I Ate The World's Best Sandwich

Nick DiGiovanni

Nick DiGiovanni embarks on a global culinary expedition to identify and taste the world's most legendary sandwiches. The journey spans multi

Key takeaways

• The Wagyu Katsu Sando in Japan features Ozaki beef rib-eye and utilizes homemade breadcrumbs for a superior crust.
• Howlin' Ray's fried chicken offers extreme spice levels using a paste made from Carolina Reaper and Scorpion peppers.

Main topics

• Global sandwich varieties
• Traditional meat preparation techniques

Notable quotes

The fact that they're putting in that extra effort to make their own breadcrumbs is one of the reasons you could argue this is the best Wagyu Katsu Sando in the world.

Conclusion

The episode serves as a high-energy celebration of global food culture

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:00) This is the number one rated sandwich in the entire world and we're gonna compare it to this fried chicken sandwich people wait three hours in line for, this award-winning burger that's limited to just 12 per day and everything in between. And we're starting in Japan to try a Wagyu Katsu Sando, one of the most famous sandwiches in the entire world, with my friend, Byashi. Hi! Nick-san, choose meat. They make their Wagyu Katsu Sandos out of all four different types of meat, but we get to choose which one Speaker 5 (0:24) we Speaker 3 (0:25) want. This is Ozaki beef rib-eye, Uchwa Wagyu dry-aged, Kobe beef dry-aged, and the last, Ozaki beef tenderloin. All four look so incredibly delicious. This one is looking good. Beautiful. Yes. Okay, Speaker 5 (0:39) let's go. Come to the kitchen. Speaker 3 (0:41) I cannot wait to see what the cross-section of this Wagyu looks like. Wow, beautiful. That is amazing. Another slice. He's now cutting the piece that we're going to use in the Wagyu katsu sendo. I am so hungry right now. You'll see he's gonna do this with precision. The first thing he's doing is cutting off the rib eye cap. Hey, it's good shape. The last step here to prepping the meat is to cut it down into a nice square shape. Because you'll see at the end with this Wagyu Katsu Sando that it's gonna be a nice perfect shape. The Wagyu is ready. These are our portions of meat. Okay, next, Japanese eggs. Wait, what? That's how you crack eggs? I don't know how I feel about that. Oh my gosh, look at the yolk! That is the most vibrant egg yolk I've ever seen in my life. What an amazing, amazing color. He's gonna make sure this gets an even, light dusting of flour so that the egg can stick to that flour. Then into the egg, and finally into the homemade breadcrumbs. The fact that they're putting in that extra effort to make their own breadcrumbs is one of the reasons you could argue this is the best Wagyu Katsu Sando in the world. Okay, now you're frying. And these are not gonna fry for long. I'm so hungry. It looks so perfect. It's time. Okay, so crispy. We've got the perfectly crispy Wagyu Katsu. You've got this beautifully toasted white bread and of course their secret sauce. Our homemade Katsu sauce. A lot of vegetable, a lot of spice. So much flavor. And then bread. Last step, trimming the side. It's common with the Wagyu Katsu Sando to clean up the edges like this. Here's a preview of what that Wagyu looks like inside. Is it okay to give my cameraman a taste? Okay, let's go. Try. Speaker 3 (2:09) Thank you, Nick. I'll get back to work. He's cutting it into four cubes so he can share, Bayashi. I love how you're plating this. That's so cool. Done? Not done. Final step. The gold. Oh. That was so much gold. Kanpai. Kanpai. Speaker 3 (2:28) Wow. I don't know that there's anything that can make that better. Amazing. I want to do one quick test to see if somehow my Osmo steak seasoning can make this taste better. Will you try? Yes. Just a tiny sprinkle, not too much. Wow. Good? Very tasty. Tasty? Very good. You want more? Yes, please. Oh, that's good. That's really good. If you ever need it, you can buy it online or in stores at Walmart. I think it's the best seasoning in the world, but does it make the katsu sando any better? Better. Amazing. Thank you. Bashi, do you think this is the best Wagyu Katsu Sandwich in the world? Yes. Let's go see if our next sandwich can somehow beat this. Next up is a French dip sandwich made with thin sliced roast beef and a hot beef broth on the side for dipping. And for this sandwich, I brought along my friend, Sean. Hey, what's going on, guys? Are you hungry? I'm hungry. Welcome to my restaurant. Hey, let's do it. Let's go. Just for quick context here, Hank also makes cooking videos online. One of your most popular videos ever was your French dip sandwich. Yeah, Speaker 7 (3:22) that's very true. Speaker 3 (3:23) And now you've literally made a restaurant that has possibly the most famous French dip in the world right now. Talk Speaker 7 (3:28) us through it. We start with the baguette, arguably the most important part of any sandwich. This is Frenchette baguette. Crusty and crunchy and rustic, but they're also, yeah, even they smell nice. Question is, do they smell as good Speaker 3 (3:40) as Sean? Speaker 7 (3:41) I haven't sniffed Sean yet today. So we cut them in half. I'd imagine you need like an architecturally sound structure. Yeah. Right? Especially