Y4 Anniversary: Cooking Showcase
We have cooked a feast for you. Prepare yourselves…
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My how time flies. Before we know it, we are already here for our second year of showcasing dishes in celebration of Metanorn’s fourth anniversary. What better way is there to express how much of a wondrous occasion this is but to cook our hearts out? An anniversary calls for a parrrtaaaayyyy and a partaaaayyy calls for foods! So here it is. Enjoy… |
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Enoshima Don (Cool Remix): Cooking is yet another hobby of mine, so I like to experiment whenever I have the time. Along the lines of what Gourmet Gaming does, I decided to try not only making up my own recipe, but trying to emulate something I saw on Tsuritama. Above is the screenshot of the re-occurring dish in the show, while below is my personal take on how to make it. I tried to make it look as similar as possible, while trying to make it as appetizing as possible. I’ve made donburi before, so the concept wasn’t too hard: make something delicious and dump it on a fluffy bed of rice. My biggest challenge was cooking with shirashi (or “whitebait”) since I’d never used it before. It looks like a race of pygmy, albino aliens to me, so I was a little disconcerted when working with them. Personally, I don’t like fishy flavours too much, so I mixed the shirashi with enoki mushrooms (I add mushrooms to everything I cook) and cracked an egg over it so it became more like a crumbly, egg pancake. For sauce, I added some cooking mirin… although next time I’d also add some soy sauce and tonkatsu sauce for some zing. So, how did it taste? Pretty damn good! Shirashi don’t have much flavour by themselves, so I’m glad I didn’t mimic the screencap exactly and just throw a heap of boiled shirashi over rice. I ended up topping it with sprinkled seaweed and tonkatsu sauce after, and it tasted just like oyako don. All in all, it was a success! Now I can eat enoshima don myself without ever having to go to Enoshima. :3 |
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Unfortunately this year I couldn’t do something as fancy as curry buns, so I went the simple route and made a cake; specifically a yellow butter cake with chocolate frosting, topped with chocolate-dipped strawberries and regular strawberries~ The cake is made from scratch, along with the chocolate-dipped strawberries, but the frosting is store-bought, heh. This is actually an incredible feat for me as I am definitely not the best baker. Surprisingly the only mistake I made was ripping the bottom cake layer because it got stuck to the pan! I guess this is what happens when you spend 80% of your TV time watching the cooking channel? Anyway, I definitely had a lot of fun making this as I did the curry buns. Not to mention I got to bug my sister with all the girly songs I was listening to create as much of a girly, cutesy atmosphere as possible while baking （ ﾟ ヮﾟ. Now excuse me, while I go celebrate Metanorn’s anniversary by eating some classic cake~! |
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Peanut Butter Cup Pie: Forgive the hack job on the peanut butter topping. I didn’t have the same mini cup that my mom has to make something better for a design.
You ever start cooking something and then you reach a certain point and realize, “damn, I’m missing something?” I had the peanut butter and cheese cream mixed together, and when I went to open the fridge to get my milk, I realized I had just finished my other milk the other day. A quick drive to Lowe’s Foods fixed that. Moments later, another drive fixed my lack of pudding mix. I learned to make this when I was younger because I loved only PB pie at the time and wasn’t big on what other pies would be made for Thanksgiving dessert. Peanut Butter is my favorite cookie and my favorite pie. |
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The Ingredients
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Hehehe, I love baking. If you guys remember last year, I made awesome cookies. This year I was in a brownie mood, but I also wanted cookies. Such a hard life decision…Jeeze! So, I thought to myself… LIGHTBULB. Why not combine the two!? And thus, I present to you, COOKIE BROWNIES. Basically, what I did with this was use brownie mix and cookie mix and combine the two. Usually, I’m an elitist when it comes to baking and I prefer to bake from scratch. I was pressed for time this year, so I did end up resorting to the box, but my skill is still definitely evident here! These were absolutely delicious. Unfortunately, I had to share with my father and sister, but I most certainly got my fair share! But yah, what better way to celebrate Metanorn’s fourth year than with the ultimate hybrid of every sweet tooth’s two weaknesses! COOKIE BROWNIE. *brushes off shoulders* My work here is done. |
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My turn now! I made Kwetiau Siram for METANORN’s Anniversary ^^ That’s the Indonesian name for “shahe fen/kway teow/kwetiau/rice noodle poured with thick sauce.” I don’t know the name in English. If someone knows it, do tell! It’s pretty simple and not hard to make. Yeah, definitely something that university students with lack of culinary skill (like me) would make. The noodle was soggy though because I boiled it for too long, and I mixed some stuff that just made the food paler LOL. Thank god for the accidental colored sauce. It tasted pretty good, so I guess I can proudly say that I successfully made an amateur-ish “Chinese food”? LOL. Well, as long as it taste good! And like a true Indonesian, my food was accompanied with Teh Botol, hehe.The rice noodle just needs to be boiled with oil, but not too long or else it will become soggy. For the sauce, fry the seasoning. It consists of chopped shallot and garlic, salt, little bit of sugar, and black pepper. For those who want colored sauce, put some buillon too. When the tasty aroma is released, dump the fried seasoning into the water. After the seasoning dissolves into the water, dump the addition stuff (Mine is seedling and chopped bakso/Indonesian meatball) into the water. Wait until the water boils. When it does, pour dissolved corn starch into it then stir until the water boils again and the water thickens. Done! Take some of the kewtiau that’s already dried, and then pour the sauce while it’s hot! See? It’s not that hard. |
