Food hasn't been much of a thread throughout the Norse 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:God of War games. It takes around ten hours in Ragnarok for Kratos and Atreus to share their first meal. Even then, the food they were given wasn't exactly something to write home about, let alone an entire cookbook. Brok serves Sindri and his guests something so unrecognizable that when Tyr asks the dwarf if it's sausage, Brok replies with something along the lines of “yeah, why not, let's go with that”. Tyr chokes it down though, probably because he's eaten nothing but gruel and moldy bread for an indiscernible amount of time while imprisoned in a Svartalfheim mine by Odin. A detail I learned from the God of War cookbook, by the way, adding color to my Ragnarok playthrough.

There's a lot of that in this cookbook. Even though I've whipped up a fair few things it has to offer, some of which I'll be going back to again, equally as important to my enjoyment of the book has been how much it has educated me on the universe in which the latest God of War games are set. Authors Victoria Rosenthal and Rick Barba could have taken the obvious route and written the cookbook from the viewpoint of Kratos. A collection of recipes he uses to make the animals he hunts more palatable. Instead, the book is written as if it were Tyr holding the pen, and it makes a lot more sense than if it were his fellow God of War.

RELATED: 1ꦍ68澳洲幸运5开奖网:Give Shadow The Hedgehog The Go🍨d Of War Treatment

The book is split into nine chapters, each of which represents one of the nine realms. Yes, even Helheim has its own cuisine, one of the dishes from that particular realm being squid ink pasta which really looks like it would fit the realm of the dead's aesthetic. Actually, there are technically ten chapters. That's because Tyr kicks things off by paying a culinary visit to The Realm Between Realms. While there are no recipes here, Tyr explains that he would use The World Tree to easily pass between realms, gathering the spices he needed. This chapter details some of the spice blends you'll need for other recipes in the book. Don't skip past it. The Jotunn spice mixture is needed for Vanaheim's roasted potatoes and trust me, it works.

The first chapter takes readers on a culinary trip through Midgard, and with its very first recipe comes one of my only criticisms of the book. The first thing I do with any cookbook is quickly flick through to see which recipes I'm going to make first. The very first recipe in this cookbook is roast quail. Now, I'm sure quails are plentiful in Midgard. Here in the real world, however, not so much. I have never eaten quail, and I'm assuming I'd have to put in a special order with my butcher (I don't have a butcher, but that's what people say, isn't it?) to get a hold of some.

There are other recipes in the book that use ingredients, mainly meats, that might be easy to source in the nine realms but tricky for the reader to find. While there isn't a suggested substitute for quail, there are alternatives offered up elsewhere in the book. Asgard's wild boar ragu, for example. One of the recipes on my to-do list, and Tyr suggests using regular old pork shoulder if you don't fancy going out into the woods with your bow and arrow and killing a boar yourself. If you're after the full God of War experience, well, you do you. Just remember, you are hunting boar, not chasing it.

While you might expect everything in the book to be heavy, meat-based food eaten by gods and kings while sat at tables that extend further than the eye can see, it's not. Yes, there are plenty of stews and roast meats, but there are also recipes from the nine realms for vegetarians, vegans, and even gluten and lactose-free diets. Near the start of the book there's a small section dedicated to exactly that, explaining that anywhere milk and cream are used can be replaced with non-dairy alternatives, along with a few other pointers. Plus, a chart in the back detailing which recipes are suitable for various lifestyles and dietary requirements.

Among the food and drink you might not expect Kratos to be giddy over is honeycomb toast, cheese and leek souffle, and my personal favorite of the things I have made so far, banana bread muffins. Usually when I make banana bread it doesn't come out quite right, probably because I'm a terrible baker. The God of War muffin version, however, turned out so well that I'm not too embarrassed to include a photo of them. I'm tempted to pop a photo of how they look in the book alongside them as they're almost identical, but even just typing it feels a little braggy. You'll have to buy the book and marvel at the similarity yourself.

I'm not normally one for reading cookbooks outside of the recipes, but if you're a God of War fan, I'd urge you to do so if you do pick up a copy of this book. The authors clearly know their stuff, and this isn't their first rodeo. Victoria Rosenthal previously 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:published a Halo cookbook packed with inventive recipes inspired by the series. The entries from Tyr have felt like missing pages from Ragnarok's codex, something I seldom read in any games and really should pay more attention to. There are Easter eggs in there, like the reference to Tyr creating the riddle from the 2018 God of War tasking Kratos with flipping the temple upside down to solve it. Playing Ragnarok alongside reviewing the book made it feel like essential reading. By the time Freyr was mentioned as I ventured into Alfheim for the first time, I already knew who he was, and how the Aesir attempted to kill him, thanks to the book. If you want to cook meals inspired by the nine realms and add even more depth to some incredibly well-made games, it's definitely worth picking up a copy.

A review copy of God of War: The Official Cookbook of The Nine Realms was provided to TheGamer by Insight Editions.NEXT: Is It Possible To Play And Enjoy Aliens: Fireteam Elite As A Singleplayer Shooter? 🌺I Gave It A Shot