The Yakuza series! It’s a Japanese video game franchise that combines high melodrama and low-brow goofiness with lots of surprisingly sincere moments and I love it. My husband and I enjoy playing games together, especially RPGs, and Yakuza 0 was the first Yakuza game we played. This recipe is a tribute to that experience and a nod to the love of food, including ramen, you can find in the games.
Cheese Reviews: Cassola-Inspired Cheese Latkes
Well surprise, surprise! Original latkes were actually made from cheese, and their inspiration comes from Judith’s murder of Holofernes, a story associated with Hanukkah in Medieval Mediterranean Europe.
Pumpkin Pie from Stardew Valley
Marnie the rancher LOVES pumpkin pie in Stardew Valley. It’s a favorite treat of hers, and after trying this recipe I can absolutely see why—with a sweet and spicy pumpkin custard surrounded by flaky pie dough, it’s hard to resist even in the real world.
Blackberry Cobbler from Stardew Valley
Stardew Valley’s blackberry cobbler isn’t a very Halloween-esque recipe, but it is the recipe that won the October poll over on Patreon. The cobbler does show up on the feasting tables at Spirit’s Eve, a festival in the game that takes place at the end of fall and appears inspired by American Halloween (or certainly has similar spooky elements). In the real world it would be a perfect addition to upcoming holiday menus as it’s both delicious and incredibly easy to make.
Survivor Pudding from Dead by Daylight
Oh Dead by Daylight, you weird lovechild of slasher movie aesthetics and Lovecraftian horror tropes. You are a game of teamwork and survival of the fittest, of both fearing death and relishing murder, of trying to fight a system in which you are eternally bound and trapped. You are also a game of teabagging and “please stop touching my stuff.”
Blueberry Tart from Stardew Valley
This is the only recipe you learn from Pierre the general store owner in Stardew Valley. It doesn’t take too long, either: you only need a 3-heart relationship before he sends it to you in the mail! Even more surprising, this is one of Linus’s favorite treats. I didn’t think a man living in the wild would love such a bakery style sweet.
Cheese Reviews: Jasper Hill Harbison
Despite being a naughty, spoonable, almost fondue-like cheese, Jasper Hill’s Harbison has surprisingly wholesome origins. Originally named for Anne Harbison, a resident of Jasper Hill Farm’s hometown in Vermont and nicknamed the Grandmother of Greensboro, Harbison is a soft-ripened, bloomy-rinded cheese made from the farm’s own pasteurized Ayrshire cows’ milk and wrapped in spruce bark harvested from the local land.
Stardew Valley Recipes: How to Make Ice Cream 3 Ways
It won Jodi first place in a cooking competition. It’s one of Demetrius’s favorite gifts to receive. It’s a treat that almost every character in the game enjoys (except for a few and we’re not naming names). It’s: ice cream! Who doesn’t love ice cream, really?
Stardew Valley Recipes: Traditional Strawberry Ice Cream
This recipe represents a more traditional style of ice cream that requires a machine for proper churning. The eggs aren’t technically necessary, but I prefer the the richness they give the base; I also favor them for this version because it’s a variation on the ice cream recipe I learned in culinary school.
Stardew Valley Recipes: No-machine Matcha Lime Ice Cream
This ice cream method is probably the closest to the game, ingredients-wise. There’s only two elements: heavy whipping cream, which provides the fat which gives the ice cream its traditional smooth mouthfeel, and sweetened condensed milk, which provides the sugar that interrupts the production of ice crystals and makes the ice cream easier to scoop.