Season 1 · Episode 36
Brother Sanche`s Cold Sea Turtle Soup
Rouko was angry when Sanche showed that a melon couldn’t be a soup. But Sanche replied that it is a soup, and it’s his special: the bouncing snapping turtle soup. Sanche served the soup and Mei Li helped him. But when she laid down the melon, the cover fell off, but the soup didn’t spill! Then, when one judge tried to get soup, and the spoon bounced off. They were saying that the soup is solid and wonders if the dish Sanche prepared is really a soup.
Sanche explained that his soup is congealed food. Rouko then announced that his soup wouldn’t do, because a soup is a dish upon itself and not a part of the cuisine. He also told Sanche that the judges look unsatisfied.
It is now time to vote. The judges should raise the white spoon for Rouko and the red spoon for Sanche. Each one of them raised the red spoon! Sanche was very happy, but Rouko demanded an explanation. Mao explained that it’s a banquet cooking battle, and although soup is supposed to be delicious, it is also a dish that continues to the next. Rouko’s dish is too heavy and you can’t continue to eat anymore. As comparison, Rouko’s soup has many leftovers as compared to Sanche’s, which are all empty.
Then, two guys grabbed Rouko’s arms, and the woman says that it’s shameful to lose to an outside chef, and he is branded with the symbol of distaste. (The same process how they brand cattle).
The second round is announced, and it is dim sum, and Shell decides to fight. It’s going to be the old man. Leon recognized the emblem on the old man’s stick, saying it’s the Hakura emblem, the family that once calmed a raging river by offering dim sum. Shell said that the lineage died, the last would be Lakon, the dim sum king. Shell then realized that the old man is Lakon himself!
Dim sum has many varieties, and a spinning wheel is pulled out to choose the category. Shell was allowed to choose, with Lakon saying that he should choose the one’s he best with. Shell wanted to fight fair, and by spiting the stick he’s chewing on the spinning wheel, he chose “buns”, not siu mai, much to Shilou and Mei Li’s dismay. Leon said that Shell chose the one that he shouldn’t have chosen. Everyone asked why. Leon answers: the Hakura family invented the buns.
