 I would definitely have Indo-Chinese food again. This is far. This is like a whole new cafe I've never seen before. You know, not that I'm really in any authority on this type of issue, but it ain't a bad motto. This is something else, man. Vegan Chinese takeout, kimchi butter, Indian Chinese and Korean Cajun. If you want to see what people are doing to push the food game to the next level, then you don't want to miss this. What's going on, everybody? Welcome to a special Fusion episode of Stay or Go. You know, Stay or Go. The series where we're trying new trends out in New York City, trying to decide whether they're gonna stay or go. And of course, we couldn't do an Asian Fusion episode without our Asian Fusion friend, Ryan Benson here from LA. What's up, guys? Good to see you again. Wait, you from LA now? No, I'm from here, man. You're from here. You're from LA. But you are taking on the LA style. No, no, no. You adapted. Hoppa's always playing both sides. Yo, it's that Fusion though. All right, guys. Our first stop here on Stay or Go, the Asian Fusion version is round K here on Canal. This is a new cool cafe. It's owned by a Korean guy named Hans. And he is doing some really cool westernized style breakfast items with a Korean twist. What do you think it is? Have you ever heard of anything that was mixing Korean culture with Australian brunch? I've never actually tried this particular Fusion before, but it makes sense if you think about it. Because Korean food is known to have really good brunch, really good pastries. So this combination of the kimchi butter and all the different Korean elements with the French pastries and Australian brunch makes sense. And you know what I've been seeing? This is Korean-owned, but at a lot of Australian-owned spots, they've started to experiment with a little bit of kimchi. All right, so we got to see if the Koreanization of brunch items is here to stay or go. So let's check it out. Round K, guys. Lower East Side. Let's go. All right, so we just got our food here at Round K, and they have Korean elements in each of these dishes. Let's go through them real quick, David. That is the KBBQ toast, and the Korean element is going to be the kimchi butter right here that it's air fried in. Everything is air fried or steamed with the espresso steamer. Very interesting way is to cook things. So I got the Good Morning LES right here. We got the croissant with the kimchi butter, steamed eggs, bacon, avocado. The kimchi butter's on the eggs. And then here I have avocado toast with kimchi butter toasted on the toast first. Korean brunch. This avocado toast is fire. The slight spice from the chili pepper flakes and that kimchi butter on the bottom is key. Shout out to Han and coming up with that kimchi butter recipe because you can put that on anything. It's got that little kick from that kimchi butter. It really shines through and cuts through the fat of the egg. Now it's really interesting. The way that they cook the eggs here, she uses the espresso machine to steam the eggs. It's really reminiscent of the Korean dish, Gineon Jim, which is like a steamed egg dish that you will get with Korean barbecue. Would you guys agree with me? It's definitely more on the brunch side than the Korean side, but it just got enough Korean touches. It's very subtle, but it's clearly apparent. I think that's what makes good fusion food is having that little touch of what you don't expect and having not overpowered like the original dish. Whether it's kimchi slaw or the kimchi essence, the kimchi butter, it all works because kimchi itself is such a pungent and spicy thing. But don't just take our word for it. We got a Korean. No, man. Back over here. What are you thinking when you hear Korean fusion brunch? I've never been really a brunch person, but I love Korean food. You know, it's in my blood. Kimchi butter, cool, interesting. Growing up, I didn't like kimchi, but if it's just a bit, it adds that. How do you feel Korean and not like kimchi that much? See, see, that's the problem. How does this happen? I'm very picky with my kimchi, so. He's a kimchi connoisseur. He is a kimchi elitist, kimchi snot, kimchi sommelier. Like I was saying before, I'm very picky with my kimchi, but this flavor infused with the butter. Now it's coming from a kimchi snot. So overall, guys, on the trend of Korean brunch, do we think it's a stay or do we think this trend is gonna go? I think kimchi is an amazing condiment that can mix in with so many different things. I think it's a stay. I think it's a 100% stay. They really did this fusion food just right. It was just the perfect element of kimchi, perfect element of Korean to go with the French brunch. I'm also going with a stay for