for a dip. Right. You want a bread that's got the basis to be able to still be kind of crunchy and chewy after you've dipped it. It's not just a soggy mess. Every morning this gets delivered fresh and we cut them all in half that same day and we sell out of them that same day. First thing, you get your bread. Nice. horseradish aioli. What's Speaker 3 (4:09) great is it looks like the perfect consistency. I love that you can also see the chives in there. It gives a nice pop of color. It just shows a little bit more effort. What happens next? Speaker 7 (4:16) Next step is caramelized onions. Each onion we reduce enough to where each sandwich has two onions. I think what I realize is the more caramelized an onion is, the better it is. Caramelized onions could be like, I just put onions in a pan with butter for two seconds, or they could be like, I spent three days waiting for these onions to caramelize. Speaker 3 (4:34) They're easily the most deeply caramelized onions I've ever had. I've ever seen. Speaker 7 (4:37) This is the most marbled meat you can get in America. It's rated by the USDA. It's like the top 1 % most prime of prime ribs. And we cover it in compound butter. Compound butter's got sage thyme, oregano, garlic, and rosemary. And it's softened and rubbed all over the prime rib. Throw it in the oven, roast it, and then it goes on the deli slicer, and we shave it really, really thin. Now you get a little au jus bite. Oh, thank you. Okay, here we go. In your mouth now. Mmm. Yum. Ooh. Good work, Sean. You want me to do one for you? There you go. Is Speaker 3 (5:09) that Speaker 7 (5:10) nice? Speaker 3 (5:10) Tell us how you feel. Speaker 2 (5:11) Instantly tired. Like in a dream state almost. I love that. I'm floating in the kitchen. This Speaker 3 (5:17) liquid that you just dipped are beautiful bites there. And this is Speaker 7 (5:20) the au jus. That's the au jus. It reduces all day while we're cooking sandwiches. And now it's kind of at like its perfect state. So you all Speaker 3 (5:27) understand this broth here is basically the second half of the sandwich. French dip. So now more of the au jus goes in here and this is staying nice and hot over the grill. You're gonna use this to heat up the meat again. This is genius. Speaker 7 (5:40) So you dump the meat in the pasta baskets right here. I love this system. Yeah, but you don't want to overcook it. So this only goes in for like maybe a second. So you kind of let that drip. Boom. You don't want to make the bread soggy. The mega caramelized onions that we showed you guys before, we just spoon those all over the top. Oh yeah. So much flavor in these onions and they're cooked down so much that I see no reason to not just pile them on completely. Then all they need from there is cheese. So provolone cheese. You could have gone Swiss, right? Speaker 3 (6:12) I'm actually a fan of provolone over Swiss. I'm with you. Swiss tastes like plastic, so I said it. Nick, you are Speaker 7 (6:17) so brave. I got no Speaker 3 (6:19) problems with Swiss. Speaker 7 (6:20) I don't have beef with Swiss, I just like provolone a little tiny bit more. No, you have beef with provolone. Oh! In the oven we go. Boom. This is a convection oven. We do like 24 sandwiches at a time in here. Cranking out constantly. Sandwiches are now coming out. The cheese you can see makes a little blanket it protects all the other ingredients from falling out these just go right on the cutting board Look Speaker 3 (6:44) at the cheese. I mean Speaker 7 (6:45) so nice and cheesy obviously that's that provolone We cut it in half get a nice cross-section. That's kind of a money shot look at that Just a big beefy sandwich really is what it is. Let's show this Speaker 3 (6:55) guy, too I mean look at the Speaker 7 (6:56) cheese Speaker 3 (6:56) on that thing Speaker 7 (6:57) play like this usually we Kind of like spread the fries around. Those Speaker 3 (7:01) aren't even really fries. That's like potato sticks. Speaker 7 (7:04) We cut them real thin. They're like potato sticks. People comment on that, but I'm sticking with it. I love these. They stay crunchy forever. They're delicious. They're nice and seasoned. Oh Speaker 4 (7:13) my gosh. Right? Speaker 7 (7:15) They're incredible. Listen to the sound. Speaker 7 (7:18) There's a real crunch last step we fill this cup up with au jus and Speaker 3 (7:22) you keep the au jus in this giant Hot tea Speaker 7 (7:25) container. Yes. It's an iced tea like cooler, but it's perfect for au jus. It keeps it hot all Speaker 3 (7:30) day Speaker 7 (7:30) Sean Speaker 3 (7:31) I thought we'd share Speaker 2 (7:32) Lucky me I have to say it smells so amazing. Yeah, it looks so good. We both played a hand in making these things I've been dying for this moment. Oh, Speaker 3 (7:41) you're backwards. Speaker 2 (7:42) I'm going backwards. This man's crazy. Speaker 3 (7:45) Here it is I'll follow you right behind. I'm gonna dip backwards as well. Speaker 2 (7:52) It's so good, it's so rich, and it just makes me wanna take a nap. Like, it makes me wanna fall asleep when I eat this. There's so much love in each step of this. For Speaker 3 (8:03) me, it's a bite that makes me wanna close my eyes and just sort of think about it. And just take it all in. Without focusing on