#scorpion hotpot

[bebopbop]

Scorpion and Walking Mushroom Hotpot

I made this a while back and didn't think to post here because I never thought anyone would see it. But folks seemed to like the Exorcism Sorbet so here is the hot pot I made to celebrate the anime coming out! I've been following the Dungeon Meshi manga for years now and am so happy with the anime adaption. Great excuse to cook fun stuff. I have a few more dunmeshi recipes backlogged and some Witch Hat Kitchen ones I'll post as well. ^_^

[dunmeshistash]

Megahouse KAITAI Puzzle Fantasy: Dungeon Meshi - Monster Collection

[dungeon-meshi-tournament]

Masterpost

[senshiscookbook]

Giant Scorpion and Walking Mushroom Hotpot

So a few weeks before I decided I was going to attempt this recipe, I actually obtained a hotpot from my local Asian grocery for entirely separate hotpot reasons (hence the hotpot you see in the photo). It works! It’s great!

For ingredient replacements, I made the following substitutions:

Giant scorpion — Lobster tail, which I got from my local supermarket. I realised halfway through cooking them that cutting them in half with a knife was going to be really hard, so I actually used kitchen scissors to slice the shell open before using the knife to crack them lengthwise. If lobster is inaccessible for you, use shrimp.

Invertatoes — Small potatoes (babyish), if you’re going to attempt this i recommend peeling them before putting them in the hotpot because it makes them melt into the stock in a way that’s really nice. These will be cooked when you can poke a fork through without resistance.

Walking Mushroom — King Oyster Mushrooms, cut up the stem and slice it vertically so you end up with these 1-2 inch mushroom slices in squareish shapes. You can keep the caps whole for the look but honestly if you’re not taking photos, the texture is nicer when sliced through lol.

Dried Slime — Konnyaku/Konjac noodles, I also found these at my local Asian grocery. I like the texture of them a lot and they’re really yummy because they’re basically made for hotpot.

Algae — I rehydrated a bunch of wakame seaweed before placing it inside the hotpot. IF YOU ARE GOING TO DO THIS I recommend NOT using a hotpot stock with a lot of particles. There are also other types of Japanese seaweeds which are meant for soup that look closer to the real deal, but they are not as easily available to me.

Hotpot stock — I know it says water and salt in the manga but frankly I wanted spicy food, so I used HaiDiLao mala hotpot stock. You can use whatever stock you want to be honest, the downside of the stock I used is that while it was extremely tasty, the peppercorns and chillis did get lost in the seaweed so I kept biting into peppercorns by accident. Honestly, that’s my bad for being way too eager to eat spicy food. Anyway use something you won’t regret as much, like mushroom stock or chicken stock or something.

It’s possible to make this meal fully pescatarian and gluten-free (the konnyaku noodles AFAIK do not have any gluten in them). I added a little bit of noncanonical chicken to my hotpot because I was trying to eat up ingredients in my fridge before travelling, but you are of course not obligated to do this.

You can also see from the photos that I laid out the ingredients in the pot before I poured the stock in, which is generally counterintuitive for hotpot, but I did it to get the layout. So whatever. Bring everything to a rolling boil. If you’ve put everything in at the same time, everything cooks fairly quickly except the potatoes which will finish cooking last (see above for the sign that they’re done). Since this is hotpot, feel free to begin picking at it in order of doneness, beginning with the seaweed and noodles (neither needs much cooking) and then heading over to the proteins.

Yay, cooking!

[hajimev]

I really want someone to make real life dungeon meshi food like that one time brian david gilbert tried every botw food recipe

[possumpop]

i love seeing dungeon meshi fanart and recognizing every piece of food in it

[guiltycrunch]

genuinely hate how my first response to knowing my income is unstable is just to start rationing my food even if i still have money to buy food with. girl why the fuck!!

[kcrossvine-art]

Hi fellow adventurers!! A few weeks ago i caught wind of "Delicious in Dungeon". I'm not really an anime person, but I am a TTRPG, CRPG, and cooking person- . And holy shit. It is so good i  convinced my partner to binge read the whole thing. I'm caught up on dungeon meshi, the anime, and just yesterday i also finished dungeon meshi, the manga.

