 This one is the entrails. The entrails. The anus. You could say that. You could say that. Yo, I am feeling this anus meat so much. Fort Lee, New Jersey. One of the fastest growing Korean enclaves in America. It boasts great food, clean streets, rare dishes, and plenty of former circle nightclub goers who have retired from the nightlife scene. From afar, it may not look like much more than a quaint town right off the George Washington Bridge, but the magic is that it's the quiet K-town. Now is it worth heading out here from the city? Will it always be quiet? Hit that like button and let's find out. Alright, and today's episode of The World NY. We're hitting up Fort Lee, New Jersey. It has a huge Korean population. We got a lot of friends there. It's a place I've never been. Let's go check it out. Alright, so starting off our journey in Fort Lee. We're at our first spot, but I want to introduce my friend Chi. Chi, you've opened up a new cafe in Fort Lee and you're going to show us some things that we haven't seen before. Things that are going to be hard to find even in K-town, New York. Alright, so we're at our first spot called Obelton. It's a Korean barbecue joint. It highlights the fishermen culture in Korea. Let's go check it out. Alright, man, in front of us we have this amazing coastline Korean seafood grill feast and I'm here with the owner Q of Obelton. Q, can you tell me real quick and describe what is different about your restaurant? I wouldn't say that it's street food. I would say that this is more found towards the beach line and like the islands of Jeju-do. They'll take the raw ingredients that come directly from down the block or the local fishermen and they'll put it straight on the grill for you and I think I got that idea from the K-dramas and the movies that I always see. I'm like, hey, that would be great here. So this is agujjim that's in Korean. It means spicy monkfish. It's an array of seafood, bean sprouts, onions in there, we have green onions in there and we put it all together and put it on this big plate for everyone to enjoy. Spicy Korean monkfish. Agujjim. It's really meaty. I feel like at some point I was biting into like lobster tail. It was a little bit bouncy, but then it breaks down and kind of shreds in your mouth. That's great. So this is cold pork feet mixed in with our house salad with some pine nuts. It's a sweet and spicy wasabi sauce. We also have jellyfish in here. Korean pig feet salad. Naengchae jokbal. I never thought I would say that pig feet salad is super refreshing. That's not like a phrase that I would have initially thought of saying. That's really good. This is just a little mini broth. What I do is I heat this up and then once these guys open, they're like full of juice and I pour it in there and add it to the broth. And so that turns essentially into like a clam broth. Let's go in on these fresh clams, hot off the grill, dipped in the broth. Let's go. I just love how the flavor of the broth complimented the clam and it didn't overtake it so that was fire. Alright Q, so you've grown up in Fort Lee but you've spent a lot of time in Powell Park and these are the main Korean areas in New Jersey. How would you describe the difference between Fort Lee and Powell Park? I feel as if the mayor is trying to make this an extension of the city. We got little air pockets of little Italy here. If you go down the main street, there's a lot of Italian areas, Korean area and the diversity I think is the main difference between Powell Park and Fort Lee. Alright real quick to end off our meal we got some Korean sodas and this one I've seen but this one is new from Jinro. Is this a soda? I say that it's like a slightly spiked soda. No, Jinro label is one of the most popular in the soju brand. I think they wanted to do a little bit of a twist. So we're getting some insider news on the soju battles here. I think that right now, actually in Korea, Koreans are boycotting tuna right now. What? So you come to Fort Lee, you get the soju news. I don't know. Because Tom Tudum is headed by a Japanese company. Wow. Alright Q, thank you so much for the meal man. What else should we head in Fort Lee? The heart of Fort Lee would be Main Street. Check out Cheese Place, the floor cafe. Also check out my other place, Food Garden which is right off of Main Street. But that's the heart of Fort Lee. That's where you should go home. Alright yo Q, thank you so much man. I appreciate that. Let's go. Okay Q, starting off our journey here through Fort Lee. We're going to start off at your new cafe, D4 Boutique. You're doing things a little bit differently. Why did you want to open up a cafe like this during the pandemic? To be honest, I was kind of screwed. Like many of us, I did get laid off. And you know, when you get pushed to a corner, you kind of look back at like, okay, well we're my original dreams. So the opportunity presented itself in my ticket. So we have our signature teddy latte. This one's the teddy matcha latte. The bear is made out of matcha. And then you have this blue one. This is the butterfly flower. Butterfly. Okay, he's sweating a little bit. He's getting a little hot. And then you have the what? The coffee bear? Yes, this