Everything I Ate on Hong Kong’s Epic Island of Snacks!

Coming up in today's food adventure. Oh my gosh, it's actually really scary. I went looking for pirate treasure in Hong Kong and learned nothing fuels an appetite quite like fear of death. So get ready to see me down snack, after snack, after snack, after snack. It's like a punch in the face. I love it. And experience a side of Hong Kong life I never have before. That was the coolest pee ever. So grab snacks, get comfy, and as always, don't forget to subscribe. Ahoy me hearties. Welcome to another food adventure. I'm here in Hong Kong. Where I'm continuing my Hong Kong hidden gem food tour right here on the outlying island of Cheung Chau. So obviously I'm here with Virginia from Human with a Chance of Fish Balls, a Hong Kong expert. So why did you decide to bring us to this island of all the outlying islands? Because of the village life. I definitely am seeing such a contrast like between the Hong Kong that's only 30 minutes away by the ferry, and then you're here and it just feels there's no skyscrapers. And no cars for that matter. Except for emergency vehicles, but they're actually really cute and miniaturized. Yeah, you basically just got people on their bicycles here. So here, if you hear that, that means get out of the way. You'll hear that all the time. I think that's universal. There's a lot of iconic snack foods that you will see on Hong Kong Island, but it actually originated from Cheung Chau. So that's another important reason why we're here, to eat. So let's get the ball rolling with brekkie and bevies. That's breakfast and beverages for the non-Australians in the chat. Cold drinks are the death of us, so I got something hot. It's watercress honey. I love how there's so many interesting drinks here in Hong Kong. Oh, that's delicious. Oh, you like it? It's a little bit fruity, but it's mostly just like a richness of sweetness here, but not too sweet. It just goes down a treat. So this is actually cooling for your teeth. Watercress is more cooling, but then I made it hot, so it balances everything out. Meanwhile, I'm over here absolutely annihilating all of that carefully balanced tea with my favorite Hong Kong drink, salted lemon, served on a mountain of ice. I'm back. You're back? That's the best. That was your coffee? This is one of my favorite things, and it always just goes really well with whatever you're eating. So we've just received our breakfast, which is a massive bowl here. I'm glad we're sharing. So they're famous for their satay beef macaroni. It's a macaroni, but it's made with rice, so it's called mai tong. Is this a breakfast dish? Yeah, we like soupy noodles. This is a breakfast thing. Satay beef with noodle in soup is a breakfast thing. Wow, what a combo. Because the sauce is quite savory and powerful, last time I tried it with a softer noodle, and it was too savory. So this has the perfect texture to get a little bit of the sauce, but not totally absorb the flavors. That's a good one, because, wow, that's a really strong smell, incredible smell. I love peanut. I love everything peanut-related. I grew up having peanut butter toast for breakfast every single day, which is probably why I'm really attracted to anything toast-related for breakfast, but also anything peanut-related for breakfast. Oh, that is so good. Salty, peanutty, creamy. It's like a punch in the face. I love it. And the bite of the noodle, it has a little bit of a spring versus the macaroni, which is kind of a little bit more soggy. You're totally right as well. With the rice, it balances it out a bit. I'm gonna try the beef. It looks so tender and delicious. Oh, I really like it. It's currently sprinkling and raining, and I've got this super comforting bowl of satay beef noodles. I mean, what a dream. Right before your hike. Are we going on a hike? Yes. Oh, what are we doing next? We're gonna go find treasures in the Pirate Cave. Not me thinking this was metaphorical. No, we're actually walking our way to the other side of the island, over a hill, onto the rocks, where a pirate supposedly buried his treasure here? So according to legend, in the 19th century, a really famous pirate, Zhang Bozai, he left his treasures here when he sought refuge. Oh. And the treasures have never been found. In this cave right here? Yes. Is this it? This is it. That's a cave? Yeah, it's very, very- It looks like a collection of rocks. But inside, there's a hole. So am I meant to go in there? You are. And look for the treasure. It is. It's very dark. It's very slippery. You will need a flashlight, or you will need your phone. Okay, wow. Okay, this suddenly got really adventurous. Oh, it's really small. Does this actually go through to another side? Yes, I promise you. Oh my gosh. Okay, so we're going in there. It's also just not the outfit for it, guys. Oh my gosh, it's