the Korean fusion brunch. Hey, it's a unanimous stay. That was just our first spot, round K. Let's go to the next one. Next up on our 2021 fusion crawl of spots that just opened, we have a very interesting Indian spot designed for Indian foodies. The spot is called Gazab, and part of their menu is actually Indian Chinese food, and Indian Chinese food is actually a very popular cuisine in India. Yeah, they actually call it Hakka because the original people who brought it from China were the Hakka Chinese. It might be from the Hakkas, but the cuisine name is Indochinese. I've never had Indochinese food, but I do know that India's had a big influence on food in Asia. You know what's really cool about this spot is like it's an Indian fusion spot designed for Indian foodies. Well, it's just really cool to see like a certain type of food that we're not used to seeing in America because this is actually trendy in India and it's being ported right over here. So just think about that. Let's go. Okay, I'm in the back of the kitchen of Gazab with Womchi, the head chef here. What made you guys serve Indochinese food? So Indochinese has been really popular cuisine in India. It is basically from Polkata, from the eastern part of India, and then from where the Indochinese really started. So in Indian food, if you see, we have a lot of street foods, but the Indochinese specifically is very famous because it has spicy and tanginess in it, and it's like mixture of Indian flavors with the Chinese influence in it. And also the Indochinese items specifically are very spicy and tangy, so people really like it. Very exciting, guys. I love to eat the food that they're eating in modern day India right now. This is our bok choy chart. It's all about street food in India. So Pakoda is like a batter which is made with besan, which is gram flour, and we also add rice flour in it. And then we put some spices and everything. So Pakoda is really, you can substitute with any vegetable, but this bok choy here is specifically used in pan Asian cuisine like Chinese cuisine and necklace cuisine. We have tried this as a Pakoda and then we converted this into a chart and it was really going well. And this is something like a modern Indian food which you know, which you will not find in any other regular traditional Indian restaurant. You heard chef bok choy chart. It's an Indian Chinese dish. Popping right now in India. What do we look at? Saffron, flowers, some pomegranates. Talk about wow factor, dude. Like this looks incredible, bro. It's like, if you guys have ever had a Pakora, that's essentially the same batter except with huge bok choy and with chaat on top. This is something else, man. You get it. You can't wait to do your bok choy chaat. The flour petals are must. This works so well because the chaat really helps break up that fattiness in the oil from being fried. It's like a perfect combination. This is a Gobi Manchurian. This is a crispy cauliflower and sauce has soy sauce, chili and tomato. And this is a masala sour cream. Our the second fusion dish here at Gazab that we're looking at is the Gobi Manchurian. Now the Gobi Desert is in the steps. It's near Mongolia. And then Manchuria is actually way more in like Northeastern Asia, but I think for some reason that it all just got conflated together. The name Gobi Manchurian. Out of a cool name. This actually looks really tasty. This is cauliflower, guys. Yeah, I'm excited, man. Cauliflower. Anytime you can eat it. You thought it was chicken? It looked like chicken. No, it kind of does, but also like, I've never had cauliflower with sour cream before. Gobi Manchurian. Yo, good. I love it with a yogurt sauce. Man, this kind of has a kick. Yo. I'll take this. I'll take this. I'll take the jacket off. That's the spicy. That's good though. Yeah, that was a little bit of a delayed hit though. You know what I think is so cool, guys? The ability to eat something that is trending in India in 2021, but we're in 2021, lower each side. New York City is kind of a perfect starting point for that because in and of itself, New York is a melting pot of cultures. If you're going to open up a fusion food spot, I definitely think New York is the place to do it. This is our 555 Sheswan Wings. So this is inspired from a South Indian dish called Chicken 65. It's originally made with chicken cubes, and Sheswan is also inspired from Indochinese. So we put both sauces together and this is like a fusion. Straight from Calcutta. Let's do it. Wow, wow. I like how here at Gazab, they're doing a fusion upon long time fusion. There's a traditional fusion that Indochinese cuisine, and then they're doing their own twist on it. I wonder if it's going to have that ball