"For we are (not) to utter sweet breath": That Island Life

 "For we are (not) to utter sweet breath": That Island Life

Welcome to the beginning of a new series of blog posts! I honestly have no idea how frequently I'll be writing these up, but Josh suggested them and I like the idea! Actually, he suggested I try these as a video. But I'm not ready to take that step just yet, so Imma stick with writing for now.

A new dimension of gaming I was introduced to included good food and booze paired with DnD while I was living in Buffalo. Up to that time, it was mostly soda and Doritos while gaming. It's still a choice I make sometimes, much to the chagrin of whoever underwrites my life insurance policy. But the first time I played DnD with what became my regular group in Buffalo, we sat down to some homemade hummus with pita, cheese and crackers, and some other delicious bites like stuffed grape leaves as well as some red wine. I'd never enjoyed such an excellent spread while gaming before, but it made the experience that much more enjoyable. It also became the standard to which I became accustomed. I carried it with me when I moved to St. Louis, too. Though admittedly, I would later discover that nearly cost me one of my very best friendships with Cushman because when he arrived and I offered wine and crackers with cheese, he was certain that this was not the kind of group he wanted to game with! Luckily, he came back a couple more times and he ended up staying.

Anyway! As I've gotten older and married and started a family, I learned how to cook. One of my very few attempts at such a feat had been my senior year in college when I put a frozen chicken in the oven and managed to burn the outside while keeping the inside frozen. I basically didn't try cooking anything again for maybe a couple of years after that. But once I really put my back into it, I learned that I enjoy cooking! I don't love it so much that I cook every single night or try terribly complex recipes. It's not really my thing. But I have bought several cookbooks and tried to make my way through the majority of them. I've discovered something that a lot of people already knew: cooking a meal for people is a way of expressing affection for them. My parents would drive the 14 or so hours to St. Louis to visit and insist that we "not worry about cooking for them," but having a hot meal waiting for visitors is something my parents had always done, and now I understood why. Beyond the practicality of hungry guests, of course. It's a way of saying "I love you." Same thing with cooking for the holidays or for gatherings.

Now, not every game gathering calls for a full meal or anything like that. And I don't frequently theme game nights. But for the purposes of this post, let's pretend I'm more put together than I am in real life. Below are a meal, a drink to pair with said meal, and some games that you can play that are at least a loose thematic fit for the evening.

Drink: The Balvenie Caribbean Cask 14 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky

I am not a whisky connoisseur by any stretch of the imagination. But I have become very fond of whisky over the past 12 years or so and it is generally my drink of choice. It's a drink I enjoy sharing with others, it lasts for quite some time on my bar, and I'm perfectly happy to pour myself a finger or two and nurse that for an evening. The Balvenie Caribbean Cask Whisky was finished in casks that previously held Caribbean rum. At this point, it's worth noting that if you're only passingly familiar with rum, you probably think of rum as being sweet. Possibly so sweet as to be cloying. But Caribbean rum is absolutely a different kind of beast. Much like tequila, there are some really good rums out there, but we tend to be more familiar with the widely-marketed stuff that comes with a reputation. Real Jamaican rum, for instance, is something truly special. So I wouldn't blame you if you were to jump to the conclusion that this Balvenie whisky would be too sweet for your taste. But I can assure you that's not the case with this whisky. The flavor of the rum is clearly enmeshed with the taste of the whisky, but it's interwoven instead of just being laid out on top of the whisky. That is to say that I think the flavors complement one another instead of competing. It's a terrific whisky neat, but my experience is that the bouquet (or smell) opens up with a little bit of water. I don't think an ice cube substantially changes the flavor of the whisky, but I'm rarely one to add ice. But that's just me; you do you!

Food: Hawaiian butterfish with brown rice and steamed broccoli

The prep for this meal is more time-consuming than the execution, but it's all fairly easy. Briefly, let me start with the brown rice: the way I prepare it is to sauté the brown rice in some olive oil for a couple of minutes before I add the water and actually cook it. This adds just a little bit of flavor to it. As for the butterfish, as I say, the prep is more time-consuming than the execution, because you'll want this to marinate for 2-3 days. If that intimidates you, I'm going to ask you to take a moment and a breath, and give it a chance anyway. It's absolutely worth it and once you've done it a couple of times, the hardest part is remembering to start the prep a couple of days before you plan on cooking it. But I'll also share a secret with you: if you only marinate it for 24 hours, it'll still taste good. Oh, you absolutely want it marinating for the full 48-72 hours to get the full flavor! But if it only marinates for 24 hours because you're strapped for time, it'll still be tasty. No worries.

