Munchies | Jeepney

On this episode of Munchies, we visit Jeepney, the bustling restaurant in New York City's East Village, to learn what Filipino cuisine is all about. Then we hit the town with head chef and owner, Miguel Trinidad, and his business partners, Nicole Ponseca and Tomas De Los Reyes.

First, they take us over to their Chinatown staple, Nom Wah Tea Parlor, where they spend every New Year's Day. Nom Wah's owner, Wilson Tang, teaches us about the finer points of eating soup dumplings and a little Chinatown history. Buzzed off of pork broth, we head over to hang with Jeepney's neighbors at Ducks Eatery, where we sample the goat's neck with shots of potent homemade Mezcal.

The crew from Ducks Eatery joins us for a nightcap as we stumble over to the bar Pouring Ribbons for world-class cocktails and some hilarious stories from their colleague, Topher Chung. We finish off the night with a leisurely stroll back to Jeepney, where a whole set of friends is waiting to crush an epic Kamayan feast. Enjoy!

Munchies: Alexei Zimin

All the stories you hear about Russians and drinking are true; anyone who says otherwise is a liar. And most of the stories you hear about chefs and drinking are true, too. With that in mind, Moscow's Alexei Zimin was everything we hoped a Russian chef would be. We had a free night in Moscow after shooting an episode of Far Out in Siberia, so we got in touch with Alexei and he said to come by his restaurant, Ragout. There are actually two Ragouts: the smaller, original location, and the second one, near Prospekt Mira, next to one of the stadiums from the Moscow Olympics. That's where this Munchies episode begins.

To call the new Ragout a mere restaurant would be an understatement; it's a fine dining room, a casual cafe, a cooking school, a bookstore, and more. Alexei studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and worked under chefs like Michel Gerard and Raymond Blanc before opening Ragout with fellow cook Ilya Shalev. They filter French technique through their Russian sensibilities and take influences from their travels for everything they do—which, in Alexei's case, also includes being the editor of Eda, a great Russian food magazine, organizer of the Moscow Festival of Food, cookbook author, and television show host. It's hard to imagine how he does it, if the hangovers he gave us were any indication. Here's what we can remember: after Ragout we went to Bar Bontempi and met the owner, Mitya Borisov, a semi-legendary figure with eyes the color of Merlot. Then it was off to 32.05, a cafe/bar in the middle of a park where Alexei showed us his amazing singing voice, and then to Noor Bar, a cocktail bar as good as any in New York. At that point things become hazy, but we can recall one of Alexei's friends knocking out our field producer with one punch, and the night ending over bottles of vodka at Jean-Jacques, a great late-night bar, neither of which are on camera, unfortunately. Be careful when you go drinking in Moscow.

Munchies: Xemei

Xemei started out seven years ago as an unlicensed bar and restaurant and has grown into one of Barcelona's most talked about spots. After falling for the city's nightlife, twin brothers Stephano and Max Colombo brought the taste of their hometown of Venice, Italy across the Mediterranean, taking advantage of Barcelona's lack of laid-back, high-end eateries. While their reputation has spread far enough to include Patti Smith and Sean Penn among clientele, Xemei is still, for the most part, free of tourists, a rare thing in Barcelona. Their polenta-stuffed baby squid, fresh burratta, and ever-expanding organic wine list makes it our favorite place in Barcelona to get drunk and forget about how underpaid we are.

Munchies: Daniel Castaño

When Colombians get together, they roll deep. So when we went to Bogotá to sample former Mario Batali pupil Daniel Castaño's classical Italian fare at his restaurant, Emilia Romagna, we brought a big-ass bus to cart around the crew. And true to form, we filled the bus with a rowdy bunch of sous chefs, friends, and other restaurateurs.

After sampling Bogota's eclectic range of culinary styles—including Memphis barbecue, Spanish tapas, and of course, Colombian grilled meats—Daniel and his buddies were pouring an anise-flavored sugar-cane liquor called aguardiente (a national specialty) down one another's throats on our way back to his Brooklyn-inspired restaurant, Gordo, where he whipped up some late-night grub.

Munchies: Mexicali Taco & Co.

For the second ever Munchies episode shot in LA we chose the gentlemen from Mexicali Taco & Co., Esdras Ochoa and Javier Fragrosso. We wanted to do an episode on Mexicali because we stopped there after a shoot a few months back and were blown away by how good the food was without a whiff of pretension. Take one bite of their shrimp tacos or the carne asada Vampiro and you are transported to a new level of tacqueria consciousness where there is no going back to greasy meat and subpar tortillas.

The Mexicali crew decided to take us on a wildly varied food tour around LA. The first stop was supposed to be at Daily Dose Cafe, they were closed, so we just headed to the Park's Finest. We have never filmed at a Filipino restaurant before, let alone a Filipino BBQ spot. Johnny, the owner, tried to do us in by unloading every imaginable dish, with highlights being the BBQ tritip with horseradish cream sauce and the traditional coconut beef. After saying our goodbyes we headed west to Beverly Hills to the country's only kosher Mexican restaurant owned by the country's only hockey-playing Japanese-Mexican gourmet chef, Katsuji Tanabe. Here we had carnita tacos, the "McKosher" burger, and fried chicken and waffles. Chef Tanabe braises beef in duck fat to mimic the taste and texture of pork, which gives his clientele an idea of the flavor profile of the original dish. These guys were is such a serious food coma when we got back to Mexicali, that it took all they had to whip up more food and eat it for our greedy camera. Enjoy!