Interview with Pixelated Provisions

I had the opportunity to interview another talented food blogger who takes her inspiration from video games. Meet Victoria of Pixelated Provisions!

1. Tell us about your blog and where the idea came from to start it.

Five years ago I started a food blog to inspire my friends to cook more at home. As I worked on it I found myself bored with just writing up food recipes and looked for some inspiration. A year later I came up with a plan to develop a blog that connected my love for food and video games. That was the beginning of Pixelated Provisions. The blog’s focus is to recreate food items found in video game worlds to enjoy in the real world. I try to bring as many video games as I can to show off all the variety and range that video games have to offer.

Farming Muffins from Stardew Valley

2. Whether you came up with it or someone else posted it on the Internet, what’s your favourite fandom recipe you’ve seen?

It is hard to just pick one. There are many creative geeky food bloggers out there.

Lvl 1 Chef’s – Angelo’s Cake from Bravely Second

Bryan at Lvl 1 Chef is a professional pastry chef. His presentation skills are some of the best I’ve seen out there. Many of his recipe inspire me to become better at pastry design and layout. This cake from Bravely Second is one of my favorites from his blog and one of the most gorgeous I’ve ever seen. This particular recipe is one I’ll be making in the near future for my company wide Thanksgiving potluck. I’m hoping mine will look even half as good as his.

Pretty Cake Machine’s – Undertale Undertree series

Katharina at Pretty Cake Machine is also a professional pastry chef. Her recipes cover a wide variety of nerdy culture. Earlier this year she did a series of recipes from Undertale. From drinks to finger snacks, this series would make for a perfect Undertale tea party.

Pixelated Provisions’ – Chicken Ramen from The World Ends with You and Bloodstone Ice Cream from Guild Wars 2

Looking back at my long list of recipes, these are two that stand out for me. Ramen is my favorite food of all time. I grew up eating a lot of cup ramen but that changed the moment I tried actual ramen. Most of the ramen I’ve had out in the world is pork based. Unfortunately, my husband could not experience the wonderful world of ramen because he does not eat pork. Research began and development of this ramen started. The recipe itself is very time consuming but it is worth all the effort.

Bloodstone Ice Cream from Guild Wars 2

The Bloodstone Ice Cream from Guild Wars 2 is another one of my recipes that I enjoyed coming up with. In Guild Wars 2 there is a pretty common item drop called bloodstone dust. A lot of people had piles and piles of it in their banks. A chef was introduced in game that tried to come up with cooking recipes using this dust. I decided to come up with a real world version of bloodstone dust icecream. I wanted to capture some of the health impairing effects of the in-game recipe. The end result was an ice cream that was creamy and refreshing but at the end you get hit with a nice spicy kick.

3. What is your favourite thing to eat that a lot of people might think is gross or weird?

Natto. It is fermented soy beans that traditionally is eaten for breakfast in Japan. I don’t find myself eating this all the time but if I’m somewhere that has it I will always order and eat. The flavor is very unique. I would recommend giving it a try but keep in mind a lot of people do not like it.

4. Tell us one of your best cooking or baking tips please!

Constantly taste your food as you cook. The beauty with cooking is you can experiment and adjust things as you are making it. If you are starting to cook at home I’d recommend following recipes. While following the recipes, taste as you cook and adjust the seasoning. Do not be afraid to add more spices or salt than the recipe suggests. Just make sure to slowly add more spices while constantly tasting.

5. Do you have a cookbook that you can’t live without?

I have several cookbooks and authors I adore. My go to book is Joy of Cooking. Many times when trying to figure out a new recipe I begin my research with this book. It has tons of recipes and detailed descriptions for how to approach things. I’ve learned a lot from this book.

6. What are you current top 5 geek loves?

These current geek loves aren’t in any order:

Overwatch
One Piece
A Song of Ice and Fire
Persona/Shin Megami Tensei Series (very excited for the release of Persona 5 next year)
Board games (some of my favorites are Power Grid, T’zolkin and Roll for the Galaxy)