Hong Kong $100 Street Food Challenge!! We Finally Did It!!

In this video, I will attempt to spend over 100 American dollars on street food here in the city of Hong Kong. But there's a problem. Street food in Hong Kong is dying. Here, they don't call it a street food stall. They call it Dai Pai Dong. Decades ago, they used to be everywhere. But these days, only a few remain in the city. Today, I'll eat at three different Dai Pai Dong street food stalls, spending more money at each one I go to. And by the end of this video, I'll order the most expensive food on the menu at this late night location. This is Virginia, owner of the tour company Humid with a Chance of Fishballs. So right now, she's bringing us to our first Dai Pai Dong to get breakfast. Let's move. And then you're going to be like, let's do it. Let's do it. We've arrived at our first Dai Pai Dong right behind us. Virginia, tell me about this place. We're at Beng Ki Cha Dong. They've been open since the 1950s and they've never moved. They're open from 7 a.m. all the way to 3 p.m. So they specialize in breakfast foods like instant noodles with pork chops. The entrance to the kitchen is right behind me. But outside, we can already see some of the ingredients they're using for this breakfast. Right here, a big stack of eggs. And then right here, you can see a bowl full of instant noodles. We're going to be getting some instant noodles soon. But first, take a look at the action going on in here. So right here, we have plates full of eggs. And inside of here, we have pork chops. Oh my god. Will you take a look at that? Shining, shimmering, splendid. Right now, she's putting pepper on top. And then she put some dark soy sauce in as well. Soon, I'm going to be trying out the noodles they make here. But first, I want to see their breakfast sandwich. Right here, we have some already grilled up Spam. And then we have what looks to be Spam and eggs. Everything starts right here with a fat slice of white bread. Bread goes in the toaster. She's picking out the toast with a chopstick and rotating it every few seconds. Be sure to do this step with a wooden chopstick and not a steel chopstick. From here, she actually takes a single piece of toast and cuts that in half. She slathers it with a little bit of butter. She hits that with Spam. And then she hits it with a scrambled egg, top it, cut it in half. And that sandwich is ready to go. So that is how you make the sandwich. Now, we're going to check out the noodle. She puts the seasoning packet into the soup. Right here, she has some lettuce, some broth, and some noodles. And then on top, she puts an egg. Right down here, we have the pork chops being scooped out of a plastic bowl. She puts chicken wings onto the plate next. And that is leaving. And just like that, the food has disappeared. I don't know what's going on. Boom! Our first meal of the day. Today, I'm attempting to spend over $100 on dai pai dong food in Hong Kong. Well, this is probably going to be the cheapest meal of them all. First of all, this sandwich right here, $3.50. And then somehow, these two go together. A bunch of meat and then noodles in a bowl. That costs $5.90. So right here, we have a thick, fatty piece of spam. This could have been put on the griddle 15 minutes ago or 15 days ago. I wouldn't know the difference. And then on the other side, a unique-looking omelet. This looks like a fantastic breakfast sandwich. It's full of all the things you want in a breakfast sandwich. Breakfast meat, breakfast egg. The end. Let's give it a shot. Oh, that's good. It mostly tastes like greasy, processed, delicious spam and a little bit of egg. It's real, like, junky comfort food. How do I say this in a nice way? It's spam. Spam is, you know, I grew up in a trailer house and we always had spam. It's very affordable. Wash it down with a little bit of milk tea. And then we move on to our noodles. When I eat these, Virginia, do I put the meat back inside? What do I do? It depends. Do you like a little bit of sauce and soup with it or do you like it just dry? Okay, so it seems you can go either way. I've got an egg on here. Come take a look at the anatomy of this bowl. They put a layer of blanched greens on top. Am I looking forward to that? No, I'm going to put that to the side for now. But then underneath that, we have this kind of semi-clear broth and then the noodles. Then here we have the pork chop. Oh, that's wild. Super delicious, tender, and I would bet $1,000 they put the ramen seasoning into the pork chop. It's like a black pepper sauce. Maybe I lost $1,000, but it does taste almost exactly like ramen seasoning. From here, I want the ultimate bite. Oh, this is potentially too much. Oh, it's so good. I love it. A classic street-side Hong Kong breakfast. The noodles are nice and soft. The egg is tender yet warm, even though it was fried a minute ago, yesterday. I don't know. They do have chicken wings. They just have a whole assortment of random meats. Let's try out this wing. It's real good. Super salty, a strong taste of soy sauce. This is our first location. This is a fantastic start to the day. But from here, we are going to two more dai pai dong. The next two open up in the evening. So we're going to have to wait a little bit, get our hunger back, walk around, and then head to the next location. All right, folks. We are headed to our second dai pai dong location. Now, this is Stanley Street. And in this section, there are a bunch of different dai pai dong set up. Some are from the morning. They're