Zelda, Breath of the Wild, but a restaurant
May 19, 2019 7:14 PM Subscribe
Mini McGee is turning 10 (!!!!!) this week, and for his birthday dinner wants only food from Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I have a menu! But I need some touches in the decor department etc. I usually set a nice table that has something to do with the theme, and then I make a little menu and so on (here is a Pern feast I did for my husband a couple years ago and here is a French bistro feast, to give you an idea). What is some decor I could use? Jokes? References for the menu? Printables? That kind of thing. But it has to be doable by Wednesday! I have played like an hour or two of BotW so I'm not very knowledgeable. (I just want to stick a pixellated triforce on everything, honestly.)
In case it helps your creativity, the menu will be:
Appetizers:
Monster soup (a potato soup with purple food coloring, about 1/4 cup)
Sauteed nuts
Main Course:
Salt-grilled prime meat (steak)
Glazed veggies (carrots, probably kinpira style)
Mushroom skewer
Wheat bread
Dessert:
Hot buttered apple
Honey candy
Fairy tonic (which will be in a boiler flask so it looks like the item, and will be this tonic water which I use for my gin & tonic and he always wants me to let him drink it straight, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIDDO)
Creamy heart soup (strawberry sorbet with melon balls & a strawberry heart)
In case it helps your creativity, the menu will be:
Appetizers:
Monster soup (a potato soup with purple food coloring, about 1/4 cup)
Sauteed nuts
Main Course:
Salt-grilled prime meat (steak)
Glazed veggies (carrots, probably kinpira style)
Mushroom skewer
Wheat bread
Dessert:
Hot buttered apple
Honey candy
Fairy tonic (which will be in a boiler flask so it looks like the item, and will be this tonic water which I use for my gin & tonic and he always wants me to let him drink it straight, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIDDO)
Creamy heart soup (strawberry sorbet with melon balls & a strawberry heart)
Best answer: I don’t play, but from watching our kids games, my favorite Zelda food-related thing is the “Dubious Food” - I could see making a centerpiece out of a mix of foods and Duplos in a bowl.
posted by Mchelly at 7:58 PM on May 19, 2019 [8 favorites]
posted by Mchelly at 7:58 PM on May 19, 2019 [8 favorites]
Best answer: Yessss print and cut out some Koroks for sure. They're both adorable and very evocative of the game, because they're everywhere. And yes, a Triforce somewhere for sure, pixellated or otherwise.
Maybe some orange and blue light strings, reminiscent of how the shrines glow? In case it's helpful, they start out all-orange when you find them, glow blue and orange once they're activated but not complete, and glow all-blue once they're completed.
There are dragons, if you want to repurpose the dragon from the Pern feast. Farosh is the name of the green-gold one.
What a lucky Mini!
posted by rhiannonstone at 8:08 PM on May 19, 2019 [3 favorites]
Maybe some orange and blue light strings, reminiscent of how the shrines glow? In case it's helpful, they start out all-orange when you find them, glow blue and orange once they're activated but not complete, and glow all-blue once they're completed.
There are dragons, if you want to repurpose the dragon from the Pern feast. Farosh is the name of the green-gold one.
What a lucky Mini!
posted by rhiannonstone at 8:08 PM on May 19, 2019 [3 favorites]
Best answer: (omg can I please be invited to this birthday dinner I will dress up like a bird person if you need me to omg omg)
If you have a small cast iron pan or stone vessel of some kind, like maybe a fondue pot or a mocajete, definitely use it as a centerpiece. In Breath of the Wild that's how Link cooks all his food, over a campfire in a kind of crude looking stone pot. (deets) You could fill it with apples and nuts and put tealights around the base.
The game has a really strong color story. There's a lot of stony ancient ruins with mystical glowy stuff indicating puzzles, and when those puzzles are unsolved it glows a warm orange, and when they're solved it's a bright cyan blue. So for colors of accent decorations you can go for oranges and light blues - maybe some candles or string lights? Table linens can be green to evoke the grassy plains and forests and Link's classic outfit (although in Breath of the Wild his outfit is usually more of a cyan). Most of the metallics in the game are sort of an aged bronze, so if you have any silverware that has a patina and feels kind of heavy or ideally is just not silver that would be great, same for something like candlesticks. Think like, smooth stonewear, woven and dyed linen, a well-used knife with a worn wooden handle, sunlight through fresh spring leaves.
