2020 has been a year. A very long and difficult year for many because of the global pandemic. Please continue to wear a mask, practice social distancing, and get vaccinated when you can. Today, we will be taking a look at some of the bright spots I experienced.
This year has been a good year for Pixelated Provisions and all my food endeavours. Everyone’s support by visiting the site has kept me motivated to continue creating new recipes each week. I appreciate that game companies continue to add food to their games, not just as a prop but as a part of the game systems. This just means I have a lot more games to play and recipes to create! If you know of any games with food that I need to check out, please let me know.
I had the opportunity to participate in a PAX panel called “The Great Video Game Cook-off: From Power-ups to Power Meals.” The panel included other video game cookbook authors and we discussed all things food in games. It was nice to be on a panel with all these wonderful people. It was a great way to meet others in the field and catch up with all of them. I do hope to participate in more panels in the future. Also, I got to take part in a few podcasts including The Live Feed, where we discussed my recipe creation process, and the Destiny Show Podcast, where we talked about the Destiny cookbook. I really enjoy talking with others about food in games and hope to do more of these next year.
In the book front this year, the Official Destiny Cookbook came out this past July. I know many of you have been enjoying it and making all the delicious treats. This book was an interesting challenge because Destiny is not known for having food beyond a few iconic items. I was able to help create recipes that would fit in the world through Eva Levante and many other well known guardians. Between the two books that I’ve released, I find myself constantly cooking out of the Destiny one. Many of my new favorite dishes to cook can be found in that book including duck poutine, chocolate ship cookies, rack of lamb, and so many others. I’m so happy that Bungie gave me the opportunity to work on this project. Near the end of this year, you all got to see my next project listed on Amazon, the Official Street Fighter Cookbook. As of right now I cannot go into more detail but I’d expect some more information to come out soon. There are a handful of images up on the listing. I can’t wait for you all to get your hands on it!
I have continued to stream live cooking shows and gaming on Twitch. I really enjoy interacting with chat and giving cooking tips. I had a few very wild streams including my race to make croissants for the first time while Jeff played all of Dark Souls, making the Big Bang Burger from Persona 5, and a test run of the Cinnasnail Bugsnak. I love using the cooking streams to experiment with new recipes. I’m always trying to figure out new recipes for future posts so doing it while streaming makes it a fun activity for everyone. People can see all the mistakes I make and help me with suggesting different approaches. Having people to bounce ideas off of is extremely helpful for me while working on new concepts. I find streaming to be a fun activity and don’t see myself stopping anytime soon.
I was finally able to start editing video content for Youtube this past year. I have been producing tasting videos of different snack boxes. I am still working at a snail’s pace when it comes to the video work. It is the one side project that keep falling behind because of other work. I do find the work rather calming when working on it, but since it is something I’m still learning it does take a long time for me to finalize things. I’m hoping with more practice this will take less time and the quality will improve.
Plans for 2021 include continuing work on the blog, improving streams, and slowly creating more video content. A lot of this really depends on my schedule and the first part of this year is already pretty jam packed. In the end, my goal is to continue improving all my content and convincing you all that cooking is fun!
Let’s take some time to look at a few of my standouts from the past year.
Best Video Game with Food: Bugsnax
This was an easy choice. Bugsnax has some of the most unique food I’ve seen in a game recently. I love all the unique designs of the snax. Each one is a combination of a snack and bug and the team did a wonderful job of making each one stand out. My personal favorite is the cinnasnail. It is so adorable but man was it a pain to make. This game’s food has for sure pushed my recipe creation in a way I was not expecting. I’m not one to typically get crafty with anything but I really have to get creative when making these little cuties.
Runner ups: Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Cook Serve, Delicious! 3?!, Raft
Best New Cooking Experience of the Year: Doubanjiang
Doubanjiang is an ingredient I never worked with until this past year. It is spicy paste made from fermented broad beans and chili peppers. It is a crucial ingredient in Sichuan style dishes like mapo tofu. I tend to be cautious around spicy ingredients because my tolerance for spicy food tends to be on the lower end. The first time I cooked with this ingredient was for a vegetarian ramen recipe from Just One Cookbook. After finally having it in my house, I’ve used it in a few recipes to add a spicy, salty, and slightly fermented flavor.
Runner ups: Matcha Babka
Favorite Recipe of the Year: Judgment: Wild Chicken Sandwich
This year, I made a lot of recipes that I’m really proud of and many of them are remade at least once a month. The recipe that stood above the rest (although it was close) was the Wild Chicken Sandwich inspired by Judgment. I love fried chicken but I don’t make it often. When I do, it is typically in sandwich form. This chicken sandwich is just perfect. The pickles and coleslaw take it to the next level. Just writing about this makes me want to make it again!
Runner ups: Hades: Chicken Gyro, Bugsnax: Cinnasnail, Breath of the Wild: Poultry Pilaf, Battle Chef Brigade: Glazed Scowl Wings, Sekiro: Sweet Rice Ball, The Sims 4: Tikka Masala Pizza
Game of the Year: Yakuza Like a Dragon
This one shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. The moment this game came out, Jeff and I played it nonstop. I really loved the game! I enjoyed the change up to the combat. It worked perfectly for Jeff and I passing the controller while we played together. I love all the members of your party. It was nice to see all the different interactions they would have with one another and seeing their friendship grow. I was excited to see several badass women kick major butt, something the game series has handled poorly in the past. Saeko and Seong-Hui were such breaths of fresh air in the series and I do hope we continue to see strong female characters in the series.
Ichiban is such a wonderful addition to the Yakuza universe and I cannot wait to see what his next chapter will bring. He has so much personality that the game just had me feeling all his emotions. The end of the game had me in tears and it is because of the amazing acting from Ichiban’s actor, Kazuhiro Nakaya (we played the game in Japanese). After finishing the game, I was just sad to be done with it and wanted more. Since finishing it I’ve restarted the Yakuza series – finally finished Yakuza 0 and now I’m playing Yakuza Kiwami for the first time. Pretty sure my 2021 is going to be mostly filled with Yakuza.
I do have to thank Yakuza Like a Dragon for also convincing me to give the Dragon Quest series a shot earlier this year. Dragon Quest XI is an extremely close second and I think if Yakuza Like a Dragon came out next year, it would be sitting in this spot.
Runner ups: Dragon Quest XI, Judgement, Divinity Original Sin II, Astroneer, Raft
Most Anticipated Games of 2021: SMT: Nocturne Remaster
When I first looked at this category, I had a hard time thinking of games to include. I imagine at the start of the year we will have a few more announcements come out. I’m sure covid has caused havoc with scheduling for many companies. For now, I’m most looking forward to the Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne Remaster. I have a copy of the PS3 version of this game but never managed to finish on the few times I tried. I’m excited to get my hands on the remaster and finally play through the whole thing. This game was pretty hard and I’m ready for it to kick my butt again next year.
Baldur’s Gate 3 would be in this spot but I honestly have no idea when this game will be out of early access. I’m very excited for it but decided to not put it in the top spot just cause there isn’t really a solid release date yet.
Runner ups: Sports Story, SMT V, Baldur’s Gate 3