$1000 Seafood Challenge in Hong Kong!! We Went OVER BUDGET!!

In this video, I will attempt to spend over $1,000 on seafood here in Hong Kong. And I promise you, this time I will deliver. I am not going to sleep tonight until I have spent over $1,000 on seafood. Today, I'll be trying out four different seafood restaurants at four different price points. Cheap, mid-priced, expensive, and out of this world, ultra premium. Where I'll spend an outrageous amount of money on a tiny morsel of seafood. But in my goal to spend $1,000, there are two rules. I can only eat seafood. And at each location, I must spend more money than the last. I've got Virginia, the owner of the tour company. She made me the chance to fish balls by my side all day, leading the way. Right now, we're headed to location number one, where we're going to be having, wait for it, fish balls. Let's do it. That's what that's supposed to be. We've come to our first and cheapest location of the day right behind me. Here, this place is famous for all types of seafood. Their menu is huge. And they're open 24 hours a day. Right now, it's morning time. It's breakfast. It's the perfect time to eat some balls, my favorite shape of food. Let's go inside and see how it's made, and let's see how much it costs. Right here, we have entered the kitchen. My man, he is the chef, and he is right now preparing a load of wontons. Those look good. Maybe I'll change my order. All right, let's do it. I'm following the chef over here into the corner. He has a random drawer full of fish slices, balls, and slices. These are in the hot water right here. He wets the bowl. Looks like he's got some rice noodles. And those get blanched in the hot water as well. The rice noodles are tossed into the bowl. Boom, balls in the bowl. Boom, fish slices also in the bowl. But right now, the bowl needs some flavor. How about a little bit of broth? And then a little bit of lard. He put his finger in it for some reason. This woman right here is about to garnish our bowl. We have some green onions. Is that, that's the garnish? That, oh. Okay, the garnishing is complete. Thank you, chef. So we have our bowl right here. This is what you get early in the morning. Four balls, two slices garnished just in a spoon. And then noodles underneath. Um, don't let that be your first bite. I think you should mix it in perhaps. Virginia, why are fish balls so common and so popular in Hong Kong? So what happened back in the day is if people didn't sell all the fish, we don't wait. So then they make it into a paste, and then they add a filler like some sort of starch. Mmm, I gotta say that was quite a sell for fish balls. Old fish meat, then mixed with binders, and formed into a ball. Right here we have the rice noodle. It's soaking in this broth. Is it a pork bone broth? Pork bones and fish bones. All right, let's try it out. Oh, it's so good. The broth is incredibly hot. Even though it's been sitting here for a few minutes, I can hardly handle it. Oh, that's good. Super savory, salty. You can taste the fish bones in there. I like it. But enough with the broth. We're trying to build our way up to these fish balls. First of all, fish slices. Cake. It's kind of bouncy. It has a ton of flavor inside. It tastes like delicious processed fish. I gotta say, for under $5 in Hong Kong, this is a heck of a deal. May I remind you that later in this video, we're gonna be spending over a hundred times as much on a meal. So this is just the beginning. I have my bouncy fish ball right here. Dense and soft at the same time. Full of flavor. Warm. Oh, that's nice. So this is our first course. Super inexpensive. But next, we're headed to a fish market. A seafood market where we can actually pick up the food that we want to eat and bring it to someone to cook it. Let's move. Boom, we have officially arrived at the fish market. I am excited. This place is wild and it's packed with action. We're in Sam Chai Po. This is Bay Hall Market. This one just tends to have a really big seafood section. Oh my god, this guy's carting around live seafood. The people that come around here are gonna be the local residents, but there's also a lot of restaurants. So come to their favorite vendor and grab their seafood of the day as well. So from here, I'm gonna be exploring the market, seeing what kind of seafood they have. Let's get started. The first thing I see is prawns that are still jumping about. They're very lively. Right here, we have mantis shrimp. These things look gigantic. They have some of the biggest clams I've ever seen right here. They've got lobster. They have humongous razor clams. Oh, and they have crabs. Boom. Take a look at this guy. That is a big mud crab. That is about as big as they get. They don't get much bigger unless you find them around Fukushima. We've come to another stall. Here, he's mainly selling fish. Look, they even have a species of headless fish. Um, I think that fish got in a car accident. My favorite thing about this place is this right here. A cage full of frogs. They're known as Chinese edible frogs. Much easier to eat than the Chinese inedible frogs. Don't stress out, guys. Wow, immediately they tried running away. All right, that one has my name on it. There we go. He's wondering, he's like, what the f*** is going on? Look how big those calves are. What is it, Samoan? All right, I'm gonna put him back for now and take a look. I'm gonna put him back for now and take a look more around. I'm gonna put him back for now and look around some more. There we go. All right, we've come to another stall. Here, they have so many cool things. Shellfish, snails. This is a golden snail. Take a look how fat this snail