Its rare to come across a serialized story that is so thematically cohesive and knows its characters so well. All of the bonus content like the artbooks and monster tidbits are just the icing on top.

So, inspired by Ryōko Kui's writing and illustration I'm going to attempt to create a recipe for every single Delicious in Dungeon recipe!-

Today that means Huge Scorpion and Walking Mushroom hotpot is on the menu!

(As always you can find the cooking instructions and full ingredient list under the break-)

MY NAMES CROSS NOW LETS COOK LIKE ANIMALS

SO, “what goes in to a Huge Scorpion and Walking Mushroom hotpot?” YOU MIGHT ASKThis is one of the pricier dishes until we get to the kelpies and dragons of the menu-

Rock lobster tail

Porcini mushrooms

Shiitake mushrooms

Snow fungus

Small potatos

Fensi (glass noodles)

Water

OPTIONAL: your choice of dipping sauces

There was a crossover/promotional event in Shibuya which featured various realworld dishes from the series. They had one for Huge Scorpion and Walking Mushroom, but they used prawns.  while those cook better in a hotpot, they also didn't look enough like the scorpion for me, they also used udon noodles for the slime and a seaweed/kale(?) mixture for the algae. If you're looking for substitutes due to price or availability i would start with those ingredients.

AND, “what does a Huge Scorpion and Walking Mushroom hotpot taste like?” YOU MIGHT ASKI hope Senshi would forgive me for technically cooking the lobster outside the pot, once he tastes it.

Okay im always partial to veggies but wowowowowowowoowowowow the snow fungus and the mushrooms tasted soooooooooooo good in the lobster stock

A nice delicate layering of different flavors

Try to get a bite with the lobster meat and shiitake together, dip in butter then chili- trust me

Its up to you what texture you prefer if you want to put the noodles in at the end or put them in halfway through the meal. Either way dont go for eating those first as theyre very filling

I think this would pair well with a citrus drink, something light and clarifying

This would also pair well with being extremely high and hungry (if you feel safe cooking while inebriated lol) very calorically dense

For the trial run I did one lobster tail in the pot with everything else, and one lobster tail off to the side to be picked apart. The former is more in spirit with a hotpot, but it got rubbery as the meal went on and lost its nice taste. The latter may be a bit more work but all you have to do still is boil it and set it aside. I found it held up much better. It was also easier to get inside the shell.

. If you have hardshell maine lobster available, i think it would be superior to rock lobster (keep in mind crustaceans will get rubbery if cooked too long in the pot) . Green onions and/or lotus root would make excellent additions

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From getting the ingredients out to sitting down and eating, id say it took maybe 30 minutes max? It'd vary on how fast you can prep vegetables and get the various implements heated.

Hotpots are not something i do very often as i'm usually just feeding myself. I think thats why a hotpot makes perfect sense to start the series off. If you want to set the tone of "take care of yourself, eat food with others, and use what you have" (generally speaking) there is nothing more simplistic, flexible, and defeats-the-purpose-if-you-eat-it-alone than a hotpot. Gather around and let your friends bring ingredients to the pot if you want to fill your heart up extra full <3

I'm doing something different here because unlike previous recipes where i used a bunch of different sources and made my own recipe out of hodge-podging it, or just used another persons recipe entirely if they did it really well, i made this more whole-cloth based off of what i had available, what I could discover through research, and my existing knowledge. Instead of the recipe being 50/50 original, this one is more 20/80. So. I'll pass the final verdict off to you guys :D 

What would you rate this recipe out of 10? (with 1 being food that makes one physically sick and 10 being food that gives one a lust for life again.) Did you love it, did you hate it? What're your thoughts on what I could do different, and what would you have done instead?

