Korean Food Tasting, Kpop Concert & McDonald Beat Box Battle in New York!

Good morning. It's about 5 a.m. Man, I'm so sleepy. Uh, only about four hours of sleep. I gotta go to New York today. I'm going for about almost two weeks. I'm invited to KCON New York. That's the main reason I'm going. And then I'm just gonna stay and film some videos. And I have some stuff to do like returning my license plate. Pretty excited though. Haven't been to KCON in so long. I had a lot of fun when I was there the first time. I remember like when I was there the first time. I don't know if you guys like remember this or saw the videos for this. It's about four, maybe five years ago. And we had a panel. Not a lot of people came. That was like my first concert ever was a K-pop concert. Anyway, I'm going to attend the convention. I'm going to the concert. The reason I picked such early flights because flying east to the east coast is just really... It's so difficult because you're losing three hours. And for some reason, there's not a lot of flights, you know, that gets in at a normal hour. So you're either getting in at like six in the morning or midnight or 1 a.m. Unless you want to fly out like which I'm like I'm doing at seven o'clock in the morning. So let's go. It's hot. I already miss Seattle. That's kind of weird. I've been gone for about a not a month now. I don't really miss New York. I thought I would miss it a lot. I thought I would miss the food. I would miss just New York, but not really. Now I'm kind of thinking like do I really even want a house here? Because Seattle's pretty awesome. Oh well. Food first, think later. And the hotel I'm staying at right smack in the middle of Chinatown. Oh, I can't wait. Walking around in Chinatown makes me hungry. Home sweet home for the next almost two weeks. Right by the train. All right. I'm so hungry. Let's go eat something. Hainanese chicken rice. First bite of food all day. It's just like you've been away from someone you love for a long time. And you just saw each other for the first time in years. That kind of feeling. Love Hainanese chicken. Dish number one. Dish number two. Laksa. That smells sweet and coconutty. It's so pretty. I have to get out of there before everyone starts leaving. I'm gonna just like a mass stampede. I'm gonna go back to the hotel, work out. I'm ready for bed. Happy belated fourth, by the way. I know by the time you guys see this, it's gonna be way past. But happy belated fourth. I'm at the Chavis right now. I'm checking in for Korean Con. Don't know what's happening today. I know the stuff started happening tomorrow. Something's happening today. But we'll see. Today is just check-in day. So many people here already. There's a huge line over here. I have no idea what these lines are for. A huge line over here. They're probably all here for the K-pop stars. Apparently, you go through this door, maybe. Got all my stuff. So I think activity starts tonight. Let's go get some lunch. Back at the hotel. Badges. Tickets. It's gonna be fun. It's almost four o'clock. I ate nothing today. I got up late because I'm still on West Coast time. And I just went to pick up my stuff at K-Con. And now I'm back. I'm about to just fall. Like right here. Just lay down right there. I don't love eating on Moss Street. Because I feel like most of these places are just not that good. My friend said I gotta give this place a shot. Noodle Village. Let's see. I didn't get the noodles. I got a claypot rice. Because I was looking at my newest Hong Kong video. I'm kinda craving for a claypot rice. See, it happens to me too. When I watch my own videos, sometimes I'm like, I wish I had that right now. Yummers. Chinese sausage. And salted fish. As with any good balsai fun, you gotta add the sweet soy sauce. Just here. So this is gonna be a more sweet, less salty, thicker soy sauce. That's mainly for the rice. And make sure you're scraping the sides. So you get all that crunchy, crunchy rice. Which is the essence of good balsai fun. And that'll really tell me if this is actually quality stuff or not. Not bad. So far so good for this place. That's a massive balsai fun. They eat it with a spoon. Not often to eat like rice with spoon in Chinese cooking. But this is one of those times. Bring out the spoon. Sausage is good. Rice is nice. This is a pretty good spot for balsai fun. Don't just come here for the noodles. That was a big, big portion of rice. Not a bad deal. Having a hotel in Chinatown is so convenient. I'm gonna go back to the hotel, grab something else. And there's a party back at K-Con. So I'm gonna go grab some dessert or like a drink, bubble tea or something. I'm gonna head over there. Of course, there's also the bad things about staying in Chinatown. You know it's Chinatown. Look at K-Con. So there's an event going on. Darren's joining me. Oh, it's so nice. So humid outside. Oh my gosh. I don't know how to do K-pop. You never took K-pop dancing? No. People are very excited. I see food. Fried dumplings. We didn't eat much there. So we're scourging Chinatown for bingsu. Get some bingsu for dinner. It's privileges of being adult. This place is not bad. It's pretty expensive, but it's good. It's a pretty massive tower of matcha and black sesame. This looks pretty good, right? That's filthy. Did you enjoy that? Here you go. Go ahead. This place is pricey, but it's good stuff. It's got mochi in there. It's pretty good. I know I just finished some bingsu, but walking on this block and I see Li Qi Qi. Limited. Let me try this out. It's pretty sad. Nothing