We Tried the Best Hot Pot in Hong Kong

[meat squelches] [hotpot burbling]

[group cheering and chattering]

Welcome to Lan Kwai Fong.

This is the drinking capital of Hong Kong.

Down this street is where all the party happens.

And today, I'm a little bit nervous to be honest,

because we are covering

one of my favorite restaurants in Hong Kong.

This is Big JJ Seafood Hotpot Restaurant.

The kitchen has started prepping,

so let's go see what's happening inside.

[people chattering]

[Lucas speaking in foreign language]

[chef 1 speaking in foreign language]

So this is the prep kitchen at the back.

They have a little bit of deep frying

that they're going to do.

Hot pot is all about the prep.

They're doing the prep right now.

The soups are over here,

beef is over here.

[Lucas speaking in foreign language]

[chef 1 speaking in foreign language]

[Lucas speaking in foreign language]

[chef 1 speaking in foreign language]

Okay. [speaks in foreign language]

[chef 1 speaking in foreign language]

[Lucas speaking in foreign language]

Let's go out.

This is the prep kitchen,

so chef here is taking care of all of this beef.

[Lucas speaking in foreign language]

[chef 2 speaking in foreign language]

[chef 2 speaking in foreign language]

[Lucas speaking in foreign language]

[chef 2 speaking in foreign language]

One thing to keep in mind is that Western butchery

and Eastern butchery is a little bit different.

Something that might look like a strip loin

or might be served as a strip loin,

is actually butchered in a different way

for different textures.

At the end of the day, what hotpot is,

is a very quick cook of beef

to lock in that flavor and lock in that texture,

and as a result,

the names are unique to Cantonese hotpot.

So the beef that's featured at this restaurant

are from neutered oxen.

Neutered oxen tend to produce

a little bit less testosterone,

which means a more even marbling of the fat

throughout the cow.

Actually, chef is doing

kind of an interesting technique here.

He's butterflying each slice of beef

to make it slightly larger.

The first cut doesn't go all the way through.

The second cut does take it all the way through

to create slices that are double in size,

easier for chopsticks to grasp

as it goes inside of the hot broth.

One of the core components of hotpot are the balls,

the beef balls, the fish balls,

and in this case, chef is making a fish and lamb ball.

The combination of the fish and lamb

make for a pretty umami, pretty savory, delicious ball.

The idea for this ball is texture.

So for that texture, you want that beef ball to be bouncy,

and that bounciness comes from developing the myosin.

And when he's slapping it together,

he's extending those protein strands,

which will trap air within the ball,

making it nice, and bouncy, and light.

Once chef has achieved texture that he's looking for,

he's just going to let it chill and rest,

and serve it to the customers whenever it's been ordered.

By the way, hotpot is a social activity.

You don't come to this place alone.

You don't really do hotpot alone, especially not at Big JJ.

The key is that you're gathering around the table,

you're drinking a bunch, you're eating a bunch,

you're sharing, you're cooking for each other,

that's what the spirit of hotpot is.

Let's just put some things down before our friends arrive.

First is the pork bone bone soup that we saw earlier.

Yellow beef castrated.

Let's just try the Hanger Tender,

the fish and lamb that we saw earlier.

[bowls clattering] [people chattering]

[stove clacking]

Okay, so here's the soup. Take a look.

Celery, clams, and pork knuckles and pork bone.

What makes Cantonese hotpot distinguished

is the clarity and the delicacy of that broth.

Here, the flavor of the broth is worth drinking alone.

So the first step is to actually taste some of that broth.

[Lucas speaking in foreign language]

[staff 1 speaking in foreign language]

[people chattering]

I hate using non-Chinese references to explain food,

but the closest reference for a white soup

that most people know is tonkotsu.

The thing about tonkotsu is the key is emulsification.

And emulsification is when things like fat and water

don't mix together.

When they are mixed together,

you get a milky white broth like so,

which is to say that the fattiness of the oils

leaking from pork, to clam, so on and so forth,

get mixed in thoroughly,

homogenized with the liquid itself.

Once most of this bone has been removed,

there's some of this marrow here

that you can definitely eat.

I'm gonna save it for all of our friends

that are joining us.

Before that happens,

I think it's probably important for us

to make the seasoning.

Yeah. [people chattering]

Sesame oil, shacha sauce, chili oil,

fried garlic, black vinegar,

cooked garlic, pureed,

scallions, red chilies, cilantro, and soy sauce.

The thing with soy sauce

is that a lot of people assume that the word sauce

means that this is ready to go out of the bottle.

But soy sauce, as it's done properly,

requires a little bit of seasoning, a little bit of balance.

Now, here is the phases

for everybody who doesn't know how to put together

their own condiments and their sauce.

