SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: After Doumeki rejects the food made the the woman Watanuki is teaching made, Watanuki prepares his own Potato Nikorogashi for Yuuko-san and Mokona. They eat with gusto, leading Watanuki to reveal his puzzlement with Doumeki’s rejection of food when it was prepared the same way he always prepares it. As the food is consumed, Yuuko-san tells Watanuki that there is something else one needs besides how to take make a dish.

With the last potato gone, Mokona demands more. Watanuki agrees to do so, but only a few since he’s making dinner. When he is gone, Mokona comments on how much Watanuki’s food tastes like his fathers. Yuuko-san agrees, but also says that it reminds her of his more distant relative, Clow Reed.

Watanuki gives another lesson to the woman, who addresses him as “sensei.” Today, he teaches her how to make pumpkin spring rolls, which turn out very well. He asks her why she wants to learn to cook so much and she tells him she is getting married, so she wants to learn proper cooking. He invites her to eat the spring rolls she’s prepared, but she declines, stating that she cannot eat foods she’s made herself.

Thoughts/Review: I know it has been AGES since I last did an xxxHOLiC chapter, but I decided to do them again and hopefully continue until the end of the series.

One of the frustrating things of a CLAMP manga is that they don’t always make things clear. I’m guessing that the Potato Nikorogashi dish Watanuki presented to Yuuko-san and Mokona is one he created rather than one his student created. However, the way the story is presented, one could easily get the impression that he was having Yuuko-san sample his student’s dish since he can’t sample things himself (which is an odd thing in and of itself but whatever).

As to this chapter, the one item that is sure to please is the revelation that Watanuki is the descendant of Clow Reed. Since both Sakura and Syaoran are also descendants of his, that would seem to give a bit more weight to the theory that Sakura and Syaoran are Watanuki’s parents.

It is interesting that the female student of Watanuki’s has remained unnamed. The fact that she cannot eat food she has made is an odd twist. However, maybe this storyline will explain why Watanuki cannot sample foods he has made. It will also be interesting to learn why Doumeki rejects the food she makes.