Is it better to be a Beta?

1.8

"Now lift up your boxes!"

Jia Hyson lifts up their first proper mystery box, ready to plaster on a look of surprise. He's very glad he picked up those acting classes and minor roles in the entertainment industry. To fake surprise so many times.. ah, his face feels really stiff.

But really, this show, can it not give these newbies some face? First proper mystery box and the ingredients are all things you could find if you searched Top Ten Weird Things People Eat.

Offal, alfalfa sprouts, avocado and green tea leaves were more or less recognizable to this cast of westerners. But chicken feet, lotus root, dried fermented scallops and cactus pears would really send people into despair if they weren't worldly enough.

Not only was the third season of Home-cooked Miracle made to be more dramatic and challenging, in light of its global popularity they also introduced a more diverse range of cooking styles and food. Of course if they had been more genuine in their attempts at diversity then the contestants wouldn't be 90% white but Jia Hyson figures that sort of problem is beyond his capabilities of fixing. He was tempted to add that suggestion to the author in his notebook but was half-afraid that this dumb author would switch out decent characters for offensive racial stereotypes.

Why would he worry about that you ask?

"Ahh, what the f*ck is this?!"

"Chicken feet? You can eat these?!"

"I think Asians do."

"Yeah, well, Asians eat anything right?"

"What are these circle things? They smell fishy. Gross."

"I can't cook with this!"

"Ugh, this is a western show! Why is there trash like this here?"

Jia Hyson mentally facepalms. Sure the more insulting things said were from the purposely unlikable characters but still. This story would have definitely not have aged well over time. He couldn't even trust the author to write about good food in a cooking story much less provide racial diversity.

Luckily as a proud Chinese person he knew enough not to turn this episode into a complete racist clusterf*ck. Maddy also enjoyed experimenting and tasting new things so she should also be familiar with chicken feet and lotus roots. Drake, well, as the (possibly ex) male lead there was no need to worry about him. He may suddenly have lost his sex ability but he can't exactly drop his prominent background the same way.

"Soup is the best way to go I think," Jia Hyson says seriously to the camera as he begins making stock and chopping up some herbs. He may not have cooked a lot in his original life but his mother would have beaten him to death if he didn't know how to make basic herbal soup. In her words, 'If you can't cook rice and can't boil soup, might as well go starve and die!'

He remembers this clearly because of the sheer hypocrisy of it. After all, she had been worse at cooking and paying attention to things than he was. She once gave him frozen toast. That too was very memorable.

Still, not everyone in his family were incompetents in the kitchen so he learnt how to make soup from his grandmother. Unfortunately he couldn't exactly tell such a personal story to the camera and win some charisma points so he settles for explaining how he'd recently been interested in Asian cuisine while he drops the scallops into the stock along with some other traditional flavorings.

As he was pondering about if he should do something to the offal before cooking it into the soup, Jia Hyson hears a sudden loud crash. Surprised, he lifts his head up to see Maddy glaring at one of the bullies Shirley, who had 'accidentally' pushed off her bowl filled with marinating offal meat. None of it had escaped from its tragic end all over the floor.