Featured food: Soy sauce on plain rice
I'm back! It's been awhile since I last wrote on the Chinese re-make of Midnight Diner. We're past the halfway point of this series and if you are wondering why my review is different from the online episodes... It's because I'm following the sequence aired by my local cable TV. I do believe this is the correct order as you will see in later episodes certain conversations refer to the stories aired previously.
Okay, back to the story! This story is about a special soy sauce made by an old man named Uncle Jiang. The diner boss only uses the soy sauce made by him and it is very delicious! It starts off with the diner boss cooking several dishes with the soy sauce as one of the ingredients.
He offers free taste testing of the soy sauce and the regular diners are eventually hooked to its taste! They wait patiently for the diner boss to open for business as well. Hahah!!
Unfortunately one day Uncle Jiang was admitted to the hospital (or old folks home? I'm not sure) for some lung infection. He eventually fell into a coma and all is at lost because there was no one to make that special soy sauce anymore. The diner boss was down to the last jar and all the regulars started to limit each other to one serving each... Oh dear.. :(
A young man showed up at the diner not long after that and everyone recognised him.... He is Joseph Wonder, a famous fashion designer. The diner boss didn't recognise him but he realised that he is Uncle Jiang's only son named Jiang Da Shan.
The diner boss told Ah Shan about Uncle Jiang's condition and served him a simple dish, plain white rice with the special soy sauce. Ah Shan ate it and the memories with his father came rushing back. He visited the soy factory the very next day where he grew up...
Ah Shan had always dreamt about fashion, even from an early age he would mess about with the soy bottles creating designs. This irked Uncle Jiang very much as he intended Ah Shan to take over the soy business. But Ah Shan continued his passion secretly at night while his father was sleeping. He would cut out pictures of models from the newspaper and paste it in a scrapbook. He even made his first clothing, a yellow sweater for his father...
One night, Uncle Jiang was so furious when he discovered the cut out newspapers and he burnt all of Ah Shan's scrapbooks. Ah Shan was so angry he ran away from home and never came back...until now.
Ah Shan returned to see his father and wanted to leave but he felt remorse and somewhat guilty, so he decided to stay on to take care of him. He had a sudden inspiration for a design collection and his girlfriend also arrived just in time to give him the moral support he needed.
Don't worry! It's a happy ending... ;D Ah Shan's design collection was ready and he decided to use the soy factory as the fashion show venue. I really love this part, the regulars at the diners were actually the models! Hahah!! Ah Long looks so cool but I'm not digging the clothes though... :P Even Uncle Xiao is in on the action!
Ah Shan's fashion show was a success and now the world knows of his roots in the soy factory. Uncle Jiang awakes from his coma and is back making soy sauce again. Hurrah! The ending scene shows Ah Shan cycling on his childhood bicycle and chatting with the diner boss. He has decided to stay (and possibly?) made the soy factory as his home base... He will continue to design clothing and also help out his father. Aww!
It's strange to see this story featuring a food ingredient rather than a dish like the rest of the stories. However, it is quite nice as well... There were other dishes featured here such as the simple fried rice and pig trotters.
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