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

In this video I will try to spend over $11,000 on

seafood

here in Hong Kong and I promise that this time I will deliver. I'm not going to sleep tonight until I spend over 1,000 on

seafood

. Today I'm trying four different seafood restaurants. at four different price points, cheap, mid-priced, expensive and out of this world, Ultra Premium, where I will spend an exorbitant amount of money on a small bite of seafood, but in my goal of spending $1,000 there are two rules: I can only eat seafood and at each location I have to spend more money than the last.

I have Virginia, the owner of the tour company, wet with a song of fish balls by my side all day guiding me along the way. Right now we are heading to the number one location where we are. we're going to have to wait for fish balls, let's do it, that's what it's supposed to be. We've reached our first and cheapest spot of the day right behind me. This place is famous for all types of seafood, their menu is huge and We are open 24 hours a day right now it's breakfast time in the morning, it's the perfect time to eat some dumplings my favorite way of food let's go in and see how it's done and let's see how much it costs right here we've gone into the kitchen my man he's the chef and right now he's making a bunch of delicious those look good maybe I'll change my order okay let's do it.

I'm following the chef here to the corner. You have a random drawer full of sliced ​​fish balls and slices these are in the hot water right here dip the bowl it looks like you have some rice noodles and those are also blanched in the hot water the rice noodles are thrown into the bowl boom balls in the bowl boom fish slices in the bowl too but right now this bowl needs some flavor, how about some broth and then some butter? He stuck his finger in it for some reason, this woman here is about to garnish our bowl, we have some green onions, that's the garnish that, oh okay, the garnish is complete, thanks Chef, I'm going in, so we have our bowl right here this is what you get early in the morning four scoops two slices garnished just with a spoon and then noodles underneath um don't leave it.

That will be your first bite. I think you should maybe mix it in Virginia. Why are fish balls so common and popular in Hong Kong? So what happened in the past is that if people didn't sell all the fish, we didn't waste it, so they make it into a paste and then add a filler like a kind of starch. I have to say it's a big sell for fish balls, old fish meat mixed with binders and formed into a ball, right here we have the rice noodles being soaked in this. Broth Is it a pork bone broth? pork bones and fish BN okay, let's try M oh, it's so good, the broth is incredibly hot even though it's been here for a few minutes, I can barely stand it, oh, that's good, super tasty, salty, you can Try the fish bones that are there.

I like it, but the broth we're trying to prepare is enough to get to these fish balls. First of all, the fish slice cake is a little bouncy, it has a lot of flavor inside, it tastes like delicious processed fish. I must say that for less than $5 in Hong Kong, this is a great deal. Can I remind you that later in this video we will spend over 100 times more on a meal, so this is just the beginning? bouncy fish ball here, dense and soft at the same time full of flavor, warm, oh how good, this is our first super cheap dish, but next we head to a fish market, a seafood market, where we can buy the food I want to eat it and take it to someone to cook, let's move, boom, we have officially arrived at the fish market.

I'm excited, this place is wild and full of action, we're in Sun Sho, this is Bay Home Market, this one just tends to I have a really big seafood section, OMG this guy is hauling live seafood. The people who come here will be local residents, but there are also many restaurants that will go to their favorite vendor and grab their seafood of the day. Well, from here I'm going to explore the market to see what kind of seafood they have. Let us begin. The first thing I see are prawns that are still jumping. They are very animated.

Here we have mantis shrimp. These things look huge. They have some of the biggest clams I've seen here. They have lobster. They have huge knives. Oh, and they have crab foam. Look at this guy who is a big mud crab that is almost as big as them. Don't grow much unless you find them in Fukushima. We have reached another position here. Mainly sells fish. Look, they even have a kind of headless fish. I think that fish was in a car accident. What I like most about this place is. This here is a cage full of frogs.

They are known as Chinese edible frogs. Much easier to eat than inedible Chinese frogs. Don't stress, guys. Wow, they immediately tried to run away. Okay, that one has my name. Here we go. wondering what's going on look how big those calves are, what's samoan? Okay, I'm going to put them back on for now and take a look. I'll put them back on for now and take another look around. I'm going to leave them again for now and look a little more there we go, well we've come to another stall here they have so many interesting things seafood snails this is a golden snail look how fat this snail is what a treasure maybe this should be our first food here.

