katisha June 23 Share June 23 New thread! Meanwhile, did Sav take this photo, or doesn't she want to hang around the other contestants? Hmmm... 1 Link to comment
katisha June 23 Author Share June 23 Well, after seeing the episode I know that Sav hasn't made it to Hong Kong for unknown personal reasons but will be back for the elimination episode. So that at least meant there was one less annoying person to deal with in the episode! Even though they were looking for a top 3 dishes today so we didn't really have "a" winner, I think Mimi can count that as a moral victory over teachers' pet Nat because the judges clearly loved her dish the most. And my God, it looked bloody delicious! Also, was Nat trying to out-Pezza Pezza by claiming to have never made those type of rice paper rolls or noodles before? I may be doing her a disservice but it sort of sounded like bull to me! Speaking of Pezza, protected species time again tonight. First, when he told Jean-Christophe that the pork mince was too salty, Jean-Christophe hinted to him, "So what do you usually do when something is too salty?" Pezza says he doesn't know. And then, just in case that wasn't enough of a reminder, Andy came over and reinforced the messages. Jeez, I'm not a contestant on the show and even I know you can balance out excessive salt with acid, something fatty or even a bit of sugar. I'm a bit worried about Lochie that he didn't seem to have many ideas for tonight's cook and the finished dish indicated this. Darrsh too because if this week is going to be focusing on the local cuisine, that's not quite in his wheelhouse. Here's Ben's take on the episode. Quote Harry is king of the amateurs because he gets to fly business class, while the rest are jammed together in economy like the filthy peasants they are. As they touch down in Hong Kong, Harry has become thoroughly convinced that he is better than normal people, and the other amateurs all have deep vein thrombosis. Josh is outside his comfort zone, but he likes the look of the pork belly, hopefully just as food, although when he tells Andy and Poh that he wants to “make it sticky”, doubts arise. Poh reminds Josh that the most important thing today is that she say “umami” as often as possible. In a sudden shock twist, Harry decides to make seafood. He notes that he hasn’t cooked this crab before, which is lucky, because it’d be weird to cook the same crab twice. He believes that by cooking the crab and making crab stock he can pack his crab full of crab flavour. Checks out. Josh tastes his dish. He doesn’t like it. Finally, he knows what the judges have been going through all these weeks. It’s too salty. Jean-Christophe asks what he’s going to do. Josh doesn’t know. As a Michelin-starred chef, Jean-Christophe knows what he should do (make it less salty), but admirably retains his objectivity, refusing to give Josh a hint. Over on Darrsh’s bench, he reveals that he’s working on his bao buns, despite the fact that Poh told him explicitly earlier that “bao” means “bun”, so “bao bun” is redundant. Darrsh just never learns, and if the judges find out he’s still using tautologies, he could, under MasterChef rules, be immediately disqualified. Several days later, the judges start tasting. Harry’s crab stares at them with menacing beady eyes. Poh thinks Harry’s done a great job, although who knows if we can trust her? “You’ve really honoured the crab,” she says, but the crab thinks it would’ve honoured it more not to kill and eat it. Jean-Christophe attaches a piece of crab to Harry’s chest, having been drinking since dawn. Josh steps forward hoping to show the judges that he’s not just a meat-and-three-veg guy – he’s also a meat-with-an-egg-on-top guy. Everyone is very happy with Josh’s dish, which they pin up on the fridge to show how special he is. (My favourite bit! 🤣) 1 1 Link to comment
Mellowyellow June 23 Share June 23 What is the structure for this week? I heard that there is no elimination? So what are they all cooking for? Link to comment
Snazzy Daisy June 23 Share June 23 FYI Quote S16•E38 - After a demonstration from Michelin starred chef Vicky Cheng, three cooks must recreate his dish, from memory alone, the winner claiming immunity from this week's elimination. Quote S16•E39 - The cooks are split into three teams, cooking street food in a traditional dai pai dong. They must prepare a two-dish menu, using either a wok, steamer or deep fryer, catering for 120 hungry locals. Quote S16•E40 - Today's Hong Kong Immunity Challenge. A Lucky Dip proves fortunate for some, challenging for others. With two randomly picked ingredients, each contestant must perfectly pair them to create a dish. 1 Link to comment