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Okay, so first of all, I planned on cooking a traditional Polish dish of handmade Pierogies to show off to all of you, since I come from a strong polish background. However, because of time constraints regarding school commitments I didn’t have the time to run to the store and prepare everything, so I decided “Hey, let’s be adventurous and try something new!” I love, love, love sandwiches, but finding recipes that don’t include things I can’t eat because of food allergies (meat, seafood, certain raw veggies … etc) is difficult! Food is amazing, and I hate taking supplements, so I normally have to find recipes that have good health benefits. That’s how I came across a recipe for a white bean sandwich. Since we’re doing this Y4 Anniversary post, I wanted to try something new for the special occasion, and this new sandwich recipe looked delicious not to mention I already had all of the ingredients. And … that’s where my nightmare began.
I gathered all the ingredients (a can of white beans, bread, olive oil, some lettuce, salt, pepper, and chipotle pepper sauce) and was excited to be making something I’ve never tried before. The pictures all looked great on the recipe and that’s when I opened the can of white beans … The smell was HORRENDOUS. Literally puke worthy. (They were a long ways from expiring, mind you.) I ignored the stench, drained the beans, threw all the ingredients in the processor, and made my spread. I seasoned it as best I could to divert my senses from that smell, which I eventually got used to. Got out my bread, put on the spread, threw on some lettuce, and ta-daaaa, it was done! Somewhat anxious and nervous to try it, I took my first bite and lo and behold I soon found myself sprawled across the table reaching for the glass of water that seemed miles away from my hand. I chugged every last drop, ran to the sink and put my head under the faucet. It was THAT mind-blowingly disgusting. MAKE AT YOUR OWN RISK. >< I’m not sure if my inhuman food allergies had something to do with the taste, because my brother and dad seemed to like it to a degree, but it was one of the worst food experiences I’ve ever had and I’ll never open that damn recipe book ever again. I like to cook, even though this wasn’t necessarily cooking, but I’ve given up on anything white bean related. The series of pics below outline the process of my demise. Unfortunately I have let my fellow male bloggers down. Later, and happy anniversary Meta!~ |
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Last time I cooked something sweet and almost unintelligible to most of you because well, it’s a South Asian dish and not easily available; not to mention, the recipe is something that my mum came up with herself. This time however, I am making something familiar to most of you with my own touch of Asian-delight to it and I’ve named it: Alaa Mac&Cheese (Alaa means superb/magnificent in Urdu :3). If you make this, you seriously do not need any other dish for main course except for maybe cold drink to wash it down. Now, let Kyokai-chef take you through the easy steps~
You can use home-made pasta (like me) or pre-made ones but make sure you do not use thin ones! Before the oven-business, the pan(s) you use should be well-oiled (I used olive), and same for pasta so that they gel well with white sauce and other ingredients. Along with cheese (mozzarella) and white sauce, I added sautéed vegetables (long and thinly-cut, onions, cabbage, capsicum, carrot and tomatoes), cooked with black pepper and a dash of garam masala and spicy chicken sausage (small bit-size cut), as main ingredients. Remember, the well-oiled pan I mentioned before? Duck the slightly-oiled pasta in it, mix white sauce and add the cut chicken-sausage bits along with veggie-delight to pan(s). Top all of it with cheese and sprinkle oregano to taste along with breadcrumbs over it. Put the pan(s) in a pre-heated oven for 10 minutes in maximum heat (timing may differ in terms of which type of oven you are using). Of course, the cheese will melt and the aroma will make your stomach growl. So, I feasted upon this with the rest of my family and even they wished Metanorn many years of anniversaries in future with awesome food of course. YUM! |
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Be jealous of all the colour & cheeze~
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Trying to make new things is always a fun thing for me, especially when it involves making Japanese food. Recently I’ve been re-watching the beginning of Naruto Shippuuden and man, seeing Naruto eat ramen had me making my own. Then I got to the part where Akatsuki was heading towards the 3-tails and I saw Deidara and Tobi eating dango. Yepp, you bet I thought I’d give it a try. So here it is! Mitarashi Dango. I wasn’t looking at a picture on if the balls are spaced apart or close together. My bad, they’re supposed to be close to each other. :3 I haven’t had real mitarashi dango since I was little, I doubt mine tasted right because even though the recipe sounds easy… it’s actually hard to make the sauce. Well, there’s always a next time. By the way, I didn’t just grill the dango. It was actually steamed first and then I grilled them after skewering them. Sorry for the lack of process images. Anyways, this also reminds me that there’s actually a Filipino type of dango called Karioka. Instead of steaming the rice balls, you fry it, there’s coconut added in the mixture and the sauce is sweeter. This shall be my next cooking adventure. Mmmmm. |
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Well, there you have it! Pretty awesome with such a bigger turnout this year compared to last. And finally! The Meta Guys decided to show us Meta Gurls that they can make something… at least. This second ever Cooking Showcase was a success. Expect another next year too. If you have any questions on the recipes used, please ask in the comments. Now you Meta Fans, show us what you have made in celebration of this event and of course join the PARTYYYYYYYYYY~!