🐁 ORIGINAL RESIPPY TEXT BELOW 🐁

Ingredients:

2 Rock lobster tails

3 Porcini mushrooms

2 Shiitake mushrooms

Snow fungus (a good handful, should rehydrate in the hotpot)

2 Small waxy potatos

Fensi (glass noodles)

Water/lobster stock

Method:

Lightly rinse all of your vegetables beforehand and let them dry.

Vertically slice the porcini mushrooms. Cut off and dice the stems of the shiitake mushrooms. You can slice the tops if youd like.

Peel and cube the potatoes, roughly an inch each.

For the lobster tails; Boil a pot of salted water. Keep the shell on. Weigh the largest tail and add 1 minute of cooking time for every ounce of weight.

When done, strain the lobster from the water. Pour the water into your hotpot as the base. Serve the lobster on the side so people can pick the meat out to dip into the hotpot.

Bring the hotpot to a simmer. Add the potato cubes, snow fungus, mushrooms, and noodles.

OPTIONAL: this wasnt in the show, but its fun having sauces on the side :) i had oyster sauce, dry seasoned chili dip, melted butter, and soy sauce available

[bitternanami]

something i think is really interesting about dungeon meshi is the cast's respective views on food as the story progresses. the way many adventurers get through the dungeon is to eat when they Must, but mostly rely on healing magic to keep going when they're tired or beaten down. death is something you can buy your way out of, here.

having these lower stakes when it comes to running yourself too hard has made a lot of people in this setting kind of devalue food and what it does for you.

im not all the way through the manga yet, but so far i really like how it goes about debunking that mindset.

long post under the cut, cw explicit discussion of disordered eating. textual depiction of unhealthy methods of dealing with it. please be cautious!

it seems like to most folks, food is either a decadent luxury, like when the governor offers mr tance a feast as a show of power and wealth, (although he is the only one who actually eats in that scene as he talks about his ambitions);

[id: the governor and mr. tance talk politics and hierarchies, while the governor eats from a bowl. mr. tance's meal is not visible behind a speech bubble.

"so you believe the sorceror is an elf?" he asks.

"i can't say with absolute certainty," mr. tance replies, "but the spells are not ones dwarves and humans typically use." /end id]

like the painted-royal feasts laios tries to partake in that never actually nourish him...

[id: laios, fresh out of the living painting feast, surprisedly holding his grumbling stomach /end id]

or, to the working class, it's pretty much exclusively fuel. i'm thinking about the scene where kabru's party, ostensibly intended to be our view into how adventuring Typically goes for most people, is shown preparing to go to the dungeon by like. walking up to someone and ordering 'a weeks' worth of rations.' purely functional.

[id: kabru enters a store, and the merchant says "welcome!"

kabru says "i need a week's worth of rations for six, and two days' worth of water."

"sure thing." the merchant then reaches behind him and grabs a large cube-shaped package, wrapped in nondescript cloth and tied in place. it thumps onto the counter in front of them both. /end id]

when kabru hands mickbell his food for the trip, he complains about how heavy it is on his back. it's a necessary liability.

we also see chilchuck, in an early chapter where there isn't much food to go around, grumbling about how he used to be better at not noticing when he was hungry. he's frustrated that he's more attuned to his bodily needs, now that he's starting to fill them with regularity.

[id: chilchuck, the only one awake, sits in his bedroll and glares at the timekeeping-candle burning down in front of him while he listens to his stomach growl. moving to find his canteen and fill himself with water instead, he thinks to himself, "my stomach has gotten weaker. i used to be able to go two days without food." /end id]

(like im not even gonna lie this is a big mood. the healing process is really really annoying)

even laios, early on, working out the logistics of going back for falin, considers his expenses and ultimately the thing he decides to save money on is their food supply. like, even the guy most invested in eating as an experience kind of just assumes he will Figure It Out. its what hes eating, not how hes eating it that matters to him at that point.

[id: marcille looks down at the ingredients they've gathered, the walking mushroom and the scorpion in an unappetizing heap on the ground, and asks laios "so how exactly do we eat them?"

he responds "let's just cook them, like normal." /end id]

but its here that senshi introduces the idea of food as art and as healing. its exciting and its fascinating for laios, getting to taste the creatures hes been reading about and fighting, but i dont think it would ever really help him feel full if not for this.