Snazzy Daisy June 23 Share June 23 S16•E37 - Hong Kong Mystery Box Another challenge to “cook whatever you want in 75 minutes” with a different backdrop and local ingredients. Great cinematography but terrible music. None of today’s dishes look appetizing to me TBH. But I find it refreshing to have an episode without Sav and her RDF (resting disdainful face). 👍🏻 Love Sofia’s comment to Lochy about using a familiar recipe and forcing mystery box’s ingredients into it. Lochy is in danger of going home next if he doesn’t improve. It’s been a while since he has a top dish. Dude, you need to strategize. Harry goes in for a hug but JC gives him the crab pin instead. Cringey!!! 😬 Pezza continues to add salt, soy sauce and fermented bean curd to his gravy then complaining about it being salty. Dude, are you freakin’ kidding me? Hey Nat, please stop touching your hair while cooking. It’s gross! Three Cheung Fun (rice noodle rolls) for four judges. A thoughtful plating from Nat. What’s with JC overpraising Nat - not surviving but flying? She acts surprised every time the judges complimenting her foods. Her fans are saying it’s because she has an endearing personality, humble and a perfectionist. 🙄 Link to comment
katisha June 23 Author Share June 23 5 hours ago, Snazzy Daisy said: Hey Nat, please stop touching your hair while cooking. It’s gross! She wouldn't have to touch it if she didn't leave half of it hanging over her face when she "styles" it. 🤔🙄 Link to comment
Snazzy Daisy June 24 Share June 24 3 hours ago, katisha said: She wouldn't have to touch it if she didn't leave half of it hanging over her face when she "styles" it. 🤔🙄 She needs those black tentacles coz they are her superpower! 😆😆😆 1 Link to comment
Snazzy Daisy June 24 Share June 24 (edited) Photos of today's challenge, posted by JC on X. Source Edited June 24 by Snazzy Daisy 1 Link to comment
katisha June 24 Author Share June 24 Unfortunately, I had a feeling during the very first episode of the season that Nat and her tentacles 🤣 would be around for a loooong time this season and nothing has changed my mind about this. Sigh. 1 Link to comment
katisha June 24 Author Share June 24 Ugh, the Nat-centric episodes roll on and on. From the very second she decided to do things her own way, thereby creating unnecessary fake drama, I knew she was going to get immunity. So there was no suspense other than wondering how many extra hairs from her tentacles blew into her finished dish in that strong wind. 🤮 So become a chef in a Michelin-starred restaurant by all means, Nat, but just be aware that a) you won't get to come in and be the star right from the beginning as you probably expect and b) they might actually expect you to get your freaking hair out of your eyes for hygiene reasons. I think Mimi overthought herself out of that challenge and it's a shame because she seemed so organised, too. And Harry, much as I like him, always seems a bit lost when he's not being the fish guy so it's not surprising that he forgot an important step. The team challenge looks interesting tomorrow so hopefully the episode won't be as much of a snoozefest as tonight's, although Chef Vicky was a bright spot. 1 Link to comment
Snazzy Daisy June 24 Share June 24 S16•E38 - Vicky Cheng’s Immunity Challenge Dammit! Kinda hoping for Mimi to win the immunity. Basically Harry, Mimi and Nat are required to cook a Michelin star dish from memory, out in the cold, freezing their tits off with Andrew keeps yelling at them to hurry up. Fun time! 😆 With that amount of truffles, no wonder they have to settle for outdoor cooking. But then for tasting, the judges get to sit comfortably inside a hall etc. “Sometimes sh!t happens…” Love Vicky Cheng’s poker face, he’s unreadable. Love the way he precisely explains things to these amateur cooks while constructing his dish. He’s way more engaging than that COLES puppet. You can sense he’s a leader and a mentor. 👍🏻 NAT: “This is sooooooo hard.” MIMI: “I am determined to do this dish and this location justice.” Can you see the difference in attitude and mentality? It’s not a surprise that Nat wins immunity. She’s the meticulous one among them. Based on this challenge, Nat is declared to be “chef ready”. Re the job offer from Vicky Cheng, Nat is the only one who gets overexcited about it. Maybe she’ll reach out to him after spending a week at Jamie Oliver’s kitchen. Nat is an adrenaline junkie who follows her own intuitions. Can she adhere to all the Do’s and Dont’s including the long hours in a professional kitchen? “You’ve got truffle in your teeth.” Awwwww! Andrew is such a good buddy. 4 hours ago, katisha said: So there was no suspense other than wondering how many extra hairs from her tentacles blew into her finished dish in that strong wind. 🤮 OMG, those tentacles are really, really distracting. And as usual, she keeps touching them. At this point, it’s very hard to get rid of this nasty habit. Hey Nat, there’s this teeny-tiny invention called Bobby Pin. 🙄 1 Link to comment
