Have you ever seen those video game foods that look absolutely delicious, and you want to try them so bad, but you can’t, because it’s not real? Yup, me too.
Before, I had lamented this loss as unfixable, wallowing in eternal grief that I could never try the foods of my dreams. But today, I came to the realization that the world is indeed my oyster, and that the barrier between reality and video games could not stop me from eating the food that I desired. Enter this article: video game food in real life!
As this dish was my very first re-creation, I had to choose wisely. After scouring food options and making my stomach grumble in protest, I chose to make a dish from the video game that started my online gaming addiction in seventh grade: Genshin Impact. The number one dish that I craved during my seventh grade video game phase was dango milk. From the moment I laid eyes on the drink, I knew I needed to try it.
Dango milk is the specialty drink of one of my favorite characters, Raiden Shogun. She discovers and falls in love with this sweet treat in the street stalls of Inazuma, the Japan-inspired region of the video game.
Dango milk, which is a dessert created in the Genshin cinematic universe, is not a real dish in Japanese cuisine. As such, I was dissatisfied with many of the re-creation recipes I found online: they simply made the dango balls, then plopped them into a drink of plain milk sweetened by condensed milk and called it a day. In my mind, dango milk has always been a delicious amalgamation of milk and mochi. Thus, it was only fitting that I took some (many) creative liberties when recreating this dish.
For the “dango” part of the drink, I decided to make medium-sized mochi balls, a combination of glutinous rice flour and milk, which would sink to the bottom of the drink. For the milk itself, I chose to mix plain milk, condensed milk, and milk mochi, which is created through a high ratio of milk to glutinous rice flour.
Although I had my qualms about creating my own recipe, the finished product was a delicious drink that I could only have imagined in my dreams! I was very happy with my re-creation, and now I wondered what my friends would think about it…
My first taste tester Gia Pendyala (’28) was an avid Genshin player during COVID-19. Pendyala looked mildly disgusted when she took her first spoonful of the drink, so I was very worried. But then she asked me if she could keep drinking and proceeded to down the drink, so that made me feel much better. She really liked the dish, and I was ecstatic when she said that it exceeded her expectations of what the fictional drink would taste like.
Next up for the taste-testing was Zhaohua Chen (’27). Chen was the one who gave me the idea to write this article, so she had to be featured. She liked the dango itself, saying that “it’s really good” and “sweet, but not too sweet,” which is the ultimate compliment for Asian desserts. She did remark, though, that the dango was firm on the inside and softer on the outside. Upon trying the drink itself, she astutely noted that it tasted like rice, and I was glad to see that the flavor from the glutinous rice flour was apparent. Chen then said that it definitely tastes better than it would in-game, which may actually be a backhanded compliment because Raiden canonically can’t cook. As Chen is an avid Genshin player—and, don’t be fooled by her sweet and kind demeanor—the comment may or may not be an intentional insult….
In my opinion, the tasting was a huge success! My favorite part of video games is that you can play with your friends, so being able to share this dish with my friends was awesome! I had such a blast recreating dango milk. There is freedom when making fictional dishes because there’s no right or wrong flavor, as no standard exists for what it should or should not taste like. The only determining factor of its success is deliciousness!