closing down now. And some are just getting started. We had the breakfast food, and now it's time for some dinner. The next dai pai dong Virginia has selected is right there. Why do you like this one, Virginia? Because they started in 1948, and you get to eat outside. And it has that really crazy atmosphere. And it has the wok hei. Wok hei is the unique smoky and charred flavor imparted to food by cooking it in a hot wok over high heat. Or, like Virginia says, The breath of the wok. This morning, there was clear, distinctive breakfast food. What makes dai pai dong night food different from the breakfast? Morning is fast food. Instant noodles, bread, things like that at night. That's where the action happens. That's when we're going to have that family-style meal. Clams in black bean sauce. Eggplant with, like, fish. Lots of seafood. Anything that hits that wok, like fried rice, fried noodles. Boom! I'm in the kitchen with Master Lam right here. And guys, you have to take a look at his mise en place. This is all the sauce and ingredients he's working with. We're going to be starting with shrimp and eggs together. He hits the wok with a little bit of oil. Then in go the shrimp, just frying away. Now he strains out the rest of the oil. So essentially, those shrimp have been deep fried. Coming in next, he splatters the egg inside the wok and gives it a little bit of a stir. In with a little bit more oil. He tosses it around a little bit. And just like that, our first dish is complete. A shrimp omelette. This guy moves like lightning. He has to because he is the only cook for about 20 different tables here. Guys, take a look. This is a pigeon. What's amazing is some of these dai pai dong actually serve pigeons. So this guy could technically be on the menu. He has no idea how much danger he's in right now. One of the first things you'll notice about the menu here is that all the food is very protein-based. It's mostly meats from different animals. Everything from pork or goose intestines to the food you see in front of me right now. An omelette that is full of shrimp. Let's give it a shot. Oh my god, that is delicious. It's a delicious, well-whipped, classic omelette that has nice bouncy shrimp inside. It's so good. Eat this all with rice. Low carb, baby. The thing is, this person deserves a lot of credit right here because this is like the prep chef. That guy is getting the order and then giving little bowls of shrimp or meat or whipped eggs to this guy to then cook up. He's kind of propping this guy up, making him look like a hero. These are clams cooked in a black bean sauce. Wow, look. That clam has a double muscle. And this one has none. You use the clam as a vessel to pick up more sauce if you want. You guys like how I have Virginia here as like a literal food coach walking me through how to eat this, all the while not sitting at the table with me or eating my food. It's called having boundaries. Right, Virginia? She's saying to use the shell as a spoon. You can see it right there. There's some onion. Actually, there's some literal bean that is black. Okay, let's give it a shot. Oh, man. It's so delicious. It is a fermented bean, so it's super savory, full of umami flavor. This is the ideal drinking food for a couple of reasons. One, it's protein. Two, it won't get you full right away. Three, it's salty as heck. I love it. Let's try our final offering right here. I'm told this is a chicken kidney. Now, I didn't even know chickens had kidneys. This dish starts with oil. Next, we have the chicken kidneys going in, getting deep fried in the oil. He strains out the kidney and puts the meat back into the wok. From here, we have some green pepper. And just like that, that dish is complete. And now that I'm looking at it, is that a kidney? I'm gonna give it a shot and see what happens. It's crunchy, kind of like a chicken gizzard, but it's definitely not a gizzard. That had to be a liver. Wait, isn't that the coxcone? There's no way this is a kidney. Here's the thing. I got a whole plate of mystery chicken organs here. We are really close to China. You have to be careful with your organs, even if you're a chicken. I mean, this probably came from a botched transplant. So those are our three courses for this dai pai dong. But what about the price? The eggs are $8.33, and then the two other ones are $10.90 each. Altogether, it comes out to $30.13. So from here, we're headed to our final dai pai dong of the evening. And there, we are gonna have our most expensive meal yet and see if it's possible to spend over $100 on street food here in Hong Kong in one day. Let's go find out. We have come to our final dai pai dong. Everybody is drunk except for me. That makes me sad. Virginia, tell me a little bit about this place. This place, a pop-in. They started as a lamb brisket noodle place in the 50s and 60s. And about five to six years ago, they turned it into a stir-fry nighttime dai pai dong. And it's crazy. I see the cook right now has a cigarette hanging from his mouth. That's incredible. You know your food is good if it's got a little bit of cigarette ash inside. That adds that perfect amount of umami. What I'm gonna do here is order the most expensive thing they have on the menu in an effort to spend over $100. Let's see what it is. Let's do it. This is our first dish right here. It is shrimp. So this is our wok chef right here. He has a salted egg yolk, and he's chipping that away and putting that into the hot wok. All of that is salted egg yolk. Wild. That is