This Asian Food Is TAKING OVER! (Japanese Hong Kong Fusion)

It's like if Popeye's teamed up with the Dunkin' Donuts. That is a masala chicken parm sandwich. I go loco for the momos. Asians are the fastest-growing immigrant population in America, and that means Asian restaurants are always changing. Some ideas come from Asia, and some are homegrown by our parents and even us. Curious to find out what's leading the charge in the city that never sleeps? Smack that like button. Let's go. What's going on, everybody? Welcome to a very special episode of Fun Bros Food. You know that one of our favorite things is to introduce you, as well as ourselves, to brand-new Asian concepts that are opening around the country. Where Asian food is headed in America also is kind of telling on where Asians are headed in America. I'm really excited because going to an ethnic restaurant is the second-best thing you can do to traveling to that place. It opens your mind, heart, your stomach. Andrew, first up, we've got Lhasa. This is the modern version of the most classical Tibetan restaurant in New York City. They are in East Village, New York, which is not an Asian enclave, so they're making their name known. Guys, this is Lhasa. Hey, everybody. Thank you so much for clicking on that video. A lot of people ask us how we're able to stay fit while eating all the food. Well, guess what? The answer is exercise, and that brings us to our sponsor today, the FitBod app. It's a workout app on iOS and Android that helps design custom workouts based on your goals and available equipment. If you have a goal, like you want to stay lean, build mass, or just burn fat, then FitBod can design an easy-to-follow workout for you. It'll adjust the intensity to progress your workout so that you don't have to think about adding weights. I chose to build mass here, so this is the workout that they gave me. Check it out. Boom. While no fitness program is one-size-fits-all, they have special algorithms that are designed for every workout to be better than the last one without overworking your muscles. They're all about progression and getting you better. It's easy to use, notifies you of a new workout, helps customize things for you. It even helps demonstrate how to do certain exercises. All right, everybody. Remember, personalized workouts can be a little tough on the budget, but FitBod right now is only $12.99 per month or $79.99 for the entire year. And if you sign up right now through this link, you'll get 25% off. All right, you guys. We are in the Manhattan satellite of Lhasa. Well, we are with Pema. You are a Tibetan from India. What should we get? I would recommend getting Tenduk stir-fried. We serve it as soup as well, but the stir-fried tends to be very popular with lamb. Sushi Lhamo is really popular here, too. It started off in China with the yellow luffing. We adapted it into yellow luffing. We also have the Doksha, which is a traditional meat that's served cold. Maybe a Lhasa grill would be a good idea. Let's do that. But definitely momos. Definitely momos. Oh my goodness, Andrew. We are at Lhasa right now. They told me that they have food from all the major regions of Tibet. Lhasa grill. Almost like a tart lemon flavor to the beef. It's peppery. It's really nice. Andrew, I've got my yak butter tea. What a delightful beginning. Let's waste no time, Andrew. Doksha. So, Andrew, this tastes a lot like the Sichuan pork, but I'm not going to lie. I kind of like it better. The food here at Lhasa, A1 since day one. Lamb Tenduk. Andrew, this chef was straight from Tibet. He doesn't even speak English. These noodles are just big enough. They're not too big, too chewy, but they're big enough to soak up all that flavor. The Tenduk is a must get. Of course, you guys, any Tibetan spot you go to, this is the signature dish right here. It's the momo. I love dipping it in this sauce right here. I go loco for the momos. See this chive one right here? That's delicious. That's really good. That is a 10 out of 10. You guys, this is not my first time having the Tingmo, but this is the first time I've had one that looked like this. This one's on me. This is actually something we make here. It's called Chang, and it's fermented barley. Andrew, this has been an amazing experience here at Lhasa so far. Like we said, guys, get a piece of Queens in Manhattan. Their barley wine Chang. Aren't you guys, real quick, make sure you subscribe, like this video, and turn on your notifications, and make sure you leave a comment in the comment section down below for the algorithm. I think what's very cool about Lhasa is that they have a very small menu. Everything is hidden. Get everything here. I hope that this is a new Asian concept here to stay. Aren't you guys, our next Asian concept that is brand new in 2021 is meat and bread. Now, Andrew, what they're doing here is cooking halal food, but not necessarily any sort of Middle Eastern or Indian flavors. Their hottest selling sandwich right now is a Korean fried chicken sandwich. Good guys, meat and bread. All right, everybody, we have the top four sandwiches here at meat and bread. Yo, guys, here I have the Korean fried