Feast Your Eyes: Fandom Cookbook Recipe Review #1
Are These Smuggled Goods? - Star Wars: The Ultimate Cookbook
Suddenly finding themself employed on a high-class spaceship, our intrepid multiverse-traveling chef Aurum Leuci prepares a traditional dish from the fungal forest planet of Narqui— along with some questionably-sourced side dishes.
Tonight’s menu: sourced from the Star Wars Ultimate Cookbook
Appetizer: Cantonican Cactus Bites, pg 163
Main Course: Narquois Rolls, pg 45
Dessert: Kullgroon Drops, pg 95
Full review under the cut!
Aurum Leuci’s Log:
[Begin recording.] Hey, uh, Chef Aurum here. Sorry I’m late. I think I must have miscalibrated my dimensional portal generator, because I absolutely did NOT intend to wind up on a Neimoidian ship orbiting some random colony world— Narq, I think?— much less in a kitchen full of apparently-smuggled Kullgroon fruit and Cantonican vegetation. Luckily, I can handle myself in a kitchen— so let’s hope for my sake the politicians on this ship don’t know their kitchen staff by name. I can at least make some kind of fancy dinner for them before I find a safe place to reactivate the portal. And besides— I want to try that smuggled produce.
I’ll check in with you after the next jump, once it’s safe. Aurum Leuci out. [End log.]
The Feast Your Eyes Recipe Rating Scale
In this series, I’ll be rating each recipe based on five factors, each of which can receive up to five points. These reviews will be written out-of-character, detailing my (AJ) opinions and experiences with the recipes detailed in the post. I eat almost entirely plant-based, so any substitutions related to animal products will be denoted in the descriptions of dishes. The rating scale is as follows:
Difficulty: How easy or hard was this recipe to follow? Harder recipes will score lower in this category, while easier recipes will score higher.
Ingredients: How easy or hard were ingredients to source? This category will be scored similarly to Difficulty, and any substitutions made will be denoted in the recipe’s section.
Immersion: How well does this recipe fit the universe or world that it’s from? High scores in this category mean high immersion, while low scores mean that it’s not particularly immersive.
Time: How much time did this take? Recipes that take less time will score higher in this category.
End Result: With the recipe followed as closely as possible (according to my dietary restrictions/ingredient sourcing capability), how did the final dish turn out? Higher scores in this category denote a better final dish.
Side Dish: Cantonican Cactus Bites
RATING:
Difficulty: 5/5
Ingredients: 5/5
Immersion: 3/5
Time: 3/5
End Result: 3/5
TOTAL RATING: 19/25
I came into this recipe REALLY wanting to give it a perfect rating. I love roasted brussels sprouts, and really, really wanted to like this recipe. It was straightforward to prepare, you could buy the ingredients at any grocery store, and it seemed like it would turn out really tasty. I was willing to put aside the fact that it’s just roasted brussels sprouts (not a terribly Star Wars-y dish) and was really hoping the taste would blow me away. Unfortunately, these turned out somewhat underwhelming. Despite following the recipe exactly, as you can see in the photo, these sprouts (and all of the tasty vegetables cooked with them, including fresh shallots and garlic) burned a little in the oven. This recipe definitely has potential- but as written in the cookbook, it’s somewhat middling.
Main Course: Narquois Rolls
RATING:
Difficulty: 5/5
Ingredients: 3/5
Immersion: 5/5
Time: 5/5
End Result: 5/5
TOTAL RATING: 23/25
This recipe was AWESOME, and a hit with my family. It only loses points on the sad fact that I wasn’t able to source enoki mushrooms (the main ingredient of the dish) and had to substitute in a mix of other mushrooms. Having done some research on the planet of Narq (also known as Narqui?), I don’t think this was terribly immersion breaking, since it’s a foresty, swampy planet with… large fungal forests! I would love to make it again with actual enoki mushrooms to see how those would have affected the taste and texture— these were delicious.
Dessert: Kullgroon Drops
RATING:
Difficulty: 5/5
Ingredients: 5/5
Immersion: 5/5
Time: 5/5
End Result: 5/5
TOTAL RATING: A perfect 25/25!
I was really skeptical about this recipe— it’s literally just frozen grapes and Jell-O dust. Surprisingly, this is my highest-rated dish from this review! Super easy, super quick (the only time sink is letting them freeze) and they come out delicious, chilly, and beautifully alien! They’d be a believable find in a snow-covered environment like Kullgroon, and they were absolutely delicious.
Tune in this Friday (6/7/24) for another fandom cookbook review!
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