 Two gigantic Uzbek kebabs right here. Ho ho ho! French dip mung bean, this is a dream come true. If you like Japanese food, if you like Thai food, this is why you gotta check out. One more. Yeah! If you're interested in rare Asian food, you do not wanna miss this one. Everything from one ton ramen to Korean Americana, to our bun-meat dip and ball-call consomme, skewers from Uzbekistan, and Japanese food with a Thai remix. Guys, this is Asian food in New York City. Hit that like button and let's go. All right everybody, the day has arrived. You can now order our menu items here at Five Spice at the Mulberry location. Here you have the loaded fries with brisket and consomme for only $9. And then for the bun-meats, these are $16 each, but you have a spicy consomme, and then you have the fish-bum-meat with the brussel sprouts, this is the David, and then you have the Andrew, which is the brisket dip with the extra spicy chipotle consomme. This is what really makes it different. This consomme dip is actually based off of the Vietnamese ball-call dish, but it's kicked up a notch with some extra chipotle. That's nice. French dip bun-meat, this is a dream come true. And right here, we got the fish bun-meat with brussel sprouts. This is the David, David loves doing this. And actually adding the brussel sprouts actually adds like a level of fragrance to it, because when they get charred up, it kind of gives it just an extra level of flavor right there, and then you have the consomme, which actually isn't as spicy as the brisket one. Let's pour a little bit of that on. The charred brussel sprouts actually give it some sweetness and some kind of fragrance, and then everything else has the sweetness and the coolness of the daikons and carrots and cucumbers, and then the fried fish aspect is not overpowered by the consomme either. Here you have the loaded fries, only for $9, super juicy brisket topped off with some pico de galle and the consomme over a bed of fries, guys. It does not get much better than this look. Sweet fried, a little spicy, juicy. Honestly, guys, I am so glad that these collab dishes turned out well. I'm not just saying that. I really think that these dishes are gonna be very popular and people are gonna order them and realize that they're just, honestly, just overall good concepts and good recipes. I mean, they killed it. They took our idea, but they really made a reality. And what I love most is having the different consomme dips. I mean, this is something different that you've never seen with bummeas before. Get one of the fungmeas, get the loaded fries, $9, $16. It's a lot of food and it's a cool experience. And check it out. Listen, we're in 2022. The word Asian fusion doesn't mean what it used to. If there was any sort of negative connotation from the past, it is done. We're here at Zuto Ramen and they make everything handmade. It's actually very Japanese, Dominican and Chinese influence. Here we have this delicious kimchi brisket ramen, beautifully done with the soft-boiled egg. We have their version of karaage. We have soy garlic wings and we have some no-frills handmade, house-made fresh gyoza. Koi garlic wings. Beautiful. Have their karaage, nice dark chicken meat. Nice. Most of the gyoza that you'll get at other restaurants, to be honest, are probably frozen. Mmm. So guys, there's a lot of kimchi ramens out there, but this one is taken with a lot of care. Even the kimchi is house-made. Mmm, look at that brisket, wide egg noodles. At this point, a lot of Japanese-style restaurants are not owned by Japanese people, but to be honest, I think the only thing that really matters is the taste and the quality and the attention to detail. And just smelling these soy garlic wings, I can tell the garlic flavor is super strong. And honestly, not to be overlooked is their cocktail list. They got espresso martini, you got ramen, you got gyoza, you got karaage. Oh, that's good. This is my first time ever having chicken one-ton ramen. The one-ton is made in-house, and the chicken bone broth is made over 24 hours. People out there have an obsession with super authentic, traditional ramen, but sometimes there's a beauty in knowing what's traditional and just having something brand new. That's fire. Who diving into their version of spicy miso, let's get it. Oh, that pork is coming apart real easily. Amazing char flavor on the chashu with a little bit of that black garlic oil. Wow. Here's another ramen I've never had before. This is a tonkatsu shoyu mixture. So it's like half tonkatsu broth, half shoyu, which is a soy sauce broth. And wow, look at this. We got the thin noodles here. Mm, I love shoyu broth because it's light, and a lot of people like tonkatsu broth because