 Class, when was the last time you see me do this? I'm licking my fingertips. This is the most economical way to make chicken and waffles and the fastest way. Chicken and waffles is as debated of a dish as it is delicious. Who makes the best one? Did it start in Harlem or start in the South? Is the hipster-fied version worth it? And can the homemade version be any good? We love exploring culture through food, so let's get to the bottom of these tough questions. Today, we explore the heritage, the hipster, and the homemade. We start our journey in Harlem, New York with our friend Chad, who's a restaurant owner and chicken and waffle fanatic. What's going on, everybody? Welcome to a very, very special episode of FumRose Food. Today, we are in Harlem, New York, and we are going to be exploring the world and why. And when we say the world and why, this series doesn't just only apply to foreign or ethnic cuisines. It has a lot to do with American heritage food as well. And today, of course, we had a lead-off with something very American that was invented in New York City, chicken and waffles. All right, and with us today, we have restaurant owner and chicken and waffles fanatic Chad from Nori Thai. Yo, Chad, tell us why we're starting here at Amy Roos in Harlem. So, being from LA, I tried the chicken and waffles there at Roscoe's. Once I moved here to New York, I wanted to try what everyone calls the best chicken and waffles at Amy Roos. So, I figured we'd start off here. I'm super excited because we scootered all the way up to Harlem just to do this part. So, guys, let's get some chicken and waffles. Dude, this is the furthest we've been. We're on 125th. Yeah. Guys, is it going to be worth the check? It is. I'm putting my name on Amy Roos right now. My name. Let's go. All right, so we just put our order in here at Amy Roos and they give you free cornbread. Put the butter on top. You guys trying it? Yeah. So, you guys, the significance of trying chicken and waffles in Harlem is because one of the creation stories, and we know that it is debated for chicken and waffles, what's the creation story, was that it came from jazz clubs in Harlem in the 1930s. I think it's pretty clear that chicken and waffles is tied to the African-American experience. All right, so our food has arrived at our heritage spot, Amy Roos. This is in Harlem. Man, Chad, what are the names and what are we looking at here? So, right here, we have the Reverend L. Sharpton. This is the smothered edition right here with the waffles. This is the original chicken and waffle right there. Okay, so this, the Reverend L. Sharpton is the original one that you have to get. Yes. Like, this is it. Yes. All right. I heard that this smothered version, there might be some historical reference for this too because like the original original version of chicken and waffles, pre-fried chicken and waffles was smothered. Yes, with the gravy. This is quite possibly exactly pretty much how it looked a hundred years ago. I'm sure some of the equipment to make the waffles different nowadays, but I don't think waffle irons have shifted much. No, it's the same thing in an iron or skillet you make the waffle, but from what I heard here at Amy Roos, they stir up the batter for about half an hour, get it all light and fluffy, and they let it sit overnight so the yeast rises. Mmm, you just, oh, hear that crunch. Yo, I love the batter here already. My bone flew out. That's how tender it is. My bone flew out. Amy Roos chicken and waffles. All right. So you're buying the waffle first, Chad? All right. Mmm, my heart. That waffle is so sweet and soft. Like Chris on the outside, fluffy inside. That chicken is crazy. I'm going to put a little Tabasco on mine that already, um, so we've got all three things going on here. I might have to give that just straight up a five out of five right now. You thought that was good. Try the smothered one. All right. So right now I like this, uh, smothered chicken and waffles the Reverend out chopped in just because it's a little different to eat waffles with gravy. Smothered chicken and waffles here at Amy Roos. That's good, man. Even with a little Tab of hot sauce right there. Guys, when was the last time you seen me do this? I'm licking my fingertips. That is also a five out of five. That's crazy. Honestly guys, I've had a lot of chicken waffles before in my life and those were like the two best versions I've ever had. So right here we have, uh, the regular catfish and waffles. One dish I haven't tried yet. I'm excited to try the catfish and waffles. So the catfish is really good. Yeah. You know, it's good. It's meaty. It's flaky. All right, you guys, let's talk about pricing, uh, both. The out sharpens were about 19 bucks, but you do get two big pieces of chicken and a gigantic waffle. Last but not least, you guys, we've got these