Thanksgiving just happened; I shouldn’t even be thinking about food outside of items I should donate to the food bank. But despite stuffing myself like the very turkey that used to exist outside of the spirit realm, I find I’m not dissuaded in any manner by looking up foodstuffs on the internet. Ignoring my slew of cooking/cake blogs I’m following on Tumblr, I’ve been led to another site which, once more, combines food with my favorite hobby, gaming. I’ve already covered a couple of these types of sites before, and I’m sure this won’t be the last one either, so if this kind of thing strikes your fancy, be sure to check those out too. But today we look at the journey of one gamer, kierpanda, as she learns her way around the kitchen in addition to kicking some patoot in games.
Eat, Game, Live is a blog with a simple mission statement: help other gamers attempt cooking something healthy—or healthier than the stereotypical gamer grub—by providing interesting, colorful recipes that are easy to make. This is what sets it apart from the other cooking sites I’ve reviewed thus far. It’s easy enough, in theory, to provide fun looking recipes, but I’m not exactly a savant in the kitchen. I get impatient when I have to leave something to cool in the microwave for a couple minutes; there’s no way I can get myself to take the time necessary to prepare some fancy dish that’s just going to end up in my gullet. While I can’t say that every recipe is going to appeal to my personal feelings on cooking, there are many recipes in kierpanda’s repertoire that I looked at and went, “yeah, I could do that.”
More importantly than the recipes, though, is kierpanda’s writing voice. Again, in theory it’s easy to start a site that simply posts recipes, but it’s hard to get people to care about it. There are thousands of recipe sites and no matter how good those specific ones are, what’s being done differently to make that site stand out? At Eat, Game, Live that certain je ne sais quoi factor is kierpanda herself. I’ve never met her at all—while playing games or in real life—but I feel like I know her. I feel like she could be one of the friends I had in high school or college. Eat, Game, Live isn’t just about the food, it’s about kierpanda’s experiences with food and gaming, experiences that I think a lot of people can relate to. With this kind of personal touch, I have no doubt that she’ll help many gamers in the quest to stuff their face, but with better food.
I can do this, and so can you! (via Eat, Game, Live)
Two of her recipes that really stuck out to me were the Winter Meatbomb Soup (because I’m still surprised when other people know about Bomberman) and the set of hors d’oeuvres based on various League of Legends characters. Both look delicious and take an inventive approach to the aspects of the games. More importantly to me, though, are the stories from her personal life that come before each of them: it’s nice to have that moment of personal connection, and what better reason to cook than so you can enjoy it with friends? (Also, those Bomberman costumes were cute as hell.)
Although I may not be making any of these for the upcoming holiday season, it’s nice to have somewhere as a jumping off point. Especially when that point is made by someone I can relate to. Make sure you check out Eat, Game, Live on WordPress and Facebook, and check kierpanda herself out on Twitter.
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