Phantasy Phood

[Serpentine]

In about a week (oh geeze, is it that soon?) I'm going to have a fantasy-themed housewarming thing. So far I've got all of 5 people coming (wooooo!), but I'd still like to go to some effort for it.
To that end, I'd like to do some fantasy-type food for it, but I'm not sure what to do. Fairy bread's a bit of a no-brainer, but it's not really substantial. I have a recipe for Skyrim grilled leeks, but that's not exactly party food. I also thought of rock cakes as "dwarf bread", but it's not really REAL dwarf bread if you can bite it, is it. I was thinking about making a dragon out of cupcakes, but that might really be more Prince of Amber's thing. So what should I do?
Considerations: I'm on a bit of a tight budget; I'm not an especially skilled cook so foolproof recipes are best; it's fantasy-themed, but I'm pretty flexible with what that means (I've already said Doctor Who counts).

[Manga Shoggoth]

Having been to one or two odd parties...

On the drinks front, you cannot do better than adding food colouring to things like squash or fruit juice to provide such things as Romulan Ale (or whichever fantasy equivalent you wish to use).

On the food side, food colourings on "normal" food can go some distance - I'll have to have a think to see if there is anything else in the 'ol memory.

[Morrolan]

Wrap big flat pieces of krupuk/shrimp crackers in green napkins or real leaves. Will look like Lembas bread. (Or use actual flat bread, if you can bake some yourself use honey in the mixture)

For drinks, serve mead and cider.

That is what I can think of right away, I'll be back once I've given it some more thought.

[factotum]

Since you mentioned Skyrim, what about sweetrolls?

http://toysandbacon.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/how-to-make-skyrim-sweet-rolls.html

[The Succubus]

Seconding the mead and cider suggestion. Perhaps some barbequed things as well - those drumstick type things that big manly fighters are always tearing into with their teeth. If you're going for a slightly video-game-y theme, perhaps some drinks mixed to look like blue mana and red health potions?

Or...better yet...why not mix something with actual herbs in like mint and lemon grass? A "be-your-own-alchemist" thing with fruit juices, the above and other bits and pieces? :smallsmile:

[Serpentine]

I think that cider and playing with food colouring I can do. I'd seen that recipe for sweet rolls before but thought it looked too complicated. I'll have a proper look at it now.
Any ideas for savoury foods, as well?

[Morrolan]

A cornucopia filled with various fruits.
Turkish delight.
Candied Flowers.

As for savoury, anything that we eat as well. Be creative with herbs, spices and sauces, but any meat will do. Cheese and quiches, etc...

[Serpentine]

I thought about Turkish delight, but if I did that I'd feel like I should put it in the pretty silver box from The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.
Guess just chicken drumsticks, or drumletts, could work. Too bad you can't really get those old style pork pies here, as far as I know...

[Totally Guy]

The easiest and possibly the option that'll make you the least popular person ever...

Did you ever see the meal scene from Hook (the Peter Pan sequel with Robin Williams)?

Mmmm, a veritable imaginary banquet!

What about a gingerbread house? I once used one of those in a D&D game!

[factotum]

I'd have thought you could just go the barbecue route for savoury...after all, your average fantasy adventurer is going to be eating small animals cooked over an open fire! Or would that not be considered sufficiently out of the ordinary in Oz? :smallwink:

[Ravens_cry]

Make a large cube of Jello and arrange some mini's around it/inside it?

[Asta Kask]

Dice-shaped patés?

I understand that swan was very popular in 16th century England. So, catch yourself a swan and cook it. :smalltongue:

[razark]

A stew would probably work, or a soup. Roasted/grilled meat.

Hardtack and murky water? (Tell them they're on traveling rations.)

[Karoht]

A few friends and I were lucky enough to attend a Wii launch party many moons ago, put on by Nintendo. It was amazing.

Princess Peach Belini's
Sonic Spin-Dash Pinwheels (how they found blue tortilla's is beyond me)
Loot-Bags made with Phylo pastery (little pastery 'bags' with various stuffings)
Star Cakes (complete with icing to make the little face)

Sponge Cake or even angel makes decent Lembas Bread.
Fruit punch in a caldron is a bit cliche, same with soup, but both work.