katisha June 25 Author Share June 25 I just had a thought - after you win immunity you don't normally participate in subsequent challenges that week so presumably, to keep the teams even, Nat had to cook in tonight's episode because of Sav not being in HK? Link to comment
Snazzy Daisy June 25 Share June 25 (edited) 1 hour ago, katisha said: I just had a thought - after you win immunity you don't normally participate in subsequent challenges that week so presumably, to keep the teams even, Nat had to cook in tonight's episode because of Sav not being in HK? Due to the unforeseen circumstances, I believe the producers must have spoken to Nat and asked for her kind cooperation to participate in today's challenge. She's got nothing to lose. I want Mimi to win next immunity but she's paired with Pezza. And I don't want him to have immunity from next elimination. Choi... 😣😣😣 Edited June 25 by Snazzy Daisy 1 Link to comment
Snazzy Daisy June 25 Share June 25 Taking over dai pai dong stalls on Stanley Street. Link to comment
katisha June 25 Author Share June 25 8 hours ago, Snazzy Daisy said: I want Mimi to win next immunity but she's paired with Pezza. And I don't want him to have immunity from next elimination. Someone up there must have been listening, @Snazzy Daisy, because mission accomplished. I felt exactly the same way. Nat already has immunity so nothing can be done about that. I would have been happy for Harry and Lochie to have immunity but I did NOT want Pezza getting it, especially as he would have been riding on Mimi's coat-tails to an extent. Thankfully, in his own words, "Pezza never uses a wok". Especially happy for Darrsh to finally get immunity and, as they said, great timing too. To be fair, though, I think he and Nat got really lucky with being able to use the deep fryer, and she actually cooked the dish the judges liked the most. But after knocking the poor guy's front tooth out, seems the least she could do! Is it just me or did the locals at the market look quite scared by Jean-Christophe grabbing their umbrella and dancing around with it? And Poh actually looked embarrassed 😂 Let's see what Ben has to say. Quote The amateurs are split into three teams, which will each work with a particular method: steaming, deep-frying or wok. Nat and Darrsh get deep-fry, Mimi and Josh get wok, and Harry and Lachlan, still claiming against evidence to be two different people, get steam. The winning pair will win immunity. Nat already has immunity, so she has no real incentive to try, but a great opportunity to sabotage Darrsh in an amusing way. A brawl breaks out between the fry and steam teams over who gets to cook the fish. Darrsh and Nat demand fish rights, but Harry quite reasonably points out that he doesn’t know how to cook anything that isn’t fish. Disappointingly, they agree to share the fish, when it would’ve been so easy to settle it by kickboxing. Basically, Andy thinks Harry is making a huge mistake in preparing the fish nicely and removing the head and the fins and all the other bits that nobody wants to eat, as those are his favourite bits. For Andy, including the disgusting parts of the fish is what street food is all about. Harry and Lachlan urgently discuss whether they should follow Andy’s advice to cook garbage, but decide to stick to their original strategy of cooking something good. Poh and Andy move on to the fry team, where Nat reveals she is paying back a blood debt to Darrsh, whose tooth she knocked out two weeks ago. It becomes clear that Nat will do anything to win this competition, and everyone is living in fear of her. Darrsh admits that he has never made fish balls in his life, and is terrified that if he does it wrong he’ll be drinking his meals through a straw. Andy is amused by the story, as knocking your friend’s teeth out is what street food is all about. Josh is struggling with the wok, which might as well be a large hadron collider for all his comprehension of it. “I am so proud of Pezza for taking charge on the wok,” says Mimi, which is a very nice way to say, “Pezza is ruining my life”. When time comes to judge, the wok team is placed last due to their being very bad with a wok, the steam team is placed second due to their wanton abuse of sea creatures, and the fry team is placed first due to their having Nat. 1 Link to comment