Happy 4th Year Anniversary, Metanorn!!! <3 The Metanorn Team~
About Tag Team
We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.
POWUH: iLurker with 8 comments
Aughhh! All the food looks so good! Awesome party food for a wonderful occasion 🙂 Happy 4th Anniversary!
POWUH: 500-599 and The Trapolicious Treasurer with 599 comments
Thanks~!
POWUH: Meta Resident and Yōko Fanboy with 1246 comments
Oh gosh Hawthorn… LMAO!!! I applaud your bravery mate ;D You deserve more than a chocolate milk drink trooper!
But I have to agree with Marina, they all (except Hawthorns sandwich) look SOOOO DELICIOUS~!!! I’m in search of a vegetarian website where I can cook some Japanese vegetarian dishes for myself ;D I know there exists a vegetarian takoyaki version and there’s no way I’m kicking the bucket before having a takoyaki! Dishonor to the otaku name :3
Anyone know a site? hehe ^^
POWUH: 500-599 and The Trapolicious Treasurer with 599 comments
I don’t know any specific Japanese vegetarian recipe websites. But your best bet is just to google it. That’s how I find most of the recipes for my cooking adventures. XD
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I make takoyaki a lot…YOU NEED TO TRY IT MAN!!!! IT’S MY FAVOURITE FOOD! Just find a traditional recipe (yay google. Ness is right!) and you should be fine just substituting the octopus for whatever vegetable you think would taste good. Pretty much everything else you need for takoyaki doesn’t involve meat or seafood. I tried several different versions of takoyaki from just googling it and they all taste good…lol
POWUH: Meta Resident and Yōko Fanboy with 1246 comments
ahahah thanks Ness and OC ^^ Though it was hard finding a proper site with recipes but I found a few ones that got my interest from multiple sites 😛 Maybe I might need to consult my library… hmm
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
*droooooooooooooooooooooools*
Let’s have this party in one place and eat till we drop! xD
Man, I love all the dished and Hawt was such a trooper! Special hearts for him. Definitely awesome turnout this year. :3
POWUH: 500-599 and The Trapolicious Treasurer with 599 comments
I think if us Meta peeps ever met up, we should have a big cooking showcase feast… haha.. right? :3
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
ahahaha yes at least we wont starve <3
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Best PARTY EVER~
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
OH.
MY.
GOD.
FOOD!
Whoaaaaaa everyone has some amazing looking food! I need to try a little bit of everything <3 <3 <3
LOLOL Hawte you are full of win because you photoshoped my favorite type of glasses! HIGH FIVE and lulz chocolate milk you can never go wrong with that.
Jrow! That pie looks awesome and everyone else's desserts also look great...protip do not look at this post while you are hungry O_O
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
I’m just glad that it was lunch time, when I scheduled this for post because my stomach was already growling seeing all the awesome desserts (that CAKE and strawberries dipped in chocolate… MMMM) and meals.
POWUH: 400-499 with 406 comments
Oh my god that all looks so delicious! Now I am forever hungry…! Or maybe it is just time to make breakfast.
OC, I want to eat your dish so much. It looks am amazing!
Happy anniversary Metanorn!
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I’m amazed how many of us can cook so well. I want to eat everything…
Aww, thanks! It was pretty good! I had the leftovers with sea bass the next day and it was even better =w=
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 207 comments
OHHHH MAHHH GAWWWDD.
Everything looks so good 0w0. At least I can go here and stare at food porn instead of making food myself XD
Happy Anniversary again METANORN team 😀
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Hahaaa, food porn! :3
Thank you for the wishes!
