Today, Bon Appétit joins Lucas Sin at Big JJ Seafood Hotpot in Hong Kong to try their hotpot. This no-frills restaurant opened quietly during the pandemic and has since become a cult favorite for Hong Kong locals.
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00:00Welcome to Lan Kwai Fong.
00:06This is the drinking capital of Hong Kong.
00:08Down this street is where all the party happens and today I'm a little bit nervous to be honest
00:13because we are covering one of my favorite restaurants in Hong Kong.
00:17This is Big JJ Seafood Hot Pot Restaurant.
00:20The kitchen has started prepping so let's go see what's happening inside.
00:29So this is the prep kitchen in the back.
00:31They have a little bit of deep frying that they're going to do.
00:32Hot pot is all about the prep.
00:34They're doing the prep right now.
00:35The soups are over here.
00:36Beef is over here.
00:59Let's go out.
01:14This is the prep kitchen.
01:15So chef here is taking care of all of this beef.
01:18One thing to keep in mind is that Western butchery
01:48and Eastern butchery is a little bit different.
01:50Something that might look like a strip loin or might be served as a strip loin is actually
01:53butchered in a different way for different textures.
01:56At the end of the day what hot pot is is a very quick cook of beef to lock in that flavor
02:01and lock in that texture and as a result the names are unique to Cantonese hot pot.
02:07So the beef that's featured at this restaurant are from neutered oxen.
02:10Neutered oxen tend to produce a little bit less testosterone which means a more even
02:14marbling of the fat throughout the cow.
02:17Actually chef is doing kind of an interesting technique here.
02:19He's butterflying each slice of beef to make it slightly larger.
02:21The first cut doesn't go all the way through.
02:24The second cut does take it all the way through to create slices that are double in size.
02:28Easier for chopsticks to grasp as it goes inside of the hot broth.
02:32One of the core components of hot pot are the balls, the beef balls, the fish balls
02:35and in this case chef is making a fish and lamb ball.
02:39The combination of the fish and lamb make for a pretty umami, pretty savory, delicious
02:44ball.
02:45The idea for this ball is texture.
02:47So for that texture you want that beef ball to be bouncy and that bounciness comes from
02:50developing the myosin and when he's slapping it together he's extending those protein strands
02:54which will trap air within the ball making it nice and bouncy and light.
02:58Once chef has achieved the texture that he's looking for he's just gonna let it chill,
03:01let it rest and serve it to the customers whenever it's been ordered.
03:05By the way, hot pot is a social activity.
03:08You don't come to this place alone, you don't really do hot pot alone, especially not at
03:11Big JJ.
03:12The key is that you're gathering around the table, you're drinking a bunch, you're eating
03:16a bunch, you're sharing, you're cooking for each other, that's what the spirit of hot
03:19pot is.
03:20Let's just put some things down before our friends arrive.
03:22First is the pork bone soup that we saw earlier, yellow beef, castrated.
03:26Let's just try the hanger tender, the fish and lamb that we saw earlier.
03:34Okay so here's the soup, take a look, celery, clams, pork knuckle and pork bone.
03:40What makes Cantonese hot pot distinguished is the clarity and the delicacy of that broth.
03:45However, the flavor of the broth is worth drinking alone.
03:49So the first step is to actually taste some of that broth.
04:03I hate using non-Chinese references to explain food but the closest reference for a white
04:08soup that most people know is tonkotsu.
04:10So the thing about tonkotsu is the key is emulsification and emulsification is when
04:15things like fat and water don't mix together.
04:17When they are mixed together, you get a milky white broth like so.
04:20Which is to say that the fattiness of the oils leaking from pork, the clams, so on and
04:26so forth, get mixed in thoroughly, homogenized with the liquid itself.
04:32Once most of this bone has been removed, there's some of this marrow here that you can definitely
04:35eat.
04:36I'm going to save it for all of our friends that are joining us.
04:39Before that happens, I think it's probably important for us to make the seasoning.
04:43Yeah.
04:44Sesame oil, cha-cha sauce, chili oil, fried garlic, black vinegar, cooked garlic, puree,
04:51scallions, red chilies, cilantro, and soy sauce.
04:54The thing with soy sauce is that a lot of people assume that the word sauce means that
04:58this is ready to go out of the bottle.
05:00But soy sauce, as it's done properly, requires a little bit of seasoning and a little bit
05:03of balance.
