery—and so do we.
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[GUY ASIDE]
So we go to Boston, and just like anybody else I get stereotyped into thinking about what kind of chowders and seafood sandwiches Mike’s City Diner is going to make. It’s a common name, and so forth. These places gotta have great food, but they’ve gotta have heart and soul, too, and Jay Hajj, the owner, is one of the neatest guys you’ll ever meet. I recently had Jay on Guy’s Big Bite. The dude roasts these turkeys every day—stands ’em up his way. Everything comes out great. My cousin Rooker Price still goes to this place for the Pilgrim Sandwich. I took one of my friends on a tour for his birthday—five places on the East Coast—and Mike’s City Diner was one of them. Every year I get asked if I’ll do it again. What a great place. Do yourself a favor: expect a line. In fact, better get in line at lunchtime if you want to get in for dinnertime. (Joke!)
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Mike’s City Diner’s Famous Pilgrim Sandwich
ADAPTED FROM A RECIPE COURTESY OF JAY HAJJ OF MIKE’S CITY DINER
Take note, Jay puts so much turkey in his Pilgrim Sandwich he should call it the “Good Night.” With the gravy and the stuffing you need to eat it with a fork and knife—unless you’ve mastered the big bite, of course.
MAKES 1 SANDWICH
1. First, select a braided roll (or roll of your choice) and cut it open. Spread cranberry sauce on the bottom of the roll and then spread stuffing (see recipe on Mike’s City Diner Stuffing) over the cranberry sauce.
2. Next, place sliced turkey on top of the stuffing and follow with gravy, if you like. Top off with the other half of the roll and enjoy.
“GUY, YOU DON’T THINK I CAN DO IT…DO YOU?” (NICE HUNCH, JAY.)
Mike’s City Diner Stuffing
RECIPE COURTESY OF JAY HAJJ OF MIKE’S CITY DINER
MAKES 6 CUPS STUFFING
5 cups chicken stock or low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup chopped celery
¾ cup chopped carrot
¾ cup diced onion
2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
1 small bay leaf
½ teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
6 cups cubed French bread, day-old is best
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Put the stock, celery, carrot, onion, poultry seasoning, bay leaf, oregano, cumin, salt, and pepper to taste in a medium stockpot and boil for 15 minutes.
2. Spread the bread cubes evenly over the bottom of a roasting pan. Remove the bay leaf from the stock, then pour the stock over the bread and let it sit for 3 minutes. Stir well, then bake until golden brown, for about 30 minutes.
NORTHEAST AND MID-ATLANTIC
MUSTACHE BILL’S DINER
EST. 1959, RE-EST. 1972 PANCAKE PORTRAITS: FROM CYCLOPS TO GUY’S HEAD
We started our New Jersey diner tour here at the South Jersey Shore on Long Beach Island. The locals around here know that when the rain starts coming in from the Atlantic, it’s time to come into Mustache Bill’s for some hot coffee and a homemade breakfast.
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TRACK IT DOWN
8th Street and Broadway
Barnegat Light, New Jersey 08006
609-494-0155
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Every basic you’d want is on the menu, as owner Bill Smith says, but every basic is done the best it can be done by Mustache Bill himself. He’s been doing it all his way—including the custom paper-towel headband he wears—for the past thirty-seven years. You see, he worked in this place as a dishwasher when he was fourteen. After going off to college he came back and bought the place in 1972. It’s half job, half love, and totally what a New Jersey diner should be. All-American diner food.
Bill makes chipped beef fresh every day, using high-quality chipped beef that’s kinda like wet jerky, served over rye toast—it’s money. And of course at a classic diner you’re going to get pancakes. He’s got blueberry, strawberry, banana walnut—as Bill says, he’s a pancake maniac. You can even get them done freehand. He did my portrait—in pancake—and it was scary. His pancake weirdness didn’t stop with my face; the Cyclops has a fried egg in the middle of it and a few blueberries around the edge. Somehow Bill makes it work, and the yolk never gets broken on the flip. Up there with some of the best pancakes I’ve ever had (minus the egg part, of course).
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[GUY ASIDE]
When we got to Long Beach Island there was a torrential downpour, and the town looked abandoned. Here I was in shorts, and it was cold out. It was an adventure. Little did we know that our executive producer, David Page, has a beach house there. When we went back the next year, it was like two different worlds.
Funny thing about this dude making the pancake of my head—I was like, there’s no way it’s going to work, but he knocked it out, and later it inspired me to make pancake art with kids. I took it to Miami and had great success with it, teaching kids about whole grains and organic food coloring. He was a real inspiration to me, which is something I love about the show.
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THE MUSTACHE MAN, BUSTIN’ OUT SOME PANCAKE ART.
QUESTION: IS IT THE NIÑA, THE PINTA, OR THE SANTA MARIA?