[id: three panels of laios tasting the scorpion hotpot, looking stunned, and then excitedly telling senshi "delicious!"

senshi matches his energy, asking "isn't it? isn't it?" /end id]

pictured: guy who had resigned himself to kind of just doing his best rediscovers the joy in something tasting really fucking good

what they did last time isnt going to work. falin is gone, and constantly anesthetizing their pain and healing through their weakness is no longer a realistic option for the party. in order to make it through they must all relearn how to eat well, one by one and as a group over and over again, because its either that or nothing.

one of my favorite depictions of this idea thus far is when marcille is seriously low on health and mana, and both of these problems are mitigated by taking care of herself, and trying to get iron and protein

[id: marcille, looking sickly, wakes to laios saying, "marcille, marcille, can you sit up? we've got something nice for you."

she watches senshi grill pieces of kelpie liver on a low fire, while laios ties a bib around her neck. /end id]

and drinking a bunch of dead water spirits. she gets the idea, she's supposed to get in nutrients and it'll help her feel better, but in aiming for the quick, inefficient fix, namely chugging that shit down like she heard it was good to Stay Hydrated and decided that would be the thing that fixes her,

[id: marcille throws back a cup of boiled undine-water, her face red. laios asks, "do you really need to drink it that fast?"

she gasps out "...the magical energy stored in nature spirits is actually quite hard to absorb. even if you drink a lot, the majority of it is excreted without being absorbed," and takes another drink. "that's why i need to drink as much as i can."

laios says weakly "you'll get water poisoning," but marcille only stops when senshi puts a hand on her shoulder and says,

"it's easier to absorb nutrients if ye digest them with food. that's a fundamental rule of nutrition."

marcille says, "senshi..." contemplative

and he holds out a bowl of tentuclus and a thumbs up. "let's get cooking!" /end id]

she doesn't immediately realize the answer is that she needs more than that. she's been working hard. she needs care, and she needs nourishment.

once she gets that, though, she makes her boiled water into a stew, and she works to make that stew as good as she can, and everyone can have some.

because in dungeon meshi, to feed yourself or allow yourself to be fed is treated as performing a kindness for yourself. food is what propels you, but there is also an art and a joy inherent to the process of making it; in the way you feel when you've had enough to eat.

[id: senshi watches as chilchuck and marcille eat and excitedly hash out plans.

"i've got a good feeling about this! maybe it'll work out!" chilchuck says

marcille responds, "well it's easier to feel optimistic on a full stomach!"

senshi smiles, proud. /end id]

^^^ i want to put this image on my wall

when you're working through disordered eating habits, you really do have to keep learning this shit. (in my experience, learning about cooking is one of the best ways to do so.)

i'll have to see if my thesis holds up as i continue, but i think one of the reasons the portrayal here resonates with me so hard is that ryoko kui puts most of her characters at eye level with me on this. they're all working at it, too. the text and i are both commiserating, and encouraging each other, 'have some more, you'll feel better.'

[amethystsoda]

Dungeon Meshi/Delicious in Dungeon Recipe masterlist - part 1

(project started in July 2023 and ongoing! I'll continue updating as the recipes are posted — all recipes so far were created before they appeared in the anime) part 2

Recipe 1 - Huge Scorpion and Walking Mushroom Hotpot

comparison pics / process video / video and recipe commentary

- full list continued after the jump -

Recipe 2 - Man Eating Plant Tart

gelatin hell process 1 + process 2 / failed tart process video / comparison pics of redo / redo video with quiche

Recipe 3 - Roast Basilisk

brining / kfc super shy meme / oven setup and finished bird / planning for recipe 4 / process video