Snazzy Daisy June 25 Share June 25 (edited) S16•E39 - Street Food Takeover The network and MC franchise continue to gaslight us with the phrase “Hong Kong Week”. It’s basically just “Three Days in Hong Kong”. 🙄 Taking over dai pai dong - what a poorly constructed challenge! Deep frying is easier and everything deep fried tastes better. They aren’t providing the contestants with a level playing field wrt cooking methods. Two guys with glasses in the steam challenge - foggy time! Harry, you’ve got to stop with this ‘elevating the street foods’ crap. It’s embarrassing. It’s called street foods for a reason. It frustrates me that Lochy doesn’t have the backbone to veto Harry’s decision to cook fish again. There are a lot of other tasty dishes that they can cook - dumplings, steamed buns etc. Yet they choose seafoods. They don’t even bother to make that noodle al dente. Poh has totally rescued Darrsh from Nat’s ignorance that would’ve ruined their fishballs. Adding more corn flour will not improve the texture of that flaky fishballs. Walking through Stanley Street then seeing one middle-aged caucasian ‘Ah Pek’ in pink apron who’s struggling to cook with a wok - this would be one weird sighting. 🤣 Most annoying behaviors in this episode: Quote “This little Tassie butcher boy, he doesn’t use a wok.” SHUT UP PEZZA! 🤬 Quote “Even though am not gaining immunity today because I already have it, bla bla bla…” The obnoxious Nat, typical! 🙄 Quote “I just wanna get my mittens grotty.” Poh then continues to eat those fried foods with chopsticks while the other judges are seen licking their fingers. 🙄 Edited June 25 by Snazzy Daisy 1 Link to comment
Snazzy Daisy June 26 Share June 26 So Sav still has a chance to win the immunity. That's anticlimactic! 🙄 Link to comment
katisha June 26 Author Share June 26 Woohoo - go, Mimi! You might have left it till the very last minute but you finally got your Hong Kong "week" redemption immunity! Glad Sav didn't win it, because it wouldn't have seemed fair given she missed all the other episodes this week, but to her credit at least she didn't cook Sri Lankan food for once. Lochie's chicken looked scrummy through my TV screen but obviously didn't wow the judges enough and Harry's looked delicious - I think he'd have been a worthy winner too. And Pezza is so far out of his depth with anything except his very narrow lane that it's kind of embarrassing at this point. The ingredient/time auction on Sunday should be interesting. Harry will bet too much to get the seafood. Hopefully Pezza will do the same to get the red meat and not have enough time to make anything except a slab of steak as big as his head, thereby getting booted out. Sav should be able to get hold of veggies and spices pretty cheaply and that would give her plenty of time to do a vegetarian curry. I'm just glad that the two contestants I want to do well, Mimi and Darrsh, are safe on the gantry! 1 Link to comment
Snazzy Daisy June 26 Share June 26 S16•E40 - Lucky Dip Immunity Challenge And just like that I remember why I don’t like Sav. 😣 Congrats Mimi for finally winning an immunity in Hong Kong Week. You’re lucky to have a pair of ingredients that work well together. Harry has the hardest pairing (2 flavor bombs) and he makes it work by taking inspiration from the recent trip. Well done! Sav cooking another curry, shocking!!! Malaysian or Sri Lankan, it’s still curry. She has the easiest pairing and she still makes curry. UGH. Uncle Robbie was criticized heavily for always making curry but not Sav. The judges continue to say nothing. Err Lochy, you are in Top 7 now. Why are you making fried chicken? You need to get your mojo back and show the judges that you can do more. I don’t know, man. Lochy will be gone in next elimination. I can feel it. 😣 PEZZA: “I am unlucky.” ME: “Yeah, totally. You’ve got quite an easy ride into the Top 10 while making distasteful jokes about wife.” 🙄 The best bits of this episode - the salted egg yolk’s reaction from Pezza and Sofia’s big laugh! 🤣 1 Link to comment
katisha June 30 Author Share June 30 How about this one from earlier in the week? I found it somewhat disturbing 😂 1 Link to comment
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