Chipped Beef
ADAPTED FROM A RECIPE COURTESY OF BILL SMITH OF MUSTACHE BILL’S DINER
Note from Bill: Some people like this served on home fries or white toast, which is the most popular choice. I personally like it on rye toast, and so does Guy! I use a quality brand of dried beef, such as Alderfer’s.
Kitchen note: For the dried beef, the Alderfer chipped beef is sold only in East Coast supermarkets, under the Knauss label. Under the Alderfer brand it can also be ordered from alderfermeats.com.
MAKES 4 TO 6 SERVINGS
2 quarts (8 cups) milk
1 pound dried beef
8 ounces (2 sticks) plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
1 cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
Home fries or white or rye toast, for serving
1. Get the milk going in a large saucepan over medium heat. When it’s almost hot, add half of the dried beef. Don’t let the milk boil; it should just start to steam by the time you finish the next step.
2. Next, heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Press the 8 ounces butter and the rest of the beef into the pan with a spatula. The idea is to melt the butter quickly without overcooking the beef. When the butter is bubbling, add the flour, and cook, stirring, until the flour is toasted and the roux starts to bubble a little, about 4 minutes. Stir the mixture into the steaming milk. Cook, stirring, until the mixture bubbles and thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. If you’ve done it all right, the mixture will thicken quickly as you stir it.
3. Remove the chipped beef from the heat and let it rest for 5 minutes. Stir it again and add the remaining 2 tablespoons butter and the white pepper. Serve hot over home fries or toast.
NORTHEAST AND MID-ATLANTIC
RITZ DINER
EST. 1985 THE SECRET HIDEOUT OF THE BAKERS’ ELVES
They’re baking it all here. Every day all day, bake, bake, bake. They’ve got cheesecake, carrot cake, cookies, lemon meringue pie, babka, chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate. They must have twenty little elves downstairs, but they swear it�
�s just two bakers.
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TRACK IT DOWN
72 E. Mount Pleasant Avenue
Livingston, New Jersey 07039
973-533-1213
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David Feldman and his mother, Marion, have been putting on the Ritz for twenty-three years. Their clientele wants something out of the ordinary, says David, and that means making just about everything from scratch, from breakfast to dinner and all those fresh-baked desserts.
“MOM…GUESS WHAT I JUST DID?”
Made fresh every day, these pies are crazy looking. They’re made out of one piece of oversize dough that’s rolled out and put in the pan, edges overlapping. The apple pie’s got ten to fifteen apples in there and cinnamon sugar and butter sprinkled on top (no mixing concept here); then the dough is just pulled up around the top and the whole thing is packed in. (I know what this is—it’s Speed Pie.) A sprinkle of confectioners’ sugar outta the oven and it’s good pie—a light flaky crust, my oh, my oh what a pie. The Ritz is a family joint that’s keeping sweet. But this family joint is also serving up homemade savory dishes, like a tower of goods called the Pork Chops Giambotta—check it out on Pork Chops Giambotta.
FINALLY THEY’RE DISTRACTED ENOUGH THAT SHE CAN GET A BITE IN.
Pork Chops Giambotta
ADAPTED FROM A RECIPE COURTESY OF DAVID FELDMAN OF RITZ DINER
The Ritz serves these chops up with gaufrettes—that is, waffle-cut French fries.
MAKES 2 SERVINGS
4 (8-ounce) boneless pork loin chops
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
8 ounces sweet Italian link sausage, sliced ¼ inch thick
1 large Spanish onion, halved and thinly sliced
8 ounces mushrooms, such as cremini, portobello, or shiitake, or a mix, sliced
4 garlic cloves, sliced
2 red bell peppers, roasted, peeled, seeded, and thinly sliced
½ cup roughly torn fresh basil leaves
Waffle-cut French-fried potatoes, for serving
1. Heat a grill over medium-high heat. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
Season the pork chops with salt and pepper. Grill the chops to leave grill marks on each side, transfer to a baking dish, and roast in the oven until cooked through, about 12 minutes.
2. While the chops are roasting, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat; add the olive oil and heat. Add the sausage and onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sausage is brown and the onion starts to caramelize. Add the mushrooms and garlic and cook, tossing, until the mushrooms are cooked through. Add the roasted peppers and basil and cook 1 more minute.
3. To serve, place one pork chop on a plate, top with some of the veggies and sausage, put a second pork chop on top, and finish with more veggies to make a tower. Put the fried potatoes around the pork chops and serve.
NORTHEAST AND MID-ATLANTIC
BIG JIM’S IN THE RUN
EST. 1977 ITALIAN CLASSICS IN THE RUN
If you’re from Pittsburgh, you probably know about the neighborhood called the Run, and you gotta be from Pittsburgh if you know about this place: Big Jim’s in the Run. Now, it’s nothing fancy on the outside, but on the inside they’re cooking up old-school Italian, and the locals say it’s better than ever.
