Today, an experiment inspired by a theme I discovered in a post about Disney World’s Asian New Year’s food court specials… Western Formats x Eastern Flavours. Unleash your imagination over the remaining, climactic days of the 2025 celebrations!
Disney World’s Asian Taco: Featuring Gochujang sauce and creamy
slaw. The dish that inspired today’s East-meets-West theme…
I was just clicking through some ‘alternative’ Asian News Year’s cuisine ideas when my gaze alighted upon something positively entrancing… A Spicy Gochujang Taco!
And my mind reeled with possibilities for other crossovers using Westerm forms and formats with Eastern ingredients to Celebrate the modern, pan-cultural appeal of the Asian New Year’s dining experience…
Where my brain went
These carefully-curated crossovers feature easy-to-get ingredients and Asian flavours and in un-suspected but totally logical magical mashups…
Thai Spicy Chicken Tacos
My first ‘modest proposal’ sprang directly from a Disney World Lunar New Year treat: the aforemen-tioned tacos! But instead of Gochujang glaze, I opted for an easier-to-get, ready-made, Asian super-market shortcut: Thai Red Sweet Chili Sauce.
Oven-ready, frozen chicken nuggets and tenders, which have recently been on sale all over the place pre-Super Bowl, are tossed in the beautiful swicy Thai Sauce. Then topped with nippy, zippy Mango Slaw. Medium-dice, chunk-up or leave the nuggets/tenders whole as desired.
Mac & Curry
This one basically ‘is what it says’: An Asian take on Mac & Cheese. Cook up your fave short pasta as directed on the package. Drain well and return to the cooking pot. Toss with your choice of Asian simmering sauce while stirring and gently re-heating.
Add your fave leftover cubed or shredded protein. Chicken once again comes to mind. But believe it or not, baby cocktail shrimp are also great in this dish (using a suitably flavoured sauce). And I also love the notion of a veggie version, with wok-fried traditional Asian veggies.
Korean BBQ Pizza
Make up a faux Pizza Crust out of quick, easy Korean Bao Steam Bun dough. Top with pre-made Korean BBQ constructed from leftover thin-sliced or ‘pulled’ beef or pork pot roast microwaved or simmered with with and jarred, supermarket-sourced Bulgogi Sauce.
Steam up your flat Bao buns separately. Then top the ‘crusts generously with the meat and sauce mix. And top that with a scat-tering of the same wok-fried veggies as mentioned in the Mac & Curry recipe.
Madras ‘Chili’
We’ve employed ‘swicy’, mild Madras Curry previously, in dishes designed to ease you into the world of Asian flavours and plant-based cuisine. This time, we’re using it as the flavour base for an Eastern take on a Tex-Mex classic.
In a slow-cooker place supermarket-sourced Madras Curry simmering sauce, shredded leftover (or simply pre-cooked) beef, pork or chicken, diced or slivered onions, sweet Bell Peppers, and canned or pre-cooked chick peas, in proportions/amounts of your preference. medium-diced Tofu can be used in place of the meat if you wish. Simmer together on low until all the ingredients have had a chance to meld and marry joyously.
My take
The aforementioned quick, easy, fail-resistant dishes can provide both a taste of Asian cuisine and a firm foundation of familiar Western form factors that will find friends with almost any audience.
The obvious, almost painful alliteration above aside, these fresh, fun, fanciful crossovers – and any others you come up with on your own – will inject welcome variety and zip into your mid-winter menus with a minimum of fuss and bother.
Don’t be afraid to try them – and go back to them often! Even after Asian New Year’s is over…
~ Maggie J.