is our original. I want to try this butterfly tea. That kind of tastes like taro a little bit. Yo, I like this. I don't know. This is my first time having it. So I feel like... It's usually a little bit stinky people's thing. I've never had blue butterfly tea. Okay, so Chi, actually I noticed at your spot, you do sell a lot of other people's items. And this is the newest one that you're carrying. It's Filipino-owned company over in Jersey City. It's Baonanas, it's banana pudding. This is the OG. We also have cookies and cream, matcha, and Nutella. Wow. I always loved banana cream pie. And this is kind of the banana pudding version of it. Shout out to Baonanas. And before we go to our next spot, we've got to try this Korean fried chicken from Boomboo Chicken right down the street. But yo, to help me try this chicken, I am going to enlist the help of local foodie originally from California now based in Fort Lee. John, why don't you come in here, man? What's up, what's up? Yeah. Made to order. Nice crunch. I love how crispy the skin is. And so easy to just tear away the skin from the bone. I love it. Want to do the flat real quick? All right, Chi, so we've made it to Main Street in Fort Lee. It feels like a very nice, like suburban Main Street. Somewhat urban, but you said it's changing a little bit. A lot of business owners wanted to bring some New York flavor here. So we're here at Pearly Juice, which is the first vegan juice bar in Fort Lee. First vegan juice bar in Fort Lee. Hey, never mad at more healthy stuff. Why not? Let's go. Owner, we got Sung and Jenny. Tell me how your spot is kind of different than other juiceries that I might have been to. We do everything plant-based, so there's no animal products in the store. All the almond milks we make in-house, all the nut butters we make in-house. We do smoothies, juices, like kale chips, desserts, and everything is vegan. That's what makes it different from all other juice bars. So there's a juice here that is so strong that you guys recommend me not do it right now? Yes. The natural remedy that we came up with, it's made with lemon, ginger, olive oregano, and cayenne extra. You guys created it recently, and we're like, hey, everybody needs to boost their immunity. Let's make the strongest shot possible. It's the one thing that I took every single day since this whole pandemic hit. Hit me with it. Thank you. Bye. You say in this, like, we're at Fat Buddha, and this is my sixth shot. It's obviously heavy lemon and like... Yeah, the cayenne is opening up your sinuses. Okay. The olive oregano is anti-fungal and bacteria is going to go down and just kick-start your immune system. All right, here's the super burrito, blanched, huge collard green leaf. I've actually never had a burrito like this before. It kind of looks like a spring roll, like a Biden salad, except just fold it up. I'll say this, between this and the reboot shot, I've definitely offset anything that I've eaten in the past like a week. All right, so we took a quick little turn right off of Main Street, and we're here in front of Mavi's that's doing some Korean-Italian fusion. Chi, what are some dishes that we're getting that are pretty unique here? So one of the pieces that we're going to try is the kimchi bulgogi pizza. All right, I'm here with the owner, Jun, of Mavi's. It's a really interesting menu that you have that's kind of fusing Korean and Italian flavors. What inspired you to do it? Because it's like a coffee 19, we had a problem with our menu because we usually have a fancy menu last year. So this year, I want to think about our research a lot. The number one selling is chicken, pizza. Those are more like a teca menu. So we convert to the pizza. We use a special dough. I make the dough every day. We use organic wheat. It makes more flavor, more crunch. Kimchi bulgogi pizza with a beet crust. The cheese was nice. It was saucy, but not too wet. It's still held together. The crust is fluffy. Solid pizza. All right, so here I have the churro hot dog. I had to get it. Because you guys know corn dogs are really popular as a Korean street food. At first I thought that was going to be really weird because it was going to take something very sweet and cinnamony and you wrap it around a hot dog. But that works out great. It's crunchy and crispy on the outside. There's some sweetness. You have the hot dog in the middle. Man, I think you guys got to try this too. All right, John. So you're originally from La Crescent of California, you know, which is kind of a Korean neighborhood. But now you live out here. Are there like parallels and like similarities between the Korean areas, between the East Coast and the West Coast? This is very nostalgic of how I grew up going to mom and pop restaurants in La Crescent. New York and L.A.K. towns, you go to party and drink, but when you really want that connection with your community and have this kind of food, you have to come out to Jersey. All right, before we leave mobbies, we got to wash it down with some drinks. What do you got, Che? That is something I've never heard of. Yeah, there's a lot of bubble tea flavors, but have you guys ever heard of a mug war bubble tea? Mug war. Mm-hmm. What is it? That