is. What a treasure. Perhaps this should be our first meal. Here, I want to show you this. These are abalone. What's great about these abalone is that they're still alive. You can see that they're moving in the shell. What's even better is that later today, at the most expensive seafood restaurant we could find in Hong Kong, we're gonna be having abalone that have actually been dried for a long period of time. These abalone, they cost hundreds of dollars. But first, let's pick out some foods here. Our first seafood pick for meal two is this log of extremely long razor clams. Oh, yeah, nice. Oh my god. They're so long that they have extra appendages sticking out. For our second seafood, I'm diving into the amphibian bin. For three of these, plump Samoan frogs. The big question is, are frogs a seafood? I say yes, because they like to live in the water or hang out in the water. At least, they like to be wet. So we've come upstairs to what looks like a giant cafeteria. Here, there are loads of restaurants making different seafood dishes. But you can also bring your own seafood up here and have them cook the food for you. Right now, Chef Sandy is getting started on our frogs and our clams. Oddly enough, she's using a razor to cut open the razor clams. Maybe that's why they call it a razor clam. She gives everything a little bit of a bath. Next, she meticulously cleans out the sand and the poop from the inside of the shell. So today, we're gonna be having our razor clams with some glass noodles and garlic. Beautiful. Oh, then this right here is the garlic sauce. She has to carefully make sure to get it inside of the shell, so it'll flavor the meat as it steams. Now, we're headed back into the kitchen, and these are gonna head right into the steamer. So that will steam for about 10 minutes, and we'll see those soon. We have our second meal of the day right here in the form of two different seafoods. Let's talk about money. The price for three frogs, only $5. But this over here, $23. That's just for the raw ingredients, though. To get everything cooked, it also costs an additional... $23.08. Let's talk about flavor, starting with these guys right here. This is a classic recipe in Hong Kong. So I'm gonna take this massive bite and toss it back. Cheers. Oh my god. The clams are super delicious. The right amount of chewiness. There's a big load of noodles on top, and then that garlic paste. It's a powerful flavor. It's so good. So, Virginia, most of the people who are up here in this kind of cafeteria area, are they bringing their own seafood, or are they just ordering from the menu? Right now, it's a workday, so people are just ordering on the menu. They're doing something really fast, on the go, and then they're gonna get out. Is it still mostly seafood here, or is it a big combination of options? It's a big combination of options, especially for lunchtime. At nighttime is when we're really gonna do these, like, family-style seafood dishes. And that's when the beers come out. But for now, Coke. Cane, so we can stay awake until tonight. Next, frog. She's preparing a hot wok right here. She hits the frog with a little bit of cornstarch to make it nice and crunchy. And she literally just tosses in the frogs piece by piece. It's a dangerous game. Now it is time to remove all the frog parts. Oh. And then she puts it back in the fryer a second time. From here, she's putting in a combination of powerful flavors. We've got onion, chilies, garlic, ginger. This is steaming fish soy sauce, plus a little bit of fish sauce. Even more flavors. This one happens to be a little bit of sugar. Then she puts the frog back in. Right here, she has some fried garlic and the green onions. Everything is now in the wok together, getting nice and happy. Take a look at that crispiness factor. Those look awesome. Remember that massive, juicy frog calf we saw earlier? Here it is again, in the fried form. Cheers. Yeah. She just put a little bit of cornstarch on there. And that's enough to give it a little bit of a crust. It is an amazing, savory flavor. And just some very tender, delicious frog meat underneath. I really like it. Oh, is that a rib cage? Oh, the pelvis? That's my favorite part. Yeah, me too. Oh, on frogs? Yeah. I feel like we're just warming up. This is our second location, but we've already spent over $50. We're on our way to $1,000. Will we get there? Let's find out at our third location, coming up after this, obviously. We have come to seafood location number three. Now, this is a whole big complex of different aquariums. Tons of live seafood, crustaceans, and fish, plus a load of different restaurants to cook that seafood up for you. Virginia, how does this place work? This place is called Lei Yun Mun. This place is the place to go with a bunch of friends. You want to have about 10 people. You order 8 to 10 different seafoods, and you eat it at nighttime. It's definitely a meal where you're going to be spending a little bit more money. Let's go take a look at what they've got. So, we have come to our live seafood location with Alice, who's going to help us take a tour of what they have available here. Shall we take a look? Yes. First of all, they have a vast array of colorful fish. And then over here, we have something very special. These are some huge cuttlefish. Oh, there it is. Look at this monster. Wow, it's barking. What's in here? This is an abalone from Africa. Really? Come take a look. It is a big, thick creature. The abalone hit different, whether from South Africa or North Africa, anywhere. Let's talk about these. So, this is a mantis shrimp inside of here. And it's so dangerous, it can actually punch you and cut you. It