actually really scary. I'm gonna use my flashlight. I would not recommend this for anyone who's claustrophobic. So this is what we're working with. Okay, wow. When you don't have your flashlight on, let me turn that off, it is absolutely pitch black. So I have to go down this ladder. I'm gonna need all my hands for this. So I'm gonna say goodbye, and hopefully see you on the other side. All right, it's just me. Her transmitter has disconnected, so she's probably in the cave now. There's only one entry point and one exit point. So I'm gonna go to the exit point and meet her there and see how she's doing. Meanwhile, under the rock, I'm having the longest few minutes of my life, let me tell you. Oh, there she comes. Heya. That was scary. That was really scary. Like, I guess I've just added one more fear to the list. Did you find anything in there? No, and I think the reason why no one has found the treasure is everyone goes in there being like, yeah, we're gonna find treasure. And then you're just scared for your life. Like, where is my next step on this ladder? I don't know how I'm getting out. So no, I have to tell you, honestly, I didn't even look. Oh, I see. I didn't even look. You wanna go down again? No, I never wanna go there again. So I guess all that's left to do is walk back. There's been a change of plans. So there's this lady that I just noticed on her boat and she's just like waving. And I was like, is she waving at us? Turns out she's waving at customers. So what you can actually do is wave her down and she'll take you back to the main port. Okay, let's go. 20 per person. This is called a sanpan. In Chinese it's sanban. So it sounds like three boards. So it just means a very basic primitive boat. One board, two boards, three boards. These are the sanpan boats that you see docked in the Taipan shelters. These are the working boats of Hong Kong. So do you see how all these sanpans are green? Do you know why there's so many green things in Hong Kong? I have no idea. Because after World War II, green paint became really cheap because the war was over and the military didn't need it. And Hong Kong was quite a poor city so they bought up the green paint. Like the ferry is green. Star Ferry is green. Trams. Dingding is green. These sanpans are green. Even I'm green. Looks like I've unknowingly dressed to theme. Anyway, we've arrived back at the main port. Time to hunt down our next snack of the day. Fish balls. Gigantic fish balls. Curry fish balls. And then turns out they are not just known for fish balls but the mega big ones. They are really big for fish balls. Definitely bigger than fish balls I've seen in Chaoshan or Fuzhou before. But another thing that makes a Hong Kong fish ball a little different is A, they're deep fried and B, they're smothered in curry sauce. And it's not only curry fish balls they have here. At this place, they've got a huge variety. Let me show you. You have like spicy ones, curry ones, satay sauce, curry sauce, barbecue sauce. Wow. And original. They actually sort their fish balls by spice level. So the least spicy is over here with original one, plum sauce, also barbecue sauce. And then you've got satay and curry sauce which is a bit more spicier as well as black pepper. And then you've got the green curry, curry sauce and Sichuan spicy is the spiciest of them all. So what I'm thinking is we get some of different levels and we see just how spicy it actually gets. So most appropriate photo for you. You've named your whole channel and identity about fish balls. Can I tell you something funny? Yeah. So I call myself the fish ball lady in English, right? But in Chinese, a fish ball lady is a prostitute. Fish balls refers to the boobs. Oh, really? So I can't translate it into Chinese. For someone who knows so much about fish balls, no pun intended, what makes a good fish ball? The texture. It has to be bouncy, less filler, and then the sauce. This one's covered in a sweet plum sauce and it's also our least spicy one. The texture is nice. It's bouncy. You could like literally bounce that. And we also like the ones that are hand smacked. So we believe that the best fish balls have to be hand smacked. So you have to smack them until it hake out as they call it. So it makes a gooey paste and that gives the best texture. This one is green curry flavor. It smells spicy. It does smell spicy. It also smells quite fresh, like refreshing. It's like got a zinginess to it. That has some heat. Oh, it does. But apparently this one's gonna be even spicier. It's the iconic OG Hong Kong curry fish ball. First impressions, taste is really good. I think my favorite. I just feel like the flavor of the fish ball is really complimented by that sauce. But yeah, a decent kick of spice there. Is there anything we can get to cool our mouths a bit? Mango mochi. So I did a video before and I