up. Possibly, man. That's a good point. This might be the first Indian spot with some mala wings. Indian Sheswan Wings. It's interesting. It still has that curry taste, but you get like a little bit of that Chinese influence. Bro, you know what I'm getting? I'm getting a little bit of that Singaporean Malaysian kind of fish sauce, fermented seafood vibe in the curry right now. That's really good. As far as stay or go guys, I'm going to go ahead and give this Indian Chinese fusion from Calcutta here at Gazab a hard stay. Yes. Because they executed it great. I know Lower East Side did not have like Hakka Chinese Indian fusion. You got to go to Jackson Heights to get it. As far as down here, they're providing something that this environment sorely had a void for it. Yeah. I think it's a pretty safe bet to say unanimous stay. Oh, you think I was going to say stay? 100%. Ew, I was going to say stay. All right, wrapping it up here at Gazab. I just want to thank the chef for the little history lesson that we got. That was really cool. But on to the next spot. All right, you guys, it's 2021. And I think that you can call veganism a culture of its own. Definitely. It's become such a big cuisine that people look for. And it kind of has like a whole whole unit of its own. We are outside of Fat Choi over on Broom Street in the LES. And the owner of this is a Chinese guy who grew up in the LES Chinatown area. But now he's kind of bringing almost like Chinese American vegan food to this street. Salt and pepper cauliflower instead of like calamari or squid. They got a mushroom sloppy joe. Definitely not under the same vegan food you find in Chinatown where it's like for the monks. You know, very Buddhist or very kosher. New vegan Chinese here at Fat Choi. All right, we're here with chef and owner Justin. What are you doing here? This is like some food people haven't seen before. I mean, it is an it is. It is like a lot of it. It harkens back to some of those like great things that we have in Chinatown. But for us, you know, my wife and I want to have kids. We want to make a better world. We do a little less harm with our restaurant. So we decided to do a Chinese vegan spot. It's very American to be quite honest. We call it kind of Chinese. A lot of my training has been like French or Italian. So it's me pushing flavors into that training. All right, you guys, we are looking at in a different array of vegan Chinese food. I'm going for this fungi salad. No, I'm going for this mushroom sloppy joe. I'm going to lead off with the salt and pepper calamari because I think that that cauliflower, not calamari. Look at this. Look at those sesame seeds. This is like a sesame seed pancake. You can get these at a lot of different like Chinese restaurants, but I love how we use that. That's a lot of flavor right there. All right, mushroom sloppy joe. Mushroom fungi salad. White fungus actually holds the sauce really nice. You gotta get an explosion of that vinegar. Also guys, they have these vegan chung fun. That's been grilled. It has a very, very meaty umami flavor. Oh, this is good. This is like, whoa. To me, the rice rolls is like five out of five. The depth of flavors that the chef here has been able to kind of procure far outweighs just like the meat factor. I really like this food. As far as vegan sort of Chinese goes here at Fat Choi, I actually think this is a state. I think that veganism is a culture that in 2021 has so many different levels and it's not just shout out to quinoa, but it's not just quinoa. You know how when electric cars first came out, people are like, I don't want a Chevy Volt. But then the Tesla Model 3 dropped hottest car on the market. It just goes to show you it's about the execution, not necessarily the concept. Well, I think this is kind of like a really, it's like a much more palatable way to introduce vegan food because you're combining like something that everybody loves with Chinese food and then putting a little bit of that veganism in there. So it's a little bit more easy to eat. Shout out to Fat Choi. I love that he's from the area and now he's bringing something new to an area close by. Man, I would say this is a state. It's a stay on vegan Chinese brand new Fat Choi. All right, you guys next up on our Asian Fusion Crawl 2021, we've got Cajun, Korean Cajun Cuisine. It's pretty clear in the fusion. It is fusing Korean flavors with Cajun Cuisine. And you got to go down there to pick it up. Let's go check it out. All right, Kate. Hi, David, how are you? What inspired you to do a Korean Cajun Fusion? So, you know I'm from Korea and when I was living in Korea for going to the culinary school in New York, one of my best friends told me that if you go to America, you've got to