I want to show you that these are abalone. The good thing about these abalones is that they are still alive. You can see that they are 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 are going to eat avalons that have actually been dried for a long period of time. These avalons cost hundreds of dollars, but first let's pick some foods here, our first seafood pick. Food 2 is this log of extremely long razor clams, oh yeah that's good omg they are so long they have extra appendages sticking out for our second sea.

I'm diving into the amphibian bin to look for three of these chubby Samoan frogs, the big question. They are frogs and shellfish. I say yes because they like to live in the water or hang out in it, at least they like to be wet, so we go up to what looks like a giant cafeteria. There are many restaurants here that prepare different seafood. dishes, but you can also bring your own seafood here and ask them to cook your food right now. Chef Sandy is starting with our frogs and our clams. Interestingly, she is using a razor to open the Razer clams, maybe that's why they call him. a Razer clam, she gives everything a little bath and then meticulously cleans the sand and poop from the inside of the shell.

So today we're going to eat our razor clams with some glass noodles and garlic, beautiful, oh, so. This here is the garlic sauce, she has to carefully make sure to get it inside the shell so that it flavors the meat while it steams. Now we're heading back into the kitchen and these are going to head straight into the steamer, so that's going to be about 10 minutes and we'll see you soon. We have our second meal of the day right here in the form of two different seafood. Let's talk about money. The price of three frogs is only $5.

But this here $23. That's just for However, the raw ingredients to top everything also cost an additional $238. Let's talk about flavors, starting with these guys here. This is a classic recipe in Hong Kong, so I'm going to take this huge bite and throw it away. Greetings, my God. M, the clams are super delicious, just the right amount of chewy, there's a lot of noodles on top and then that garlic flavor, it's a powerful flavor, it's so good Virginia, most people here on this kind of cafeteria area they bring their own seafood or they're just ordering off the menu right now it's a work day so people are just ordering off the menu they're doing something really quick on the fly and then they're going to go out.

Is it still mostly seafood here or is it a great mix of options? It's a great combination of options, especially for lunchtime in the evening, that's when we're really going to do these family style seafood dishes and that's when the beers come out, but for now we can stay. Stay up next night frog, he's making a hot walk right here, hit a frog with some cornstarch to make it nice and crispy and literally just throw the frogs in piece by piece, it's a dangerous game, now it's the time to delete them all. the frog parts, oh, and then he put them back in the fryer for the second time, from here he is putting a combination of powerful flavors, we have onion, chili, garlic, ginger, this is steamed fish, soy sauce and a little fish sauce, even more flavors. this one turns out to be some sugar, then he put the frog back in here, it's got some fried garlic and green onions, now it's all walking together, getting nice and happy, take a look at that crunch factor, they look amazing, remember . that huge juicy baby frog we saw earlier here is again in fried form, regards M, yes a little cornar there, she just put a little cornstarch in there and that's enough to give it a little crust, it's amazing Tasty flavor and just a very cute and delicious frog underneath.

I really like, oh, it's that ribcage, oh, the pelvis, that's my favorite part, yeah, me too, oh, about the frogs. Yes, 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, we'll get there. Let's find out on our third location after this one, obviously, we've made it to Seafood location number three. Now, this is a huge complex of different aquariums, tons of live shellfish crusts and fish, plus a ton of different restaurants to cook that shellfish for you Virginia, how does this place work? This place is called leun.

This is the place to go with a group of friends. You want to have about 10 people. 8 to 10 different seafood and you eat it at night, it's definitely a meal that you're going to spend a little more money on. Let's take a look at what they have so we've come to our live seafood venue. with Alice who will help us take a tour of what they have available here, if we take a look, yes, first of all, they have a wide variety of colorful fish and then here we have something very special, these are some huge huggable fish Oh. there it is look at this monster wow it's barking what's here this is an abalone from Africa really come see it it's a big thick creature the abalone hit different whether it's from South Africa or North Africa anywhere let's talk about this so this is a mantis shrimp inside here and it's so dangerous it can actually hit you and cut you, it can even pierce plastic, has this ever hurt you?