went around. I tried all the mango mochi. This is the place. The mango mochi, like the mango is this big and the skin is the thinnest and it's just so good together. And inside the store, you can actually watch as they're made fresh. She grabs some of the fresh mango. It's such a huge chunk. And then she covers it with the mochi. Oh, look at this. I can feel the mango inside because that mochi is so soft. My good Lord. What? What I love about this is just how natural it is. It's just really ripe, delicious, sweet mango. Perfect textured mango. I mean, also look at the color. And then it's just glutinous rice on the outside. So texture-wise, it's amazing. You've got that soft, chewy, glutinous rice and then that soft mango on the inside. It's so juicy. It's so sweet. And also white powder is normal in Cheung Chau. It's really iconic, but it's so iconic that back on the Kowloon side or the Hong Kong Island side, you'll see Cheung Chau mango mochi and other people will sell it as well. Is there anything else really iconic snack-wise here that we should be trying? Peace buns. A long time ago, legend has it that there was a big plague here during the Qing Dynasty. And so they would make these peace buns and they would drive away the plague. And here is our peace bun. It says peace literally on it. That's upside down. So ping an. And now that I'm seeing it, something else is making a lot of sense because on this island here, I'm seeing so many souvenir shops with so much merch with this, like this shape. Because the wackiest festival in Hong Kong happens here on this island. It's a competition. There's a whole tower of buns and you scramble up to the top and you try to get as many buns as possible into your basket. And whoever gets the most wins. The higher the bun, the bigger the score. So that's why everybody scrambles up to the top. Are they real buns? They used to be, and then now they're fake buns. And then they give the buns away as a sign of peace and good luck at the end of the festival. We're gonna eat it with the modern fusion dim sum version. So this is the old version, the old school one. It's steamed. And we've also got the new one. Our OG is filled with lotus paste and yeah, it tastes like it looks. It is basically just like a sweet bun, sweet filling. It's one of those things that a few bites is enough. It's quite dense. I think this is gonna be really delicious. These are the egg custard lava buns that you get at dim sum, but they deep fried it. Look at this. So inside, oh my God. Inside there's basically this pool of hot custard, which is like sweet and salty. And since I'm a huge fan of custard, custard buns and anything deep fried, I think probably this version of the peace bun is speaking to me more, but I never did go down without a fight. Oh, that's good. This is a must get for me. These are just frozen pineapple rings because it's usually really hot and we come to the island. Oh my God. Look at these watermelons on sticks as well. That is so freaking cool. You are still good? I am 33. Thank you. You made my day. It is so simple, but so innovative at the same time. It's also something I'm seeing all over this island, marketed with signs of varying levels of artistic talent. Anyway, I'm taking my refreshing frozen watermelon to go as we head back to Hong Kong Island, where we've got some very exciting dinner plans ahead. But on the way, under the canal road flyover in Causeway Bay, we stumbled across something I definitely needed some clarification on. Oh my God. I see on the sign it says, pray for blessings and fight against villains. And another sign that reads, beat up the villains you know and welcome the noble ones, as well as this one here, the Tiger Lord will help you drive away strange villains and usher in wealth. Can you explain to me what this is? Okay, why don't I give an example? The number one villain in your life might be your boss. Maybe he or she gives you problems and obstacles. So you perform a ceremony for them and then it will cleanse your aura so they don't give you so many problems. And that's exactly what's going on here. The formal name for it, I've since learned is villain hitting. This is where you write your villains. So that's the guy and that's the girl. If you've got a villain in your life, you simply write their name down on their corresponding gender. She's gonna smack these pieces of paper while muttering things like, I'm gonna hit you so hard, you won't have shoes to wear. I'm gonna hit you so hard. Oh, now she's whacking. And yeah, they do not hold back. Villains, consider yourselves hit. Dinner tonight, we're in for a real treat. We are having a San Pan Boat Feast. That'll be taking place here in the Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter. It's basically a bay or inlet in a cove of water with a breaker. So it's to protect the