#voidlightcomix

Aurum Leuci’s Log:

[Begin recording.] Hello? Hello, hello? Is this thing on? Okay. That was a close one. Your machine is totally broken, man. This time I ended up in a mall… arcade… thing. With an actual kitchen. I unfortunately didn’t get the opportunity to try and fix the portal generator, because there are GIANT SCARY ROBOTS that for some reason want pizza. I MADE pizza. I don’t know how they’re eating it. But they sure are.

Look, I know you’re getting these transmissions, it wouldn’t let me record more if you weren’t, but I’m not getting anything back from you. I need instructions, or a plan, or something. ANYTHING to make sure I’m not jumping aimlessly across spacetime until I inevitably get eaten by something or other. Please. I want to bring my findings home… At least this pizza is pretty good for a weird robot-infested mall. Aurum Leuci out. [End log.]

Please see this post for my full review scale!

Main Dish: Funtime Foxy’s 3-Cheese Veggie Surprise

RATING:

Difficulty: 5/5

Ingredients: 5/5

Immersion: 3/5

Time: 5/5

End Result: 5/5

TOTAL RATING: 23/25

This pizza… was incredible. Aside from the sauce (see the bonus reviews for that), it was easy, it was delicious, and it gets bonus points for being somewhat easy to make plant based. For full disclosure, I didn’t use the Taleggio cheese (and also forgot to add parsley, but who cares about parsley?) and substituted in Miyoko’s plant-based Mozzarella spread instead— so ours was kind of a two-cheese veggie surprise (parmesan and mozz) but it was incredible. I would never have thought to put zucchini on a pizza, but it definitely impressed me. The only reason this pizza loses points is that I don’t think Fazbear Entertainment would serve something this high-quality!

Side Dish: Garlicky Pizza Twirls with Spicy Dip

RATING:

Difficulty: 5/5

Ingredients: 5/5

Immersion: 5/5

Time: 5/5

End Result: 4/5

TOTAL RATING: 24/25

I’ve been looking forward to tackling this recipe since I got this book as a gift. And it DELIVERED! Like the main dish, I also forgot the parsley on this one (silly me, completely forgetting the existence of parsley) but I really don’t think it would have added anything. These twirls, complete with fresh ingredients and a homemade spicy sauce (using the easyplex sauce as a base) absolutely feel like a delicious arcade snack. My only complaint (and this may have been something that I did wrong) is that I don’t think this recipe really makes 10 pizza twirls. The two on either end of the dough log came out completely devoid of cheese or sauce— still delicious, but not a pizza twirl. Just a bread twirl.

BONUS REVIEWS: Pizzaplex Master Dough, Easyplex Pizza Sauce

Pizzaplex Master Dough:

RATING:

Difficulty: 3/5

Ingredients: 5/5

Immersion: 3/5

Time: 5/5

End Result: 5/5

TOTAL RATING: 21/25

This recipe, despite not getting a perfect score, came out pretty great. I don’t have any real notes on it, just that I don’t think Fazbear Entertainment would make their dough fresh in-house, and also that yeast is really hard to work with. If you’re ever using yeast for anything, just… please look up instructions on the internet. Your cookbook cannot help you. (Same with proofing your yeast. Look it up. King Arthur Flour has a really good walkthrough.) In terms of at-home cooking, though, this recipe was relatively simple, and really, really delicious. And it makes enough for 4 pizzas (or 3 pizzas and a delicious batch of pizza twirls.)

Easyplex Pizza Sauce:

RATING:

Difficulty: 1/5

Ingredients: 5/5

Immersion: 1/5

Time: 2/5

End Result: 5/5

TOTAL RATING: 14/25

OH MY GODS, this sauce. Okay. Okay, so. It’s really good, it tasted great and was versatile (I used it in the pizza twirls, the main pizza, and the sauce for the pizza twirls) but, like… The only step is “mash canned tomatoes through a sieve with a spoon and mix in the tomato paste and spices! See how simple!” and IT IS NOT SIMPLE. YOU WILL MASH THE TOMATOES FOR AN HOUR. Your hands will hurt. You will regret your life choices. Your sieve will take as long to clean as the tomatoes took to mash. You could have just bought and seasoned pre-mashed tomato sauce. It was right next to the can of tomatoes you bought. Freddy Fazbear Entertainment is not making their restaurant staff MASH TOMATOES.