chicken. Andrew, this is their number one seller, the hot honey, meat and bread, halal chicken sandwiches. That's a double patty, bro. It's a double patty, double fatty. Really juicy breast meat right there. A great bread. That's all holding together perfectly. What I like is it's not falling apart. Andrew, I have a rib eye chimichurri. Meat and bread got famous for this in Eater recently. This meat looks super high quality. All right, guys, I have the chicken parm. Andrew, is this some churrascos? Yo, guys, is this like a masala chicken parm? Guys, this has the masala flavors in it. Some Indian spices into the tomato sauce. So it's kind of a mixture and it actually works really well. That is a masala chicken parm sandwich. That's the one. The masala tomato sauce. That's the one. Andrew, this is a dope Asian concept. Like we said, the owners, they are Bengali. They grew up in the LES. Honestly, guys, I think there's a lot of chicken sandwiches out there. I've got to say meat and bread is near the top of my list. It's 2021. There are so many different new concepts. This is actually Japanese chefs reinventing Hong Kong cafe food. I mean, we're talking about one of the top chefs from Bohemian doing a Macau chicken curry that almost has more shades of actual Portuguese curry. This is a lobster uni fried rice. This is pork jowl, sweet and sour. This is like a shumai tuyo. And this dish right here is a umi mushroom fried rice. Two different restaurants right out of the same spot. Cha cha tang and then cha. During the daytime, Chaki still serves the classic cha cha tang, a.k.a. Hong Kong cafe menu. But at night, it turns into something totally different. This is the brainchild of chef Akiko. She lives up to the name. She's really lively. She's really funny. And she said the menu is actually 40% Japanese inspired, but mostly rooted in Cantonese and Sichuan flavors. It's a subtle, subtle way. So it's a subtle 40% Japanese. 40% Japanese, like me. To have this in Chinatown owned by locals, it's truly something different. You guys, our next Asian concept that is brand new for 2021 is elevated Korean fusion spots in the Lower East Side. Hipster zone, non-Korean zone. But it's done by chefs that really are intentional and thinking about what they're trying to do. 82, 82. It sounds very much like pali pali, which means hurry up. We got a perilla leaf pasta right here, guys. This is based off a ultra traditional Korean dish. Fusion, it used to have a bad rap, but it's really about who's executing it. Now, what are we looking at? Here, we got the dakgalbi, which is like a kimchi fried rice with some cheese and some chicken. No, that's really interesting because sometimes the cheese is on top of the rice. The cheese was at the bottom. Over here, I've got their version of the KFC, the Korean fried chicken. This looks almost like chicken skin. It's so thin, but there is meat in here. So this is almost like a ultra thin chicken tender. Honestly, guys, that is such a unique blend. With the kimchi fried rice, you have an explosion of, you know, all different flavors from the cheese, you know, to the onions, you know, to the seaweed. And the chicken is so juicy. They use dark meat chicken here. Here's the Iberico pork galbi. Ooh, look at that. That pork is grilled perfectly. This pork is cooked perfectly. Ssamjang is coming through. It's just so much flavor is going on in my mouth right now. I'm taking another bite. Here we have the tuna tartar, which what looks like dried salmon skin, but it's actually a fried seaweed. And I think that's what shredded cheese, I think, on top. Oh, little crispies, guys. Oh, hear the crisp. Hear the crisp. Get close. Wow. What I love with 8282 represents whole new Korean fusion wave that is happening, especially in East Village and Lower East Side, is spot on. Y'all thought fusion food was dead? Nah, man, it's still on the come up. All right, you guys, our next Asian concept that is brand new for 2021, 2022 is Sobak. They're doing homestyle Korean lunch food. Korean food is making its way down kind of from like Korean barbecue to lunch spots that are like made to order to go. You're not going to find like kimchi aioli here. You're going to find squid game cookies. Let's check it out. All right, you guys, we're at Sobak right now. This is country style Korean food. This is a ganjang and egg bap. This is like something your mom makes. How's it tasting? Pretty good. Very homemade. A soy sauce and egg. The all time classic pairing. This is a Chungcheong Bokduk Unseong. I'm almost got it. Sobak style bibimbap. Guys, this is his own style of bibimbap. What's very special is the sauce. You can tell all the little... It looks different. The side dishes look more clean. How is it different, bro? With the minced pork sauce, this is great. I'm not going to lie. The addition of meat was very much appreciated. I like this better than other bibimbap. And it's not as much focus on the red gochujang sauce that you scored on top. I like this style. Just to preview two of the more authentic, super exclusive items they have at Sobak. Here we got a squid game cookie. What do we call this in Korean? Tarcona. Oh! As