Dinnertime cosplay

July 29, 2014 5:28 PM

Multiple websites are out there to help you dine like an anime character. Typically, they consist of anime screencaps plus either adapted or invented recipes that attempt to replicate the dishes. Okonomiyaki, dainty strawberry cakes, gyoza, Ponyo's ramen, coffee jelly, you name it! There's the earnest Real Anime Food. Then there's the sillier Recipes for Weebs, which has functional indices. Anime Recipes hasn't updated in a year, but it has a long list of recipes, including the fish pie from Kiki's Delivery Service.

More? Itadakimasu Anime seems to focus on general dishes that show up in many anime, like purin and omurice (with copious screencaps). Culinary Adventures and More: Real Life Anime Food. Otaku Recipes. Anime B&B: Food (not a ton of recipes, but very detailed). Foodie Fanart has a wider range of influences beyond anime. And if you can read Japanese, Animeshi. Anime recipes show up on YouTube, too (warning for autoplay): Feast of Fiction has a wide range of source material, including a few anime. Miki's Pantry will teach you how to make sootball and Dragonball cookies.

Finally, Anime Foods is FULL OF GIFS.

Something missing? You might be able to find it at en.cookpad.com, the English version of Japan's popular and charming user-submitted recipe database (previously).

posted by wintersweet (11 comments total)

I forget sometimes that there's this whole contingent out there who regard Japan as being basically "that place where anime is set," rather than "a place where people live and work and stuff," with people who appear to regard Ramune and Pocky (rarely, if ever, pronounced correctly in either case) as a sort of postmodern wine and eucharist.

Which is not to suggest that things like okonomiyaki are not delicious, nor that Japan isn't just as much home to swaths of people who think of the United States primarily as being where cowboy movies or The Blues Brothers were set.

Justhungry.com is a good link that you forgot to include, at least so far as actual Japanese cooking is concerned. The sister site, justbento.com, is also quite good (and was spun off into a published cookbook).
posted by DoctorFedora at 5:37 PM on July 29, 2014

Does drinking Dr. Pepper while thinking about time travel count?
posted by Uppity Pigeon #2 at 5:41 PM on July 29, 2014 [6 favorites]

Yeah, DoctorFedora, I know. I didn't include Maki's sites because I think of those in a different category (and Cookpad itself is really just daily life food--throwing it in was an afterthought). But people have different motivations for doing things, and I know a lot of teens in the culturally isolated area where I now live who would literally have never tried either Japanese food in a restaurant or cooking anything at home if it hadn't been for anime. From my point of view, that's a definite step up from Pocky fetishization and maybe a step toward getting a broader perspective for these fans.

As for me, seeing things like the fish pie (or lembas or klah or whatever) made in the real world is an entirely different and very entertaining thing.


Anyway, for normal, everyday Japanese cooking, Cooking with Dog (previously) is also nice.
posted by wintersweet at 5:46 PM on July 29, 2014 [3 favorites]

And for that matter, I'd like to note that the Bistro Animeshi book (and above website) is in Japanese and meant for Japanese audiences--and it doesn't appear to be solely unique fantasy foods, either. There are a lot of everyday dishes in it, arranged to look like they do in certain anime.
posted by wintersweet at 5:51 PM on July 29, 2014

Yeah, I lived in Illinois for a year around ninth grade, and man, that sure drove home the point that there are some really white-bread areas of the US. Like, places that are one step away from "pizza is considered 'ethnic food.' " I cringe (slightly) partially because I clearly recognize that whole impulse myself. ; )
posted by DoctorFedora at 5:53 PM on July 29, 2014 [1 favorite]

But how do I open my mouth wider than my head?
posted by RobotHero at 6:21 PM on July 29, 2014 [2 favorites]

DoctorFedora, you made me think of this...

VOICE:
Elder Cross and Elder Green! You will
Be serving in.... Japan!

ELDER GREEN:
Ooh! JAPAN!?

ELDER CROSS:
Land of Soy Sauce!

ELDER GREEN:
And Mothra!

-- Book of Mormon, the Musical

posted by Hermione Granger at 7:08 PM on July 29, 2014 [1 favorite]

I will admit I did learn to make okonomiyaki because of Ranma 1/2.
And a friend of mine has a Game of Thrones cook book.

I guess if you're going to be influenced by media, there are worse things than letting it influence your diet.
posted by RobotHero at 8:10 PM on July 29, 2014 [2 favorites]

Okay, I'm familiar with (if not particularly accomplished at) the NOT-THE-CHEAP-INSTANT-NOODLE-BRICK kind of Ramen, at least partly through the wacky* "Muteki Kanban Musume", a.k.a. "Ramen Fighter Miki". So I was somewhat disappointed that the sites had some "Naruto Ramen" or "Ponyo Ramen", but no "Miki Ramen". Also on the wacky side is "Tokyo Pig", whose title character does NOT become a meal, thankfully, but one of the first episodes is titled, in English dub, "Dad Is the Worst Cook in the World". Yummy!

*my taste in Anime ranges from Wacky to FoolyCooly, thank you.
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:09 PM on July 29, 2014 [1 favorite]

Lots to chew on here (sorry).

I'm reminded of Astro Fighter Sunred, whose primary antagonist, General Vamp, has a cooking interlude at the end of many episodes. Among his featured recipes, which mostly seem to be "how to make stuff with leftovers": Fried Chicken Stew
posted by Room 101 at 6:32 AM on July 30, 2014 [1 favorite]

Came back in to add Gourmet Gaming!
posted by wintersweet at 6:09 PM on August 5, 2014