it's heavy, and these blend well together. Here we got their beautiful bowl of seafood ramen. And I know that most people are not used to seeing a seafood ramen, maybe unless you go to like Hokkaido or places in Japan that specialize in seafood. But look at this, man. You got these big clams here. You have a nice seafood broth. I can taste the dashi in there. It's very umami. There's big nice pieces of scallops and shrimp and clams. And honestly, man, if you've never had a seafood ramen before, I recommend you get it. Last but not least, we got Chef Jason here. All right, what are we looking at? If you're looking at 14 ounce New York strip, I did a Japanese barbecue sauce, which includes a peach, a Fuji apple. I put a pineapple, and I also put a soy sauce honey and oyster sauce on it. Yo, you heard it from Chef himself. Guys, this glaze has peach, apple, and pineapple, and oyster sauce, so all the great elements. Cook medium. Mmm. For me personally, I eat so much authentic Asian food that, man, I just have a great appreciation for Asian fusion, especially when it's done right. And the truth is, a lot of people love it too. That's why Hakasan and Budakans are so popular, and on a casual side, you got Zuto. I mean, listen, they got everything from steak and fries to ramen to gyoza to burgers. For example, let's say you come here with your coworkers, and you got a lot of non-Asian people there. I mean, they got everything here. Steak, burgers, ramen, and it's all high quality. So, man, shout out to Zuto, man. They do a great job here. What's going on, man? At Little Cairn, we do Asian-inspired sandwiches. So if you take a look at our menu, fresh from Chinese, Vietnamese, Taiwanese, Japanese, and we put it in with sandwiches and rice bowls, and I think that really represents New York. New York is a belt of thought of different cultures, and that's what we do at Little Cairn. All right, you guys, this is a Fuss Short Rib Sandwich Dip. Fuss Short Rib. That is incredible. You guys gotta come get this Fuss Short Rib on the ciabatta. Hey, they give you Fubroth here too, you know, to make your own little French dip. Had to try the Fuss Short Rib, guys, because I love any sandwich that tastes like fuh, because I love fuh. Whoa. Whoa. Been in the Ginger Scallion Aoli. This really does taste like fuh, and it's super juicy like fuh too. All right, you guys, you got the Taiwanese G Pie Sandwich. My God. It looks good. You can tell the chicken looks different too. I have the Braised Pork Sandwich, man. This is like a mixture between like a bodega hero and a Taiwanese pork bowl, you know? And what I love about Little Cairn is that they got the Ginger Scallion Aoli, and then they have the Sesame Aoli. Those are two new Aolies in the game that are Asian-influenced, so let's try this out. Juicy Pork, nice balance with the onions and the lettuce and the cabbage. This is a must-try. This is the massive hangover cure. I recommend you sharing this with another person. It's got bacon, spam, egg, American cheese, two eggs, and then Aoli. That's a heavy sandwich, but it tastes nice with the Aoli, and that's a little Asian kick on it too. I think it's really cool about Little Cairn is to have like a group of Chinatown Rays guys, you know, come out to the East Village, open up a spot outside of Chinatown, because a lot of the time the new businesses are open up around the area that they grew up in, but these guys are really venturing off trying to deliver traditional Asian flavors in a very accessible way, not being too traditional with it, and I just love to see it. I think this is the evolution and the fact that it's a fast casual spot that's gonna have possibly a late night crowd here on this busy intersection. I'm excited for them. This is an Isan tuna larb here at 11 Tigers, very modern recipe, traditional, but obviously updated, elevated. Super refreshing. This is a rosemary, smoked. It's called even tiger white ocean sauce, and we top it with wheat flour, and also the chili oil. How is it? Oh, I don't know. Oh! All right you guys, this is the ribeye here at 11 Tigers. As you can see, it got the gold flake, got the trendy things on it. This dish right here kinda symbolizes what 11 Tigers is trying to do. It's trying to blend a Japanese izakaya with Thai flavors, and so they have the Japanese monocle, which is kind of like a, almost like a little dessert sandwich, but they have it with the uni and spicy tuna, about to try it out. Quality of the food is super high. I've never had anything that tastes like this. Okay, this is called back tender curry. This is an authentic Thai curry. It's made up of anang curry with a sea of ribeye, and you know, like, can you like pour the noodle? You will