you can see, the galbitang is coming. He said he uses a very unique cut of meat. This is a sample here at Sobak. I can't wait till you guys get this on the menu. Oh, that's good. I'm glad these country Korean concepts are coming in hipster form. Shout out to Sobak. Everything we got was only 20 bucks. $13 for the bibimbap. $7 for the ganjang and egg bop. Get it. This comes from the mind of Hunan Slurp Shop, Andrew. Hunan Slurp Shop, they're friends of ours. They were architects that transferred into food. Henceforth, why the design here is so crazy. You've never seen... You know, dumplings, it's almost like a comfort food. Hey, I would definitely recommend you check out the basement because the basement has the vibes. All right, Andrew, we have mackerel dumplings. We have a trio of shrimp and pork and other types of things here. And we have a salmon crudo. Salmon crudo. It almost tastes like a raw version of the Cantonese ginger scallion fish. It tastes a little bit like a Thai sausage plate because of the raw ginger flavoring in there. It's really good. Obviously, guys, they're serving mackerel dumplings here. It's a little bit more of a northeastern Shandong Dalian style mackerel dumplings. Man, I just love how they make the dumplings so perfectly. The shape is perfect. It has the right amount of like fingerprints you can see. And not a lot of people were serving mackerel dumplings outside of Flushing. So for them to bring this in this elevated like futuristic year 3000 setting is pretty interesting. And we're going to get into the Guo Tia. You know, they are doing the potsticker style. Very small, very delicate. That's the one. The quality and kind of how the dumpling is constructed together is definitely one notch higher though. Moving on, last but not least, Andrew, we have a shrimp toast. Whoa. That's like a sweet cream on your shrimp toast. It's like the most tender shrimp ball inside. You know, as good as the dumplings were here, I got to say the appetizers might have been even more impressive. The shrimp toast was a five out of five. That's one of the best things I've had in a while. Dumpling Lab is doing something that you've never seen before from a Chinese restaurant, particularly something with the word dumpling in the name. Andrew, this next spot, Mochi Nut, is exploding. Like, I think they got like 100 of them set to open. They're like the trendiest kind of Asian snacks out there. Mochi Nut. Hi, I'm here with Elaine, and Elaine is actually from Brazil. She's speaking Portuguese because that's what they speak in Brazil. All right, guys, here we have the Mochi Nut Ube Tall Boy, and then you got the Brown Sugar Boba Tall Boy from Mochi Nut. Boba drinking like a tall boy. Yeah, dude, tailgates, beer, brats, and bobas. Their corndog here looks a little bit larger and almost more American than the other one. Tastes more like a regular American corndog than the other Korean corndogs I've had. Mozzarella side. You know, I'm going to go ahead and say that Mochi Nut is expanding at a really rapid pace because it is the most Americanized version of these things. I think every college campus should have a Mochi Nut. Mochi Nut Donuts. Guys, I have the guava one. David, you have the cookies and cream. Oh, you got guava? If you want an all-in-one, Mochi Nut is the place to go, but I'm not going to say that it's like the highest tier of any item. Our next brand new Asian concept that has never been seen before, Andrew, is counter service dim sum. Yeah, we're here at Awesome Dim Sum. We've eaten a lot today, but let's get something here at Awesome Dim Sum. I'm feeling one of their combos. All right, you guys, we are looking at the dim sum here at Awesome Dim Sum. They have some unique dishes, Andrew. The avocado churn fun. Bacon wrapped shrimp ball. Hey, the shrimp ball is pretty high quality. I was talking to the owner back there. He was just like, hey, man, we're just trying to deliver the dim sum that everybody loves with some authenticity while doing our own little take on it. That's where this avocado churn fun comes in. David, they put avocado in the churn fun, and it has caused some controversy. Or is it innovation? My verdict is it's not bad, but I wouldn't say it's great. It's two things that people could consider to have bland flavor profiles. Guys here, which dumpling is this? Oh, shrimp and chive dumpling. Good one. Andrew, we have been trying to get the churn fun for so long in Chinatown. Of course, it was ten bucks instead of four dollars. But, you know. Hey, well, you know what? I'm not here to advertise, but they are supposed to be opening up a location in Times Square. I'm interested to see how that does. All right, our next concept is another sushi spot, but it's called Min Sushi now. They specialize in rice bowls, udon, and only several types of rolls. I got my udon here with pork, and then I have my spicy salmon rolls right here. Got your ginger on top, pieces of pork, udon, lots of noodles, lots of udon. Wow. All right, you guys, Min Sushi. I'm just going to eat it with my hands. A lot of sushi is actually meant to be eaten with your hands. Min Sushi, I think, is a great starting