05:04Now here is the basis for everybody who doesn't know how to put together their own condiments
05:08and their sauce.
05:09In Cantonese hotpot, I believe that the base of that flavor should be two things, cha-cha
05:14and soy sauce.
05:15I'm sure that people are going to tell me that I'm wrong, but those are the first two
05:18things that I add.
05:19First is this cha-cha.
05:20Cha-cha is actually a cooked condiment made of dried fish, shrimp, oil, aromatics, that
05:26sort of thing.
05:27Popularized mostly in Taiwan, but technically it's part of like Fujianese min-nan-cai.
05:31So that goes on the bottom.
05:33I'm putting it by the table soon.
05:36And then soy sauce.
05:37These two, for me, are the bases.
05:41Sesame oil, a little bit of chili oil, fried garlic, a little bit of that cooked garlic,
05:48puree, scallions, chili, cilantro, a little bit of broth, just to bring the flavors together
05:58and get the party started.
06:03Mix it all up.
06:06Service has begun, which means that we need to eat because they're going to kick us out
06:09at 8 o'clock.
06:10So, friends, stupid to eat hotpot alone, I said it's a social activity, so we're going
06:17to eat.
06:19Hello.
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06:58Hello, hellow, hi, this is Jeremy.
07:03Jeremy had me know that you guys came to visit.
07:06A great number of people that we met here.
07:09Don't worry about that.
07:11Because we're going to have hotpot.
07:13Check it out.
07:14Voilà.
07:15Really.
07:16usually is the beef because that's the main character.
07:19That's the main thing we're here to eat.
07:21And then after that, you would go through your seafoods,
07:23maybe your chickens or lambs,
07:24and the vegetables oftentimes at the end.
07:26The reason is because this broth
07:28is going to get more and more flavorful.
07:30As it gets more and more flavorful,
07:31that's when the vegetables come in
07:33to soak up all that extra protein
07:35that you've donated to the broth.
07:37There are a couple of things
07:38that need a little bit more time to cook,
07:40such as this chicken.
07:41We're gonna throw that in early
07:43so that it can cook while the rest of the things,
07:45while we work through the rest of the beef.
08:16Good thing I got a chicken.
08:18Okay.
08:33Second last thing.
08:34Let's make some fish balls.
08:36These are the three balls.
08:38They come in a size like this.
08:39That doesn't mean that you have to cook
08:41the whole thing at once.
08:42They'll give you a spoon.
08:44You just want to portion them out
08:46into the size that you want.
08:48To be honest with you,
08:49the first time I came here,
08:51came with a bunch of chefs,
08:52and they were just making fun of my stupid canals.
09:13Western chefs are like this.
09:16If we're like this, then it's okay.
09:18How about the lamb?
09:20Okay, let's cook it.
09:21Let's cook it.
09:22Cook it until it floats
09:23and then let it sit for a little bit.
09:24When you mix that meat a lot,
09:25the myosin is released,
09:27which means that it's going to be tender
09:29even if you cook it for a little bit longer.
09:30All of these balls, especially this,
09:33it's pretty hard to overcook,
09:34so you have a little bit of a window.
09:39Imagine that.
09:41When you're having hot pot,
09:41it's rude not to feed your friends.
09:43It's a social activity,
09:45so make sure that everybody is as well-fed
09:48and as well-drank.
09:49Everybody's drinking and eating the same as you.
09:53So, again, let's ask them.
09:55Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
09:58It's so funny, you know.
10:00Happy birthday to you.
10:03Happy birthday to you.
10:07Happy birthday to you.
10:10We're standing outside of Big JJ.
10:12My meal is done,
10:13but the party is still going on.
10:15This is seriously one of my favorite restaurants in Hong Kong
10:19because the beef is so good.
10:20It's special.
10:21It's a local breed.
10:22They're getting slaughtered every day,
10:24and it's served so fresh.
10:25The second reason is the broth is good,
10:27the technique is good,
10:28and the cooking is there,
10:29and as they were setting it all up,
10:31letting that soup simmer,
10:33it was a calm before the storm,
10:34but now is the storm.
10:35The vibe is still going.
10:37It's a very special restaurant.
10:38It's made by Hong Kong people for Hong Kong people,
10:42and I really think this is what we need more of
10:45in my favorite place in the world, Hong Kong.
10:47There's more food to eat.
10:49On to the next.