go to New Orleans. And I did. And I didn't know that that would change my life. I fell in love with the city food and culture everything. And I learned from the best chefs in town. And then I saw a lot of things in common, like a soup and rice, spiciness, lots of seafood and barbecue. For me, this is very special. It's coming from my heart. And this is actually my soul and my life. You know, my life story, Kate. There's soul Korea and their soul in Louisiana. Thank you, Jay. Thank you. All right, you guys, we are at Cajun, the pop-up at the very famous Japanese Yashoku restaurant, High Collar. This stuff does look very, very high quality. She was talking about how she was inspired. She comes from a background of fine dining. She was originally from Korea, but she fell in love with Louisiana, New Orleans cuisine. So, just check it out, man. Andrew, we are looking at shrimp, Korean kimchi jambalaya right here. If you guys know about jambalaya, that is a classic Cajun Creole dish. This was a really cool way to see these flavors blend. I totally support this concept. It was a little pricey, but it was worth it to try something brand new. Korean New Orleans-style barbecue ribs. You can kind of see that there's this reddish hue to it that's gonna be more from the Korean side, but it definitely does look like traditional New Orleans barbecue. Wow, I can really taste that Korean go-to-jong, Cajun kick right there. Kimchi jambalaya was such a crazy mixture of flavors you never thought that would be paired together. This tastes a little bit Hawaiian for some reason, but overall, guys, this Korean Cajun Shrimp Fusion jambalaya is good. All right, Andrew, what is your takeaway? As far as this fusion restaurant goes, Cajun Korean, is this a trendstay or go? Yo, man, I really like this fusion. The food is really good. I think it's a little bit pricey, but overall, I like the flavors. Chef Jay was very masterful in letting two things that I was, you know, I didn't know that we're gonna work together. Overall, Andrew, as a singular restaurant, I'm gonna go ahead maybe and say go, but I think as far as the banger dishes go, I think they're here to stay, and they should stay. Shout out to Chef Jay. Sometimes, guys, fusions come in very subtle ways. We are talking about being fun from the city of Chengdu, China, mixing with Southern classics like Georgia Peaches. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'm about to show you. I'm here at Jell-N-Chill. Hi! Can you tell us about the new fusion items that you guys have on your menu? Yeah, the new fusion, too. One is the Yuzu Grapefruit. The other is the summer peach. And they're very different from traditional style or Szechuanese. The Szechuanese has some brown sugar and rose powder water in it. It's more like local region, like people street style. So, but for Yuzu and peach, it's more like American Western fusion with slushy and with top rocks and with the Yuzu slushy, too. And also, we used to have the lychee, but lychee is from Georgia, too. Okay, cool. You know what, guys? Like we said, traditional Chengdu culture and then Japanese and Southern American culture. All right, Andrew, I have a big smile on my face. You know why? Because I'm about to try this peach fusion food party. This, I have the grapefruit jelly, guys. I know a lot of people are confused on how to eat this. Do you eat it with a spoon or a straw? Guess what? All you need is a boba straw. And you can get all the jelly through it. Dude, I've got jam. I've got pop rocks. I've got whipped cream. I've got like five different formats of peach. Plus, oh my God, we cannot neglect the actual peach slice. After all the food that we've had on this ancient food crawl, I really need this to cool down and neutralize everything. It's acidic, it's sweet, it's soft, it's healthy. Conjac jelly, love it. What do you think is like future prospects of fusion with, you know, traditional Chengdu desserts and obviously Western flavors, Japanese flavors, Southern Georgia flavors over here? If the mass market can get over the texture of the jelly, you eat it with a spoon, do you suck it through a straw? It's not really intuitive to everybody. I think Asians are a little bit more used to it. I think once they get over that hump, it's gonna stay for sure. I don't say this often. I wouldn't just say it, just to say it, guys. Being fun is incredible. Being fun is sticking around. All right, so our next spot on our Asian fusion crawl around East Village is serving a Korean snack. This is the Yuba Chobap. This is that little tofu wrapping around rice and it has toppings on top. Right, you can also get a version in Japan. Korea has its own version and here they have traditional toppings, but