Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill

Episode 7

I refuse on moral principle to ever refer to myself as a “foodie,” as I think that “fandom” is the absolute last thing on this godforsaken Earth that we need to shackle to the foundational history of culture and sustenance that binds all of humanity together in a shared appreciation of scrumptious cuisine. That said, whenever Campfire Cooking in Another World indulges in the “Cooking” part of its title, the baser parts of my food-loving monkey-brain start to fire on all cylinders. I can begin to feel the undeniable urge to photograph delicious concoctions and share their delicious beauty with strangers all over the world in rabid pursuit of those fake internet points that have been tearing society apart for the last decade or so.

So, as you can imagine, I was delighted when I realized that the whole first half of “The Wolf Dances With Monsters” is devoted to letting Mukohda make some delicious-ass stir-fried chili snake. Now, I've only had snake once or twice in its deep-fried form at some county fairs. Still, it does indeed taste like chicken, and I can see the appeal of slathering one of this fantasy world's giant slithering sumbitches up in some chili paste and chowing down on its delicious meats. In fact, this week's “Chili Black Snake” recipe looked so damned tasty that I paused the whole cooking sequence scene-by-scene to write down the recipe. Some of the bean sauces and chili pastes will be difficult to find at your local grocery store. However, I just so happen to have a Japanese/Korean import market within a stone's throw of my house. I am sorely tempted to run down there the minute this review is finished so I can rustle me up some—let me check my notes here—“weipa seasoning,” “doubanjiang,” and “tianmianjang.” Thankfully, I have a nice bottle of sake left over from my recent first attempt at frying karaage, so I think this should be a cinch! Now I need to figure out if I want to sub in some gochujang, or maybe fry up some dark-meat chicken instead of the breast meat…

What's that? Oh, right, the rest of the episode. It's fine, I guess. Siu learns to excrete health potions from her globby little extremities, which is both disgusting and incredibly useful. There's a big fight between Fel and a griffon that I could honestly take or leave since this show's action animation is only ever just okay, although it is cute when the griffon gets to earn his place as Griffon King or whatever just for landing a scratch on ol' Fel. There's also a second cooking section this week for some Orc Tonkatsu, but I harbor a personal grudge with tonkatsu on account of how I always manage to screw up the deep-fry on it when I try to make any at home, so it was much less exciting than the chili snake.

But man, did you see that chili stir fry? I will have to wrap up this review right now to run down to that market and snag some ingredients before the temperature turns foul. As I type this, we're expecting snow around these parts, and some spicy-sweet chili chicken sounds like the perfect meal to weather the weather.

Rating:

Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on Twitter, his blog, and his podcast.