see like the black noodle inside, which is like, you know, like we make dishes like, but she's like, and refer to the tiger. This is the bag, and orange color. It's a noodle bag. Yes. This is called, 11 Tiger Tom Yum Ramen, which is a Thai spicy lamb chili with a ramen noodle inside, and we serve it with the tiger prawn, and the shiwin. All right you guys, what you are looking at is a panang curry from Thailand with the ribeye, with black fettuccine. Like we said guys, this chef is doing all types of stuff. It's a Thai chef who trained in Japanese food, obviously some European influence as well. This is crazy. Ribeye and a Thai curry pasta. If you told me that it worked before I had it, I don't know if I would have believed you, but it works. And this is the very first of its kind. This is a Tom Yum Ramen with a big old tiger prawn. Mm. Suck the head. And you, this spot is doing some things. If you like Japanese food, if you like Thai food, this is the spot you gotta check out. Plus, it's on the second floor. Speak easy, Stout. Very cool vibe, man. I wanna see the spot be successful. One of the coolest things, in my opinion about New York City, is this sort of United Nations ability that Manhattan has. Listen guys, it's almost midnight, and we are about to be transported to Tashkent, Uzbekistan. That's the capital of the country in Central Asia. It's nearby Kazakhstan. We're talking a mixture of Mongolian, Arab, Russian, other types of influences, guys. Let's check it out. All right you guys, here with my man, he's from Uzbekistan. What are we looking at? This is Uzbek, traditional Samosa from Uzbekistan. This one is chicken. It's made in the tunnel, in a special way. Uzbek Samosa. All right, man, what are we looking at here? This is a manti. Uzbek manti. We got different flavors. I heard we got some pumpkin, got some beef, you know, mixed. Yeah, it's mixed, yeah, different way. This is the Kavuma Lagman. That's the best one in our kitchen. What's the difference between regular Lagman and Kavuma Lagman? It's without the broth and soup. So if you guys know about the Central Asian region, they love eating Samosas, which is, you know, related to the Samosa, but obviously they fill it with their own things. I'm trying a bunch of different ones right here. I've never had a veggie Samosa before. All right you guys, we're talking about prime steak right here. This is one they're known for. This is a very special type of Samosa. Uzbek style. Oh man. All right you guys, this is pumpkin. It looks like curry. It's pumpkin, which is more like obviously regional too, that Central Asian zone. Last but not least guys, this is the chicken Samosa. If you guys never had this, it's almost like a fried clamshell pastry, kind of like a Shenzhen bao or a Shanghainese, fried Shalun bao on Nanjing Shilu. All right you guys, we got the Uzbek Monty right here. Oh my goodness. We got pumpkin. We got beef. I'm about to cut it up. And the very Uzbek touches obviously this sour cream or Russian style. David, you... I'm telling you, the Monty is a serious, serious go. You guys have never had a Monty before. It's almost like a gigantic one ton, but the filling is definitely way different. Way more dill, way more stuff that like, you kind of view like in the mountainous, almost like Western regions. Honestly, the gigantic style of like Mongolian, Central Asian Monty is actually like one of my favorite styles of dumpling. It's probably out of like 20 top three. We have the Kovuma Lagman. This is a very, very special Uzbek style of lagman. It has less soup, it's a little bit more fried. And so that's the kind of style, man. It's kind of like, I guess it would remind you of like dry style noodles versus like soup noodles, but man, let's try it out. This is what they're really known for. Super seasoning. The noodles are short, but they're nicely fried. This is the real authentic Uzbek plov. So here, only here you can try the real authentic Uzbek plov. Authentic Uzbek pilaf right here. Getting into this special Uzbek pilaf right here. Now, obviously a lot of places have their own version of pilaf, but they do it a little bit differently. We got a mix of beef and lamb, altogether, carrots, yellow rice, and not the Caribbean yellow rice. Obviously this is Central Asian yellow rice. One of my favorite Central Asian dishes out there, and I know that a lot of different countries and cultures, they all share this one, but man, I'm really enjoying this Uzbek one. You guys gotta come here. Farida has two locations. There's one in Midtown and one in Downtown and Financial District. We're here at the Financial District one. I definitely say check it out. It's such an experience that decor is amazing. You know, for