Getting Food Inspiration From Video Games

Burger and fries – Pexels

Kitchen enthusiasts are always looking for new ways to take their food to the next level and create extra interest around their plates – but it can be tricky to find inspiration at times. Some of us end up feeling a bit lethargic about food, tired of the same-old, same-old, but not sure how to get our food spark back.

Fortunately, there are lots of options! If you’re kind of bored with your usual fare and you want something a bit different… well, video games could prove the perfect place to draw some ideas from. Plus, rotating your foods can improve your nutrient intake and make your meals more exciting. Let’s “tuck in” to these ideas.

Online Slots

First of all, online slots can provide you with a veritable feast of ideas. There are so many food-themed slots, it’s amazing. If you play slots online, you’ll see games such as Grill & Chill, Candy Carnival, Candyland Bonanza, Cosmic Fruits, and a whole host of other picks in similar themes. You can play these slots for inspiration and then easily theme your meals around your favorite one.

And we’re not suggesting you just slice up some fruits and put them in a bowl. Instead, think about fun ways to recreate the game’s major icons. Maybe you can set your fruits out in rows on a board, with different lines representing the reels on a slot. Perhaps you could organize your BBQ to line up the chicken drumsticks and the steaks, and arrange your burger just like the icon in Grill & Chill. Alternatively, satisfy your sweet tooth by recreating the sweet scenes in a slot like Candyland Bonanza. There are options galore!

Indeed, if you’re doing something with candy, you could have a little fun with your own version of a luck-based game. Stick the in-theme candies in a bag and then enjoy a lucky-dip-style approach and see what you happen to pull out. Bonus points if you can pull three of a kind in a row! Another option is to play the game and enjoy an appropriate candy every time you get a certain reel, adding to any in-game prizes with a little physical sweet reward. Your food is pretty much guaranteed to taste better when you do this.

And if you’ve also got a cup of good coffee, you can channel the happy energy of this cat as you head to play your favorite slots.

https://www.tiktok.com/@slotslv/video/7543562269695774008

Final Fantasy XV

The Final Fantasy games are often renowned for having delicious-looking food, but if you want to really up your game, see if you can out-chef Ignis Scientia, who levels up his cooking skills throughout the game. You go from the basics like flame-roasted toast to some enormously fancy delicacies, often foraging for the ingredients in the local area and taking out beasties to provide him with meat.

Of course, a lot of the stuff he makes is based on fictional foods (you won’t find garula meat at your local supermarket), but you can adapt existing foods to recreate them anyway. A peppery Daggerquill rice could be turned into hot chicken stir fry, using an existing recipe if you’re feeling uncertain. 

Other dishes that Ignis serves up are based in reality, providing a potentially easier starting point – try grilled barramundi, for example. The game provides extensive choices for you to choose from, so pick and choose your top recipes and get busy in the kitchen.

The great thing about XV is that there is a huge variety in the difficulty of the recipes Ignis whips up – so this works for any level of cooking. If you’re just getting started, choose one of the easier options and then gradually build your way up just as he does within the game.

The Sims

Always a classic, The Sims can be a superb source of inspiration for foodstuffs, and again, there is the fun of leveling up alongside your character. Of course, you’ll be hoping not to recreate some of their more dramatic disasters, but things like Yorkshire puddings, mac and cheese, and eggs and toast provide great starting points.

You can then graduate to more complex options such as tofu tacos, egg ramen, and beef wellington, followed by things like spicy mushroom soup (one of the many mushroom soups on offer), plus snacks like pumpkin scones and pumpkin pie. You might want to skip over options like the boiling frog hot pot, but there’s no doubt you can get great inspiration by checking out what your Sims enjoy for dinner, and matching your meals to theirs.

There’s something really fun about tailoring your food selection to pair up with whatever you’re playing right now, be that something simple like a fruit board arranged in a nice order or something more complex like Ignis’s Royal Banquet Canapés. Whatever you pick, you’ll get the fun of injecting some fresh energy into your cooking and making it feel far more engaging.

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