Real Life versions of in game food?

[World's Cutest Buggirl]

Hello! Me and my friends love this game and were talking about putting together a cooking club to try and make some of the foods in the game! However, we are American and our knowledge of Chinese and Asian cooking is only half there, and there's a number of foods we are struggling with. Some are foods that we can't tell quite what they are from the image (the Boiled Tofu; what sort of sauce and veggies are on it?) while others are obviously fantasy dishes that we can't figure out if they're based on real things (is Shirayuki just a funny idea for the most fancy stew, or is there a real type of stew it would be based on?)

That's why i'm making this thread, to go over the stuff I picked out as unsure about and wanted to check. Here's a list (warning this is pretty long)

Things i think are real dishes, but could use a recipe for and am not sure what type of real dishes they are (or how you would make them):
* Fresh Tofu, Boiled Tofu, Hunter's Casserole, Dew Runny Eggs, Golden Ribs Soup, Energy Pudding, Pine Nut Cake, Rice Powder Meat, Misery Cheese Sticks

Things with strange ingredients that I can't figure out:
* Everything with lamprey (I know why mystia uses lamprey, but is lamprey actually edible? Can we use eel, or should we try lamprey?)
* Everything with cicada sloughs (i have seen many ways to cook with insects, including cicadas; but i have not see any cooking with cicada sloughs. Is this a real thing I could try, or should I use easier to find insects in america like crickets or such?)
* Scarlet Devil Cake/Unconcious Yokai Mousse (It is easy to assume that these are a devil cake and a chocolate mousse; however, the devil cake has potato and pumpkin and the mousse has onion? I am assuming these are because the game didn't have many western cooking ingredients yet, because I do not know how to make onion mousse)
* Shrimp Stuffed Pumpkin (I know of a number of shrimp pumpkin recipes, but none that use tofu. Is this something that I don't know of?)
* Power Soup (Is there a real boar meat + seafood soup?)
* Mushroom Herb Road (What exactly are the herbs here)

Dishes that are fantastical and I am not sure if they are based on real things:
* Imitation Bear Paw (obviously bear paw is a real dish that we would not make. Is there an actual imitation bear paw dish?)
* Shirayuki
* Niten Ichiryu (Is this anything more then just a fancy meat skewer with 2 skewers?)
* Ino-Shika-Chou (What sort of clear soup would this be, is this a version of a real dish?)
* Cubic Kedama Volcanic Tofu (While I have found a dish called "lava tofu", I have not found any that look like this.)
* Creamy Crab (is there a soup that has the whole crab on top like this?)
* Imitation Shirikodama (Obviously these are not real. What do YOU think they are like? A meatball? Fried dough?)
* Dragon Karp, Kabuto Steamed Cake, Heart Throbbing Surprise, Star Lotus Ship, White Deer Unyielding Pine, Eight Trigram Fish Maws, Against The World, Palace of the Han, Scrumptious Storm, Urchin Raindrop Cake, and basically every meal the Watatsuki sisters request (These are impossible, right? Are any of these real)

The one drink I can't figure out:
* What cocktail do you think Daughter of the Sea is?

I would appreciate any help or advice that anyone has! I have already learned a lot from this project (like that Buddha Over The Wall is a real dish) and am excited to try some of these, but am looking figure them all out as best I can. Thank you for your time!

[Vengyr]

I hope you've tried making Tomato Fries with potato sauce!

[World's Cutest Buggirl]

Originally posted by Vengyr:

I hope you've tried making Tomato Fries with potato sauce!

We absolutely will be! They seem very doable, though, as they're just deep fried tomato slices with a potato-based sauce. It'll take some inventing, but that's easily inventable!

[100%牧草飼育牛乳]

"Fresh Tofu" is hiyayakko, a dish of chilled, uncooked silken tofu that much like in-game is infinitely adjustable and customizeable with just about any toppings you might like, but traditionally is usually topped with green onion, katsuoboshi, grated ginger, and soy sauce. I personally like to make a sweet version sometimes that leaves off all the savory toppings and use dried fruit and honey...

Note: it HAS to be silken(kinugoshi) tofu, don't use firm(momen) tofu, the game doesn't distinguish between the two but it won't be the same, kinugoshi tofu has a soft and creamy texture almost like custard or firm pudding that's necessary for the dish.

"Boiled tofu" is yudoufu, a similarly simple dish, at its absolute simplest it's just firm tofu boiled in water with salt and konbu for flavor, but once again much like in-game, one could adjust the recipe a bit and add dashi flakes(to make broth instead of just salted water), mirin, soy sauce in place of salt, miso paste (which would basically turn the dish into miso soup instead), or add other vegetables or meat to the broth, etc.

[Royal Armenian]

Originally posted by Milk Fermenter:

"Fresh Tofu" is hiyayakko, a dish of chilled, uncooked silken tofu that much like in-game is infinitely adjustable and customizeable with just about any toppings you might like, but traditionally is usually topped with green onion, katsuoboshi, grated ginger, and soy sauce. I personally like to make a sweet version sometimes that leaves off all the savory toppings and use dried fruit and honey...

Note: it HAS to be silken(kinugoshi) tofu, don't use firm(momen) tofu, the game doesn't distinguish between the two but it won't be the same, kinugoshi tofu has a soft and creamy texture almost like custard or firm pudding that's necessary for the dish.

"Boiled tofu" is yudoufu, a similarly simple dish, at its absolute simplest it's just firm tofu boiled in water with salt and konbu for flavor, but once again much like in-game, one could adjust the recipe a bit and add dashi flakes(to make broth instead of just salted water), mirin, soy sauce in place of salt, miso paste (which would basically turn the dish into miso soup instead), or add other vegetables or meat to the broth, etc.

okonomiyaki is essentially fried spaghetti with tomater sauce and pork

[World's Cutest Buggirl]

Thank you so much!

[amii]

Did a google search and lampreys are edible im pretty sure! im not sure which type of lamprey is in mystias izakaya but it seems like whatever lamprey is nearest to you might work

as for the watatsuki sisters + Against The World!... Im p sure these items are made via molecular gastronomy. So. Yeah. Depends on what you know about molecular gastronomy.

Looking up cicada sloughs, It seems like its used for medicinal purposes. think its also known as chan tui. i dont know if its used in cuisine but figured it was worth mentioning.

i dont know if daughter of the sea is based on a real cocktail but you get it in game by trading mio (which seems to be a sparkling sake irl. maybe. the bottle is the same colour as the drink in game) so maybe thats a start?

Also rin's nekomanma is based on a real dish of the same name and the wind priestess is based on the grasshopper (at least if MegaFrog on youtube is right about that). Just figured id say those things. Good luck on your cooking! the food in this game always looks so good so i hope its just as good irl