smothered pork chops and a shrimp po-boy, uh, cheesy grits. Chad, this came highly recommended by you. Of course, collard greens and a slice of mac and cheese. This is a really thinly cut pork chop. I'm really impressed by it. I'm really interested. Wow, it's falling off the bone. That smothered pork chop. That was definitely different than your usual thick cut pork chop. It was almost like, yeah, like cooked before, then stewed, and then fried again. Chad, you were talking about the cheesy grits earlier. Yes, this is definitely one of my go-to sides. If you guys ever come here, try it. My name is on this place, and my name is on this side as well. So grits is something, what are you talking about? When it's, is grits something that you have to eat really hot? Well, especially with cheese, after a while, when cheese hits room temperature, just... It just comes good. The shrimp? The shrimp po-boy originally is from New Orleans, you know, with fried shrimp. Everybody knows a po-boy, but, you know, they got it up here in Harlem, and I think it's because it's probably the most popular kind of Southern seafood sandwich that there is. Shrimp po-boy. Mmm. It's fire. It's good. Look how thick the shrimp is that they're using. They're not skimping on the shrimp here. Just the chicken by itself is good. The waffle by itself is good, and you put the two and two together. What do you get? The sum of all parts. All right, you guys. That does it for our heritage spot, Amy Roos. Honestly, it has my unequivocal endorsement. Not that I even do that, but it does come to Amy Roos. But, you know, that being said, we still got to try out our hipster and homemade option. I will say this, guys. If you say you love chicken and waffles, and you are in New York City, and you choose not to come to Amy Roos, what are you trying to say? The best chicken and waffles I've ever had personally, the chicken is one of the best chickens I've already had, plus the waffle is delicious. I guess how do you guys make it so good, and what makes it different? Anything that you do, and you want it to be successful, you have to do it with love. And love entails saying a prayer. So before we start, we say prayer, because you have to give the creator his recognition. And you want the creator's energy in you. So if the creator's energy is in you, the creator's energy is going to be in the food. The loving and good energy that's from up above is coming down through you, into the food. So obviously you're making it with love. People will love it. Exactly. What do you know about the origin story of chicken and waffles? Because we know fried chicken is from the South. Waffles originally are from Europe, but how did it all come together? It's originally from, the waffles are originally from Europe, but fried chicken, first it was fried chicken and biscuits, which originated in the South from the slave plantation. Because during that time, the people who made the food knew that the people who were picking the farm, who were taking care of the crop, they knew they needed a moment of love. So the food that the cooks made gave them a freedom moment. Instead of just having, back then it was syrup, instead of syrup and biscuits. And then from syrup and biscuits to business and chicken. And then from business and chickens too, they used to call it a whole cake, which is something you're making a pan, which looks like a pancake. But then as time went on, people began to hear about using designs and turning the whole cake into a waffle. In my opinion, it all started in the South. Okay. So your guys' spot, you would consider it more of a classic chicken and waffle spot? Yes. Okay. And then what do you think about all these kind of hipster, I'll say hipster chicken and waffle spots, maybe opening up down in lower mid-hand or Brooklyn, with a lot of different waffle flavors and different syrups and stuff. What do you think about that? I don't. I don't think about it because it's unnatural. Well, I don't want to take any more of your time, since you're doing that. Thank you so much for answering the questions. And man, best chicken and waffles for sure in New York, maybe in the world, maybe in America. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it. Okay. All right. We just came from our heritage option, which was Amy Rooson Harlem. And now we are at our hipster option, sweet chicken in the Lower East Side. Sweet chicken started in 2013 in Brooklyn, and it's probably emerged as the premier kind of mainstream chicken and waffles chain. And that is what they specialize in, is chicken and waffles. Yeah, chicken and waffles have been around for at least 100 years now. I think they're trying to reinvent it and make it cool again. I'm excited to see what it's all about. Hey, I think a lot of people automatically, when they see a hipster option, they're going into it with a certain connotation, good, bad, hyped, you know what I mean, overhyped. But I'm just trying to go into this as neutral as possible. Hey, they are doing things differently, because they have a vegetarian option. And they did bring in Nas as an investor, so. Oh yeah, yeah. That was, that was a legitimate point. It's kind of making it cool. So all right guys, sweet chick on Ludlow, let's go. Okay, so for our hipster option, sweet chick, we have a whole bunch of chicken and waffles in front of us, and we have different variations. So this one right here, take a look. I have the classic OG chicken. Okay, this is the drumstick right here, and then I have chocolate chip waffles right here. And yes, it is very windy, so things are flying everywhere. Right here, I have another classic chicken. I have the bacon waffle with the bacon baked into it. Look at that, this is a bacon right there. And then I have, again, classic OG chicken. Comes with a wing right here. I got to split this open, because this is going to be the vegetarian one. Wow, that is the vegetarian chicken breast right here. And I have the apple cinnamon waffle. And then here I have my Nashville hot chicken, and these are going to be my chicken tenders. They look like breasts. These are not like your regular tenders. Have you seen tenders like this? No, I have not. This is like a ball of tender. This is a ball of chicken right here, all right? This is our hot Nashville one. Smelling spicy. You have your assortment. You have your mac and cheese, your biscuit. You have your waffle fries. We have a whole bunch of syrup. We got the milk butter right here. We have some hot sauce right off the bat. I got to say, this was not cheap. Chicken and waffles is not cheap. Amy Ruth's, yes, reasonable here. Maybe just because it has that whole hipster vibe with gnaws and not cheap at all. This piece looks like a big ball. I'm going to break this open. Let's see what that chicken is like. Yeah, okay. This is the chicken breast. Even the waffle is not heavy enough to keep my tray down. It's flying everywhere, guys. Chocolate chip waffle. Apple cinnamon waffle. The chocolate chip waffle is good. It's light. It's not too heavy. That's what I'm looking for. I do think the waffle can be better, though. Guys, I'm going to try this fried chicken. That fried chicken, it's breast meat, and it's still really good. Vegetarian option. I'm interested. That looks so funky. The texture is a little weird, but it's good. Definitely at this moment, the chicken is outshining the waffle. I got to go in next for the Nashville hot chicken. Wow. You know what it is? It's just falling off the bone right now. I can't even break it. I have the Nashville hot chicken thigh on top of the waffle, almost like it's a pizza. Did it live up? All right. Did it live up to it, guys? I think the chicken's outshining the waffle right now. Definitely. Good time. The chicken is good, and which one should I try? The chicken is legit. Which one should I go for? The vegetarian one. All right. He said, yo, Chad is talking up the vegetarian one. Yeah, I'm a meat lover myself, but I would order that again. All right, guys. Here I go. Should we go with a little bit of Tabasco? I know that that's also one of the most famous ways to eat it with a little bit of Tabasco on top. Let's do it. That looks beautiful. All right, you guys. I'm trying the vegetarian chicken and waffles, obviously a hipster version. Here, sweet chick. Let's give it a shot. With the butter, it helped a lot. $6 waffle fries. All right, that is a pricey order. That's steep, man. A lot of potato flavor. Last but not least, we got the mac and cheese and the biscuit. That's a very tall biscuit, man. Wow. I could eat that with anything. Yeah, that was good. That was good. It kind of reminds me of mac and cheese. I used to eat in elementary school. Yeah. That's what it should do, though. I feel like that's the heart and soul of mac and cheese. It's bringing me back. I'm liking it. Last but not least, guys. They had a $12 purple drink. All right, I believe the original name was purple drink. Drink. There may have been some appropriation going on. They had to change it up. I'm glad they changed the name. Purple drink. Probably taste like it'll get you messed up, man. All right, you guys. That does it for our hipster option sweet chick on this incredibly windy New York day. Almost unbelievably windy. What were your guys' major takeaways? I think for me, I think the quality was there. But we also have to acknowledge that the price was like, I don't even know, maybe 30%, 40%, 50% higher than anything else we had. The chicken is good. The chicken is high quality. And there's certain details that are really, really nice here. Overall, the meal is going to run you a lot, though. For chicken and waffles, anywhere from 25 to 35, a person here