Almost the fruits in the game have real world equivalents, unlike the mushrooms and flowers. There's (basically) bananas, watermelons, apples, giant raspberries, unshucked/green coconuts, durian, spicy red peppers, and dragonfruit/pitaya. So depending on your local fancy grocery's exotic fruit selection, you can totally make an extremely impressive fruit bowl straight from the game.
The first "weapon" you can pick up in the game is a small tree branch with some leaves still stuck on the end. They break pretty quickly but you can almost always find one and they've totally saved my butt a bunch. So maybe it would be fun to use some still slightly leafy sticks as decoration - if Mini won't be compelled to swing them around and knock dinner off the table, that is.
You could decorate paper or fabric placemats with rupee borders. Make a stencil of a row of the rupee shape (basically a lengthened hexagon) and paint them red, green, blue, purple, silver, gold with whatever medium you're comfortable using, maybe markers, maybe stippled paint. Or you could cut the shapes out of colored paper and spray mount them on. Or if you're savvy you could probably draw them in photoshop and print out bunches. Strips of them could be used like garlands.
The point of food in the game (apart from world building and adorableness) is to regain hearts. Also, to regain the master sword you need to have 13 filled hearts (because when you try to pull it out it drains your hearts and without at least 13 it'll kill you.) So it would be really cool if you hid 13 red hearts around and Mini could find them, or maybe you gave them out after each course. Or maybe if you do a menu card, have them on there.
posted by Mizu at 8:37 PM on May 19, 2019 [11 favorites]
If you have a small cast iron pan or stone vessel of some kind, like maybe a fondue pot or a mocajete, definitely use it as a centerpiece. In Breath of the Wild that's how Link cooks all his food, over a campfire in a kind of crude looking stone pot. (deets) You could fill it with apples and nuts and put tealights around the base.
The game has a really strong color story. There's a lot of stony ancient ruins with mystical glowy stuff indicating puzzles, and when those puzzles are unsolved it glows a warm orange, and when they're solved it's a bright cyan blue. So for colors of accent decorations you can go for oranges and light blues - maybe some candles or string lights? Table linens can be green to evoke the grassy plains and forests and Link's classic outfit (although in Breath of the Wild his outfit is usually more of a cyan). Most of the metallics in the game are sort of an aged bronze, so if you have any silverware that has a patina and feels kind of heavy or ideally is just not silver that would be great, same for something like candlesticks. Think like, smooth stonewear, woven and dyed linen, a well-used knife with a worn wooden handle, sunlight through fresh spring leaves.
Almost the fruits in the game have real world equivalents, unlike the mushrooms and flowers. There's (basically) bananas, watermelons, apples, giant raspberries, unshucked/green coconuts, durian, spicy red peppers, and dragonfruit/pitaya. So depending on your local fancy grocery's exotic fruit selection, you can totally make an extremely impressive fruit bowl straight from the game.
The first "weapon" you can pick up in the game is a small tree branch with some leaves still stuck on the end. They break pretty quickly but you can almost always find one and they've totally saved my butt a bunch. So maybe it would be fun to use some still slightly leafy sticks as decoration - if Mini won't be compelled to swing them around and knock dinner off the table, that is.
You could decorate paper or fabric placemats with rupee borders. Make a stencil of a row of the rupee shape (basically a lengthened hexagon) and paint them red, green, blue, purple, silver, gold with whatever medium you're comfortable using, maybe markers, maybe stippled paint. Or you could cut the shapes out of colored paper and spray mount them on. Or if you're savvy you could probably draw them in photoshop and print out bunches. Strips of them could be used like garlands.
The point of food in the game (apart from world building and adorableness) is to regain hearts. Also, to regain the master sword you need to have 13 filled hearts (because when you try to pull it out it drains your hearts and without at least 13 it'll kill you.) So it would be really cool if you hid 13 red hearts around and Mini could find them, or maybe you gave them out after each course. Or maybe if you do a menu card, have them on there.
posted by Mizu at 8:37 PM on May 19, 2019 [11 favorites]
Best answer: One of the most important tools in Breath of the Wild (and unique to the game) is the Sheikah Slate, which you get early on and lets you interact with all kinds of stuff in the world and also stores your maps and photos and such. It's like Link's smartphone, I guess? And it has a pretty recognizable design that you could probably replicate with a printer and cardstock for the back of a menu (you could also replicate the front of the slate for the background of the menu).