In Cantonese hotpot,

I believe that the base of that flavor should be two things,

shacha and soy sauce.

I'm sure that people are going to tell me that I'm wrong,

but those are the first two things that I add.

First is this shacha.

Shacha is actually a cooked condiment made of dried brill,

shrimp, oil, aromatics, that sort of thing.

Popularized mostly in Taiwan,

but technically it's part of like Fujianese [indistinct].

So that goes on the bottom.

I'm putting it by the tablespoon,

and then soy sauce.

These two, for me, are the bases.

[people chattering]

Sesame oil,

a little bit of chili oil,

fried garlic,

a little bit of that cooked garlic, pureed,

scallions, chili, cilantro.

A little bit of broth just to bring the flavors together

and get the party started.

[people chattering]

Mix it all up.

Service has began,

which means that we need to eat

because they're gonna kick us out at 8:00 o'clock.

[Lucas speaking in foreign language]

So, friends, stupid to eat hotpot alone.

I said it's a social activity, so we're gonna eat.

[owner speaking in foreign language]

[Lucas speaking in foreign language]

Hello. [speaks in foreign language].

[Lucas speaking in foreign language]

Medium-rare.

[Owner] Medium-rare. [speaks in foreign language].

[Lucas] Okay.

[owner speaking in foreign language]

[Lucas speaking in foreign language]

[owner speaking in foreign language]

[Lucas speaking in foreign language]

This is the local beef.

This is the globe.

They call it [speaks in foreign language].

This is like the global beef.

This is the stuff that has to be sourced from outside.

[people chattering]

First, usually is the beef,

because that's the main character.

That's the main thing we're here to eat.

And then after that, you would go through your seafoods,

maybe your chickens or lambs,

and the vegetables oftentimes at the end.

The reason is because this broth

is going to get more and more flavorful.

As it gets more and more flavorful,

that's when the vegetables come in

to soak up all of that extra protein

that you've donated to the broth.

There are a couple of things

that need a little bit more time to cook,

such as this chicken.

We're gonna throw that in early so that it can cook

while we work through the rest of the beef.

[staff 2 speaking in foreign language]

[Lucas speaking in foreign language]

[staff 2 speaking in foreign language]

[Lucas speaking in foreign language]

[staff 2 speaking in foreign language]

[group laughing]

[staff 2 and friend 1 speaking in foreign language]

[friend 1 laughing]

[staff 2 speaking in foreign language]

Okay, [speaks in foreign language]

[staff 2 speaking in foreign language]

Perfect. [speaks in foreign language]

Oh. [group chattering]

[staff 2 speaking in foreign language]

[group laughing]

[people chattering]

[staff 2 speaking in foreign language]

[friend 2 speaking in foreign language]

[staff 2 speaking in foreign language]

[group laughing and chattering]

Cheers.

[claps] Second last thing, [speaks in foreign language].

These are the three balls.

They come in a size like these.

That doesn't mean

that you have to cook the whole thing at once.

They'll give you a spoon.

You just wanna portion them out

into the size that you want.

To be honest with you,

the first time I came here, came with a bunch of chefs,

and they were just making fun of my stupid [indistinct].

[owner speaking in foreign language]

[friend 1 and owner speaking in foreign language]

[Lucas speaking in foreign language]

[friend 2 speaking in foreign language]

[owner speaking in foreign language]

[Lucas speaking in foreign language]

[owner speaking in foreign language]

Cook it until it floats

and then let it sit for a little bit.

When you mix that meat a lot, the myosin is released,

which means that it's going to be tender

even if you cook it for a little bit longer.

All these balls, especially this,

it's pretty hard to overcook,

so you have a little bit of a window.

[people chattering]

[Lucas speaking in foreign language]

[group laughing]

When you're having hotpot,

it's rude not to feed your friends.

It's a social activity,

so make sure that everybody is as well fed

and as well drank.

Everybody's drinking and eating the same as you.

Thank you.

[person speaking in foreign language]

[people cheering and clapping]

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

[people cheering and clapping]

We're standing outside of Big JJ.

My meal is done, but the party is still going on.

This is seriously

one of my favorite restaurants in Hong Kong,

because the beef is so good,

it's special,

it's a local breed,

they're getting slaughtered every day

and it's served so fresh.

The second reason is the broth is good.

The technique is good. The cooking is there.

And as they were setting it all up,

they letting that soup simmer,

it was a calm before the storm,

but now is the storm.

The vibe is still going.

It's a very special restaurant.

It's made by Hong Kong people for Hong Kong people,

and I really think this is what we need more of

in my favorite place in the world, Hong Kong.

There's more food to eat, onto the next.

[people chattering]