New Asian-American Food You NEED To Try

In fact, Blue Bottle, Le Fin is gonna make you finished. It crawled out of hell. For me, I call it the grilled galama dumpling. You know, I'm Italian, I gotta... Talking about crazy rich Asians reincarnated into retail businesses, guys. Today's banana split is super low-key Asian. In 2022, it's safe to say that Asian flavors are taking over. It seems like half of the new restaurants opening up incorporate some Eastern flavors into their dishes. If not, they're entirely Asian. So in this video, we're going to try New York's newest Asian concepts. From Indian chicken sandwiches to a hipster Vietnamese cafe to an authentic Hong Kong noodle ball to even Thai dim sum. So please hit that like button for the food and not the accents. But let's go. Rowdy Rooster, it's Indian fried chicken. Now, Indian fried chicken is actually, you know, kind of getting more popular across New York. This is one of the few spots in Manhattan. Here we have their special one, man. This is a chicken sandwich. Look how saucy that is. I believe there's some of that like chutney on there. Lots of spices. I'm not gonna lie, guys. It looks like if you can't even handle regular Indian food, you probably can't handle this chicken sandwich. Guys, there is some influence from Gobi Manchurian food. The kind of Hakka Chinese food that's getting popular in India right now. You guys ready? Let's go in for it. Rowdy Rooster. Spices are kicking in. One more bite. Guys, there were so many spices and so many, you know, different chutneys. It had like a nice layer of onions. You definitely got to try this one because it does put its own twist on it. I can't say that it tastes like curry, but it is definitely spicy. I was told that this was just like Mountain Dew except better. And I would say it is easier to drink than Mountain Dew for sure. Here we have the spicy cauliflower. Very similar to the kind of Gobi Manchurian, Hakka Chinese Indian food that you're going to find that's popular right now. I'm not going to lie, David, I know I volunteered to do this spot. I don't want to try this, but you said it. Yo, I thought they were chicken wings at first. More sweet and fragrant than it looks. This looks like it crawled out of hell, but it's actually really easy to eat. I really like the fried cauliflower. At least fried eggplant with scallion yogurt. I've never seen little bits of fried eggplant this small. I've never heard of scallion yogurt, but I love scallions. Oh, that's pretty good. When it comes to some of this food maybe being influenced by like the Chinese Indian food that is trending right now, it makes complete sense because at a lot of Hong Kong cafes, there is always like curry chicken. And I just think it's really cool to see like another side of Indian food. And now people are bringing in this trendy style of food from India that has slightly different spices and definitely a little different like ethnic mixture. I think Indian chicken spots really have a chance because at the end of the day, it's a chicken sandwich and it's spicy and people love Indian food. Did I ever think I'd be drinking a mango lassi with a fried chicken sandwich? Maybe not. Oh, that's good, guys. Hey, it's 2022. All rules off the board. It feels like we're in Lan Kwai Fong right now because there's the McDonald's right next to the Kam Moon Ting. Dim Sum Palace actually has a very strong Hong Kong concept called Dim Sum Sam. Same people. I love Dim Sum Palace. Let's check out what they're bringing to the New York City environment. We just want everyone to have a taste of like family meal, like quick and family style meal. You know, like you can share this with your family. Everything is very delicious and it's actually all the dim sum is handmade. The real Hong Kong style. Honestly, it feels like I got transported to Hong Kong. We are at Dim Sum Sam. As you can see, even the presentation, very, very similar. You've got the foil, which is this roast pork. You've got a duck leg. Over here, I've got a roast chicken leg. We've got the Au Lam over here with the wonton, the Japanese half egg, which is actually very HK to adopt some slight influences from Tokyo. And of course, you've got your... You guys, this is the most Hong Kong lunch, like Chewy food you can get in the entire city of New York. The owner is from Guangzhou. Guangzhou, Hong Kong. They have a lot of crossover culture, obviously. I think it's really cool to see these Hong Kong concepts come over to America. They almost feel like directly poured it over. Hopefully, they work, man. I think, you know, Cantonese food is one of the most popular, like pan Chinese type of foods. I think, you know, what really stands out to me is that everything is super clean. This reminds me a lot of a Hong Kong spot in Singapore, in the mall or in Hong Kong itself. Oh, here we have a very, very HK looking Au Lam wonton mien. Guys, we got it with hall fun. The rice noodles, not wonton noodles. Let me dig this up. Wow, look at that. In this area, actually, this spot does really well for lunch because it appeals to the office crowd. But guys, I can see all types of Asian people and even particularly different types of regional Chinese people eating this for lunch because it's lighter in flavor. Kind of like how a lot of people would eat dig in or even sweet greens for lunch. I would just say it's really cool that this spot feels so much like Hong Kong because New York is dense like Hong Kong. So literally, the cities are built similarly. So that actually makes a lot of sense. And hey, there's