me and David, we've traveled around and we've eaten a lot of Mongolian, a lot of Xinjiang food, some Afghani food, and now having Uzbek food. It's really cool to see all the shared dishes, but man, it's also cool to see all the little differences that people have, and even each restaurant, each chef is gonna do it a little bit differently, so it's really cool. All right, you guys, you are looking at two gigantic Uzbek kebabs right here. Andrew, you know, we started almost with the smallest ones, Andrew, eating yangrochuan in Shanghai and Beijing. So to see these, probably something that's closer to the source of like where the inspiration came from is crazy. Straight up guys, you know me. I eat out two times a day, 330 days of the year, and let me tell you this. This is absolutely one of the best kebabs I've ever had in my life. Everybody, I'm pretty excited because David said this was the best skewer he had had and maybe his life. So, I don't know if it's a Uzbekistan thing, but this skewer is fire. Yo, you guys, it's midnight on a Sunday here in New York City. I've got the great lounge singer. I've got a crazy Uzbek shish kebab and some compote. All right, you guys, we're at a brand new spot called Seas for Charlie. We're here with the owners and the chefs, man. Tell us, what is the concept of Seas for Charlie? Yeah, so basically we're all friends from Atlanta, Georgia since we were 10 years old, right? So, it has a little bit of our identity. We're all from Atlanta, Georgia, but also grew up in the United States. So, we wanted to serve something that kind of represents ourself, which is Korean tapas with the Southern flair. All right, our first dishes at Seas in Charlie, which is like this Korean Southern hipster spot, man. We're the really nice at. People are very nice, service is great. Let's try the shrimp toast first. Very excited to try this one. Ooh, look at that. I know visually it looks like an egg roll, but if you look inside, it's like a shrimp roll. It kind of does taste a little Chinese for sure. It's something that you might get at dim sum except rolled into toast, deep fried, and you got this kind of spicy aioli. Well, you know, when you go down to the cinema, make sure you get some of that Korean fried chicken with the gochujang. The things I really like about this KFC is that they use dark meat. Here we got the Salisbury steak sitting on a bed of grits. This is the definition of South Korean South American or Southern American fusion here. Ooh, look at that. Nice little patty, little butter on top. Salisbury steak on a bed of grits. Let's see how this fusion is. This is the first time I've ever seen anybody fuse Asian flavors into the Salisbury steak. That's not usually the first dish they think of to fuse with. Peppery, sweet, buttery. No, that's the best Salisbury steak I've ever had. You got the fully mushroom bibimbap. It's a very small bowl. It doesn't come in the stone bowl, but it's the same, you know, mixing up with rice concept that the bibimbap does. That is a delicious everyday dish. I could eat that two, three times a week. Oh my goodness, guys. I'm dipping it in the honey Korean Southern ribs from Atlanta, Georgia. You know, I had a lot of bagels in my day here in New York City, but I don't know if I ever had a Monaca bagel that was, you know, like the bagel here at Charlie's. Oh my goodness, it's cutting together nicely though. Oh my goodness, guys. You got the jam pouring out. Telling you guys that's a five out of five bagel. That's one of the best bagels I have in quite some time. And believe me, bagels consist of quite a large proportion of my diet. I got to show you guys this soap here. I'm going to push my hand on top. And the soap comes out in the stars. Right, our next two Asian concepts in New York City are coming out of the newly redone tin building at South Seaport. Listen, they have a lot of different cuisines coming out of here like Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, but it's all done with some French tuning. We're going to go try the brand new plush Chinese restaurant called The House of the Red Pearl. And then we're also going to check out Chiku, which is their sushi concept here. So I think it's going to be a brand new experience. And you know, maybe something that's kind of hard to find in New York. All right, you guys, we're at House of the Red Pearl. This is from St. George. This is like a really famous French guy. And these are $20 spring rolls wrapped in basil leaves. But this is a apricot ginger mustard. Like we said, guys, this is not for your Chinatown crowd, but we'll check out how it is. Blast of ginger, blast of scallion, and blast of wasabi. Bro, never had a spring roll like this before. This