No, no, after reviewing several other seafood options, I've decided to go with this mammoth lobster look. On this guy's horns, this alone could stab you like a two-horned unicorn. Now let's weigh this baby and see how much it costs. In Hong Kong, this is how seafood is weighed. It's an old school method, but it's tried and true. In the end, after doing the math, this guy here is $25, not cheap and that doesn't include the kitchen, so we head to the kitchen next door to see what the chef does with this bad boy. Alright, friends, we're in the kitchen. now with Assan he is extremely excited, you can tell he is doing the P sign and everything and then we have the equally excited lobster.

The first step removes the tail completely, this is really the prize of it all and will soon be used in a single dish then the chef cuts the head and tail into smaller sections, gives them a little bath and prepares for the Next steps. Alright guys we can't show the chef here because he is wanted for tax evasion so let's cover with the face up so now we have our lobster pieces and we are at the walk station first we fry the lobster pieces in heat oil until they take on a bright and beautiful orange hue, that's nice, then we prepare some wheat noodles with chicken broth, salt and butter when they are ready we let the noodles rest on a plate waiting for the lobster now we put some back of oil on the way, hits it with a little bit of secret broth and then the lobster goes in as well, then takes cornstarch and puts it in the ladle right here and that goes in to help thicken everything.

I have never seen lobster prepared like this in my life. Finally, the chef reassembles the lobster, turning it into a glorious mound of noodles. Have you ever seen something so majestic? Only three chefs. working together one who has to hide his identity from the world so many secrets in one man oh All that's left is this delicious, tasty 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 it doesn't taste good, what does it look like? Majestic come back, bring it back, bring it back, are you going to share your food?

Yes, totally, then, I'm going tostart with this because it looks epic right here we have it. a big portion of cola M mmm, there's sort of two elements here, there's the texture, which is slightly stringy, a little chewy, but then there's that sauce, it's a delicious, deeply flavored, savory chicken broth that goes wonderfully with the seafood, now let's get to those noodles you could probably use the shell and put everything inside the shell and oh, that's a fun idea. I want to do what the lobster would have appreciated, which is use its body, let's put some noodles here in the shell, throw them back. oh, that's delicious, that same super thick salty sauce has influenced the flavor of everything here has a nice wheat noodle-like texture, but I think the big step here is to mix that with some lobster.

Here we have what I like to call the perfect bite mhm m M that was so good Conclusion: In the end, this good food is unique and something I have never seen before, but let's talk about the price of the fresh raw lobster that was $25, but cooking it into this masterpiece cost an extra $40, so I spent it all. $245 on this meal, but my goal is to see if I can spend over $1,000 on seafood in one day. Soon we're heading to a restaurant where the prices are not only double, but more than triple what I just paid.

This restaurant specializes in making the most luxurious dried seafood dishes you can find in Hong Kong, but how can dried seafood be even more expensive than fresh seafood? To find the answer, I first head to the dried seafood section of this market, what is it like? Dried seafood may be a lot more expensive than fresh because it is very labor intensive and labor intensive so at first to dry it you will have to catch it, you have enough space to dry it and it may take a couple of weeks and then if you were to eat at a restaurant, let's say, a dried sea cucumber, then it starts to dry like this and then it takes about 7 days in advance to rehydrate it, so at the end of all this work it's the end. product, does it taste better to have a sea cucumber that has been dried and then rehydrated?

It has a different texture so you might think of something as gelatinous or chewy, but we have more granular categories, it can be gelatinous but crunchy, gelatinous but sticky and then it goes really well with sauces because you can weld it into a sauce and then it takes on the flavor. of that sauce. Oh my gosh, I'm nervous but excited and this is going to be one of the most expensive meals of my life. I hope it's worth it, we just arrived at our last and most expensive seafood restaurant of the day, a three Michelin star restaurant known as Forum.