little boat. So if it's typhoon season and it's two big winds and they can't go out and fish, they will just anchor themselves back here. Back in old Hong Kong, there was an entire typhoon shelter culture where families lived on sandpans and formed floating communities right here on the water. And it's from this world that dishes like typhoon shelter crab were born. Deep fried crab, smothered in a massive amount of crunchy garlic, chilli, black beans and shallots. So we're actually eating version 2.0. The old one used to be black bean because they don't have refrigeration on the boats so that the black bean would ferment a little bit and then they would fry it with the crab. But because it didn't look so great because it's speckles of black on the crab, so then they started adding fried garlic to it. It looked prettier. And then they would put chillies and it would look nicer. And that's the version we're eating now. So the original typhoon shelter crab isn't the version we're eating. A water taxi will get us. They will bring us over to our Sanpan boat, which is just for the two of us. And then they will cook on that boat. And then that guy on the little speed boat will ferry the food over to us. It feels like there's so many boats. Welcome to my Sanpan. We've got a very beautiful long table here. And I'd like to take you through here where we have a very special feature because obviously this is a restaurant, a licensed restaurant must have a bathroom. So this is the toilet here. TMI, but I just peed. And so now we're going to flush. So we've got this bucket that I'm going to put overboard. Oh, I got some. Okay, great. A very small amount. You won't have to do it twice then. Oh, good. Look how much I got. It's a good thing it wasn't number two. Yeah, that was definitely not enough water. I had to go fishing for more. And then you use said water to flush. That was the coolest pee ever. And there we go. That's the toilet. That's our Sanpan. We should be receiving our food pretty soon. What you're seeing here, that is the delivery boat from the kitchen. He is basically transporting the cooked items that has been cooked on another boat here to this boat. And here's our spread here. We've got the razor clams, my favorite steamed with glass noodles and then tons of garlic. Which I'm drenching with more sauce and then scraping it all onto my plate. Then I'll get a bit of the clam, bit of the noodles, bit of that garlic. Just a bit? Obscene. It's tasty. But wow, is that a lot of garlic? Basically the flavor of that is very easy to describe. Imagine just eating garlic. I love how it's like strands. It's like the spaghetti of the sea. It's a protein noodle. We've got some prawns. Which I peeled and smothered in the remnants of my soy garlic razor clam toppings, which I feel was definitely the move. And then typhoon shelter crab. Oh, wow. It looks a bit different to typhoon shelter crab I've seen before. It's like typhoon shelter crab with a 10. Honestly, I think it was just a little bit burnt. And unfortunately, it wasn't the best crab I've had or the best typhoon shelter crab I've had. That's the best part. You mix that with the noodles and a little bit of the fried garlic and you eat it together. And the noodles have been cooked with crab oil. They are so delicious. The noodles were definitely tasty. They had a nice seafood-y flavor and satisfying bite. And mixing them with the remainder of the crab head juices did give them an extra injection of crabby-ness, which was great. But I think what's so cool about this experience is just like being on this boat. I've never had a dining experience like this in my life. It's the last one in Hong Kong. It's this one. This one. That's such a shame. I feel like people would love to do it. It's really cool here. And you've just got the most beautiful view of Hong Kong here. All the buildings. And it's such a contrast because you've got all these still quite some old boats here. Yeah. And then you've got the most modern skyline in the background. And I'm just eating seafood. I mean, is it the best, most mind-blowing? Like, no. Yes, it's tasty. But I think you come here for the experience. The atmosphere. The atmosphere is absolutely out of this world. And I'm so grateful for this experience. And I'm so grateful to have made these two videos with you and for you showing me around. So thank you so much for everything. Thank you for having me. Make sure you are following Virginia on all of her respective platforms and shout out. She's doing tours here in Hong Kong. So she is the girl to get in touch with if you're looking for Hong Kong tours. So that's gonna be it for me here in Hong Kong. I hope you've enjoyed this video and this set of Hong Kong hidden gems. And I will see you next week. From where? I don't know yet. But we'll find out together. Bye guys from Hong Kong.