Cooking Mama - Mama Mia, Here I Go Again, My My, How Can I Resist You?

Title: Cooking Mama
Genre: Video Game for Nintendo DS and Wii

I’m going to shake things up a little here and talk about something that is NOT a restaurant, or anything edible for that matter. When I was about 8 years old, my Momma bought me a Gameboy. This was in the early 90’s, so it was one of those giant grey things with the sickening sewer green-colored display. The only games I played on that thing was Tetris and Super Mario World. For the most part, I was content with my games. I conquered Super Mario a hundred times and I was the Tetris queen of the universe. No body could beat me. All those years of focusing my attention on a tiny screen and straining my eyeballs have probably contributed to my nearsightedness and minor astigmatism, but do I regret it? Absolutely not. C’mon, try me at Tetris, I dare you. =)

Of course with the progression of technology, Nintendo came up with advanced versions of the Gameboy and eventually came up with the Wii. Both the DS and Wii consoles have some sort of “reality detection”: the DS can detect voices and the Wii uses their wands to simulate your own arm motions on the television. That I think is dope. My cousin Rox got herself a Nintendo DS and told me one day that there was a game she wanted me to try out. It was called Cooking Mama and she said she knew I would enjoy it since I love everything about food.

For those who are not familiar with Cooking Mama, it is a cooking simulation game. You are taken under the wing of Mama, and she gives you step-by-step directions on how to make dishes such as shrimp tempura, fried croquettes, and udon.

______________________________________________________



When I first tried it, I could not put it down for a LONG time. You start at a menu, and you get to pick whatever you want to “make.” The stylus is really your magic wand (or spoon, knife, spatula, hand, etc.). Do you remember those sheets you had to complete in kindergarten where you had to trace over the dotted-letters of the alphabet? If you were able to do that, you can totally play this game. You will see blue arrows and you basically just have to trace over those blue lines and follow wherever the arrows go. To make matters a bit more challenging, of course, tasks must be done with a time limit. You will be “graded” after each job is complete (or failed). Depending on how you complete each task will be a factor in deciding the medal you get in the end (gold, silver, and bronze). The following are some random screenshots that I captured, and you will see that there is so much detail:

______________________________________________________



1. The Cooking Mama logo
2. Using the stylus to spread water on the sides of the wonton wrapper for it to be sealed
3. Tapping on the faucet to start the water to fill up the measuring cup and tapping it again to turn off the water before the cup spills over
4. Using the stylus to drag the measuring cup over the pot to pour in the water

______________________________________________________



1. Taking off the dry stringy ends of the bean sprouts by using a rocking motion
2. Making sauces by dragging the salt, pepper, etc. into the mixing bowl
3. Cleaning a squid by pulling off the tentacles and later the wings and skin
4. Slicing bamboo and do you notice the correct hand positions? Wow!
5. Preparing fish by first covering it in flour. I love how realistic the fish looks.
6. Garnishing your cooked fish with vegetables, such as carrots, tomato, and French fries
Now let’s go into some recipes! Please keep in mind that there are more tasks in the actual game that what each image shows.

______________________________________________________



One thing you will do a lot is making recipes with shrimp in them, and this was for a seafood pasta.

1. First you have to behead the shrimp by moving the stylus up and down quickly
2. Pull off the legs by dragging the stylus down in one motion
3. Stir fry the garlic, squid (remember we cleaned it earlier?) and shrimp
4. Notice the detail as the shrimp turns orangey-pink has it cooks. You can actually “mix” the components in the pan by using the stylus as a spatula or stirring spoon.

______________________________________________________



Next is a recipe for pork curry.

1. Peeling the potatoes is probably my least favorite chore because you have to get every piece of skin off before you can move on to the next potato.
2 & 3. Tracing over the dotted lines to cut up some carrots and onions
4. Slicing pork: do you see how detailed the pork looks? Amazing!
5. You can see me using the stylus and doing a “slicing” motion on the meat by dragging the stylus up and down on the knife handle.
6. Now it’s time to stir-fry! You have a pan with the ingredients on the right. You have to decide in which order they go in. This is where your knowledge of cooking times come in handy.
7. Of course, it’s the meat first, so there it goes in.
8. Me using the stylus to stir around the ingredients.
9. Making the sauce in a pot.
10. And you have your finished product!

______________________________________________________



Next we have Stuffed Peppers:

1. After cutting the bell peppers in half you can see the detail of the ribs and inner cavity.
2. My good friend Alton Brown says that the best mixing utensils in the world are your hands. So just use the stylus and follow the blue line to mix the meat.
3. Now it’s time to stuff the peppers. Use the stylus to draw ovals in the mixing bowl in the shape that fits the bell pepper.
4. Mama will give you a number to cook and you have to drag the correct amount in the pan to brown.

______________________________________________________



One of the more unusual recipes: octopus dumplings. By the way, many of the recipes are very Asian.

1. Cutting the octopus tentacle in bite-size pieces.
2 & 3. After you make the batter, you have to fill the dumpling pan with the right amount of batter while giving the right amount of time for each to cook without burning.
4. Your finished product!

______________________________________________________



Now a more familiar recipe: a sandwich!

1 & 2. Slicing up some tomato and cucumber
3 & 4. What I love about this recipe is the customization of your sandwich. You have a choice ingredients like lettuce, cheese, deli meat, and of course the tomato and cucumber. Pile it on as high as you want. It’s YOUR sandwich!

______________________________________________________



Now we have deep-dried kebabs:

1 & 2. After assembling the skewers, we will flour each skewer and then dip them in an egg mixture.
3. Next tap and roll the skewers in panko breadcrumbs
4. Finally deep-frying them without burning them. They are ready when they float to the surface after you drop them in the hot oil.

______________________________________________________



Now another more familiar recipe, the good old egg omelet.

1. You have to crack the egg against the bowl, but don’t do it too hard or else the egg breaks.
2. Swirl the contents in the bowl to scramble.
3. Butter the pan! I think this is my favorite task because it is so easy.
4. Pour the egg in and monitor the heat!
5. Now it’s time for the “omelet” fold. Just follow the arrows.
6. Garnish the omelet with ketchup. Now THAT’S an omelet with my name on it.

______________________________________________________



I think the egg rolls are one of my favorite things to make because we make lumpia (Filipino version of the egg roll) at home.

1 & 2. After you make the filling, they actually show you how to fold and roll the egg roll, which is surprisingly exactly how we fold them at home.
3. Deep fry them in the hot oil and do not let them burn!
4. Now you have egg rolls ready to serve!

______________________________________________________

There are other choices like simple steamed rice, grilled mackerel, sushi, and even pizza. So you’re probably asking how many ways how you can play. Well, it all depends on the recipe. She can have you dice up scallions, cut up pieces of chicken, grate ginger, wrap up sushi hand rolls, roll out dough, weigh meat on a scale, strain pasta, fan coals, pound rice dough, mash potatoes, make tempura batter…a whole bunch of things! All you need is the DS stylus and you are on your way to doing those tasks. I don’t think all the techniques and order of how things are carried out in the game are realistic (like changing the heat setting on the burner every 5 seconds), but it’s so much fun anyhow. If given a choice, I would rather eat than cook, but this game is so much fun. I haven’t tried the Wii version, and I really cannot wait to! This is the first version that has come out and from what I know, there are more recent versions now. Check it out!!!

P.S. Shouts go to my cuzzo Rox for providing the DS and introducing me to the game!