does kind of taste like one of those cabbage egg rolls which you might find at a Midwestern, you know, Chinese restaurant, you know, serving mostly a non-Asian clientele. But honestly, this is like an elevated version. It is interesting here. My favorite types of dishes from Chinese cuisine is definitely the steamed fish. Here we have a sea bass with ginger, scallion, and tons of chili and coriander with a nice little bed of oil and soy sauce. There's no bones here, as you know. They're not going to make you pick through it, take out the bones and then flip it. None of that, guys. We are at a spot that is serving, you know, primarily, probably non-Asians. But let's take a look at this. Generous amounts of ginger and scallion. That's good. I would say that's a classic steamed sea bass on par with a lot of other Chinese restaurants. We have the garlic chili shrimp. Now this dish definitely is going to seem a little bit more like Americanized than even the other dishes here. You have some summer squash. That's definitely not very traditional, but you know, this is just the elevated version of what New York Chinese food is. Now there's so many different levels of actually New York Chinese food. It starts at the Chinese express spots, you know, that you get served through the glass and then it goes up and then there's like Philippe chow's and then I feel like this is the next iteration. So this is garlic chili shrimp. Looks very flavorful though. I'm looking forward to it. Pretty good. They use high quality stuff here, guys. They're hot stickers with fresh ginger on top. That's a little different. Let's check this out. Mm, the Mala chicken. I think this is going to be based off the dish. Lots of G from Sichuan. Let's check it out. Mm. I think these are checking tender strips. Fried to perfection, guys. I mean, look at this dish. I feel like between the aesthetics and the flavor and the quality. I mean, yeah, this spot is pricey, but again, man, hey, it is Chinese inspired and the guys back there who are cooking the food and the chefs who came up with the dishes truly do got a passion for China. So everybody's going to have their own interpretation, but definitely check it out. Listen, guys, anybody can eat Chinese food their own way at their own level. And to be honest, here at House of the Red Pearl, I totally can see foreign world leaders like having a dinner here. I know you're supposed to dip the top, but... What are you guys going to open for? All right, so overall, man, I think anybody who walks into this building and is spending that amount of money loves French culture or French vibes. Maybe you're not there to eat French food, but you like that experience. I would say, I mean, I saw a lot of proper people here today. I didn't see a lot of tattoos. I didn't see a lot of, like, I guess, crazy outfits. It is a very, like, nice, clean aesthetic. And overall, I mean, if that's what you're looking for, I think the tin building is doing it right here. Next up on New Asian Concepts, we've got Ando Andrew. This is a inventive new Chinese bakery. And I'm telling you, there are servant stuff that you have never seen before ever in your life. I mean, here we have a lava yabbing, AKA mooncake. Bust it open, man. Bust it open. Stop talking. Stop talking. Woo! Oh! Just like the middle of a lai wang bao. Kind of thing, you know, I dim sum, the sweet egg yolk bun. Let's get it. Don't chill, Jekwila. This is one of the best mooncakes I've ever had. Super rich. Super rich. Next up, Andrew. I'm telling you, Andrew, these bakers from Fujian are thinking of some things. Dude, look, you got boba on top of a Earl Grey Dantat, AKA Dantat. Let's check it out, guys. I'm always down to try the new egg tarts. Did you, were you skeptical? That's the- Be honest, were you skeptical? That's the Earl Grey cream on top of a Portuguese egg tart with boba. You know, the Portuguese egg tart, Andrew, is from Portugal. The Earl Grey is from England. And the boba is from Taiwan. Guys, these desserts here at Ando are these pastries. They're not cheap. But I'm telling you, there's a lot of work that goes into them. Yeah, I mean, look, I have some pork floss on a cream puff here with seaweed on top. I've never had seaweed on a pastry before. Andrew, I've got a yook-sung parfait. Look at these layers. I'm about to pull it out like an archaeologist. Bop. We got taro at the bottom. We've got something fluffy. Got something else. And maybe some pork floss. Maybe some condensed milk. All the layers of the earth. Oh, and then the mochi top. Oh, that's why I was stretching. I thought that was some mozzarella for a second. Let me be corrected. Guys, check out this cream puff. Oh my gosh, there are so many layers