always space for some really good Au Lam, hall fun wonton, Au Lam, hall fun mien. Straight up, Dim Sum Sam is the closest reincarnation of Hong Kong I've ever seen in New York City. Now, this is really interesting, Marco, because these are like Thai shumai. You know what shumai are. You grew up in Chinatown. Love shumai, love shumai. And I love how the dumplings are shaped like the shumai style. I call it a brain taco because it's shaped like a brain. It's almost like if you wrap crane from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in a dumpling wrapper. That's how a shumai looks. They got octopus, they got all types of stuff that are not like your traditional Cantonese flavors. Like we always say, you know, this is like the new generation of food. And why not elevate a dumpling? Let's check it out. Dumplings and dips. Hey, what's up, man? So we actually, we want to make it fun, make it different. My own style, yes. Some of them do not even fight in Thailand. We want to tweak something new with something different like octopus. You never seen octopus dumpling before. Aren't you guys, this is an octopus dumpling here at Dumplings and Dips. That's good. In this context, it kind of tastes like a oyster. A little bit like, just got like that, like good takoyaki type flavor. Man, it almost is really like the mixture between a Cantonese shumai and a takoyaki. It's sort of like a, for me, I call it the grilled galama dumpling. You know, I'm a Thai. I gotta get my little Thai words in there. That was, I've enjoyed that a lot. Thai shrimp dumplings. Whoa, wow. No, that shrimp with the garlic, there's garlic in there for sure. That's tremendous. Hey, would you almost say that kind of reminded you of like a shrimp linguine? Linguine, there it is. Extra grease though. All of us, we love the grease. That's tremendous. Oh, Marco going in for another one. Yeah, I got it. Yo, it's good. It's good. Oh my God. This is what I'm more used to eating in Chinatown. When I go to a lot of Thai spots. But I'll tell you what, this is probably the best one I've ever had. All right, you guys, we are looking at the spicy Thai basil pork shumai. Um, they said that this is like Thai dish, you know, like pad krapow, but just put into a dumpling. Wow. Thai basil. So that has a whole different vibe to it. We gotta try it with one of the Thai sauces. You know what I love about this spot is that it was just like steaming, like we're on the Bangkok roadside, just like ready to go, right? We didn't have to wait. Damn. Yo. Hey, surprise, surprise. The Thai flavor went the best with the Thai sauce. Absolutely. Green curry chicken. I love the Thai flavors of the shumai. This is like blowing my mind. That's a whole nother vibe. Definitely, you know what? The jalapeno gives it its own unique flavor in this. I'm actually really impressed with all the sauces they have. Because they're really good. For me, I want to say my favorite was either the shrimp garlic or the pork basil. Oh man. So for me, am I gonna lie? I love them all. I gotta go with the shrimp garlic. That just hit on so many levels that I did not know existed. Check out Dumplings and Dips, St. Mark's. It's in the old spot, dessert spot. Shout out to Ace Water Surf Pub. All right, you guys. We are looking at a northern style Vietnamese drip coffee. This one is called the full latte. It's a little bit of a modern hybrid with honey and oat milk. And this is a pandan latte, guys. I'm gonna kick this off first, man. Anytime I see the pandan, I see a slight green tint. But it's tough to say. You know, pandan stuff is very subtle until you try it. The pandan! I can taste the pandan! Listen, guys. It's very difficult to describe the pandan flavor. It's kind of vanilla, coconut, maybe slightly floral. As far as pandan lattes go, I personally prefer it over lavender. This one's called their full latte, guys. I don't exactly know what's in it. But I know there is a lot of honey and they give you a spoon. It's not designed to taste like pho. The pho latte is just meant to be like a thin honey oat milk. It's a good play on words. Here, what she's trying to do is elevate Vietnamese coffee in a way that hasn't been seen before. These are high quality fins, triple filter. Obviously, all green products. Oh my gosh, very sustainable. That's not how you do it. What makes New York City cool is that people just come here to elevate their culture. I don't mean to make it less traditional, but to show you the almost like royal version of their culture. So, you know, Vietnamese coffee known to be very strong. Just like the people. Just like the hearts. Wow, that's really easy to drink. It's very strong. Very sweet. Got a little bit of honey in there. It's not like your average Vietnamese coffee where that kind of condensed milk flavor is like overcoming. Wow. Blue bottle, they're coming for you. The fin is coming. In fact, blue bottle, the fin is gonna make you finished. Yeah, yeah. Check out the fin. It is unlike any other Vietnamese coffee shop. You know, this is the New York version. And the New York version is always gonna have like the new wave of Vietnamese culture. Vietnamese hipsters coming in the game, bringing something new. It's very interesting. Guys, we are at Cochran Market. Now, this place used to be known for having some of the best soba. And they still do at some of their other locations. But they converted this one to be more like a Japanese fast casual bento concept. So here we guys, we got the fruit sandos. This was $8.75. We've got one satsuma one or a mandarin orange one. One