Virginia, tell people about this place, we are here to try dried seafood, which is called ha, which is basically flavors of the sea, they are most famous and known for their abalone. Today we're going to start with a dish that costs $100 and involves a sea cucumber, but after that we're going to try something that costs $900, how do you get to $900? What are we eating? Well, friends, right now we are in a private room and Chef Adam is here and he is about to prepare our first dish, which is the sea cucumber. Cucumber SE is going to start today. with a little bit of f gr and he's crushing it by cutting it into smaller pieces M that smells good next to the sea cucumber oh my goodness so the sea cucumber has formed and hollowed out and now he's taking the fogger and putting it inside like a Delicious Taco this is a preparation like I have never seen before so he is going to take it out from here to steam it for about 10 minutes and bring it back Finally our first dish arrived the price of this dish right here 100 USD I Me They've said you're supposed to eat it with a fork, oh what the fuck, that texture is wild.

I'm going to slide it gently over the fork, let's go for it, oh my God, it's like I understand it now, the act of drying it. Then, by rehydrating it, you completely change the structure of the food. It's super soft, almost sticky, but still very satisfying to chew. Let's try one more bite. Go into the fog. It has a delicious flavor. Rich in fat and wonderful. Now I get three stars. This is not like this. just 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 ma abalone from Japan, all this abalone. has already dried, each piece costs over $2000 and this entire dish costs approximately $225,000.

This is a down payment for a house, since it turns out that $2000 for a single abalone is a little over my

budget

, so I'm going to buy the poor man's version. this dish is a much more affordable $900, unfortunately our final dish has arrived, the abalone is here, as is the M fish, and the chef is about to take it away. It starts with abalone in a large crock pot with premium chicken broth. Right here we have the M fish bowl, which is the air bladder of the fish, right here you have an abalone sauce that you're adding to create a beautiful rich brown tone.

Oh look at that, next mix some cornstarch and water, turning this thin stew into a thick sauce then add some dark soy sauce oh here we have some preserved Chinese ham juice something we all have in the pantry it gives it a little flavor but it's satisfying very well oh thumbs up At the end he plates some vegetables along with a small portion of rice because he knows I'm on a ketogenic diet, he serves the abalone and the fish. M Chef, thank you very much, that looks amazing, thank you, I'm Virginia, yes, so far during this trip you have seen me eat. a lot of food, but I thought this is a very special meal, so we should both get a chance to try it at the same time $900 $900 oh, you're so nice, you're soft, so mom fish is one of those things that most In places Around the world they probably dismissed it, but in this part of the world it is a delicacy.

I'm just going to cut it with a fork. Are you already eating it? Oh, it's so good, there's my giant, thick piece of Moss fish. Try it, it's wild, it doesn't contain shellfish at all, it's like a big soft semi-gelatinous piece of giant cow tendon, that's the only thing I really know to compare it to what's out there from you, Virginia, well, like I said, you might think all. of these textures are gelatinous but to me I feel that the sea cucumber was gelatinous but crunchy but this one is softer and stickier. The perfect explanation I can't believe while 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 try it M, it has an incredible density in the meat, it is something between the crunch of the sea cucumber and the softness of the fish moth and it has much more seafood flavor. It's so good that there's no doubt it was an exceptional experience, but there's still one thing left to do: add up all the money spent on seafood during the day and see if we really spent more than $1,000. Something tells me we finally made it. our goal, well friends in this video, we ate four different types of seafood food, one was this amount of food, 2 was this amount of food, three was this amount of food, four was this amount, if we add it all together, We were able to spend over $1,000 on seafood. here in Hong Kong the answer is a resounding easy yes the last time I set this goal I was in Korea in Busan and I achieved my goal so I didn't but here in Hong Kong they have next level luxury seafood it was a presentation of seafood. and recipes like you've never seen before.

You also asked a lady to spend money. That is easy. She enjoyed that part and if you want to spend money next time you come to Hong Kong, why not book a tour with Virginia? and her company are moist with the possibility of fish balls. This is a great way to make the most of your time when you're in town. Take a food tour or many of the other tours available. We also give majang classes, Instagram and YouTube videos. videos so you can enjoy the cultures and heritage of Hong Kong with us anyway guys that's all for this video.

Thank you so much for watching, thank you Virginia, see you next time. Peace sounds like a whisper. What happened there? Where did you come? You 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 will love our new channel. The best food in India. Subscribe now for weekly videos showcasing the best. unique street food from around the country