to this food, man. Andrew, you are really seeing Asians in New York City stretch the creativity in the pastry shop and into the dessert space. Yeah, and I love to see it because pastry shops and dessert spots are a little bit low overhead. They're a little bit less expensive to start. So you can be a little bit more creative. And that's what I love to see, man. You should take risks. I mean, this is New York City. People love Instagrammable stuff. They love to be wowed. They love to be written about. So man, shout out to these. I think they came to America more as students, as international students. They stayed. They opened a business for everybody. And I think that people are more willing to accept wacky desserts rather than wacky proteins. Sometimes I see what you mean. But yeah, definitely get wacky with your desserts, guys. It's really fun. You guys, it's 2022. They are fusing Asian culture with Latino culture. These are Vietnamese bun sale tacos. That is nem nun. That is pressed Vietnamese pork. This is a lemongrass grilled chicken. This is catfish. I got some shrimp ones coming up. This is a nookchom type of sauce. I don't want to say it's 100% authentic. But listen, guys, the idea of doing a bun sale taco is not 100% authentic. However, it is duly authentic to both cultures. Nem nun taco here at Seo in Nolita. So I've actually had the bun sale taco several different ways before. What they did here was they actually took a Mexican tortilla shell and they dipped it in the turmeric powder that is making up the bun sale. So this is almost like a hybrid between a tortilla and a bun sale, not a full bun sale shell. Guys, I want to say the concept of Vietnamese Mexican fusion is really interesting because usually when you think about Asian cultures fusing with Mexican, a lot of people are familiar with the Korean taco. But this is the Vietnamese taco. And I just love that there's so many fusions out there nowadays. In 2022, 2023, people are going to try it out. We'll see what sticks. This is the shrimp one. I have a feeling this one's going to be good. It's kind of like a semi soft taco shell, but it does have the taste of bun sale. Coconutty, turmeric, lots of fresh ingredients in there. Here we have the catfish one with a little bit of dill and turmeric sauce right there. Nice little piece of catfish. I like catfish. It's very unctuous and very like thick, you know, it sticks together well. Let's go. Get the catfish one here. The little extra dill sauce. This catfish one is hinting. The tortilla is chewy, crunchy, crispy. The catfish and the extra sauce is doing a lot right now. Guys, I like this one come to sale. Check out like, you know, another fusion combination that maybe you didn't expect, especially to find in New York, Mexican Vietnamese, that's very, very LA. All right, our next new Asian spot in New York is Don Saviche. It's not really Asian, but it is kind of Asian because it's Peruvian food and I love this spot. I actually come here a lot. It's at Essex Market. Guys, this half chicken with the avocado salad was only $13 and this shrimp saltado, which is usually lomo saltado with steak. Guys, this was only 15 bucks, so I gotta try it and let you know, man. You guys are not familiar with Peruvian food. It's actually getting a lot trendier nowadays. It actually has a deep Asian influence from a lot of Japanese and Chinese influence from those immigrants that came over to Peru a long time ago. And actually, they even had a Japanese president. Oh, man. Oh, man. Guys, this chicken is marinated on an off-site secret location. Even the workers here don't know how exactly it's marinated, but let me tell you this. It is definitely marinated because it is delicious. This green sauce is called the Aegeo. Sorry if I pronounced that wrong, but... I almost don't care if I'm wrong. This is so right. Whoa. Look how juicy it is. It's just tearing apart, guys. Now guys, shout out to one other fast casual Peruvian spot I like to eat at in Midtown called Cherp. Shout them out over on 34th Street, but this is the one in Lower Manhattan. Sure, a lot of you out there have had lomo sotado. That's the one with steak and fries, but this is the shrimp sotado. All right, let's check this out. This has yellow rice. The shrimp. Guys, I think Peruvian food falls into one of the three top non-Asian cuisines that Asian people really like. I think it's Peruvian, Italian, and possibly Georgian. And actually, historically speaking, all those different cuisines could have very deep-rooted Asian influence, even dating back to the Mongolians. Maybe not the Peruvian, that's a little bit more recent, but Georgian and Italian. Guys, fresh cooked shrimp, $15. This is a steal in the Lower East Side.