In Genshin Impact, players have the option of cooking various dishes that can be consumed to heal characters, revive characters, buff the player's character, or even buff the entire party. But what if we told you could eat them in real life, too?
If you are in a peckish mood and looking for some inspiration to hone your culinary skills, the tantalising pictures you're about to see may tickle your taste buds. There are millions of people who are crazy over the game but one dedicated fan has taken their passion to the next level by attempting to recreate all the recipes from the game.
This particular player recently took on the Genshin Food Challenge and even started an Instagram page called Genshin Foodpact (GF) to not only explore and learn about the dishes' real-world origins but also share their knowledge with everyone. There are other content creators who made some foods in Genshin Impact due to the game's popularity but GF is the only one trying to make every single dish in the game.
"I started this page because I really loved playing Genshin Impact and the food depicted in the game looks pretty good. As a foodie, I couldn't help myself from making them, so I decided why not share it with others as my personal food blog? Then I figured: wouldn't it be cool to take this challenge and make every recipe in the game?"
GF, who wishes to remain anonymous, told IGN Southeast Asia that their Instagram posts are always accompanied by a detailed description of each dish, which helps break down the dichotomy of real life and game food, so people actually can be more immersed in Genshin Impact's lore.
A culinary journey of impactful proportions
Currently, there are about 70-plus recipes in the game and only two regions have been released so far. That number will continue to grow as the game gets updated with new regions that depict different types of cuisine (Japanese, Indian, etcetera) so it will probably take GF quite a while to complete the challenge. "But I treat it more as a journey than a race as I am in no rush to complete everything within a timeframe," they said.
GF, who studied hospitality focusing on food and beverage, said they were trained in an European style kitchen and currently cooks for fun. They said cooking can be a therapeutic experience and encourages other people to take up cooking as a life skill!
Now is as good a time as any to start cooking!
"Millennials should learn to cook as it is a life skill that will help you out a lot in the long run especially during this pandemic. It saves money and it's fun. Do research and get inspiration from other content creators i.e. Genshin_foodpact and take the dive to learn cooking. It's even better with friends!"
It's important to note that GF has a zero-wastage policy when it comes to food. They usually eat their mouth-watering creations and depending on the portion, they share the scrumptious delicacies with family and friends.
"Everything gets used somehow, could be for the next post or just in my general cooking. Extra vegetable cuts get made into soup stock, some meat? That's tomorrow's lunch. Safe to say all the food I made for posts joins the clean plate club after!"
Looks good, tastes even better
The food in the game are all based on real-life dishes, and while the pictures in Genshin Foodpact are gorgeous-looking, do they actually taste good?
"Depending on how it was prepared, I am quite satisfied with how the end result turned out but sometimes I do need to tweak it so it wouldn't taste weird. I like to have a balance between in game accuracy and realism, so if a recipe looks odd or taste off I will adjust it but still keeping it game accurate with my type of aesthetics."
As at the time of writing, Genshin Foodpact has garnered almost 4,000 followers only two weeks after the page was set up, and every post has an average of 1,000 likes. While GF is thankful for that level of response, it was not something they expected.
Sharing the joy of food and video games
"I was thinking of several names, but genshin_foodpact just clicked seeing everyone that follows probably enjoys food as much as I do forming a 'pact'. It has a nice ring to it and pays homage to the game's name. Now I call my followers the "Foodpact fam", as they are like a family to me who enjoys food while always having good vibes."
Updating the page with new content is not easy. Some of the food GF makes are fairly simple to execute (like the humble sunny-side up), while others are more complex recipes that require more research and time.
"It really comes down to how much time I actually have apart from my real work because this page is a side project of mine to share the journey. Sometimes I feel hungry or have a certain craving so I will make some Genshin-related food and post it up."
It's an intricate process. First, GF needs to assess the recipe in-game and go through the game's lore to see what it is made off and how it relates to their real-world counterpart before conducting further research into the origin and history of the dish.
"I will then compile several recipes that will have an end result that I am happy with. Take Monstadt Hashbrowns for example. It's not a hash brown but a croquette which originated from France. The game describes the use of Pinecones to make it crispy which is kinda hard to do. However, it was actually a play on words 'pine cone' and 'pan ko'. Panko are breadcrumbs used when frying to create a crispy exterior. Some recipes I have knowledge of but future recipes will test my knowledge and skills, which is pretty exciting and one of the reasons why I took this challenge."