mixing up with some oil, and he's making a delectable sauce. Right here, he puts in salt, sugar, and MSG. The shrimpies are going in the salted egg yolk, and that's gonna get mixed up real nice. He tosses the shrimp about, and he does a quick 180, and then he puts the shrimp on the plate just like so. And just like that, dish one is complete. This guy is an animal. Yeah. Boom. Who's drinking now? It's me. Beer. I mean, apple cider, YouTube. Right here, we have two courses. Immediately to my left, we have salted egg shrimp. What I don't know about this dish is how to eat it. You break it off. You suck out the head juice. You can also suck off the salted egg yolk. Thank God she said salted egg yolk after saying suck off. These shrimp, not that big. Pretty medium-sized, but I'm gonna twist that head off, and you can see the fat and the goo from the head. I'm gonna give it a suck. You know, the head fat with the fat from the salted egg yolk, it's a lovely combination. It's not a lot of sustenance or calories, but it's a lot of flavor. Let's give it a taste. Delightful. Bouncy, salty. The egg yolk is slightly chalky. It has a very unique flavor. So let's talk price. Our shrimp dish right here, as petite as they are, costs $18.97. Meanwhile, the food that resides in here, it's $42.05. So what inside of here could possibly cost over $40? Well. So the first ingredient to this dish right here is chicken, and then we have the second ingredient. That is eel. He adds some MSG, salt, pepper, and then some cornstarch, too. This wok is blazing hot. He puts in some oil. Right here, he takes the chicken, and he tosses it in. Chicken is just frying away. Up next, the eel. Schlop it in there. So right now, we have chicken and eel frying together. This is a wild combination. Oh, my God. Right now, we see him straining out all the oil. The chicken and the eel are fully cooked, going back into the wok. He hits it with a little bit of wine, sending the fire ablaze. A splash of water. Boom. Vegetables, green peppers, onions, more soy sauce, MSG, salt, sugar, oyster sauce. That is complete. Now, all of this heads into a giant clay pot. Then they put on some greens, put a lid on top, and that is ready to go to the table. Virginia, why do chicken and eel go together? It's like very common clay pot. We just like to throw everything in a pot. She doesn't know. But if you look inside, you can actually just see it's really bubbling. There's kind of a thick brown gravy on the bottom. At first, what is chicken? Okay, that's definitely chicken. And then you've got thicker pieces like this. That is the eel. We'll come back to that later. Close it up to keep it warm. I mean, this is the type of food, if you're going to be here for three to four hours, throwing back beers, this is what you get. Like these ladies behind me. They've been here since yesterday, and they're still going hard. Come take a look at this. It's still hot, which is a good sign. You want that chicken to be cooked all the way through. It looks gorgeous. Let's try it out. Oh, that's good. Plump, fatty, warm, succulent, hot chicken. On the outside, it's just a sticky glaze of delicious flavors. What are those flavors? Chicken is one of them. It tastes very strongly of soy sauce. And just, you know, a beautiful blend of ingredients. But the chicken is the most normal part of this dish. I got a nice, plump piece of eel. You can see the skin on the outside, and then like these four quadrants of meat. The notion, the idea of eel felt a lot more weird. But now that I'm looking at it, it looks pretty dang good. Oh my god, it's simple. That sticky sauce, it doubles as a deadly napalm. Oh my god, it stuck to my skin and burned me. But otherwise, delicious. Sometimes it's good to mix a little bit of pleasure and pain. It's that same delicious, savory, sticky soy sauce on the outside. But the flavor of the protein is completely different. There's a lot of minerality to this seafood. The skin is thick and somewhat gummy and gelatinous. So these are our final two dishes here today. The goal initially, when we set out this morning, was to spend over $100 on dai pai dou street food. But have we achieved that goal? Well, next we're going to add up everything throughout the entire day and let you know. Let's find out. Today we set out with the goal of $100 street food. But how much did we actually spend? We spent $100.55. Now you know. I told you we would do it, and we did it. $100.55 on street food here in Hong Kong. I couldn't be more proud. Today we ate a lot of different foods, but it's certainly more food than one person needs. Although, if you ate all that food by yourself, no judgment from me. A little bit of judgment. And before we go today, I want to say a huge thank you to Virginia from Human with a Chance of Fish Balls. That is her tour company, and you can actually book Virginia here specifically to come be your tour guide when you visit Hong Kong. She does food tours and so much more. Thank you so much for everything, and I hope to see you in Hong Kong. And information is down below. Check us out. Make the most of your time when you come to Hong Kong. Book in Virginia. Otherwise, thank you so much for watching. I will see you next time. Peace. I'm sorry. Peace. All right. Let's go finish that eel. Let's go. People think I don't eat all the food sometimes, but you have to eat all the eel. If you love Indian food, then you're going to love our new channel, Best Ever Food Indian. 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