From cakes to pasta, participants of AniManGaki’s “Geek Chef” competition gave their best anime-themed food.
During the start of the pandemic, people look for another hobby or pastime to do. Some resort to cooking, which is what happened in some segments of Malaysia’s ACG (anime-games-cosplay) community.
With this in mind, AniManGaki, one of the major ACG events in Malaysia, held its Geek Chef contest. This invited everyone in Malaysia’s ACG community to submit their best works of culinary art. I’ve been alerted that there’s plus points for using Kewpie mayonnaise for the entrants.
Our Take on the AniManGaki’s Geek Chef
In its live stream on YouTube last August 14, AniManGaki Online showed the participants’ entries, which left us hungry. Yours truly showed the menu to my colleagues here at Anime Corner, which leave me explaining what these dishes are.
Here’s the thing: I know how to fry cook myself, but I am not a chef by any means. Still, I’ll see to it if it’s easy to make (and if I have time, I’ll try to recreate the dishes on my own).
Pikachu Pasta
This first dish in the AniManGaki Geek chef roster is a combination of brown noodles as well as white noodles mixed with the mayonnaise.
The concept is simple and it looks easy to make. Given the cheese used to form the yellow electric Pokemon Pikachu, I bet it’s cheesy enough. It also looks cute.
Potato Chip Fried Rice
The next dish in the AniManGaki Geek Chef lineup is this Potato Chip Fried Rice inspired by Weathering with You.
This meal also looks easy to make, but the added potato chips for decoration and texture makes it special. To think that the entrant knows texture, I will assume that she has eaten a lot of fried rice prior to dishing this out.
It’s also worthy to point out that this can be considered, by my perception, as a variation of Japan’s tamago kake gohan (lit. Fried Rice with Egg).
Cinnamoroll Bento
Another AniManGaki Geek Chef entry is this take on Cinnamoroll. What a good balance of meat, vegetables and rice. No wonder two of our colleagues picked this one up (one’s a Sanrio enthusiast, no wonder). The great thing about this is its appearance – it makes you think twice before eating.
How the food is laid out makes it so cute that it would be a waste to eat it, more so a crime to do so.
“Neverland” Gupna
At first, you can see the monstrosity in this dish. Then you realize this is inspired by The Promised Neverland. You take another look, and realize further that this is not your ordinary steak and rice dish.
There’s the squid ink risotto and beef slice, but what intrigued me to this dish is the berry sauce splattered around, making it some sort of dish you can only found in the underground. Visually intriguing, but I bet it’s delicious.
Genshin Impact Cupcakes
Care for some desserts? These chocolate cupcakes decorated as Genshin Impact characters are so cute that it could be the next best thing in your nearby bakery. This is provided that the community you’re in has a lot of Genshin fans.
“This process is a but long but fun,” says the participant, referring to the time it took to decorate those cupcakes. The effort is worth it.
Strawberry Pasta
Now this is something I’ve never imagined. We’ve been accustomed to spaghetti with tomato sauce, but imagine this: Spaghetti pasta.
“I have made this several times before. So, this time I decided to not just make strawberry pasta,” said the absolute madlass.
To think that she’s a well known personality among the iDOLM@STER community not just in Malaysia but also globally, having made it to NHK World’s Songs of Tokyo to virtually meet her iM@S idols just this year. She is a P through and through.
The Winners of 2021 AniManGaki Geek Chef competition
All of the dishes look great, but there’s only three winners in this competition.
Maximus Dark takes third place in the spot with his Cacodemon Red Velvet Cake inspired by Doom. Qream’S take second with her chocolate moist cake inspired by Kimetsu no Yaiba’s Shinobu Kocho. Riko Lizi‘s Totoro Bento got the most attention, leading it to be the top dish in this year’s AniManGaki Geek Chef competition.
Hope you enjoyed the otaku gourmet journey on this feature. Don’t forget to check out Anime Corner’s review section as well. See you around!
Banner photo: AniManGaki Website
