As the bell rang, the second round of the second stage of the Sapporo competition officially transitioned from the cooking phase to the tasting phase.
Apart from the team comprising Qiushan Hong and Shinohara Shigetaro, who had submitted their dishes early, the remaining nine teams stopped their cooking at the sound of the bell. In fact, several teams had already finished cooking half an hour earlier. However, the dishes of Qiushan Hong and Shinohara Shigetaro unexpectedly scored only 80 points—a fairly acceptable result—which probably intimidated many of the chefs present.
Qiushan Hong wasn’t at the bottom of the Lin Chef pyramid.
And Shinohara Shigetaro was also among the few top-tier chefs who had the potential to understand the essence of food and advance to Lin Chef level.
The competitiveness of this team was undeniable, and it was expected that many contestants regarded them as formidable opponents.
"Let’s serve the dishes—"
Liangzi Lina said in a low voice, her eyes showing hesitation, yet she pursed her lips and spoke to Indira from India, the Female Qilin Chef.
She was dressed in a chef’s outfit with a Japanese flair, wearing a white top, a black knee-length apron, and black trousers, her long hair pinned up to reveal her fair and slender neck, undoubtedly adding a beautiful touch to the competition scene.
"Indeed, serving now has its advantages," Indira agreed. "The later you serve, the more constraints the dish faces. After all, once the judges have tasted the earlier dishes, the ’essence’ lingers in their minds, creating a strong resistance to the atmosphere conveyed in our dishes!"
"Exactly!"
The female protagonist took a breath, feeling an underlying unease.
Usually, she was absolutely confident, but this competition had too many star chefs.
Just before serving, almost instinctively, Liangzi Lina looked up toward the exclusive seats of the Far Moon Contest Team, only to see Dojima Yin and Tiqie Zongwei among others, but that much-anticipated young man was not there.
As she approached the judge’s table, she noticed soone waving from the guest seats. She focused her gaze and after a mont of astonishnt, a gentle smile appeared on her face.
"This is a dish prepared by Chef Indira and ." Representing their team, she presented their dish, lifting from a lacquered wooden tray five small porcelain bowls, each with a lid, and arranged them in front of the judges. Notably, each bowl resembled a tea cup in shape.
"I know you."
The Chief Judge smiled aningfully in return.
"I know you too, oh, no, I know your ’sake’!" The second judge with red hair laughed heartily, giving a thumbs-up. "Last round, you made taste the pure and unblemished sake once brewed by virgin priestesses, a purity I haven’t felt in a long ti!"
"So, how do you interpret the the ’Supre Goodness, Like Water’ this ti?"
After the greetings, the real judging and questioning began.
"Water—embraces all rivers!" Liangzi Lina answered softly, her eyes lowered.
"Embraces all rivers again?"
The judges were surprised, and the audience beca restless.
"Are you sure? The last team’s ’embraces all rivers’ didn’t achieve a successful atmosphere, which is why they barely managed an 80..." Nuliang spoke gravely, "This ti, if it’s the sa and again unsuccessful... I will give zero points!"
"Zero points!"
The second judge with red hair yawned in agreent, showing no rcy.
"Our last team’s dish represented the sky, but our dish... represents the flavors!" Liangzi Lina calmly stated.
"Hmm?"
The judges stopped talking abruptly.
Flavors?
In the guest seats, Xia Yu caught this, his eyes sparkled as he glanced behind the female protagonist where the unnoticed Spice Empress from India stood, realizing sothing, "Indeed, from ’Supre Goodness, Like Water’, it can transition to ’embraces all rivers’, and with ’embraces all rivers’, there are countless possibilities—sky, ocean, and even the most fundantal elent of cooking, flavor; all can be vast!"
Knowing Liangzi Lina and Indira, Xia Yu was sure their collaboration on a ’flavor’ dish would be intriguing.
"Please taste!"
The female chef’s voice echoed throughout the venue.
"Ha ha!"
