Paula Gaetos of Inkling Magazine had read in an IGN DS review that Cooking Mama’s recipes probably couldn’t be applied to real life. As if! Ms. Gaetos decided to put the game to the test against an actual Japanese cookbook. After following the game’s recipes step by step and taking a few creative liberties of her own, Ms. Gaetos finished slightly over the 15-seconds it took to prepare a potato salad recipe in the DS game. The verdict?
But what about the taste? Mama’s recipe was much simpler, but the Japanese mayo I used, which (I assume) Mama also uses, made the salad taste much sweeter, and each veggie’s flavor and texture stood out. The flavors from the cookbook recipe were more unified as most of the veggies were cooked together in stock, rice vinegar and sugar. Both certainly tasted the way I thought a chilled potato salad should taste. I can’t really say one is better than the other because both were equally yummy. It would just come down to what kind of potato salad mood I was in.
How about that! I, myself, can’t cook, but I’ve never really taken the time to learn. Maybe I should take a few lessons from Cooking Mama?