really open. I'm still kind of hungry. It's time to go to bed. Open 24 hours. Nice dino house. This is when willpower really counts. It's like almost midnight. I gotta go to bed. There's temptations everywhere. Just gotta go to bed. Heading to KCON first day. A little late. I was gonna be there earlier, but I had to finish up a video. No idea where I'm going. Finally found it. Supposed to be here. Cookies. Wait, that's not cookies. I thought it was cookies. Probably better. Roast beef sandwich. While I'm here stuffing my face, there's a Rubik's cube battle right now going on between Brandon and David. I couldn't solve that if you give it to me for like 20,000 years. This is the only thing I'm good at, is stuffing things in my mouth. Go explore this convention. I see pizza. Free pizza. There's so many like contests and free stuff here. I love free stuff. Mandu bar. The Asian blood in me is boiling from all the free stuff. It's pretty cool. So there's like a traditional Korean market thing there. Whoa. Oh, this is where I'm gonna be later. I wish I knew more who everybody is. I only watch like K-dramas. And the only group I know is like Big Bang and BTS. Twice. Oh, you get free Milana. That's worth the line. Ah, they're cooking up there. I want to be up there. So that's where like all the free stuff is. A ton of free stuff. And then... Hey, what's up? How you doing? Whoa, I used to have a past life selling posters like that. Like artwork. So I used to put up stuff like this and sell them for like 10 bucks a pop. That was pretty fun. Wow, tons of free food. I have more time tomorrow so I'm gonna wait in line. I got about 30 minutes to my panel. So I gotta go and wait for the people who's gonna take me there. I have no idea where I'm going. I'm supposed to be here but I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing. Film me like a video in the traditional market. Going inside the Korean traditional market. What's up? How you doing? Thank you, thank you. Let's keep eating. Let's try some soup. But this soup is really spicy. I think it's amazing. Whenever you see traditional foods from any culture, I think it's always the best. For me, the best way to explore any culture is really just taking a bite out of it. Because there's so much history, you know? And it's so good for... Get some of this. It tastes good. It's gonna change your mind. It's almost like... Seriously, I'm gonna put my face on there and eat myself for breakfast. That's a great way to start the day. Eating your face. Day one done. Now I'm just gonna grab some food and my second K-pop concert ever. Can't wait to go to this one. First time I went to one, I was like, man, it's exhilarating. All the dancing and all the Taekwondo beforehand. It's pretty cool. I can't wait. This used to be one of my favorite places in K-town. It's really quick. You just like get your food and you get in line. You pay for it. Well, it's not the cheapest. So back when I used to be really, really poor, they used to have like daily discounts. Like 50% off stuff here. And I would just come and rate it every day. Ribs, beef, fish cake, noodles, more noodles. Eat up. Concert time. This was my go-to dish back in the day. Buckwheat noodles. It's like $4 per container. Used to be, I think it used to be cheaper. Used to be like three bucks. A little dipping sauce with wasabi. It's satisfying for $4 noodles. It's not bad. It's good for a fast fix. There it is. Madison Square Garden. I feel like these are great seats. You got to stay in line the whole time. I mean, it's closer. It's more intimate, but you got to stand. I don't typically listen to K-pop. So I have no idea who's performing. But I like the, I like the energy. I like the performances. This is kind of fun to watch and people get really excited. And also like what I love about Korean culture, pop culture, is that not just Asians get into it. Like everybody gets into it. Pretty neat. That was a fun concert. I do not miss New York subways in the summer. Saw this outside by subway. Late night skewers. Can't resist that. Lamb skewers. It's really impossible to walk past a skewer person. Good place. Lamb skewer is my favorite. Should put on the heat on this one. Just like an astrotube. Just hits the spot. For sure. Almost midnight. Hotel gym bed. Last day of KCON. Got my streaming pack with me. I'm going to live stream this. Again, if you don't know that I'm live streaming now several times a week. So if you want to check that out, twitch.tv slash eatwithmikey. Link is below. Day two. I'll be at the McDonald's. Whoa. Get some cool prizes. McDonald's headphones. At the McDonald's booth. Look at it. Look how nice they look. My buddy Ronald is here. What's up? It's Mike Chen. Oh, I'm so excited. Yeah, I got something for you. This is a rap battle between Big Marble and Ronald McDonald. In his big old shoes. Dang. Korean barbecue after KCON. Pretty fitting. Remember I told you guys like I always go to all-you-can-eat Korean barbecues because regular a la carte Korean barbecue is way too expensive. It's not worth the money. We're still hungry after like a huge amount of beef, right? Yes. So meal number two. Today's at KCON is done. So much fun, but I probably walked at least what was a high number of steps. Like a lot of steps. It was great meeting all the people. Thanks to everyone who came up and said hi. That's definitely the highlight of my convention. Just meeting all sorts of people and can't wait for KCON LA. It's gonna be a blast. I'm gonna be there. See you guys there. I gotta go to bed. See ya.