The sauce was good, but once I run out of the other half of this batch of it (probably this weekend, since I’m making another pizza) I’m just going to buy canned tomato sauce and season it the same way. I’m not that much of a gourmet.

Aurum Leuci’s Log:

[Begin recording.] Uh, hi. It’s Chef Aurum Leuci again, late… still. Are you sure you fixed the portal coordinates? Because this is NOT the culinary facility. Everything is cubes. I think I might actually be in a computer, because, uh.. when I say everything is cubes, I mean everything is cubes. I’m fine, and my gear is fine, and everything I make is fine, but I’m on an island full of giant pixelated-looking mushrooms, and pixelated… cow… things? With mushrooms growing on them.

…those could probably make a delicious meal, actually. Don’t worry about me, I’m going to see what I can cook up for some quick dinner. This weird new dimension might be a place worth exploring. As always, no need to worry. If I get into a sticky situation, I’ll jump dimensions again— but hopefully I’ll at least have time to eat.

If it’s good, I’ll be sure to bring some back to the lab for you. Aurum Leuci out. [End log.]

Please see this post for my full review scale!

Main Dish: Mooshroom Burger

RATING:

Difficulty: 5/5

Ingredients: 5/5

Immersion: 4/5

Time: 5/5

End Result: 4/5

TOTAL RATING: 23/25

I love this recipe, and so does my entire family. It’s a delicious swiss-and-mushroom burger that’s easily made completely plant-based using Impossible Beef and Daiya cheese- and it always turns out SO good! The reason this recipe isn’t quite perfect is twofold, so let me start with the somewhat sillier reason first: I WANT THIS BURGER IN MY GAME!!! Please!! We have the technology (bread, mushrooms, cooked beef). Give me the mooshroom burger, Mojang. Or at least a sandwich of some kind. The second point off is a matter of personal preference; the original recipe makes four absolutely MASSIVE burgers. Like, big enough that my family (all four of us) could barely finish them the first time I made this. I highly recommend cutting the recipe (and the resulting two, still massive, burgers) in half. Aside from that, this recipe was perfect (and delicious!) and very satisfying.

Side Dish: Roasted Crops

RATING:

Difficulty: 5/5

Ingredients: 5/5

Immersion: 5/5

Time: 4/5

End Result: 5/5

TOTAL RATING: 24/25

This recipe is another one I wish I could rate absolutely perfect. It’s easy, the ingredients are easy to get but relatively uncommon in most dishes, and the end result tastes incredible! This recipe made me love carrots, and it resulted in me even agreeing to TRY beets, which is a huge feat. The only point it loses is that the cookbook drastically underestimates prep time for cutting and peeling the vegetables. Especially if you’re not used to handling beets, they’re messy and will definitely freak you out at least once when the juice gets on your hands. Honestly, though, this cookbook was worth buying JUST for this recipe. It’s a consistent hit with my family.

Aurum Leuci’s Log:

[Begin recording.] Hey, uh, Chef Aurum here. Sorry I’m late. I think I must have miscalibrated my dimensional portal generator, because I absolutely did NOT intend to wind up on a Neimoidian ship orbiting some random colony world— Narq, I think?— much less in a kitchen full of apparently-smuggled Kullgroon fruit and Cantonican vegetation. Luckily, I can handle myself in a kitchen— so let’s hope for my sake the politicians on this ship don’t know their kitchen staff by name. I can at least make some kind of fancy dinner for them before I find a safe place to reactivate the portal. And besides— I want to try that smuggled produce.

I’ll check in with you after the next jump, once it’s safe. Aurum Leuci out. [End log.]

The Feast Your Eyes Recipe Rating Scale

In this series, I’ll be rating each recipe based on five factors, each of which can receive up to five points. These reviews will be written out-of-character, detailing my (AJ) opinions and experiences with the recipes detailed in the post. I eat almost entirely plant-based, so any substitutions related to animal products will be denoted in the descriptions of dishes. The rating scale is as follows:

Difficulty: How easy or hard was this recipe to follow? Harder recipes will score lower in this category, while easier recipes will score higher.