Recipe 4 - Mandrake and Basilisk Omelet (Omelette)

comparison pics / process video

Recipe 5 - Mandrake Kakiage and Giant Bat Tempura

Planning for recipe 5 and 6 / comparison pics / process video

Recipe 6 - Living Armor Soup

comparison pics and commentary on process / process video

Recipe 7 - Golem Field Fresh Veggie Lunch

planning for 7 and 8 / cooking research / process video / comparison pics

Recipe 8 - Freshly Stolen Vegetables and Chicken Stewed with Cabbage Accompanied by Plundered Bread

comparison pics / process video

Recipe 9 - Naturally Delicious Treasure Insect Snacks

planning 1 + planning 2 / coinbug carving process 1 + process 2 / gem making test / comparison pics / process video

Recipe 10 - Special Interfaith Holy Water and Exorcism Sorbet

planning / process / process video / comparison pics / second comparison with anime

Recipe 11 - Court Cuisine: Full Course Meal

planning 1 + planning 2 / comparison pics / process video

Recipe 12 - Boiled Mimic and Kelpie Oil Soap

planning / comparison pics / process video

Recipe 13 - Porridge made from Grain that was just Lying Around

comparison pics and thoughts / process video

Recipe 14 - Giant Parasite from a Giant Kraken Grilled Plain and Kabayaki-Style

eel defrosting / comparison pics and process / process video

Recipe 15 - Farcille Raspberry Tart

planning for tart / ganache process / final pictures / process video

Recipe 16 - Grilled Kelpie

planning / comparison pics / process video

Recipe 17 - Tentacles with Vinegar + Tentacle and Kelpie stew, prepared with Undine

planning / comparison pics / process video / (fullmetal alchemist stew meme)

BONUS - All the DunMeshi meals so far edit

Recipe 18 - Tentacle Gnocchi

planning / comparison pics / process video

Recipe 19 - “Let’s Cutlet the Red Dragon”

original katsudon attempt from 2023 / katsu excitement / comparison pics / process video / anime comparison

Recipe 20 - Red Dragon Meal

planning 1 / planning 2 / oxtail broth update / pickled daikon recipe / comparison pics / process video: part 1 and part 2 / recipe post

Recipe 21 - Lost Red Dragon "Ham" + Orc Medicine Toast

comparison pics / process video

Recipe 22 - Travel Rations Set for Adventurers

planning / comparison pics / process video

Recipe 23 - Jack-o'-Lantern Potage and Sauteed Dryad Buds with Cheese

planning / pumpkin bowl face / comparison pics / process video / blooper reel

BONUS - (dunmeshi zine chef contributor announcement!!!)

Recipe 24 - Eisbein-Style Cockatrice and Dryad Bud Sauerkraut

planning / sauerkraut poll / comparison pics / process video

BONUS - DunMeshi tiktok milestones!

[elisabethdeep-blog]

Gotta make a post about my best DunMeshi neurospicy boi

Lotta content out there about Laios' autistic traits but where o where is the Senshi rep?

Senshi's dedication to Dungeon trophic systems makes Laios' special interest look like a well-thumbed pamphlet. (Granted Senshi has had significantly longer to cook; Laios is a baby).

Senshi's limited emoting is baked-in to his character model- that thousand yard stare, most of his face occluded by his habitual helmet (masked, even...... How many folks pine for covid masks obviating the need to manage their faces constantly?)

He overheard someone mention his special interest and Walked Right Up to a Group of Strangers to brazenly asplain them a thing. Marcille makes a bridge-mending bid regarding the mosses in the scorpion hotpot (after her previous truculent outbursts) and he totally deadpans her, because he didn't even notice.

He is VERY COMMITED to his ethical position on dungeon ecology. More than once he's disrupted Marcille Right at the point of release of a spell, after she's been chanting for like a paragraph, because she's going to contravene some principle of his.

Also

Speaking of Marcille, he demonstrates some pretty rigid, black-and-white thinking around magic, that doesn't seem internally consistent. He's repeatedly reanimating magical constructs (golems), an explicitly controlled magical act, but is Very Very reluctant to submit to being charmed with WaterWalk; his spoken reasoning about this just doesn't hold water.

