Sweet Relationship, ep. 01-04

Chang Bai Hui's father is a renowned chef, and for her college graduation, he's rented out an entire fancy French restaurant and cooked the entire meal himself. Unbeknownst to both of them, the actual chef, Fang Zi Tian, was never told of this, and ends up throwing out the beef consomme as well as flouncing out and quitting. The consomme (now substituted with Zi Tian's via the magic of the freezer and a quick-thinking cook) is the last taste Bai Hui gets of her father's cooking (or so she thinks) before he drops dead.

This is apparently based on a manga, Oishii Kankei, although it looks like some minor plot points were changed (namely, the father-as-chef bit). Bai Hui finds out she's broke and largely useless, and meanwhile, He Ma Yang has begged Zi Tian to take him on as a disciple. They all end up meeting when Bai Hui stumbles across the restaurant Zi Tian cooks for, the family-style Little Bear. Overtaken by the taste of the beef consomme, which reminds her of her father, Bai Hui begs Zi Tian to let her work there, saying that she has to stay around the restaurant that has the taste of her father's cooking.

As one does.

So far, I have decided the actor playing Zi Tian is very cute, the actor playing He Ma is pretty cute, and the actress playing Bai Hui is pretty lousy. Bai Hui herself is largely useless, and I frequently want to whap her over the head for having no common sense. I realize this is a drama and I have a fairly low standard, but seriously! There's one scene in which she's looking for #776 on a street:

BAI HUI: So... I came across 775 and 777, but where's 776?!
RANDOM GUY: It's across the street.
BAI HUI: What? Why isn't it in order? That makes no sense!
RANDOM GUY: Because all the odd numbers are on this side, and all the even numbers are across the street.
BAI HUI: What? I've never heard of anything like that!
RANDOM GUY: ... uh. We've only been doing it that way for the past five hundred years or so.
ME: ... wow. I have a new low standard for cdrama heroines.

Given my completely random sampling of Taiwan dramas, I have been somewhat annoyed at all the heroines, who are sappily sweet (perfectly fine, as hey, I read shoujo!), fakely sweet (very annoying and more the actress' fault than the character's), and really, really stupid (as in, stands in the middle of a street intersection hugging a stuffed animal and nearly gets run over by a car). I think they may rival romance novel heroines for spiritedness and Too-Stupid-To-Live-itis. My sister and other friends have confirmed this, so I don't think it's just me who thinks so.

That said, I am continuing to watch this because though Bai Hui is annoying and seems to think going over budget to make tasty salads for the restaurant is a good idea, she is also immensely in love with food and spends tons of screen time rhapsodizing over such-and-such dish, be it a fancy French salad or omelet rice. And she finally yelled at Zi Tian, so I am hoping she will grow a backbone, albeit probably in vain. Zi Tian dislikes everyone and had a bit of a misogynistic streak while Bai Hui begged him to hire her ("I hate pampered rich girls and how they cry all the time!"), but by and large, he strikes me as less of a woman-hater and more of an everyone-hater. Basically, he's the chef version of Sanzo.

So far, there have been the standard [insert occupation] trials to overcome, from the salad that keeps being sent back to Zi Tian's old rival, Gao Qiao, setting up shop in a fancy French restaurant down the street. It is cheesy and largely predictable and I don't care and am going to run out and rent more tomorrow! The characters spend their entire time onscreen thinking and talking and making and serving food! It makes me so happy!

... also, Zi Tian is really cute, and I'm dying to see if the actor can pull off falling in love with Bai Hui.

But mostly, food!