can even punch through the plastic. Has this ever hurt you? No. After reviewing several more seafood options, I've made up my mind, opting for this mammoth spiny lobster. Look at the horns on this guy. This alone could stab you like a double-horned unicorn. Now, let's weigh this baby in and see how much it costs. So, in Hong Kong, this is how you weigh the seafood. It's a very old-school method, but it's tried and true. In the end, after doing the math, this guy right here costs $205, not cheap. And that does not include the cooking. So, we're headed to the kitchen next to see what the chef does with this bad boy. All right, folks, we are in the kitchen right now with Ah-san. He is supremely excited. You can tell he's doing the peace sign and everything. And then we have the lobster, equally excited. Step one, he completely removes the tail. This is really the prize of the whole thing. And soon, this is going to be utilized in a very unique dish. Next, the chef chops both the head and tail into smaller sections. He gives them a little bath and prepares for the next steps. All right, guys, we can't show the chef here because he's wanted for evading taxes. So, let's just cover his face up. All right, so right now, we have our lobster pieces, and we are at the wok station. First, deep-fry the lobster chunks in hot oil until they turn a bright, beautiful orange hue. Ooh, that's pretty. Next, prepare some wheat noodles with chicken stock, salt, and butter. When they're done, let the noodles rest on a plate waiting for the lobster. Now, he puts some oil back into the wok. He hits it with some secret stock, and then the lobster goes in as well. Next, he's taking cornstarch and putting it in the ladle right here. And that goes inside to help thicken everything up. I've never seen lobster prepared like this in my life. Finally, the chef reassembles the lobster, making it whole atop a glorious mound of noodles. Have you ever seen anything so majestic? Just three chefs working together, one who has to hide his identity from the world. So many secrets in one man. Oh, all that remains is this delicious, flavorful sauce. Thank you, chef. He smiled at me. I can't show you, but... Oh, God, that was close. Thank you. Virginia? Yes? Take a look. Don't taste. Okay. How's it look? Majestic. Come on back. Bring it back, bring it back, bring it back. Are you gonna share your food? Yeah! So, I'm gonna start with this because it looks epic. Right here, we have a big portion of tail. Mmm. There's kind of two elements here. There's the texture, which is slightly sinewy, a little bit tough. But then there's that sauce. It is a delicious, savory, deep-flavored chicken stock that pairs beautifully with the seafood. All right, now let's get to those noodles. You could probably use the shell and put everything in the shell. Oh, that's a fun idea. I want to do what the lobster would have appreciated, which is making use of its body. Let's put some noodles right here on the shell. Let's toss it back. Oh, that's delicious. That same super thick, savory sauce has influenced the flavor of everything on here. It's got, like, a nice little wheat noodle texture. But I think the big move right here is to mix that with some of the lobster. Right here, we have what I like to call the perfect bite. Mmm. That was so good. Conclusion. This, good. In the end, the meal is unique and something I've never seen before. But let's talk about the price. The fresh, raw lobster, that was $205. But to cook it into this masterpiece, that was an additional $40. So all in, I've spent $245 on this meal. But my goal is to see if I can spend more than $1,000 on seafood in one day. Soon, we'll be heading to a restaurant where the prices are not just double, but they're more than triple what I just paid. This restaurant specializes in crafting the most luxurious dried seafood dishes you can find in Hong Kong. But how can dried seafood be even more expensive than seafood that's fresh? To find the answer, I'm first heading to the dry seafood section of this market. How is it possible that dried seafood could be so much more expensive than fresh seafood? Because it takes so much work and it's very laborious. So at the beginning, in order to dry it, they actually will have to catch it. They have enough space to dry it and it may take a couple weeks. And then if you were to eat at a restaurant, say a dried sea cucumber, then it starts from being dried like this. And then it takes about seven days in advance to rehydrate it. And so at the end of all this work, it's the final product. Does it taste better to have a sea cucumber that has been dried and then rehydrated? It's a different texture. Like so for you, you might think something is gelatinous or chewy, but we have more granular categories. It might be gelatinous but crispy, gelatinous but gooey. And then it goes really good with sauces because they might braise it in a sauce and then it just kind of takes on the flavor of that sauce. Oh my god, I'm nervous but I'm excited. And also this is going to be one of the most expensive meals of my life. I hope it's worth it. We have just arrived at our final and most expensive seafood restaurant of the day, a three-star Michelin restaurant known as Forum. Virginia, tell the folks about this place. We are here to try dried seafood, which is called hoi mei, which is basically flavors of the sea. They are most famous and well-known for their abalone. Today, we're going to be starting with a dish that costs $100 and involves a sea cucumber. But after that, we're going to be trying something that costs $900. How do you get to $900? What are we eating? All right, folks, right now we are