Oh and he's totally neglected his personal hygiene for basically ever. He's averse to cleaning up for the sake of being bespelled, but other than magic, seems fine with getting the salon treatment. This isn't a Toph Beifong 'protective layer of earth', he's just forgotten to care about not being covered with monster gore.

PDA? The fellow has one (1) social skill, namely, he exercises any discretion on opening his mouth to argue. But that holds him back exactly NONE when he decides he's done listening. The first time we see this is gathering Mandrakes, when he doesn't SAY he's done with Marcille's opinions, but he Does just go ahead and exercise his damn autonomy. a MUCH stronger example is when Chilchuck is guiding them through the trap rooms. Senshi gets roundly (and rightly!) chewed out by Chilchuck, and his response isn't the sensible 'sorry Chilchuck, maybe I could walk more directly behind you so I can more closely match your steps', but to BRAZENLY DANCE ALL OVER THE TRAP FLOOR! the only reason that doesn't kill the whole party is The Plot. It's not even that he doesn't appreciate Chilchuck's skill- he just don't like getting chastised! Same with Anne the Kelpie! Senshi's gonna do what Senshi's gonna do! He WILL not be rushed, he WILL not be chastised, he WILL not be directed! How do we think he came to be living in a dungeon all by himself in the first place!!

AND THE BREAD!

THIS IS NOT THE DEMAND OF A NEUROTYPICAL DWARF

Look there's more. After Chilchuck's impassioned and heartfelt plea, Senshi suggests they should return to the surface because they're 'low on seasoning'.

He's a dwarf who turned his adamantium shield into a cookpot.

He can meticulously maintain his mithril cooking knife but not his axe.

He responds well to other characters meeting him halfway but initiates few (no?) such bids himself. There's rarely any guile in Senshi, and when he is being shifty, he's Bad At It- and again, usually its in service of demand avoidance, like when he capitalises on Marcille's toilet break to reanimate his golems.

Senshi is the monomaniac that society has spent Decades trying to iron out of my wrinkly brain.

I hope to see him also find a place in the neurosparkly constellations.

[himawaari]

huge scorpion and walking mushroom hotpot

dungeon meshi 01

[dungeon-meshi-tournament]

Masterpost

[kerofroggo]

Happy Dungeon Meshi Thursday! I modeled the Huge Scorpion and Walking Mushroom Hotpot ✨

[viperbunnies]

we just need a huge scorpion with those mushrooms to make some scorpion and walking mushroom hotpot 🤭 hehehe

What could go wrong?

[antsday]

first thoughts of the first episode of dungeon meshi

u guys were not lying. laios is a downright freak. i also feel that this sentiment will grow stronger overtime

falin has been mentioned a handful of times and all the times she HAS been mentioned have either been by her brother or marcille, who i can only assume is the pathetic lesbian invading my dash. chilchuck does not give a fuck

also i find it really funny that the SECOND falin gets eaten laios is immediately like "oh what a great time to explore my dark buried fetishes :)" and then marcille is like "NO what the FUCK is wrong with you WHY would you want to EAT a fucking MONSTER" and then chilchuck is just like "yeah okay sure works for me" unbothered king

speaking of which, is falin just like. does she genuinely spend most of the show trying to avoid getting digested or.

SENSHI

this is a senshi appreciation post now btw. im just saying if i was on the verge of starving bc i was dirt broke and then a bearded man appeared from the shadows, gave me advice and then pulled together the most strangely beautiful and incredibly technical meal with nothing but years of experience and a knife and then shared it with me and OFFERED TO KEEP DOING IT i would propose on the spot

the cooking montages are really funny bc i keep watching them like they're genuine cooking shows. like "ah yes... he's using the correct techniques.... wow.... im so enlightened about cooking.... yes i absolutely will dry my slime for two weeks to get that special flavor" until i remember that they're talking about monsters

this fact is kind of upsetting btw. at least if i watch a cooking show i feasibly know that food exists irl and therefore i can go buy/make it but the fact that i will never ever be able to taste the scorpion mushroom hotpot OR the savory tart is like one hundred spears to my heart

they're all autistic. shhh trust me on this senshi himself told me so