for chicken and waffles, you know, to get the full experience. So if we make our own chicken and waffle at home, hip hop music, is that more worth it than coming here? Okay, I got a question. Chad, if we make our own chicken and waffles, can we go to Nori Thai and turn up the speakers and pump some outcast? Definitely. I'm down if you're down. All right, guys. No shame. Sweet Chick was amazing. But, man, I think we should try to make our own. We were at our heritage option. We hit our hipster option. And now let's go check out our homemade option. All right, you guys. This is our third and final option between heritage hipster. We've got homemade DIY. But we're not going to be frying our own chicken, making our own batter. We're not going to be making our own waffle mix. In fact, I'm not even going to use pre-made waffle mix. Oh, by the way, this is the quickest way to make chicken and waffles at home. What we're going to be doing is we're going to be buying frozen waffles, aka egg waffles, from the bodega, aka the deli. And then we're going to go across the street and go to Popeyes and get our chicken. Chad, I'm going to give you these. Chocolate chip waffles. See, when you make it yourself, you got an option. You got an option. Original OG waffle. All right. This is sort of like the definitive maple syrup. OK, I found some butter. But you know, obviously, when you buy your own, you have these organic plant-based butter options. All right, let's go to Popeyes. All right, you guys. We have arrived at our homemade option, the Popeyes. We've got the eggos ready. You guys, I think the first thing that stands out about the DIY style has got to be the pricing. Bro, 11 pieces mixed or tenders for $15.99. That is crazy. $15.99 is actually how much the original two-piece at Sweet Chick Coste with the waffle. Right, so 11 pieces versus two pieces. You guys do the math that's five times cheaper. Obviously, guys, Popeyes is essentially fast food, so it's hard to compare restaurants to fast food. But we're just saying, obviously, there's a difference. This is the most economical way to make chicken and waffles and the fastest way. So one of the best things about going to a spot like Amy Roos or Sweet Chick are the options of chicken flavors. But Popeyes is expanding there. You've got ghost pepper wings and you've got the hot honey chicken. And this is like a really hot flavor right now. They're putting hot honey on pizza, too. Definitely. So earlier, we had Nashville. We had classic. We had two options. Here, we technically have three ghost peppers and biscuit. I can smell it through the mask. All right, you guys, we have secured our chicken, our waffles, our butter, our syrup. Let's go ahead and nori. Let's get these done. Hey, Chad, you got a toaster? Yes, I do. Let's go. Here's six ghost pepper wings plus a biscuit for $4.99 for Popeyes. All right, you guys, we had to try it. You know, these are supposed to be for the chicken and waffles and we will make at least a three-piece, but I had to see what it was like. You know, I got to try that one new way of eating a chicken wing that has been going viral real quick. Push it all down. Looks really weird. Wow. Yeah, I don't know why the ghost pepper wings were so small, but you know, these are some teeny wings, but they're packing some heat. All right, you guys, the homemade DIY section has commenced. We are looking at three different types of waffles. Like the home style, you have chocolate chip. I have the French toast ones together. I've actually never had this one growing up. I never ate tart chat. How do you predict this is going to match up against all the other chicken and waffles that we've had? Um, obviously you can't match up because it's not fresh made, but I think it's the best thing for your buck. It's the quickest way. You know, waffles, you can make them however way you want and you can put them with toaster if you like it crispy, put them in the microwave if you like a little more soggy. Each piece of chicken is around coming in at about $1.50. Okay, obviously we've got the sides at about $3 each. We figured out the sauces and the butter. It's about like 25%, I mean 25 cents per use. Yeah, exactly. Because you got to spread it out over the lifetime. Each of these egos roughly is about 40 cents each. So we get two that's 80 cents raw cost. Right, because I would say two of them do equal the size of like one of the waffles that we just had previously. Yo, you went with the big ones. Did you go with two breasts? No, that's a thigh. Yeah, this is a spicy thigh, that's a breast. I'm going to put the hot honey on my chicken. One of my pieces is already spicy, but I'm just going to pour drills a little bit. This is what Popeyes wants you to do. Oh my gosh. They give that to you for free. This is a slight extra cost because this is one of their new