strawberry one. I'm gonna try the strawberry. Japanese fruit cream sando. You guys, the bread is the Japanese milk bread from Hokkaido. The strawberry, a little bit frozen. It's like we're on the streets of Tokyo or Osaka. All right, so here I have the satsuma cream sando. In Chinese culture, when it comes to like the street food or how they want to eat kind of fresh fruits and desserts, they might put it in the tanghulu where they spin it in the sugar and it becomes like crystallized and becomes really hard. But you know, Japan, they like things soft and light. So they put in the cream sando. I don't even know how to eat this. First of all, it was crazy juicy. It was like about to spill out almost like a soup dumpling or I mean just biting into that fruit. And then comes the cream and the bread. Man, dude, you guys gotta try this. If you're into Japanese culture, try this sandwich. Talking about crazy rich Asians reincarnated into retail businesses, guys. We are in front of Lady Wong. This is an elevated Malaysian kueh spot. So kuehs are these like Malay-Chinese like nanya desserts that popped up like a couple hundred years ago. They have that side, which is very traditional and very Malaysian here. But they also have their elevated like French pandan tiramisu puddings. So guys, this is very New York City because you have the high and you have the low together, but they're both elevated. Let's go check it out. All right, so what we have here are the two sides of Lady Wong. We've got the French inspired pandan matcha cake right here, tart. And then of course, you've got the traditional Malay kueh right here. But you know, for me, I'm gonna go more with the modern fusion things right off the bat. This is a pandan matcha tart. Wow. What the f***? I'm gonna go ahead and give this a five out of five. This pandan matcha tart at Lady Wong is crazy. Listen guys, it's difficult to describe. Just come to New York City and get this. All right, you guys, we're looking at a pandan panna cotta with a drip right here. You know, the pandan flavor is really, really good. This is why you come to Lady Wong, guys. They had Musang King Swiss rolls. They had bandung rose syrup Swiss rolls. And this, you gotta come get this kueh. It's only three dollars. Straight up, guys, I have to come clean. I'm not the biggest fan of kueh in my life. This is the best one I've ever had. Really interesting to see the kind of like colonial Southeast Asian, particularly Malaysian, Singaporean foods come to America and kind of establish themselves. Wow, very nice. Wow, very fragrant. It's tough because this is probably some of the more expensive kueh that you can get in New York City. So it is very high quality. It's very delicious, very jiggly, very fragrant. I can smell the rose in it. You gotta come here and try this. This is a new experience. Next level Malaysian desserts. All right, our next spot on Asian food that you can only find in NY is a very unassuming ice cream spot. This spot is called Sundaes and Cones. And it looks like it's straight out of like Pasadena or middle America or whatever old town blank. But the owner is actually from Hong Kong and they actually have a lot of Asian flavors. So it's going to look like an old school ice cream shop, but it's going to have some new school flavors. What you are witnessing is something that is so canto and so American at the same time. This is a banana split circa 1930, but the flavors underneath are honeydew, Thai tea and hong dao red bean. David, what you're trying to say is this banana split is super low key Asian. Whoa, did the scoops come out creamy like a classic soda fountain from like 1945, but the flavors are Asian. Would you agree? Because usually Asian ice cream kind of has that icy vibe to it. Thai tea. Try me. Yo man, we got, this is an Asian banana split at a classic 1930 spot, but with Asian flavors. So New York City. I do think that the owners being Asian means that the workers are Asian. And it also might mean the crowd is a little extra multicultural, if I may say so. Next spot is chocolate dip. It's a late night spot in LES. It's a chain from Belgium, but they're doing very, very fusion things with their menu. They got like a sushi one. They have a fettuccine one. This is the one where they cut it up to look like a noodle. There's actually a Chinese dish that looks exactly like this. That cuts up a scallion pancake and stir fries it like it's the noodle. So this really reminds me of it, except obviously the dessert version. I'm not going to lie. When I ordered this, I had no idea what to expect, but it actually tastes really good. The crepe actually really works well as a noodle. And it reminds me of the texture of like a Chinese langpi. I'll pop it up. It's like a gluten noodle. I think it's cool that a chain from Europe could be doing things a lot more traditionally, but they choose to do things very like contemporary and funky. And I'm definitely trying the banana sushi when I come back. Almost looks like a chopped up jianbing or chopped up chongyoubing. Yo, it really looks kind of like noodles. All right, so chocolate dip is actually a chain from Belgium, but they also, you know, they're doing like non-traditional stuff with it. So this is the fettuccine one. It really looks like a Chinese dish where they chop up the scallion pancake and use it as noodles in a dish. There's actually a real dish that looks exactly like this, to be honest. And they also have a sushi one. So, you know, I'm gonna try that next time. Damn, I got the noodles, strawberry, ice cream, chocolate.