Ingredients: How easy or hard were ingredients to source? This category will be scored similarly to Difficulty, and any substitutions made will be denoted in the recipe’s section.

Immersion: How well does this recipe fit the universe or world that it’s from? High scores in this category mean high immersion, while low scores mean that it’s not particularly immersive.

Time: How much time did this take? Recipes that take less time will score higher in this category.

End Result: With the recipe followed as closely as possible (according to my dietary restrictions/ingredient sourcing capability), how did the final dish turn out? Higher scores in this category denote a better final dish.

Side Dish: Cantonican Cactus Bites

RATING:

Difficulty: 5/5

Ingredients: 5/5

Immersion: 3/5

Time: 3/5

End Result: 3/5

TOTAL RATING: 19/25

I came into this recipe REALLY wanting to give it a perfect rating. I love roasted brussels sprouts, and really, really wanted to like this recipe. It was straightforward to prepare, you could buy the ingredients at any grocery store, and it seemed like it would turn out really tasty. I was willing to put aside the fact that it’s just roasted brussels sprouts (not a terribly Star Wars-y dish) and was really hoping the taste would blow me away. Unfortunately, these turned out somewhat underwhelming. Despite following the recipe exactly, as you can see in the photo, these sprouts (and all of the tasty vegetables cooked with them, including fresh shallots and garlic) burned a little in the oven. This recipe definitely has potential- but as written in the cookbook, it’s somewhat middling.

Main Course: Narquois Rolls

RATING:

Difficulty: 5/5

Ingredients: 3/5

Immersion: 5/5

Time: 5/5

End Result: 5/5

TOTAL RATING: 23/25

This recipe was AWESOME, and a hit with my family. It only loses points on the sad fact that I wasn’t able to source enoki mushrooms (the main ingredient of the dish) and had to substitute in a mix of other mushrooms. Having done some research on the planet of Narq (also known as Narqui?), I don’t think this was terribly immersion breaking, since it’s a foresty, swampy planet with… large fungal forests! I would love to make it again with actual enoki mushrooms to see how those would have affected the taste and texture— these were delicious.

Dessert: Kullgroon Drops

RATING:

Difficulty: 5/5

Ingredients: 5/5

Immersion: 5/5

Time: 5/5

End Result: 5/5

TOTAL RATING: A perfect 25/25!

I was really skeptical about this recipe— it’s literally just frozen grapes and Jell-O dust. Surprisingly, this is my highest-rated dish from this review! Super easy, super quick (the only time sink is letting them freeze) and they come out delicious, chilly, and beautifully alien! They’d be a believable find in a snow-covered environment like Kullgroon, and they were absolutely delicious.

Please see this post for an in-depth explanation of my review criteria!

Main Dish: Suspicious Stew

RATING:

Difficulty: 5/5

Ingredients: 5/5

Immersion: 5/5

Time: 5/5

End Result: 5/5

TOTAL RATING: 25/25

This recipe was the reason I originally bought this book— I saw a review on YouTube and it looked so good that I impulse-bought the book that night. And it’s also my favorite recipe from this book so far. Because it absolutely, without fail, impresses. And it’s delicious. It’s a somewhat simple vegetable stew— the hardest part is just chopping all the vegetables. After that, it’s all just simmering for a long time. All the vegetables get tender, and it’s the kind of stew that fills you right up. There’s never any leftovers. :)

Drink: Slimeball Tea

RATING:

Difficulty: 5/5

Ingredients: 3/5

Immersion: 5/5

Time: 5/5

End Result: 2/5

TOTAL RATING: 20/25

This recipe… is really good in theory. You can’t really tell from the photo, since it kind of failed, but it’s SUPPOSED to be a matcha milk tea with boba at the bottom. The matcha was really pleasant (even if I consistently fail to froth matcha no matter what method I use) and would’ve made a nice boba tea. However, my tapioca/boba pearls didn’t become gel… which may have been my fault? The recipe said to follow the instructions on the package… and there were no instructions on the package… so I did my best to follow the instructions the recipe gave me. I intend to give it another shot later on down the line, and hopefully get it right. For now, the score will stay like this, though.