For general decor, there are all sorts of little items that you can collect throughout the game, some of which can be easily acquired in the real world (acorns, flowers, banana bunches... toenails...)
posted by Meow Face at 10:56 PM on May 19, 2019 [1 favorite]
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For general decor, there are all sorts of little items that you can collect throughout the game, some of which can be easily acquired in the real world (acorns, flowers, banana bunches... toenails...)
posted by Meow Face at 10:56 PM on May 19, 2019 [1 favorite]
I would stick 9 red hearts on the wall above and to the right of Mini's head, wherever they are meant to sit. Then I would give them another heart after they blew their candles out on the cake, and make a big ceremony out of it to add the 10th.
I would use these SFX while opening presents.
posted by pazazygeek at 11:30 PM on May 19, 2019 [6 favorites]
I would use these SFX while opening presents.
posted by pazazygeek at 11:30 PM on May 19, 2019 [6 favorites]
A faux camp-fire in the middle of the table, with a cooking pot/wok on top? Perhaps by using a camp stove or candles there could be real flames and then the wok could be keeping part of the main course hot? (camp stoves need a little room ventilation though else you get CO)
posted by anonymisc at 11:40 PM on May 19, 2019
posted by anonymisc at 11:40 PM on May 19, 2019
A fondue pot with one of those sterno things underneath would probably be less deadly than starting a camp stove indoors. Perhaps you could add cheese fondue to your menu for the mushrooms and wheat bread?
posted by janepanic at 3:19 AM on May 20, 2019
posted by janepanic at 3:19 AM on May 20, 2019
Best answer: Re: printables: could you print the menu on Korok masks? There are a handful of designs of mask throughout the game (Google "botw korok" and browse the images, you'll see half a dozen models), they're all flat, and they're all immediately recognizable.
pazazygeek's suggestion about hearts on the wall is amazing. The game makes a huge deal about earning extra heart containers for accomplishing certain things, and the visual metaphor is both easy to capture and very iconic. For full effect, you'll want to have the new heart container sound effect play when you add the tenth heart.
There's a ton of room for using sound effects to affect the mood of the party. May I recommend Hestu's dance theme for merriment, and the ominous piano music that plays when a guardian has locked onto you with his laser to instill panic?
Can I come to this party?
posted by Mayor West at 6:27 AM on May 20, 2019 [2 favorites]
pazazygeek's suggestion about hearts on the wall is amazing. The game makes a huge deal about earning extra heart containers for accomplishing certain things, and the visual metaphor is both easy to capture and very iconic. For full effect, you'll want to have the new heart container sound effect play when you add the tenth heart.
There's a ton of room for using sound effects to affect the mood of the party. May I recommend Hestu's dance theme for merriment, and the ominous piano music that plays when a guardian has locked onto you with his laser to instill panic?
Can I come to this party?
posted by Mayor West at 6:27 AM on May 20, 2019 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: I'm going to make a table centerpiece in a small cast-iron pan featuring legos and play kitchen food to be the "dubious food" and the "fire" under it will be fake, never fear. :D I have printed a bunch of korok masks that I am deputizing my husband to cut out (I think I will use beige napkins and put little korok faces on them), and a bunch of rupees to scatter on the table. I am still working out the best way to do a shrine logo but that's definitely happening!
Off to find some Zelda music to play for ambiance during dinner! I will post pictures after we Do The Thing on Wednesday. Thanks for your help!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:39 PM on May 20, 2019
Off to find some Zelda music to play for ambiance during dinner! I will post pictures after we Do The Thing on Wednesday. Thanks for your help!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:39 PM on May 20, 2019
Response by poster: Pictures, as promised!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 5:20 PM on May 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 5:20 PM on May 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
I love it! I especially like all the different dished you used, the combination is so nice with the leafy one and the floral one and the wooden one. And the korok napkins are super cute!
posted by Mizu at 6:41 PM on May 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Mizu at 6:41 PM on May 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
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