point for how authentic Japanese food needs to be. This really does feel like kind of Japanese restaurants that I've had in non-Japanese countries, kind of like China, Hong Kong, Taiwan. Very gingery. All right, you guys, our next new Asian concept that just opened up is actually a fusion restaurant between Japanese and Italian food. But, Andrew, most of the chefs that we've met that have done a fusion are actually Asian. Yeah, so this spot is called NSA Noodle Bar. It stands for No Strings Attached. We have a miso honey burrata. This is actually super interesting. I'm surprised that nobody's done this before. Honey miso burrata. The miso cleaned up any of the sourness that you sometimes get from burrata. I'm going to go ahead and say this is one of my favorite burratas. Shout out to them for coming up with this dish. That was good. Moving on to our second dish. Andrew, you've got the blackened Japanese tiger scallops with the fettuccine alfredo. Japanese scallop fettuccine. I don't know if it's because that scallop is from Japan, but that had a lot of flavor. No, that scallop was good. Fettuccine is really good, too. Okay, moving on to the obviously Asian dishes. We have their two ramens. The cold shrimp yuzu ramen right here. And you have your shoyu yuzu broth right here. And they said you almost just dip it like a tsukemen right here, just like this. Shrimp yuzu tsukemen. Oh my goodness. Yeah, dude, I gotta get some more of this yuzu broth. I was thrown off by the red bell peppers at first. It kind of made me a little sussed out. Really quite good. I have to say, man, I have been impressed. I think a lot of times you're thinking Jamie Oliver. You're thinking Gordon Ramsay even messes up Asian food. But whoever the chef is back there, she is cooking up some tasty fusion dishes. All right, you guys, moving on. We actually have a truffle tonkatsu. They said this is their best seller. As you can see, Andrew, this is a gigantic slab of pork belly. The ramen is more Japanese and the pasta is more Italian. But either way, there's a slight twist to everything. Yeah, I think whether they went western or eastern, it was 70, 30, 80, 20. Truffle tonkatsu. So as you can see, I had a really thin slice. And that means it was really extra crispy. And it really does feel like bacon. It's not as crunchy, but it was really crispy. The meat is really good. Wow. It adds that barbecue flavor, that extra level of crispy melt in your mouth pork belliness. I think you definitely need to come check this out. Dude, if the non-Asian chefs can cook Asian food well and they show respect, I'm all for it. All right, you guys, so we're at Arabica Coffee straight from Kyoto, Japan. Like we said, they blew up all over Asia before entering the U.S. market. This is their marquee item, the Spanish coffee, Spanish latte. The quality of each individual ingredient is incredibly high. Same with this matcha latte. Ultimately, guys, Arabica is incredibly simple. The menu is simple, but the design is very high. But overall, I think a very solid dish and worth checking out. All right, guys, I'm outside of Momofuku Noodle Bar. They just reopened. Gotta talk about these two dishes right here. This ginger scallion noodle is inspired by Great NY Noodle Town in Chinatown. You know David Chang? He said that that is one of his favorite noodles of all time. And he's done his own take on it with seaweed and mushrooms, ginger, scallion sauce, oil, cucumbers. He's also known for his lamb bao. I'm gonna see if he's infused that into this lamb bao. It's like a lamb patty, fuku sauce, little cucumbers there. Let's get it. So it does have some of that Central Asian, Middle Eastern spice. Yangrou Char in a bao. See how they compare to Great NY Noodle Town. That is not what I expected. Super buttery, super oily. All right, this is Great NY Noodle Town meets Ippudo. And then this is gonna be a Chinese lamb skewer meets a hamburger. Momofuku Noodle Bar, man, much appreciated. Andrew, we are looking at the KFC of Taiwan right now. But instead of green peas from the south, they have shishito peppers. Bro, I've never even seen this before in my life. Break that open, man. This is one of those stuffed rice chicken wings that you get at the Taiwanese night market. A lot of rice, though. For me, a little too much rice. This TKK and kung fu tea is like if Popeyes teamed up with the Dunkin Donuts. We are getting down to the nitty gritty of it, man. This is the Taiwanese fried chicken right here. He made sure to let me know that in the three piece, there was no white meat. This chicken has been marinated for 24 hours. TKK fried chicken. Listen, if you are looking for a little bit of Taiwanese five spice, the faintest hint of it, come to TKK fried chicken. You owe it to yourself to try the Taiwanese fried chicken. Y'all never seen this before. Take part of that kua kua bao on there, too. This is a shishito sandwich. I gotta put my money on any fried chicken concept right now because people love fried chicken more than they ever have. By the way, Andrew, might we add that they love hip hop R&B in Taiwan and they got Super Bass, Jason Derulo, all types of hip hop R&B playing.