anything else happening around Speaker 2 (8:10) me. Speaker 3 (8:10) Stop talking. Me? Speaker 2 (8:11) Because I'm trying to do the same thing, all right? I'm trying to bask in this over here. Nick, just... You're on the search for the best sandwich? Yeah. This is up there. This is one of the best sandwiches I've ever had in my life. That's great. I knew it would bang and it bangs. I know we agreed on sharing, but if you don't mind. I'm just gonna finish this myself. Next Speaker 3 (8:29) up, we've got a fried chicken sandwich from the number one ranked fried chicken restaurant in all of North America. And I brought along my good friend, Uncle Roger. You're gonna see how they make that chicken sandwich here before we eat. This here is their dredging station. They're making so much fried chicken here that they're dredging it in basically a giant flour bathtub. And they're able to keep it so incredibly clean because they have an automatic flour sifter that keeps that flour nice and smooth and perfect all day long. The way they dredge their chicken here is in a dry dredge, then a wet dredge. them back into a dry dredge before they fry. Notice how he's actually pressing the flour into the chicken here. That's a really good way to make sure everything sticks and that you don't lose that dredge when you go to cook. Is there anything top secret you can't show us? Oh, there's Speaker 5 (9:09) every single step, there's something top secret that I'm not going to show you guys. Uncle Roger looking for it. You can look for it all you want. Now we deep fry chicken. This is the best part. You can smell it. It's like a big hot chicken bubble bath and they have six of them in here. This is vegetarian people's worst nightmare. Uncle Roger usually eats like Japanese style chicken katsu. So Uncle Roger excited to try how it's different. How do you know when it's done? We have a timer for it. In addition to that, we'll We also temp every single piece too, just to make sure. You can tell this guy the head chef because he got the most tattoo. That's Speaker 3 (9:42) the Speaker 5 (9:42) dress code here. Mmm. Wow. So we get the finished product out of the fryer. We dip it in our oil blend. After that, we put our dry seasoning on it and then it's ready to go. This is gonna be the medium spice level. This is gonna be the most popular. Which spice level are you gonna go for? Of course the spiciest one. Don't be scared, Nephew Nick. We do hot ones together, remember? That is true. We did do hot ones together, and I believe I might have won. So for the spices, we are going to need a waiver for you. We do have habanero ghost pepper, Carolina Reaper, and scorpion Trinidad. We turned that all into a paste for you. Once you get to that Scoville level of above 2 million, you can start to hallucinate a little bit, which is the fun part. They're trying to kill me. The chicken, some coleslaw, and pickles. And wrap it up nice Speaker 3 (10:24) and tight, and here we go. Speaker 5 (10:26) You ready? Cheers, cheers. Cheers. Mmm. Waiver. What? For the Speaker 2 (10:34) spices, we are going to need a waiver for you. Speaker 5 (10:37) Uncle Roger's not going to sue you. I don't need waiver. I agree that I am eating the Howlin' Plus heat level at my own risk and certify that Howlin' Ray's hot chicken will not be held responsible for any injury, damage, or loss of earnings. Food is here. We did the medium sandwich here, and then I've got the Howlin' Plus. It's black. Speaker 3 (10:55) That's not even a golden brown fried chicken sandwich anymore. It looks so evil. Visually, right away, I have to say this is a beautiful fried chicken sandwich. Uncle Roger excited to try this. Speaker 5 (11:05) Oh, that secret spice blend really good. It is packed with Speaker 3 (11:11) flavor. Have you dipped it in the ranch too? Wow, Speaker 5 (11:14) you made it. Is it bad? Uncle Roger feel like I can breathe fire right now. Editor, put some VFX on that. Speaker 5 (11:22) Woo! I have to drink the ranch to quench. The chicken cooked perfect. Juicy tender. Speaker 3 (11:28) If Uncle Roger had to give this a rating, what would he give it? Nine out of 10. You're going nine out of 10. Uncle Roger's a strict critic too. I know better than anybody out there how harsh of a critic Uncle Roger could be. You've critiqued my fried rice, my Vietnamese pho, my Thai green curry. You've critiqued pretty much everything you possibly can about me. So when you give a place like this a nine out of 10, how do you think that makes me feel? Mmm. The only point missing, Uncle Roger wished it a little bit crispier. They rubbed so much sauce on the outside of the fried chicken itself that by the time you sit to eat it, I do wish it was a tiny bit crispier, but it holds a lot more crisp than I would have thought it would hold. It's fatty, it's flavorful, it's crispy. It's so well seasoned that I almost feel like it's pushing the line of almost having too much seasoning. Speaker 5 (12:09) What? There's Speaker 3 (12:10) no such thing, Nephew Nick, that I say you have too much money. Go get your next sandwich. It's time for a panini at Italy's most famous sandwich shop, and I'm sure most of you guys know who Eric is Hey guys everything here starts with the bread have you ever seen bread being made never in