POWUH: iLurker with 7 comments
I want to try dango. I REALLY want to try dango. *sobs* Looks delish *_*
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
We have an old regular called dan-go. He should definitely show up so that I can make a successful EAT HIM joke. xD
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Oh my god, I got hungry just by reading this. You guys have excellent cooking skills!!
Hoshi and Zabo, I apologize but if I had the chance, I’d fight for that cake and brownie. They just look too good.
Wow, OC, great job recreating a dish from an anime.
Happy anniversary Metanorn!
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Everything is drool worthy indeed. Thank you for the wishes!
POWUH: 800-899 and Self-proclaimed Manga Queen with 874 comments
~HAWTHORNE YOU LITTLE CUTIE<3 At least you tried! My brothers wouldn't even think of making their own sandwiches lol.
Wow, again, everything looks so delicious *A*
Next year I should try making a main dish instead of dessert...
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
^ Ditto~
And Hoshi, we’ll definitely become better cooks if we keep on experimenting like this. xD
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Zabo, you are an official genius for making those cookie brownies. NO ONE is judging you for using a mix since you actually came up with this amazing chimera treat.
Everyone is amazing. SO AMAZING. Hawthorne, I apologize about your sandwich…Next time you can try and show off your skills more with those pierogies. This time…at least you made all of us laugh with your hilarious and unfortunate tale of the horrible white bean sandwich XD
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
I think mashing up is going to be our next big thing. xD
POWUH: 500-599 with 543 comments
Now I really want those desserts, even though I just had breakfast here in my time zone. I really want that cake, Hoshi.
Hawthorne, lolz. Never eat something that smells bad.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
I feel ya, Gecko; I feel ya. xD
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
ENO-SHIMA-DOOOON!!! I WANT ITTTTT!!! Why I can’t cook(being lazy)…. Well I am still not very clear of the wrters at here soo I will be using colours instead.
Butter cakes already taste good, but now with CHOCOLATES!!! *vomits rainbow* Other sweets looks good too.
But for the most “OMGIGONNARAIDYOURFRIDGE” award: Congratulation, kyokai! I. GONNA. COOK. IT. ONEOFTHESEDAY.
The epic fail reward goes to…… MrYellow. And they say comedy is watching other ppl suffering…. *lol*
I GONNA GRAB SOME CAKE RYTE NOW!!!
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Thank youuu! I’d mail a little bit to everyone if I could but…that won’t work for quite a number of reasons. :/
Glad you like all of the food we whipped up. Kyokai always makes such impressive-looking dishes.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Cools sure did a new spin on otaku food, that Enoshima don looked awesome!
Also, D-LaN, should I thank you for raiding my fridge? 😉 if you cook this, do tell me how it turned out in our IRC channel.
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 338 comments
Omg can I hire you all as my personal chiefs for when I study!! Hoshi that chocolate cake looks deadly! And Jrow that’s impressive, if only I could bake I would try these recipes…. but I do not wish to set the kitchen on fire, again -_-; However, I do make a very mean Chili and I can make grilled cheese like no bodies business XD
Happy 4th Anniversary!! So graving chocolate now…damnit!
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
If we ever have a Metanorn meetup at a con, we’ll make sure to include some delish grub!
Thank you for the wishes and best of luck in future cooking endeavours! :3
POWUH: iLurker with 12 comments
HUNGRY! Gimmeh the desserts! 😛
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Visit your nearby bakery, KYUUBEEHHH! (If only pics could be eaten) xD
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 131 comments
Those all look awesome. Even Hawthorne’s… well, chocolate milk. 😛 I especially loved Kyokai’s, but only because I’m quite partial to cheese. You guys would definitely enjoy a Metanorn RL potluck. 😀
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Hawt’s been such a trooper!
Also, high-five for loving cheesey recipes (my family’s so egg and cheese >>)!
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 209 comments
Now I’m hungry, excuse me while I cook up some pesto pasta. Happy Anniversary guys.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Hope they tasted awesome and thanks for the wishes! ^^
POWUH: 400-499 with 489 comments
thanks for making me hungry despite the fact I just ate
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Hahaaa. I just had the idea, Metanorn Restaurant~
POWUH: iLurker with 1 comments
[…] cuteness of the posts going down by 78% (plus or minus a few extra percentage points). Maybe the Enoshima Don that I made for the Cooking Showcase will make up for it a little? Oh gosh, did I just try to […]
POWUH: iLurker with 2 comments
[…] everyone! Apologies for the delayed post but the Metanorn Anniversary preparation, podcast scheduling, E3 2012 graphics, Aniblog Tourney campaigning and lots of randomosity in […]