also fusion American toppings. They've got dalgona coffee topped with like Korean sugar candy. Everything does have a fusion element to it. You know what's interesting? This is not the only fusion Yubu spot in New York City. No, these are popping up around New York City. So watch out, there might be a Yuba Chobap spot coming to your city soon. But I don't know if your city has it. Let me know if your city has it. All right, you guys, Yubu has arrived. We have traditional flavors here, non-traditional flavors here. Obviously, this is a little bit more Japanese. This is more Western. When you go to a sushi spot, you might know this as Inari, but the Korean version is called Yubu Chobap. Yubu Chobap. It's interesting. It's not unlike eating avocado toast. David, so as far as Inari and Yubu Chobap being a legit staple lunch food for people out in New York City, is it stay or go? All right, I think for a lot of internationals who are born in other countries all around Asia, I could definitely see it being a stay. However, to the American demographic, it'll probably be a go. So that being said, it's a stay. But it's gonna be very tricky and not everybody's gonna stay. Yeah, you're not buying this huge foot-long sub sandwich here. You don't have to commit to that. All you gotta commit to is one little Yubu. I think for a small shop, Yubu, Inari, it's a stay. Next up on our Fusion Food Crawl Stay or Go episode, we've got Friedman's Diner. Now, Friedman's is actually a Jewish-owned diner chain. I believe it's the biggest one with like eight locations all around Manhattan. They have a lot of classic Americana dishes, but they also have Jewish dishes. And surprisingly, they also have Chinese and Korean dishes. Right, so here you got the Korean chicken wings. Of course, their take on the classic. Soy garlic at the Jewish diner. If you guys didn't know, it's actually tradition in Jewish culture on Christmas to go eat Chinese food. A Jewish-American culture. Jewish-American culture. And that's because Chinese restaurants are one of the only restaurants that are open on Christmas. Friedman's, the Jewish diner, has pot stickers and Korean wings. And just to show it, we also got a chicken noodle matzo ball soup. Jewish Korean chicken wings. They really were able to capture that kind of like soy flavor without it being like too overpowered. Like it's kind of toned down a little bit. We're gonna try the pot stickers from Friedman's Jewish-American diner. I do want to say the color of these pot stickers, awfully white. Do they kind of remind you of like Trader Joe's, which are by the way, guys, just because I'm Chinese does not mean I go against the Lingling's. The Lingling's, they're still good within context. Jewish pot stickers. It's all a little like a little Kung Pao vibe. Yeah, that sauce is like surprisingly like punchy. Not bad. The Chinese food or the Korean food from the Jewish spot, it ain't bad. Just to show the diversity, things you wouldn't find at a regular American diner. Of course, you got the matzo ball soup. New York is famous for having 24 seven diners and matzo ball soup was my go-to whenever I was feeling sick. You know, not that I'm really in the authority on this type of issue, but it ain't a bad matzo. The consistency and the texture of that matzo ball like hit just right. All right, you guys, that is it for our quick fusion section at Friedman's. What are we thinking? I think it was a really creative, interesting twist on Jewish-American diner. But I do have to say, my favorite item out of all these was the traditional soup. For me, as a person, I guess it would be a go because I wouldn't probably order this if I came here. Like you said, I'd be more sticky even the shashuka or some of the Israeli items. But for the market, it's a stay. All right. Well, I think there's a little bit of a disagreement. Yeah, I'm firmly in the go. If I'm going to a Jewish-American diner, I want some really good Jewish-American food. You want a pastrami? I want a pastrami. If I want Chinese food, I'm gonna go down the street. We're in Chinatown right now. No, that is, we are in Chinatown. That is a good point. I think it's a go, but it's appreciated. Good job, Fredons. Listen, opening a restaurant of any type in New York requires a ton of hard work and risks. So that means everyone is really passionate about what they do. I mean, you have to be. You have no choice. And even though we analyze whether we think it's a good business or not, or whether it's gonna last or stay trendy, it really has minimal impact on the business. So you probably just need to try these spots for yourself. Let us know in the comments down below what looked good and let us know what you think is a stay or go.