"I’ve already grated the radish for the radish cake. Now, these have to be simmered but before that, I’m going to prepare the other ingredients for the filling." He put the bowl down at the side and then picked up the green onions, starting to slice them. "By the way, I don’t think I’ve mentioned this last time but if you’re not a huge fan of radishes, then you can also use other ingredients like taro for example. Qian Huang doesn’t really like that version very much though so I normally go for this one."

Qian Huang laughed and shook his head at him. "Don’t throw me under the bus. I would still eat it if you made it."

Xiao Ming smiled and put the green onion to the side, picking up the ham instead.

Qian Huang spoke up again before he could say anything else. "Alright, the poll is open now. We’ll gather your votes until the next live stream in two days. So you should vote as soon as you can."

He leaned back and then watched as the first votes already came in. His lips curved up in a satisfied arc. Well, it looked like this would be going well. While there were a few people who weren’t too interested in the cooking show and were more interested in continuing the streams just like before or at least voted that they didn’t care either way, the majority of the viewers was in favor of doing a special before the show.

On the other side of the kitchen, Xiao Ming continued to prepare the ingredients and then started to steam them. After closing the lid at the top, he turned back to the camera, giving another smile. "Alright, the radish cakes will have to steam for about fifty minutes now. In the meantime, we can start to prepare the carrot puffs.

"Maybe you normally rather hear of radish puffs but I felt that since we already had the radish cakes, it would be a nice change in flavor to make these with carrots instead."

Li Shui behind the camera gave a hum that could be heard by the audience and made some sent rows of laughter in the live chat.

Qian Huang gave him a look and shook his head.

Xiao Ming also looked up but he just smiled. "You don’t know but it’s actually starting to smell really nice in here. I guess our Li Shui is getting hungry by now. We went out to the hotel where the press conference was held early this morning since there were some things that needed to be talked about beforehand and then I had to sit in the mask for a while and such things.

"Since Li Shui is the only one among us with a driver’s license, he naturally needed to come with us even though there was nothing for him to do. Then after the press conference was over, we drove straight home. It actually takes a few hours so Li Shui didn’t really have time to eat anything. The poor guy is probably starving."

Li Shui also laughed and then motioned at the table. "You should hurry up a bit. If you don’t have a cameraman, how are you going to do live streams from now on?"

Xiao Ming laughed and then took one of the carrots, handing it to Li Shui. "Here, poor boy, eat this first. You’ll get something tasty in another hour."

Li Shui gave a dissatisfied grunt but there was still the sound of somebody noisily eating a carrot heard by the audience.

Qian Huang couldn’t help but laugh when he glanced at the comments again. "Nin Sha is saying that he also knows how to operate a camera."

Xiao Ming chuckled and shook his head. "Li Shui, did you hear that? You have to be careful or somebody is going to take your job."

There was the sound of swallowing coming from behind the camera. "No, no, no! I won’t let him! The place behind this camera is mine."

Xiao Ming flashed a smile but then glanced at the camera. "It seems like you’re out of luck, Nin Sha. Well, we’ll remember it should Li Shui ever get sick."

Li Shui harrumphed but didn’t say anything more and just let Xiao Ming continue with what he was doing.

He once again prepared the ingredients first before he finally started to wrap them in the dough. "This reminds me of things we could talk about in the live streams until the show: There are actually several ways to form the dough that will result in differently shaped carrot puffs. I’m going to do something simple today since we aren’t talking about in detail but I could imagine doing a special just on this alone."

Qian Huang turned towards the comments and picked up the notepad and pen at the side, taking some notes on what the viewers were saying. "Seems like people are in favor of that idea. Oh, 'Cuddly Lion' is asking if you could also do something on what kind of dish would be good for doing in the casting round."

Xiao Ming looked up, seeming a bit thoughtful. "We definitely can. I actually think that this isn’t something that will require too much time to talk about though. Maybe I’ll just mention a few things that I have in mind right now? What do you think?"

Qian Huang gave a thumbs up and Xiao Ming smiled at the camera. "Well, if you’ve checked the description of what the casting round is about, you will have seen that you are supposed to do one dish that highlights your skills. For this, I think it would be good if you take a dish that you are familiar with because that would allow you to bring out the best in it and allow you the biggest chances to get into the next round.

"What kind of dish that is, isn’t really important. I think that with every dish, you have the opportunity to showcase something that you are especially talented with. I can get a little more into that in the next few streams to give some more examples but at the end of the day, this is a round where you don’t necessarily need to be innovative or very creative but just need to show that you have solid basic skills.

"I think that I would suggest doing something that you have done a lot of times already but still enjoy doing. That could be a favorite dish or something you have a nice memory of that you would always like to revisit. Because I think that in that case, you will never get tired of doing that dish. It’ll always be something you like to do.

"I do think that this happiness that you feel when you cook is the most important thing. At the very least, it always has been for me." His face lit up a little further and he looked at the small carrot puffs that he had almost finished preparing.