SailorStar9: Well, I've uploaded Chapter 29, and here's Chapter 30. So, read and review. Come on boys and girls, is it so hard for you to leave a review other than putting this on your favorited lists and alerts?
Disclaimers: Me no own, you no sue.
Chapter 30: Brother Sanche's Cold Sea Turtle Soup
"Are you trying to be funny?" Rouko demanded, extending his claw to grab Sanche's shirt. "That's just a melon! How the hell is that supposed to be soup!? Hey, you! Say something!"
"Let go of me!" Sanche freed himself. "Look! This is my Bouncing Snapping Turtle Soup." he gestured to the other four melons on the stone stove.
"Oh for crying out loud!" Rouko mocked, seeing the glittering soup. "It's just a simple snapping turtle soup served in a melon rind bowl."
"Well then, I'll bring it over to you know, guild leaders." Sanche looked at the five judges.
"Men..." Ya Xue let out a breath and hurried over to help Sanche before his last two melons spilled over. "Why can't they just admit they need help sometimes? Here you go." she placed a melon before the two judges.
"W-what's this?" Master Hu was shocked to see the soup remain in the melon. "The soup didn't spill out!"
"Impossible!" Master Zhang readied his spoon. "Soup that doesn't spill? T-the spoon bounced off..." he gaped, the spoon sprung off the surface of the soup and landed on the floor. "What is this?" he scooped up the jelly. "The soup's solid?"
"S-solid?" Shilou echoed. "Then it's not a soup, is it Mao-nii?"
"Shilou, that can be nothing else but soup." Mao corrected.
"Huh?" Shilou was confused. "But why?"
"It's called 'Yu Dong;." Ya Xue explained. "It's a type of aspic jelly. Now i know why he picked the snapping turtle."
"Aspic jelly?" Shilou blinked.
"Yes." Mao nodded. "Here, it's a snapping turtle extract that was cooled and solidified."
"So you came up with jelly soup." Rouko scoffed. "Novel, but it's just child's play. That won't stand a chance in the big leagues."
"Hey Sanche, tell us." Master Zhang looked at the teen. "How did you make something so strange?"
"First, I boiled the snapping turtle in salt water to extract the collagen from it." Sanche explained. "I carved away the insides of the melon, and poured the heated mixture in. I steamed the melon to remove any residual muddy or foul smell from the snapping turtle. After that, the melon was cooled, hardening the soup. The process creates an aspic jelly soup with the essence of snapping turtle."
"So why choose a snapping turtle?" Master Zhang questioned.
"Because of all the meat products I could use,the snapping turtle contains the most amount of collagen, which hardens faster." Sanche replied.
"And the sourness?" Master He pressed.
"Well, the sourness comes from a famous Zhejiang province specialty, pickled plums." Sanche answered.
"Boy, it looks like you don't understand what's important about soup." Rouko scoffed. "Soup is neither optional or an afterthought of a banquet. Soup has to be a dish unto itself, satisfying to those who eat it. Your lightly-flavored soup would be nothing more than a side dish! It is absolutely not a soup! Contrast the judges' faces at the time they were eating my soup, against how they look now. See how unsatisfied their expressions are? Seems like my victory is assured."
"All right. We'll move on to the judging." Shan announced. "Lift the white spoon if you prefer Rouko. If you prefer Sanche, use the red spoon! Each of you will raise a spoon for the soup you believe is superior."
"There's no point in even comparing the two." Master Zhang noted.
"You said it." Master Hu agreed.
"And the verdict!" Shan shouted.
"Sanche!" all five judges raised their red spoons in unison.
"This can't be! Dammit!" the shocked Rouko cursed. "W-what gives? All of you ate my soup as if you were starving!"
"Rouko, you've forgotten a very important thing." Mao explained. "This cooking tournament is for a four-course banquet. As the first course, soup is expected to be delicious. But just as important, it must be a dish that flows on to the next. It's true that your flavorful soup might have incredible taste. But it was not appropriate as the first course of a banquet. It's too thick and heavy to be an appetizer; you can't eat anything afterwards. True, Sanche's soup may seem underwhelming at first. But as you continue to eat, its elegant light and salty taste coupled with the savory taste of the snapping turtle melts in your mouth. The taste spreads out in your mouth as you bite into it. In addition, the sourness of the plums stimulates your appetite. Sanche's soup is ideal as an appetizer!"
"A bouncing snapping turtle soup that you can bite into." Master Zhang gushed. "It's a marvelous dish that breaks tradition. Well done, Sanche!"
Impossible! Rouko was stunned. How can I be defeated by a brat from the overworld?
"What do you think, Mao?" Sanche winked as the group rushed down to celebrate their first victory." I grew up a bit, didn't I?"
"Sanche, I see you haven't forgotten the tradition of Yousen Shuka." Mao beamed.
"Of course not." Sanche remarked. "The tradition of Yousen Shuka... is to..."
"Break..." Mao continued.
"Tradition!" both boys chorused.
"It's too early to celebrate. We're just getting started." Shan chuckled.
"Things are starting to look interesting." the cloaked Lakon agreed.
I lost. The still shell-shocked Rouko mused. Me, the multicolored tiger, lost to a boy like that.
"For Underworld chefs, defeat to the Overworld is a shameful sin worthy of death." Shan reminded, after Rouko found himself secured by two musclemen.
"W-wait a minute!" Rouko pleaded, seeing the burning furnace and realizing what Shan was implying. "S-stop it! Please stop! Please! Give me another chance!"
"Flash Technique..." Ya Xue was already on the move.
"Ya Xue, wait..." Mao tried to stop her.