Full disclosure: the recipe that I use comes from Alana Kysar's "Aloha Kitchen: Recipes from Hawai'i" cookbook. You can order it from your local bookseller (I discovered my copy at Left Bank Books; buy local!). I love the recipes she has included here; I've not made a single recipe I didn't enjoy. And I personally think that her recipe for Hawaiian Butterfish is one of three bulletproof recipes I have in my repertoire. However, I don't feel comfortable sharing that recipe here because it's not mine to share and I've not found it for public consumption online. So I encourage you to buy her book! If you choose not to, I can respect that, and so I'm sharing this recipe because it's easily found online through Google and is free for public consumption. I doubt it's as good as the one Ms. Kysar shares in her book, but it's similar enough that I'm confident it will still taste good. If anything, my guess is that if you like this recipe, the promise of a superior version of this recipe will inspire you to go out and purchase Aloha Kitchen for yourself!

Ingredients

4

butterfish, 7 oz

1⁄3 cup

sake

1⁄3 cup

mirin

2⁄3 cups

sugar

1 cup

white miso

Instructions

1. To make the misoyaki marinade, bring sake, mirin and sugar to a boil for 5 minutes.
2. Reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in miso until well incorporated. Allow to cool.
3. Generously marinade butterfish in misoyaki marinade for 48-72 hours.
4. Pre-heat oven at 450 and bake fish for 5-8 minutes.
5. When fish is almost cooked broil for an additional 2-3 minutes until well caramelized. Make sure you watch the fish closely since it can burn quickly.

A couple of things I want to briefly note: the first is that the marinade I use also includes brown sugar instead of white, in addition to a couple of other ingredients. My concern here is the white sugar is already sweeter than the brown, and then it calls for mirin on top of that (and in case you are unfamiliar, mirin can easily be found in the "Asian section" at any major grocery store), which adds more sweetness. So consider brown sugar instead and if it's still too sweet for you, think about using something to balance that out such as rice vinegar.

Also! I know it's boring, but watch your pot while the marinade boils. It'll be fine for awhile, but then it can absolutely boil over in the blink of an eye. Take a book into the kitchen or something so you can read while you're prepping this. Believe me, it's worth spending the time in there with it to make sure it doesn't boil over onto your stove.

Finally, make sure you move the fish around in the marinade every 12 hours or so. You want to make sure the entirety of the fillets are getting marinaded.

I like serving the fish on a bed of brown rice with some steamed broccoli (season lightly with some garlic salt if you like) on the side, and then I always add furikaki on top of the fish. If you're unfamiliar with it, I highly recommend it! It's basically a mixture of dried fish, sesame seeds, chopped seaweed, sugar, and salt. It adds some texture and flavor to the dish. And there you have it! Dinner!

So now that we've eaten dinner and perhaps enjoyed a little whiskey with it, let's pour ourselves a second glass and get to the games!

Game: Survive - Escape From Atlantis!

We start with Survive: Escape From Atlantis! Basically, the tile island of Atlantis is sinking and each player is trying to evacuate their group of people from the sinking island. Those people pieces have different values that help drive player decisions as to who they are prioritizing for evacuation. It's a decently light game which feels like a good way to segue from dinner to gaming. The game runs 45 minutes to an hour and it's a fun enough game that everyone can enjoy. The decision-making is interesting but not so deep as to (generally) cause analysis paralysis, which I appreciate. You're moving your people to safety, you're removing a tile from the island, and then you're performing whatever action is on the bottom of the tile you removed. Again, pretty straightforward and decently easy to learn, but fun to play!

Game: Spirit Island

And we close out the evening with my favorite board game for the past four years running. If you haven't read about Spirit Island, you can read my review of it here. I'm a huge fan of this game that features players as powerful spirits on an island being invaded by colonizers. Players need to utilize Powers in order to repel the Invaders and scare them into never returning. The game runs about 2 hours, but can easily run longer if people are unfamiliar with it. So you might want to start with Spirit Island and then use Survive as a nightcap rather than an apertif in case the game runs long and your group decides to call it a night. But either way, I highly recommend it.

I hope at least one of these recommendations has piqued your interest; I send you off to eat good food and play good games with good people!