Return & New Project

    So, I've been neglecting this blog for a while.  I'd blame it on covid, but honestly it was equally as much focusing on the end of my spring semester and the focus on my personal projects shifting to help out on the AJJrchive (something I'll eventually talk more about on my main blog).  Not that I had much posted here to begin with, but I never ended up sharing a lot of drafts or things I had plans for.  

    Hopefully this will see that changing! I've really been getting back into cooking lately, and have had this idea floating around for a while; a cooking series that would encompass every recipe in Dungeon Meshi.  A huge task to be sure, but I think it'd be a fun way to try out some new recipes as well as providing people with already tested real world versions of recipes from the manga.  And most of all, after years of admiring through the pages I can finally try our adventurers' mouthwatering food! 

    I feel like I should address the fact that a few years ago there was a fan zine that had a similar premise, consisting of recipes and fan art.  Unfortunately I missed the pre-order back when it was released and haven't been able to find a copy since, so I'm not sure which recipes are included and how they approached them. That being said, I hope that this project isn't taken as an imitation or continuation of theirs, but instead as what I think is a similar yet unique homage to a shared interest.  However, if any of the artists or fans who have copies of the zine happen to find their way here, I would love to see scans if you have them! I eventually plan to compile digital media on here, such as links to fanart and online scans. And of course, any guidance from someone who previously adapted one of these recipes would be more than appreciated! 

    Now, in order to do this I feel like I should give myself some guidelines. I want to keep things as accurate to the books as possible, .  I'll probably make some tweaks after I get through a few of these under my belt, but for now these are the stipulations I'm going to be keeping in mind:

1. Accounting for fantasy ingredients in the real world

    This is the most obvious thing I'm gonna have to deal with. Each ingredient that doesn't have an irl version is going to need a substitute, which I'll try to keep as close to the original as possible; walking mushrooms and mimics aren't real, but mushrooms and crabs are. Several things will impact my decisions, such as taste & appearance of the food itself, and the cultural and environmental factors that would determine the kinds of ingredients that would make an appropriate substitute. I'll try to find the best middle ground of matching the characters' descriptions of the food and the actual illustrations. I'll plan to not use an ingredient as a substitution if it's actually listed as an ingredient in another recipe, and will use the same IRL ingredients to make substitutions of the same DM ingredients in other recipes unless there's some extenuating reason. I hope that doing so will maintain continuity in the jump from DM to the real world.

2. Ingredient accessibility

    I'm on a college budget so I can't exactly have a surplus of expensive ingredients.  This will keep things pretty true to the manga with the exception of some meats or odd ingredients.  Some things will depend on what ingredients I can find locally too, and I'll include info on prices on the individual recipes.  I have to apologize that most of these recipes won't be vegetarian or vegan unless it actually was in the source material, but I'll try to write the posts thoroughly enough that you're able to see the parts ingredients play in each recipe & substitute accordingly. 

3. Cooking utensils

    

    In the manga, the party is very resourceful when cooking, using the same couple of implements for most of the recipes.  I'm going to try and follow suit, both for the sake of accuracy and to keep these from becoming the sort of recipes that require loads of specialized cookware to make.  If it's not too expensive I might get a wok at some point, but unless I say otherwise I'll keep things limited to standard kitchen.

Farewell until next time, when you'll get to read the first entry of the Dungeon Gourmet Guide!