Take lots of pictures, whatever you do!

[KuReshtin]

Lembas Bread (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a84YytetjKE)
Diablo 3 Skittle Vodka Potions (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUcX_q7m6IQ)
Game of Thrones Pizza (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfM2n2Oa-qU)

Most of those look pretty doable, I'd think.

[nedz]

Make a large cube of Jello and arrange some mini's around it/inside it?

Jelly babies in Aspic.
Easy to do.

Freeze your Jelly babies (to stop them melting in stage 4)
Dissolve your Gelatin (Could use Arrowroot) in Boiling water
Place Jelly babies in cubic moulds
Gently pour in the liquid aspic
Chill rapidly by standing moulds in cold water
Store in the fridge


To serve
Stand the moulds briefly in hot water, before turning out.

[Serpentine]

Some really good ideas, thanks everyone. I think I'll pass on all the ideas to my guests, in case anyone else is struggling. Here's what I'm going with, in order of priority/likelihood:

Cider
Sweet rolls
Rabbit stew (yeah, I bought rabbit. Not really party food, but pretty fantastical?)
Chicken drumletts
Gelatinous cube shots (jelly shots with a jelly baby in them. Don't think I have a cube-shaped mould)

Thanks everyone! Feel free to keep coming up with more ideas.

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[Stadge]

Ooh fantasy food! :smallsmile:

Actually from the top of my head I can't think of much, as fantasy food tends to be similar to real-world food. A friend of mine views Banana Loaf as Lembas bread, because I rescued him from the library and fed it to him,so that might work. (This is the same friend who turned up in a towel at my door asking for food as he had almost passed out in the shower, he wasn't that good at the whole food thing)

A very hobbit worthy and simple dish would be a big bowl/basket of bacon and mushrooms. Fairly cheap if you stick to one kind of mushroom too.

Otherwise take a look at here (http://www.innatthecrossroads.com/recipes/recipes-by-meal/) for some Westeros themed food. I've not made anything from the site, but the recipes seem sound. They might be a bit fiddly/expensive, but they could work.

I also have the Discworld cookbook somewhere, so I'll have a look through that for you when I find it.

Otherwise, food colouring like others have said is a good way to go.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

Butter beer?

[kumada]

Just my two cents here, but what you make is going to depend a lot on who your guests are. If they're diehard geeks, then the inventive naming of dishes is going to be half the fun. If not, you can still do a lot worse than making lots and lots of Roman and British food.

Fantasy tropes being what they are, you can make nearly any British dish and pass it off as high or low fantasy. The discworld cookbook essentially does this, but even without opening it up you can prepare miniature hot-sausage-inna-buns or meat pies or stew and keep a generally consistent atmosphere for your party. In fact, there are tons of medieval cookbooks out there. You could simply grab one and do a little creative renaming.

[Serpentine]

Sausages in bread and meat pies are everyday Australian staples, so probably not them...

edit: Wellp, I've found my rabbit recipe. Thanks for that link!

[Kris Strife]

Since you mentioned Doctor Who, here are some non-alcoholic drinks (http://www.thedrunkenmoogle.com/post/41113284286/doctor-who-mocktails-by-expbaronline-gallifrey) and there are plenty of recipes for Sonic (http://www.thenerdista.com/2011/06/the-doctor-who-tribute-cocktail-sonic-screwdriver-10/) Screw (http://www.thedrunkenmoogle.com/tagged/sonic-screwdriver) Drivers (http://www.thedrunkenmoogle.com/post/4043898285/the-eleventh-doctors-sonic-screwdriver-doctor) if you are willing to serve alcohol.

[Chilingsworth]

How about turkey legs?

[nedz]

I did once come up with the idea of taking a chicken, sewing on some extra wings, painting it green (with food colouring obviously), roasting it, and serving it as a Rust Monster. The flavour would even be correct.