The second judge was the first to lift the lid of the tea bowl, and in that instant, the air seed to ripple. As the lid left the bowl, it was like opening a flower vase, and it seed as if a breeze blew through, rustling, filling the view with fluttering cherry blossom petals.
Cherry blossoms blossod one by one, fluttering slowly downwards, like a scene from a dream.
The judges’ eyes sparkled with a strange light.
The audience vigorously rubbed their eyes, or blinked, only to find that the vision they had just glimpsed had already disappeared without a trace, even if they rewound the footage, they couldn’t capture the mont when the lid was lifted.
A hallucination? Yet, Xia Yu’s lips curled into an intrigued smile.
The cara focused on five bowls whose lids had been removed.
"Hiss!"
A collective gasp of astonishnt.
At the bottom of the bowl lay a fist-sized lump of transparent jelly, no, a translucent crystalline body, half-spherical, quietly resting on a verdant leaf.
The key was that at the center of this half-sphere translucent crystalline body lay a passionately blossoming cherry blossom.
From the audience’s perspective, it looked more like a piece of crystal-clear amber rather than food.
"How beautiful!"
A breathless exclamation of amazent.
"Water Xinxuan Cake... a dessert?" Nuliang expressed mild astonishnt.
Liangzi Lina rely smiled.
The other judges exchanged glances, clearly having tasted this traditional Japanese treat several tis before, skillfully scooping up a spoonful of molasses-like brown syrup from a pot and drizzling it over the green leaf and the semi-translucent dessert.
Whoosh—
Under the competition hall lights, the traditional dessert exuded a dreamlike aura, yet the judges didn’t hesitate to crush a corner with a spoon and brought it to their mouths.
"Gulp!"
Supre softness!
The judges opened their eyes in disbelief: "This gentle texture..."
It felt like a clump of chilling water that wouldn’t lt in their mouths, the sweetness of the sugar and the mild flavor of the dessert itself mingled, causing the judges to once again see the scene of cherry blossoms falling, blown by the wind.
But what about the the ’the best, like water’?
Nuliang’s face showed doubt, though reluctant, he still began to chew the jelly-like dessert in his mouth.
Suddenly, it was as if sothing had burst, the Chief Judge widened his eyes, "Ah, a whirlpool!"
"Whoo—"
The whirlpool buzzed, a thousand flavors surged from the tongue, to the point where his taste buds system was paralyzed. Nuliang saw a rain of cherry blossoms in his vision, which suddenly turned into a whirlpool of cherry blossoms sucking him in. He struggled in the turbulent flow, soon, there was light ahead, and once he went through it, there was a towering wall of spice crystals.
Nuliang, within the wall of crystals, saw the other four judges, struggling incessantly but imrsed and enjoying.
"So that’s how it is—"
"Taste, hundreds of flavors, thousands of flavors... the so-called ’rich in flavors’ composes an exciting life, actually, the world is no different!" This was the first thing Nuliang said when he opened his eyes.
He looked down, admiringly at the ’Water Xinxuan Cake’ missing a corner, the fervently blossoming cherry blossom inside it also missing a petal, the sudden burst of flavors in his mouth had been crafted by it.
"Um!" The fourth judge, a black-haired woman, covered her mouth while she spoke unclearly: "Originally, Water Xinxuan Cake was just made from glutinous rice flour into a soft rice cake then dipped in soybean flour to eat. In modern tis, with the developnt of culinary techniques, Water Xinxuan Cake made from rice flour materials seed obsolete... Now, the mainstream is made from ’agar,’ giving it the appearance of amber, exuding a dreamy aura!"
Agar!
A key ingredient was ntioned by the female judge.
People’s attention turned to Liangzi Lina, who continued with a light tone: "Yes, the main body of this Water Xinxuan Cake was made by , with the main ingredient being ’agar.’"
"Your ’agar,’ is of fine quality, evidently a personal secret concoction, a secret weapon unveiled specifically for the competition, I presu." Nuliang said with a smile.
The female protagonist nodded, "Indeed, it is extraordinary, made from a fantastical seaweed extract!"
Reviews
All reviews (0)