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TRACK IT DOWN
201 Saline Street
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15207
412-421-0532
www.bigjimsrestaurant.com
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Here you’ll find baked ziti and homemade lasagna, hand-stuffed shells, and a veal parm that’s as big as your head, all made Big Jim’s way. In 1977 the owner’s uncle bought the building and turned it into Big Jim’s. Big Jim’s nephew, Vito Bochicchio, bought the place in 1992 with a couple of partners to keep the tradition alive. Most of the recipes were handed down from Vito’s grandmother, who brought them with her from Italy.
Partner Gary Burdick is cranking them out, like the one-of-a-kind red sauce that has fresh green peppers, celery, carrots, and onions pureed with olive oil; he adds oregano, basil, garlic, salt, and pepper and lets it sauté about five minutes. It all cooks down with some tomato sauce for about five or six hours. Those pureed vegetables give it some good texture, and it’s light, fresh, and sweet—delicious. The meatballs are made with eggs, oregano, a lot of basil, salt, pepper, pecorino romano, granulated garlic, and panko bread crumbs. Gary’s tweaked the original a little: he uses the panko because it doesn’t have flavor to it and it lets the meat flavor come through. They roll the balls about 4 ounces each and bake them. Great texture, not overcooked, and made the right way.
FORGET THE GEICO MONEY YOU COULD BE SAVING—
MEET THE GUIDO SANDWICH YOU COULD BE EATING.
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[GUY ASIDE]
This is a funky joint on a corner in a residential section. There’s no glitz or glamour; you can just drink in the history. There’s a picture of Big Jim and crazy memorabilia on the wall, it’s an old building, and the regulars have been coming for years—and any time I get a veal parmigiana sandwich, I’m happy.
Funny thing—we were outside shooting the stand-up intro and an older guy starts yelling at me. He says, “Where are those girls?” The crew’s trying to move him out of the way, and I’m like, “What, excuse me? What girls?” He yells, “The three hot girls on the TV show with you!” He’s talking about the T.G.I. Friday’s commercial! I think he thought they were on a show with me. He wanted nothing to do with me, just the girls.
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And the pizza—let me tell you, the dude they have in the back is really throwing some skins (okay, tossing the dough). Felt like I was in Italy. One of the biggest hitters here, though, is the veal parm sandwich. Gary pounds two pieces of veal—that puts the shamalama in the ding-dong—dips them into unseasoned flour, then into an egg wash, then into panko; and then fries them up for three to four minutes. He then takes a bun that’s clearly from Paul Bunyan’s bakery, puts on some marinara and provolone, and melts it under the broiler. When you look in the dictionary under ridiculous, that veal parm is right there. Every part of this sandwich blows my mind, from the super-tender veal and the melted provolone to the crusty Italian bread, all cooked up in a brick joint across from a little old ballpark. Yeah, that’s exactly what I expected to find.
It’s hard to find good wedding soup in restaurants, but not at Big Jim’s; it’s one of their biggest sellers. He makes a fresh pot every day from scratch—including the chicken stock. They use escarole instead of spinach, a mound of little meatballs, and dark- and white-meat chicken. I tell ya, I took a culinary stroll with that escarole—felt like I was at the reception.
Big Jim’s Meatballs
ADAPTED FROM A RECIPE COURTESY OF GARY BURDICK OF BIG JIM’S IN THE RUN
MAKES 10 LARGE MEATBALLS
Oil, for the baking dish
2 eggs
1 tablespoon granulated garlic
1½ teaspoons dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 pounds ground beef
1 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
¼ cup grated pecorino romano cheese
1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Lightly oil a shallow baking dish.
2. Mix together the eggs, garlic, basil, oregano, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Add the beef, panko, and cheese and use your hands to thoroughly combine. Form the mixture into 10 meatballs and put them in a baking dish, leaving about an inch between them. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes, or until lightly browned.
3. Remove the meatballs from the oven and let sit for 15 minutes to let some of the juices absorb back into the meatballs. Serve with your favorite pasta and the marinara sauce on Marinara Sauce.
Marinara Sauce
ADAPTED FROM A RECIPE COURTESY OF G
ARY BURDICK OF BIG JIM’S IN THE RUN
This sauce is meant for Big Jim’s meatballs!
MAKES ABOUT 2 QUARTS
6 celery ribs
2 carrots
1 Spanish onion
1 green bell pepper, stemmed and seeded
1 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons granulated garlic
1 tablespoon dried basil
1½ teaspoons dried oregano
1½ teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 (28-ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
1. Roughly chop up the celery, carrots, onion, and bell pepper. Put them in a food processor with the olive oil and pulse until very finely chopped, but not liquefied.
2. Heat a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat, add the vegetable mixture, and sauté for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to keep the mixture from scorching.
