Universe Infinite Canteen-Chapter 589: Lick It

The four judges first tasted Chef Di Supara's Thai version of coconut rice.

Compared to Fan Yixin's coconut milk rice, Chef Supara's was more akin to a dessert, adapted from mango glutinous rice.

There were seven different colors of glutinous rice balls. White and black were the natural colors of the rice, yellow came from turmeric juice, orange from carrot juice, green from pandan leaves, blue from butterfly pea flowers, and purple was a mixture of lime juice with butterfly pea flowers.

All used natural materials.

Some Thai restaurants would add two more colors, pink and bright red, from roselle, with the latter being a concentrated extract of roselle juice.

However, since the competition committee did not provide roselle, Supara omitted these two colors.

He mixed the steamed glutinous rice balls with coconut milk, paired with Golden Rambutan from Hainan, as a substitute for Thailand's ivory mango.

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After plating, he drizzled over a special coconut milk sauce and roasted sesame seeds, and thus, a plate of fragrantly sweet mango glutinous rice was completed.

Judge Gaggan Anand took a small spoonful of the glutinous rice, smelling it before it reached his mouth, and then chewed it carefully.

"It's incredible, all of this was done in less than thirty minutes?"

"Maybe he wanted to save more time for the subsequent dishes," Chef Rocky Chen at his right also put down his soup spoon.

"The mango chosen is very good, not a hint of sourness."

"The sauce's flavor and consistency are also just right," smiled Violet Yupil, editor-in-chief of Food & Wine magazine.

"This dish brings back memories of my three years in Bangkok. Thank you, Chef Di Supara."

After the comments, the scoring phase began, with each of the four judges writing down their scores.

However, these scores were not revealed and were instead collected into a box with Chef Supara's name on it.

The hostess then conducted a live interview, "Chef Supara, what score do you think your dish will receive?"

"Hmm, out of a score of 5, I think the average might be around 4," Supara thought and said.

"The dish was prepared a bit hastily, but I'm fairly confident because it was the first dish I learned after I entered the kitchen. I can make it now with my eyes closed."

"When I saw the theme was coconut, this was the first dish that came to my mind."

"You still have 91 minutes left on your timer, the most of any contestant. If you get through this round smoothly, you should gain an advantage in the subsequent competition."

"Yes, I will make good use of this time to prepare for the next round."

After Supara, the judges then respectively tasted Luo Junkang's and Fan Yixin's coconut rice.

Although the three coconut rice dishes were not exactly the same, eating three in a row was still quite filling for the judges.

Therefore, when the next dish served was a bowl of noodles, the spirits of all four judges were visibly lifted.

But, the noodles appeared somewhat strange; they were gooey and didn't look very appetizing.

In the end, it was Chef Rocky Chen who first picked up his chopsticks, took a noodle, placed it in his mouth, and then let out a light exclamation.

"If I'm not mistaken, this is the staple food originating from Henan's Luoyang, called... Jiang Noodles, isn't it?"

"That's right," Sun Mei said. "The inspiration for this dish comes from Jiang Noodles, but it's a coconut milk version. To match the aroma of coconut, I've also replaced some of the ingredients inside."

"Indeed, the coconut flavor is very rich, and it complements the other ingredients in the bowl well, but... how did you do it? One of the main characteristics of Jiang Noodles is the sourness.

"This sourness comes from the fermented mung bean juice. You shouldn't have had the chance to ferment the coconut milk in such a short amount of time."

"Yes," Sun Mei admitted. "So I added lemon juice to simulate the sourness of the Jiang Noodles. Additionally, when fermenting the flour, I intentionally added double the amount of yeast to over-ferment it."

"I see," Chef Rocky exclaimed, enlightened. "You nearly fooled me. That's truly a stroke of genius."

Ma Lu was up after Sun Mei. As the staff brought the plates to the stage, Sun Mei was just walking down, but upon seeing the contents of the dish, her steps involuntarily paused.

In order to defeat Ma Lu, Sun Mei had brought her A-game to this competition, focusing intently throughout the event without observing the other contestants.

Thus, this was the first time she saw Ma Lu's dish, and she was immediately taken aback.

Because within those four black porcelain plates, there appeared to be nothing at all, no ingredients whatsoever.

No, that's not right, there was something on them—sauces.

And Ma Lu had even used the sauces to depict a cracked open coconut, a technique that oddly felt familiar to Sun Mei.

She had used a similar skill during the first contest, cooking "End of the World," where she turned ingredients into paste and then used it as paint to create artwork.

Sun Mei was able to do so not only because her main studies in Europe were in fine arts, but also because she had prepared thoroughly for the contest with ample experimentation.

The real challenge of "End of the World" wasn't the painting itself, as anyone can use food to create art on a plate. With some basic art training and practice, it's quick to learn how to paint beautifully.

But to truly merge art with cooking, and ensure that each ingredient portrayed in the painting can be paired with another, achieving a harmonious unity in taste, requires a profound and unique understanding of culinary arts.

If Ma Lu had drawn inspiration from her "End of the World" and created this dish on the spot, it would be terrifying.

Distracted, Sun Mei lingered a bit longer on the stage, and by that time, Ma Lu had also started walking up.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, using coconut to make Jiang Noodles; I'm impressed by your creativity. But now, it's time for my performance," he said after reaching the judges' table, where the four judges had also seen the contents of the plates.

The expressions on their faces were equally surprised.

Ma Lu hadn't even provided any cutlery; he simply wrote a Chinese character, 舔, with coconut powder on the black base of the plate.

Worried some judges might not understand, he thoughtfully added the English translation beneath—"lick it"—and drew an upward arrow pointing directly at the coconut depicted with sauce.

A dish made entirely of sauces? And to be licked directly?

Even for the four seasoned judges, Ma Lu's approach was a shock. What made it more significant was the presence of many audience members watching, with the television station broadcasting the competition live.

All the high-profile individuals from the culinary world would have to lick their plates in full view of the public. Wouldn't that fly in the face of propriety?