"Air-Cutting Flash!" Ya Xue ignored Mao's warning and released her Ki strike, severing Rouko's entire mechanical arm before he could be branded. "An eye for an eye, or in my case, an arm for a life." she trained a steel look at the over-sized soup expert as she sheathed her saber. "Be lucky I didn't end your pitiful life for what you did to my father."
"Let your heart always remember your crime with the brand of a disgraced loser." Shan smirked. "The Distasteful Mark. Without your arm, you can no longer live as a chef." she added after Rouko was branded the mark on his stomach. "All that's left for you is the disgraceful mark of distaste."
"Ya Xue, so he's the one..." Mao realized when the swordswoman returned to the group. "When did you know?"
"The moment I saw that arm of his." Ya Xue replied. "The blades corresponded to the wounds I found on father's body."
"Then, it's done?" Mao asked.
"Yes, Mao-sama." Ya Xue nodded. "My blood feud is over."
"The second round of the Banquet Cooking Tournament involves dim sum!" Shan turned to the group. "Choose your representative!"
"Don't you people have eyes?" Shell stepped forward. "Who else is more qualified than yours truly?! The Continent's Best Super Dim Sum Chef, Steel Stick Shell, at your service! So, which one will it be? Who's the unlucky fool who'll face me?"
"We've got a lively whippersnapper here." Lakon chuckled. "That's how I was at his age.
"Huh? You're going to challenge me, gramps?" Shell snorted. "Well, do watch yourself. Over-excitement can kill you."
"I wonder how long you can keep up that talk." Lakon retorted.
"That emblem." Leon recognized the emblem on Lakon's stick. "It represents the Hakura Clan!"
"What's the Hakura Clan, Leon?" Mao asked.
"The Hakura Clan is a family of dim sum chefs that traces its origins to a chef who served Premier Zhuge Liang during the Three Kingdoms period of Wei, Shu, and Wu." Leon explained. "They say that the ancestor of the Hakura Clan was a dim sum chef who helped calm a raging river that impeded the path of the Shu army, by offering dim sum to it."
"In other words, if you trace the origin of all dim sum techniques, you will eventually reach the Hakura Clan." Ya Xue realized. "It is a legendary dim sum family."
"But I heard that upon the death of Lakon, the King of Dim Sum, the Hakura line died out with him." Shell remarked. "G-gramps. Don't tell me..." he realized who his opponent was.
"Correct." Lakon chuckled. "It's a secret known only to a few, even within the Underworld. I am the last member of the Hakura Clan. The King of Dim Sum, Lakon!"
"You've got to be kidding me." Shell muttered. "The legendary man who reached the pinnacle of dim sum cuisine... the man once designated as an Imperial Chef... whose skill was noted by even the Emperor. Why?!" he demanded. "You were the hero of all dim sum chefs! What are you doing in the Underworld Cooking Society?!"
"Simple." Lakon replied. "In the Underworld, there were techniques even I didn't know about. I signed on to learn them. With my Underworld and Overworld knowledge, a whelp like you will never defeat me in a hundred years!" tossing a piece of dough on the stove, he started beating it with his stick. After flattening it, he lifted the evened dough with his stick and started spinning the dough out. After flattening the dough even more, he started slicing up the dough to make a single uninterrupted strand of noodle. "Here ya go!" he threw the bowl over to Shell. "Soul Repose Noodles. Once, it even soothed the anger of the Qianlong Emperor. It's a legendary noodle that fills a bowl with a single strand! Long ago, dim sum offered by the Hakura Clan calmed a raging river." he addressed the judges. "Similarly, the root philosophy of dim sum is to sooth. Its purpose is to calm the spirit! The turbulence that rages high, and tarries low in your mind's eye. In silence, banish from your soul; in total peace, enjoy that bowl. Today, may fortune on you lie."
"Here's something for you, gramps!" Shell tossed a steamer over to Lakon.
"T-this is..." Lakon looked at the dumpling in the steamer. "The culmination of dumpling technique— a double-layered dumpling."
"Soothing?" Shell echoed. "You're so dull, gramps. Dim sum is supposed to change your state of mind. In other words, it's a snack you eat to take your mind off things. Don't be so formal. Eat one of those and try to relax a bit, gramps. Dim sum is so much more spectacular and far more enjoyable than that!"
"The second tournament round, Battle Dim Sum, will now begin!" Shan declared.
"Mao, dim sum can mean any number of things, right?" Mei Li asked.
"Right." Mao nodded. "Dim sum is basically a light meal."
"We have dumplings, siu mai, won ton, steamed buns, spring rolls, noodles and cakes." Ya Xue listed with her fingers. "And that's just for starters."
"What is that?" Shilou pointed to the stage.
"A roulette wheel?" Ya Xue frowned when the wheel was revealed. "Don't tell me..."
"I see." Mao realized. "They'll use that to choose a dim sum category."
"The category shall be chosen by chance." Shan declared. "Shell, you choose."
"Hit the siu mai!" Mei Li prayed when Shell let his toothpick fly.
"Siu mai, siu mai, siu mai! Siu mai, siu mai, siu mai!" Mei LI and Shilou chanted once the toothpick hit its target.
"The chosen theme is... steamed buns!" Shan announced once the wheel stopped.
"Not good." Ya Xue muttered. "He chose the one dish he shouldn't have."
"Why is that?" Mao looked at the bond-maid.
"The steamed bun itself was invented by the Hakura Clan ancestors." Leon explained.
"In other words, steamed buns are the Hakura Clan's specialty, where its true secrets lie." Ya Xue added.
SailorStar9: Now that's done, read and review.