sounds like not very appealing, though. It's a type of weed. It has a lot of health benefits from what I read up on, but... So an actual weed, weed. Like, stay off the weed! It's really light. Kind of like a graininess, but it's really smooth. I would say this probably tastes like kind of a wheat tea matcha slash hoji cha. So it's not super strong, but it's really nice and it's easy to drink, man. But yo, mobbies in Fort Lee. All right, guys. So our next stop on Main Street in Fort Lee is Gopchang's story. It recently opened up. I know that this is a spot that they have in K-Town, New York, but we're going to be trying some new stuff that I haven't had before, so what are we eating? So we're checking out the Gopchang, the beef intestine, a beef platter, and a steak tartare. Small intestines out in the suburbs. Let's get it. All right, I think we got to start off our Gopchang meal here with the beef heart that's on top. Got these tripe right here. I actually like tripe. Beef heart. Yum-tong. I definitely taste some of that iron from the blood, but it's actually, it's really tender. So tender. Man. M.J., you're from Seoul, Korea. Can you tell us about what it means when you come to America and you see these big neighborhoods and it's a huge Korean neighborhood and everybody loves Korean culture and like pop culture at least and food. What do you think about all that? I'm kind of half Korean. So I basically lived in Russia. Were you born in Russia? Well, I was born in Korea, but I went to Russia when I was 10 and killed 21. Isn't there a Korean community in Uzbekistan? Yeah. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not a big fan of intestines, especially the big intestine overall. But let's do it. Big intestine. Big intestine? Te-chan. Oh, it's so chewy. Hit or miss usually. But I love the texture. It's like my favorite part. More weird thing here is the end trail, which is a.k.a. Dabut. Who would have thought you'd come to Fort Lee, be in a nice family setting and start eating butthole? I mean, I'm just saying. It's not what you would expect. This is the end trails a.k.a. Anus a.k.a. Bak-chan. All right. Give me the salt. Why are we eating booty? I'm scared. Actually, that's the best. Really? It's like the crispiest. Yo. It'll be the best. Yo. I still wanted to make it. I think you'll like it. No. It's actually good. I actually enjoy that. People out there, they know I'm not really into intestines. But the anus? I might be down with the a. Butthole. This is the smallest? Yo. It's the crispiest. The five out of five here is the end trails. Buttholes. It's good. Come to go, chan. All right, Chi. We just turned the corner behind us. Sushi kai. Why are we here? It's been hard for me to find like a good omakase spot that's so accessible in the city. And then I came across this little gem on Main Street. You'll see how it gives you a New York feel. All right, guys. Sushi kai. I'm very confident in our product and our staff and the way that we, you know, handle and serve our ingredients. It's really excellent. As long as you know how to, you know, handle ingredients and make it taste good and work properly. You know, anybody could do it if only you have the passion and the will to do it. All right, so we have our main section of the omakase dinner. But Chi, you said we got to eat this a certain way and I actually have not actually had omakase this way. So can you walk us through? Okay, so let's get rid of the chopsticks. I don't want to be using our hands today. All right. So we have this little napkin that's folded up and you told me not to take it out. After each one, you just kind of wipe it like this. Okay. And clean your fingers. Okay, here I got it. It is the fattiest of the tuna. It's up above Chutoro. This is Otoro. Just a little bit of a dab right there. Melted in my mouth. Completely disappeared. That was so good. Let's go on to round two. I am going for the Hokkaido scallop with truffle butter. Oh, this is already flat. Wow. That was like truffle butter to the max. I've actually never experienced intense truffle butter on that level before. It worked nicely with the Hokkaido scallop. Super fatty. I never had sushi like that. All right, Chi, can this spot in Fort Lee compare itself to, you know, all the fancy cool omakases in the city? I think a lot of omakases in the city have been getting a little too gimmicky and like getting too playful with it. Personally, I like it a little bit more traditional and I think sushi guy did a perfect traditional with a kind of a good twist to it. It feels like I'm transported in a super brand new build out in Manhattan and it's just so cool to see this in Jersey. I mean, Fort Lee. All right, everybody, that wraps it up for this episode of the World NY or maybe I should say NJ. Shout out to John and Chi for joining us. Let me know in the comments down below. One, if we missed any spot in Fort Lee and number two, if there's any other places you guys want us to go and until next time, we out. Peace. Yo, I am feeling this anus meat so much. But yo, it's got like the fake nut meat in there. You know what it is? If you're going to eat something so dirty, you want to eat it in a clean place. That sounded so odd.