Universe Infinite Canteen.

Chapter 591 Coconut
(Correction: The last game should have seven participants, it has been changed, sorry)
The four judges were in a stalemate for a moment, and finally Chef Gaggan Anand took the plate first.

He stuck out his tongue and licked it.

There is no way around it. Since I am a judge, I have to fulfill my duties as a judge.

He licked from the top down, first licking the coconut's fluffy brown outer shell.

It turned out that he felt like something was pricking his tongue, and the rough feeling was just like that of a real coconut shell.

Gaggan Anand couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

When you lick the coconut meat, the touch immediately switches to a tender, smooth and soft one with a faint coconut fragrance, and finally the coconut milk inside is sweet and refreshing.

Gaggan Anand then tried coconut leaves and coconut husks, which also tasted different.

Before he knew it, he had licked the coconut on the plate clean. Still not satisfied, he licked the words written in coconut powder on the bottom of the plate.

With him taking the lead, the other three judges could only lick it.

Soon someone discovered that the taste was different if you licked it from top to bottom and from bottom to top. Even if it was the same coconut shell, there were subtle differences in taste in different places.

In the end, all four judges licked everything on their plates without exception.

You have to know that most of them only ate one or two bites of the other dishes before, and only Sun Mei’s modified noodles were relatively novel, so they tried a few more bites.

This is certainly related to the fact that there was only sauce on the millipede's plate, but it also takes courage to lick the plate clean in public.

No words were needed, as the four judges had already demonstrated their praise for this dish with their actions.

"A masterpiece that is on par with 'The Ends of the World'!" commented Olette Huppert.

"I think this dish is better than 'The End of the World'. Even if you don't consider that 'The End of the World' takes longer to prepare, this 'Coconut' uses simpler colors but creates a richer taste experience, which alone makes it more difficult to cook."

Yoneyama Hajime said, "Yes, this dish has surpassed "The End of the World" in terms of technique."

"Indeed," Gaggan Anand asked Malu, "Is this something you improvised?"

“This is indeed the first time I’ve made this dish.”

“What a terrifying talent.”

Following Malu was Kawano Masaaki, who made a dish of caviar and coconut French toast.

The so-called French toast generally refers to toast wrapped in egg liquid and milk and then fried. Kawano Masaaki removed the milk and added coconut milk instead.

Give the toast a sweet coconut flavor, top it with caviar and water celery sprouts, letting the saltiness of the caviar balance the sweetness of the toast.

Qi Shanzhu was the last one to go on stage. She was very nervous because Malu and Kawano Zhengming, who were in front of her, were both very strong and received praise from the judges.

As a contrast, it would magnify the shortcomings of her dishes.

Sure enough, after tasting her soybean paste and coconut Mont Blanc, the four judges only asked two questions and sent her back.

At this point, the first round of competition has ended.

The staff opened the ballot box and began to calculate the scores of the 7 registered players.

The most relaxed one among them was Malu, with his hands in his pockets, while Sun Mei was biting her nails.

She wasn't worried about the score, but she couldn't understand how Malu could improvise such a difficult dish in such a short time.

As for the rest of the people, except Luo Junkang who still had a blank expression on his face, everyone else's faces more or less revealed a hint of anxiety.

Fortunately, the host did not keep their audience waiting too long and announced the scores on the spot. Ma Lu got a full score of 5 points as expected, Sun Mei got 4 points, Kawano Zhengming also got 4 points, tied for second place, Luo Junkang and Fan Yixin got 3.25 points and 3.5 points respectively, and Qi Shanzhu only got 3 points.

Just when Qi Shanzhu thought she was going to be eliminated and was about to accept it calmly, she heard Di Supara's score again - 2.25 points.

Di Supala's face suddenly changed. Although he had a conflict with Luo Junkang and Fan Yixin in this round, the three of them made coconut rice together.

But Di Supara didn't think he would lose to the other two. Not long ago, when he was interviewed by the female host, he said that his score would be around 4 points.

Unexpectedly, I only got 2.25 points.

Olette Huppert explained, “Your mango and coconut sticky rice was indeed authentic, but you made a fatal mistake.”

"In order to save time, you must have used a pressure cooker to cook the glutinous rice. This way, you can finish this dish in less than half an hour, which usually takes an hour and a half."

"But this will make the taste of the glutinous rice worse, and it will not be as full and elastic," Rocky Chen added.

"We understand that this is your strategy, to compress the first round as much as possible to prepare for the next round, but unfortunately, the other five chefs performed very well in this round, so..."

Supala's expression was dejected. He obviously knew that what the two judges said was the truth and he could only swallow the bitter fruit.

There was no time to feel sad about Supala's departure, the second round of the game had already begun and the timer on the table started moving again.

The remaining six contestants also devoted themselves to cooking again.

The second dish that Fan Yixin chose was Laksa, a noodle dish originating from Malaysia. It is also very popular in Singapore and has gradually evolved into Singapore’s national cuisine.

Fan Yixin replaced the common shrimps in laksa with Hainan small blue dragon, and used lobster shells and clams as the soup base.

Then she crushed and fried the tomatoes, chilies, lemongrass, shallots, ginger, and the bean curd she brought with her, then added a lot of coconut milk to make the laksa sauce.

After surviving the first round, Luo Junkang recovered some strength and this time he moved quickly. He chose a grouper.

Next, show your knife skills by cutting the fish slices into the shape of a peony, soak it in salt water with scallions and ginger to remove the fishy smell, increase its firmness, coat it with starch and fry it in a pan.

…………

Thirty minutes later, Qi Shanzhu was the first to click the timer. It was not because she didn't want to be more meticulous, but mainly because she spent too long in the first round and there were only 41 minutes left on the timer.

The second round took another 31 minutes, with only 10 minutes left. Regardless of whether I can pass this round or not, I will basically be eliminated in the next round.

Soon after Qi Shanzhu, the other five chefs also finished cooking.

This time Qi Shanzhu went first, and what she made was fried dumplings.

The staff placed the food plates in front of the four judges. Qi Shanzhu, who was standing nearby, crossed her fingers and put them in front of her face. She was so nervous that she almost didn't dare to look at the podium.

After they finished eating, Yoneda Hajime spoke first, "Interesting, you actually thought of using red snapper to make dumpling skins, wrapping tofu inside, and... fennel?"

"Yes, but they are pickled. I brought them here specially this time." Qi Shanzhu nodded.

"What's the sauce underneath?" Olette Huppert asked curiously.

“Coconut milk mixed with Korean vinegar hot sauce.”

"It's a bit complicated, but the sour taste goes well with red snapper, as does the tofu and fennel. You seem to be particularly good at balancing complex flavors."

Gaggan Anand also said.

(End of this chapter)