Chuck's Eat the Street: America's Best Food
On Chuck's Eat the Street on Cooking Channel, Chuck Hughes takes us on a tour of the most famous streets in America - by way of the food available on them! Be it Beale Street in Memphis or Wilshire Blvd in Los Angeles or Magazine Street in New Orleans - our host Chuck Hughes will experience the food, history and lore behind these famous streets.
Philadelphia's Walnut Street
Philadelphia has a history of starting revolutions and new forms of government. On Walnut Street, Philly foodies are starting their own culinary revolution. Click through to see Chuck Hughes' picks of the best of Philly's gastronomic greatness.
Gabe Marabella's mantra is "Move over, cheesesteak." At Marabella Meatball Co. in the bustling theater district, he uses a family recipe to create an unparalleled version of the beefy orbs.
Gabe even makes a vegetarian meatball sandwich that blows Chuck over, to his disbelief.
At Square Peg in the Washington Square West neighborhood, high-class cooking meets working-class food. The menu lists classic old-school diner food, but Chef Matt Levin is taking comfort food to new heights.
Chuck learns the secret to Kool-Aid-pickled watermelon. The fruit is pickled in a blended solution of ginger, lemongrass, Thai basil, Kool-Aid and rice wine vinegar.
Chuck can't believe how good the Philly version of poutine (a Canadian dish of french fires, sausage gravy and cheese curds) is.
Watch Chuck's Eat the Street on Tuesdays at 8:30 pm ET to see more of the Walnut Street eats that make Chuck Hughes feel all-powerful.
New Orleans' Magazine Street
It's no wonder New Orleans' most-famous food is gumbo. New Orleans is a gumbo — a spicy mixture of diverse ingredients like African, Spanish, French and Caribbean all thrown together and simmered in the heat.
Keonna Perry of Tee-Eva's Old Fashioned Pies and Pralines is first lady to pies and pralines. She sells authentic Creole recipes like crawfish pie, as well as killer pralines.
She teaches Chuck to make her famous, super creamy pralines of cream, sugar, butter and pecans.
Local grocery store Breaux Mart carries the best local products and flavors of New Orleans that you won't find anywhere else.
The store's delicious Doberge Cake has chocolate sandwiched between each of its six layers.
At Ignatius, Chef Lorenzo Reef embraces all the signature dishes that give New Orleans its unique flavor. Chuck has no words to describe Chef Reef's crab and crawfish gumbo.
La Petite Grocery, a French bistro with a Southern twist, takes advantage of a church-based garden to create a menu full of seasonal, local and regionally traditional dishes like its pan-fried rabbit sandwich.
In 1915, a mule-drawn wagon started selling traditional Italian sweets called Roman candy. Today the original owner's grandson makes the same candy recipe out of the same wagon.
Chuck points you to New Orleans' best eats on Chuck's Eat the Street. Tune in Tuesdays at 8:30 pm ET.
Main Street in Memphis
When people think of famous roads in Memphis, Beale Street often comes to mind. But Chuck is going to go where the locals hang: Main Street.
The famous Rendezvous serves mouthwatering ribs at its downtown rib joint, but the restaurant also makes pigs fly with its Main Street shipping facility that mails about 18,000 packages of ribs a year.
A few years ago, the South Main Historic District was a sad neighborhood with boarded-up buildings. Now it's an up-and-coming urban district with shops, design studios, cool late-night hangouts and great places to eat like the mobile pizza and pancake parlor, Rock 'n Dough Pizza Co.
Chef Jeremy Denno shows off his Elvis Pancake topped with a fresh mascarpone peanut butter whip and caramelized bananas. The King would be proud.
Things get a little nutty at The Peanut Shoppe, where Chuck takes a trip back in time with the store's 83-year-old peanut-roasting machine.
The downtown restaurant Felicia Suzanne prepares down-home staples with an obsession for freshness and presentation. Owner and Executive Chef Felicia Willett teaches Chuck to make perfect fried catfish.
Find out why Memphis rocks on Chuck's Eat the Street every Tuesday at 8:30 pm ET.
Commercial Street in Portland, Maine
Portland, Maine, has been referred to as America's Foodiest Small Town. The "port" and "land" alludes to a city that has the privilege of sourcing delicious ingredients from local farms as well as the bordering ocean.
Chuck's first stop is the Standard Baking Co., where he gets a lesson in making the best sticky buns on this side of the Atlantic.
There's a lot of Italian heritage in Portland, so Chuck visits Vignola Cinque Terre, where the Mediterranean meets Maine.
The restaurant owns a farm and grows all its own produce. Chuck is really blown away by its simple and rustic lamb shoulder — the best lamb he's ever tasted.
Get the Recipe: Vignola Cinque Terre, Stone Heart Farm's Slow Roasted Lamb Shoulder with Maine Cannellini Beans
Land meets sea at The Farmer's Table, where farmers, foragers and fishermen join together to make incredibly fresh farmhouse and ocean-sourced cuisine.
Get the Recipe: Maine Lobster, Lemon Gnocchi, Brown Butter and a Summer Salad
Chuck's been wanting to get his claws on some fresh-caught lobster ever since he arrived in the crustacean nation of Portland. He visits Three Sons Lobster and Fish (now Foreside Seafood) to experience some amazing boat-to-plate fare.
Catch Chuck getting selfish with shellfish on Chuck's Eat the Street, every Tuesday at 8:30 pm ET.
Where the Ocean Meets the Farm
Mission Street in San Francisco, California
San Francisco has some of the best food in the world, but Chuck is focusing his trip to one street that has something for everyone.
Foreign Cinema is the Mission's oasis of California cool. The bold, simple, local food is the star, but movies play a starring role with their daily film projections on a big screen.
Get the Recipe: Roasted Halibut with Fresh Herb Sauce
From the outside, Sycamore looks like a neighborhood diver; on the inside, it still looks like a neighborhood dive bar, but the difference is in the food. Their succulent pork belly donuts cover all five food groups: salt, sugar, pork, flour and grease.
More often than not, burritophiles say the Mission makes the best burritos on the planet. Chuck heads to Taqueria Can-Cun to find out they're right.
If you think waffles are just for breakfast, you need to hang out on a different street. Soul Groove is a traveling pop-up restaurant that specializes in bacon-wrapped fried chicken and maple waffle sandwiches. In other words, everything good in the world in one sandwich.
Check out Chuck's mission in the Mission on Chuck's Eat the Street, every Tuesday at 8:30 pm ET.
Fourth Avenue in Anchorage, Alaska
Alaska's Cook Inlet is named after James Cook, the British explorer who discovered it while searching for the Northwest Passage &mdash now Chuck is ready to discover what's cooking on Fourth Avenue.
While you can't exactly see Russia 700 miles away from Alaska, you certainly can taste it at Nane's Pelmenis where delicious pork and beef dumplings get churned out by the hundreds.
Chuck arrives at the Crow's Nest with soggy pride after unsuccessfully fly fishing for his own dinner. Luckily Chef Reuben Gerber had a spare silver salmon to cook perfectly in his simple Mediterranean style.
Walking down 4th Ave., Chuck spots a stand selling reindeer sausage topped with onions caramelized in cola. Sorry, Santa, these are delicious.
You'd expect food to be frozen in Alaska, but you might not expect popsicles to be quite as delicious as the fresh produce treats Kaity Reiley sells from her travel-by-bike stand, Pop Cycle.
Get the Recipe: Coconut Pops
Hop on for Chuck's delicious trip around Anchorage's 4th Avenue on Chuck's Eat the Street, Tuesdays at 8:30 pm ET.