[Weezer]

If you're willing to hunt a Suntiger (you have those in Australia, right?), pan-galactic gargle blasters always go over well.

[Serpentine]

We did, but they're extinct now.

[Kurien]

Hmm, a common fantasy RPG staple? I think everyone would be familiar with giant rats as the first foes many adventurers face. Maybe you could serve some kind of meat and pretend it's giant rat. Perhaps the tails of some critter.

Now, what common food animal in Australia has a long tail which somewhat resembles the tail of a giant rat?

[TheWombatOfDoom]

Hmm, a common fantasy RPG staple? I think everyone would be familiar with giant rats as the first foes many adventurers face. Maybe you could serve some kind of meat and pretend it's giant rat. Perhaps the tails of some critter.

Now, what common food animal in Australia has a long tail which somewhat resembles the tail of a giant rat?

She needs some ROUS's. :smalltongue:

Aren't opposoms NOT in Australia?

[ArlEammon]

In about a week (oh geeze, is it that soon?) I'm going to have a fantasy-themed housewarming thing. So far I've got all of 5 people coming (wooooo!), but I'd still like to go to some effort for it.
To that end, I'd like to do some fantasy-type food for it, but I'm not sure what to do. Fairy bread's a bit of a no-brainer, but it's not really substantial. I have a recipe for Skyrim grilled leeks, but that's not exactly party food. I also thought of rock cakes as "dwarf bread", but it's not really REAL dwarf bread if you can bite it, is it. I was thinking about making a dragon out of cupcakes, but that might really be more Prince of Amber's thing. So what should I do?
Considerations: I'm on a bit of a tight budget; I'm not an especially skilled cook so foolproof recipes are best; it's fantasy-themed, but I'm pretty flexible with what that means (I've already said Doctor Who counts).

Eidar cheese? Sweet Rolls? What about Elk, or some kind of game? I don't know how expensive that is though. Pig's feet? Pig's snout?

[super dark33]

Steaks cooked by Irradiation?

[Serpentine]

Hmm, a common fantasy RPG staple? I think everyone would be familiar with giant rats as the first foes many adventurers face. Maybe you could serve some kind of meat and pretend it's giant rat. Perhaps the tails of some critter.

Now, what common food animal in Australia has a long tail which somewhat resembles the tail of a giant rat?You really don't wanna roast a kangaroo tail. My biology teacher said she had a good recipe for 'roo tail stew, though...
Aren't opposoms NOT in Australia?We have various species of possum, which are superior to opossums in every way (barring creepiness).


Outcomes!

The Potted Hare came out perfectly, far better than I expected. It wasn't particularly flavoursome, though, and I wish I'd had a crusty loaf of bread to have with it. I can't believe I can actually say this about something, but rabbit tastes kinda like (meatier, chewier) chicken.

The sweetroll recipe worked really well. For the second batch, though, instead of rolling it up like it says in the recipe, I made four little strips, put the cinnamon paste on it, squished them together and twisted them before putting them in the muffin tin. I think it ended up looking much more like proper Skyrim sweetrolls that way, and if I made them again I'd try to use cups or slope-sided rammakins to cook them in. The best ones looked like this:
http://sphotos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/69671_4794056202554_1762272555_n.jpg

The normal gelatinous cube jelly shots worked really well. I think I like having jelly babies in them. I had a bunch of extra jelly which I tried to cut out into actual cubes, but that failed miserably (although it still tasted good). I think to do it that way would require doing it from scratch with gelatine rather than jelly crystals. Found this (http://jelly-shot-test-kitchen.blogspot.com.au/p/recipes.html) in the process, which looks amazing.

The cider and ginger beer I bought were pretty good.

One friend bought green ginger and jam biscuit "Soylent Green", and another brought banana bread "lembas bread", "dwarven" cheeses and "elvish apple-water" cider. Aside from me, only 3 people dressed up - two were the ones who brought food, and the 3rd only cuz I said steampunk counts and he had a (very cool) LARP costume in his car.
Was a pretty good gathering, and I'll use those resources everyone supplied again (gotta find my cookbook and add those two recipes...). Thanks all!