Lately, we here at Banksia Journal have been feeling a bit peckish, and finding ourselves fantasising about fictional foods. If only there were someway we could taste them…
This blog post contains spoilers for Delicious in Dungeon by Ryoko Kui, and “Epic NPC Man” by Viva La Dirt League. We have included links to skip past stories you don’t want spoiled.
What fictional food would you like to try?
Brittany
When I think of fictional food at the moment, the first thing I think of is the manga Delicious in Dungeon[1] by Ryoko Kui[2]. There is also an anime adaptation, which I believe is meant to be good, but I haven’t watched it.
In it, a party of adventurers quest deep into a fantasy role-playing game (RPG) style dungeon. To sustain themselves as they venture ever deeper, they cook, and eat the monsters they encounter living in the dungeons unique ecosystem; a kelpie, a basilisk, walking mushrooms, living armour…
Yes, living armour.
The armour is, in fact, a colony of molluscs, their shells grown in the shape of plate armour. They link together, and each mollusc can contract like a muscle. Working together, they can move around in humanoid form. Our intrepid adventurers use these molluscs to cook a four course meal of soup, stir fry, steamed, and grilled living armour.
I like shellfish, but more importantly, I’m fascinated by the idea of mollusc armour. So, I’d like to try at least a little of this meal.
[1] ダンジョン飯 | Danjon Meshi [back]
[2] 九井諒子 | Kui Ryōko [back]
Lauren
Jump to who would you eat with
This is a tricky one. When it comes to food, I’m the equivalent of a bin chicken. A very finicky bin chicken, perhaps, who can’t have certain things like dairy for various health reasons, but otherwise happy with anything. (Except fish/seafood. This will be relevant later.)
What I’m trying to say is that except for a few rare cases that I don’t remember well enough to actually relate here, I don’t think I’ve ever read a book or seen a show or played a game that’s made me stop and think, “Damn, I want some of that.”
So I’m going to give the most basic, obvious answer a Millennial fantasy fan can give: a sweet-roll from Bethesda’s timeless RPG video game, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim! Now I just need (a) that awesome official cookbook which has the recipe, and (b) the motivation to stand in a kitchen for longer than the time it takes to heat soup in the microwave.
If you could prepare, and/or eat a meal with a fictional character, who would you pick?
Brittany
Staying with Delicious in Dungeon, one of the main characters is a dwarf named Senshi[3]. At the story’s start, he lived in the shallow levels of the dungeon, where he had learnt to cultivate crops, and cook his own food.
Senshi is an accomplished chef, knowledgeable about flavours and nutrition. He’s and able to adapt to new and unusual ingredients, including living armour. The adventurers’ delicious meals, cooked from the dungeon’s strange monsters, are thanks to Senshi. Even characters initially wary of eating monsters enjoy his meals, so I’m sure it would be pleasant to share in a meal he’d prepared.
And, if I were to prepare a meal with Senshi, I suspect I would learn a lot about cooking. So, he’s my top pick for a character I’d prepare and eat a meal with.
[3] センシ [back]
Lauren
Jump to what would you not eat
And again I’m going to give an answer outside of the realms of literature. Though, I did vote on a poll to turn the story into a novel so hope springs eternal!
I follow the Dungeons & Dragons adventures of the guys from Viva La Dirt League (an outrageously funny YouTube channel from New Zealand, especially if you love video games and/or have worked retail once in your life) wherein the characters from their series “Epic NPC Man” have to save their world from… well, ostensibly the Big Bad Evil Guy, but to be honest, more from themselves.
Bodger the Blacksmith (who’s half dwarf, half goliath, which evens out to average human size—most convenient for the green screen crew) seems like he’d be hilarious to cook with, though I’d have to be careful not to laugh at anything he does. He’s quite sensitive to that sort of thing. Really, I’d love to cook with any of the characters, even Rob, the all-the-characters-at-once Dungeon Master. Greg the Garlic Farmer also seems like he’d have some interesting opinions on cooking with garlic.
In all seriousness, they’re all brilliant story tellers and (I can only imagine) creative writers. If any of them were to submit a story to us…? I don’t know. Something I’ll have to run past the team at a later date, the idea of special guest features. Maybe our readers will have an opinion on that in the comments.
What fictional food would you not eat?
Brittany
Moving to a different story now, I would not want to eat any of the food in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. All that growing, and shrinking causes Alice no end of grief. She grows so tall she thinks sending a letter is the only feasible way to communicate with her feet, then so small she’s swimming in her own tears… When she tries to complain about being five inches tall—indeed a wretched size for a little girl—she inadvertently insults a caterpillar.
The whole experience is so befuddling Alice quite loses track of who she is.
So, if I ever ended up in wonderland, I’d avoid anything labelled “eat me”, thank you very much.
Lauren
Here comes Bodger again. Bodger comes from the frozen land of Skottlund in the Dead Frost region of their world, and some of the food options they’ve got are… unique. Like fishlish. A delicacy in that region due to the magically imported honey that goes into making it, it is quite literally a whole raw fish on a stick, dipped in honey and wrapped in the cooked skin of another fish. Or the same fish?
Either way, my bin chicken instincts don’t stretch quite that far. And the way they eat it… hoo boy.
What about you, dear reader? Any fictional foods you want to eat? What about characters you’d want to eat with? Or anything you don’t want to eat? Let us know in the comments!
And don’t forget, if you want to stay up to date on Banksia Journal’s stories—the next one comes out on 30 August—we have an email newsletter you can join.
Brittany Lee is the co-founder, and editor of Banksia Journal. She is a writer from Perth, Western Australia, with a BA in Linguistics, and Postgrad Diploma in Journalism. Her work has appeared in AntipodeanSF, Dusty Attic Publishing, and Perth’s Raine Square Story Dispenser. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, knitting, and taking photos of flowers (such as banksias).
You can find her online at brittanyerinlee.com.
Lauren Hancock-Coffey is the co-founder and financial manager of Banksia Journal. She’s also a writer and devourer of historical fiction with a speculative twist and an avid fantasy RPG-er with more books and games than sense. She’s a full-time editor with a BA in Linguistics and an MA in Professional Writing and Publishing.