features. Like I said, this is about 25 cents per use, guys. Kind of looks like a... All right, so Andrew, we've calculated that the raw cost of this chicken and waffles is varying anywhere between $420 to $470. It's definitely less than $5 for this same plate because these are the same components that you have in any other chicken and waffles set. Two-piece big waffle. DIY chicken waffles. Your butter's good. Yeah. That plant-based butter. The bougie butter. Yes, yeah, the bougie butter. Honestly though, it's good. There are certain bites that to me are almost indistinguishable. Almost like one-fourth of the price. Yeah. Like we said, Popeyes DIY chicken and waffle. That's crazy. All right, I'm about to try the mac and cheese. Obviously looking at it, I know it's at a different quality level than Amy Ruth's or Sweet Chick's, but let's not downplay it. Popeyes mac and cheese. It is about half price for Sweet Chick. Got the rice and beans right here. Let me just try that. It's good. That's a worthy slide. That's a worthy side for sure. Yeah, I would probably dress it up with some hot sauce for myself, but it is good. Let me see if I can just dip a french fry in here. I know that that's some mine. Super smoky. Yeah. Last but not least, we have to take a look at the biscuit. I mean, the biscuit at Popeyes is, you know, I wouldn't say it's as famous as even maybe KFC's biscuit, but not bad. I still think KFC's biscuit is better. What about Sweet Chick's? Sweet Chick's is probably better too. Sweet Chick's is better. As we take a look at the different price points from the heritage, obviously you had Amy Ruth's coming in at, you know, $13, $14. You had obviously Sweet Chick coming in at $18, and you have the DIY Popeyes Ego's version coming in at about $4.50. I would say, you know, Amy Ruth's, you get an experience, you go to Harlem. It's not that expensive, right? It's about $13, $14 for the waffle in two pieces. It's delicious. Okay, you come down to Sweet Chick, it's a different vibe. It's a little bit more hip. It's a little bit more 2020, way more expensive, but you do this DIY thing. I feel like for a group of friends, if you guys want to have a chicken and waffle party, kind of like what we just did, this is by far the best way to do it. If you want to serve as many chicken and waffles, do it this way. Go to Popeyes, go to KFC, get your waffles from the freezer, and just toast them. Right, throw the Spotify on. Being the chicken and waffles is synonymous with Harlem. I feel like Amy Ruth has got to be the pick. Because you got to go to the source to have where that entire cuisine was popularized. Agreed. Okay, now I think the number one spot, that's an easy answer. What's the number two spot? I feel like you guys are going to hate me for saying this, because I'm not throwing shade at Sweet Chick, but I got to do this. Yeah, yeah, I got to do it. You got to take the homemade style. You guys, like we said, there's heritage, there's hipster, there's homemade, and I think it goes heritage, homemade hipster. No, because the value. Now, I personally do not think Popeye's chicken is better than Sweet Chick's chicken. No, no, no. It is not better. There's a value proposition, though. But for the value, come on. Guys. All right, you guys, please let us know what your ideal chicken and waffles experience would be, like, obviously, if you don't live on the east or west coast, it might be even difficult to find chicken waffles where you're at, so definitely do DIY style. But, you know, our opinions might not be yours. Don't just take our word for it, go and do the crawl yourself. All right, feel free in the comments down below to disagree with us. Again, I mean, we just went to three different levels of chicken and waffle spots, and those are just our opinions, man. So you guys let us know how you like your chicken and waffles. But I gotta give, you know, the African-American cooking tradition credit because they were the first ones to kind of think of, like, we're gonna take something that salty and then that sweet and mash it together because I think at one point, that seemed like that was, like, defying convention. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think people would have known that waffles, something that's kind of, like, dry carb mixed with chicken, would be a great parent. But it makes a lot of sense. All right, everybody, thank you so much for watching that video in the comments down below. Let us know what your favorite way of eating chicken and waffles is, and if you agree or disagree with our opinions because you don't have to. Shout out to Chad from Nori Tai. He's a guy that we always talk to about business and restaurant stuff and scooter stuff as well. So check out Nori Tai over on Grand Street and check out his social right down below. And until next time, everybody, we out. Peace.