in a private room and Chef Adam is over here and he is about to prepare our first course, which is the sea cucumber. The sea cucumber today is going to start with some foie gras and he's kind of mashing it up, cutting it into smaller pieces. Mmm, that smells good. Next, the sea cucumber. Oh my gosh, so the sea cucumber has been reconstituted and hollowed out. And now he's taking the foie gras and stuffing it inside like a delicious taco. This is a preparation like I've never seen before. So from here, he's going to take it away to steam it for about 10 minutes and bring it back. Alas, our first course has arrived. The price for this dish right here, $100. I'm told you're supposed to eat it with a fork. Oh, what the? Whoa, that texture is wild. I'm going to gently slide it onto the fork. Let's go for it. Oh my gosh, it's like I get it now. The act of drying it out, then rehydrating it, it completely changes the structure of the food. It's super soft, borderline gooey, but still very satisfying to chew through. Let's try one more bite. Wow, inside the foie gras tastes delicious, rich, fatty, and wonderful. I get the three stars now. This isn't just about good, consistent food preparation. This is like breaking new ground, doing something completely different at a very high level. And this is just our appetizer. So our next dish is the famous abalone. Right here, I have a plate of Oma abalone from Japan. All of this abalone has been dried out already. Each piece is over $2,000, and this entire plate is about $25,000. This is a down payment on a house. As it turns out, $2,000 for a single abalone is a bit over my budget. So I'm getting the poor man's version of this dish, clocking in at a much more affordable $900. Alas, our final course has arrived. The abalone is here, as well as the fish maw, and the chef is about to take it away. It starts with the abalone going inside a big clay pot of premium chicken stock. Right here, we have the bowl of fish maw. That is the fish air bladder. Right here, he's got an abalone sauce that he's adding in, creating a beautiful brown rich hue. Oh, look at that. Next, he mixes in some cornstarch and water, turning this thin stew into a thick gravy. Next, he adds in some dark soy sauce. Oh, here we have some Chinese preserved ham juice, something we all have in the pantry. He gives it a little bit of a taste, but is he satisfied? Very good. Oh, thumbs up. Alas, the plating. Some greens, along with a tiny portion of rice, because he knows I'm on keto. He plates the abalone. And he plates the fish maw. Chef, thank you so much. It looks amazing. Thank you. Enjoy. Virginian? Yes. So far during this trip, you've seen me eat a lot of food, but I thought this is a very special meal, so we should both have a chance to try it at the same time. $900, $900. Oh, you're so nice. You are a softie. So, the fish maw is one of those things where most places around the world, they probably discard it, but in this part of the world, it is a delicacy. I'm going to cut into it just using a fork. Are you eating it already? Oh, it's so good. So there it is, my giant, thick piece of fish maw. Let's give it a try. That is wild. There's no seafoodiness to it whatsoever. It's just like a big, soft, semi-gelatinous piece of giant cow tendon. That's the only thing I really know to compare it to. What about you, Virginia? Well, like I said, you might think all of these textures are gelatinous, but for me, I feel like the sea cucumber was gelatinous but crispy, but this one is more smooth and gooey. Perfect explanation. Mm, can't believe it. Meanwhile, we have the most expensive item on the plate right here. This is the abalone. I'm going to give it a cut. That is beautiful. Let's give it a shot. It has this incredible density to the meat. It's something between the crispiness of the sea cucumber and the softness of the fish maw, and it has so much more seafood-y flavor to it. It's so good. There's no doubt this was an outstanding experience, but there's one thing left to do. We need to add up all the money spent on seafood throughout the day and see if we did indeed spend over $1,000. Something tells me we finally hit our goal. All right, folks. In this video, we ate four different types of seafood. Meal 1 was this much. Meal 2 was this much. Meal 3 was this much. Meal 4 was this much. If you add it all together, were we able to spend over $1,000 on seafood here in Hong Kong? The answer is a resounding yes. Easy. Last time I made this goal, I was in Korea, in Busan. And did I achieve my goal then? I did not. But here in Hong Kong, they have some next-level luxury seafood. It was seafood presentation and recipes like I've never seen before. You also asked a lady to spend money. That is easy pie. Mmm. She enjoyed that part. And if you want to spend money, next time you come to Hong Kong, why don't you book a tour with Virginia and her company, Humid with a Chance of Fishballs. This is a great way to make use of your time when you're in the city. Go do a food tour or many of the other tours available. We also do mahjong classes, Instagram videos, and also YouTube videos, so you can eat through Hong Kong's culture, traditions, and heritage with us. Anyways, guys, that is it for this video. Thank you so much for watching. Thank you, Virginia. I will see you next time. Peace! That was like a whispery peace. What happened there? Were you... Come... We have to exit the screen now. Did you lose your voice at the end? I just didn't say it. If you love Indian food, then you're going to love our new channel, Best Ever Food India. Subscribe now for weekly videos showcasing the most unique street food from around the country.