Seriously a food event! Hi guys I am Inotia King a youtuber, redditor and gamer who likes theorizing about the story. I actually cobbled together a list of some of my more important theories with respect to the game Genshin Impact and Star Rail that I have been basing all of my newer theories on. I'll be putting more of those up on Hive along with new stuff but if you're impatient I also archived all my theories here. I hope some of you guys are game theorists too. Let's try to figure out these great games together!
A few years ago we had an event called Of Drink O' Dreaming. The event had us take the job of a bartender tasked with taking everyone's drink orders. We had to quickly pick out the right ingredients and mix up the beverages to serve customers before they ran out of patience and left a bad review, impacting our score.
However before the hectic work hours we were able to meet with several characters in cameos. One of these cameos actually turned out to be an early hint that we'd be getting a new area to explore in the game. That new area was released in this update, Chenyu Vale. So of course I was excited for this event.
Day one wasn't all that exciting for lore. It was more about taste palates across different regions, giving a shoutout to France's aversion to spicy and that those outside of the country consider its cuisine to be on the bland side.
Day two though
was a topic about pricing. Now the picture above for the new dish is based on something I haven't been able to find. I'm not really sure it exists but its name in the original Chinese 繁弦急管 fanxianjiguan is a real phrase which Faruzan mostly got. It's the "the pleasant melody of an orchestral piece" fitting with the mix of flavors.
The other dishes though that Faruzan mentions are legit. You have "Golden Shrimp Balls" based on Braised Shrimp Balls.
Bamboo Shoot Soup I think most of us already knew is a very popular soup. Morax has talked about it enough times.
But it's that last one, Adeptus Temptation
that fits with the theme of that day, something really expensive. Adeptus Temptation comes from the real life Buddha's Temptation a Fujian dish that's very complex, has tons of mixed meats and has a price tag to match! Some high-end restaurants can sell this for up to $695 a bowl!
That might have been enough bang for Faruzan's buck. Of course it also takes about 2-3 days to cook and uses seafood ingredients so that would have been ruled out by Dori's conditions. Girl knows what's what.
On to Days three and four and we have a reversal. Contrary to the Adeptus Temptation, Itto was on a budget so he ordered the "Humbly Enough" which is actually named from another phrase 知足常乐 zhizuchangle or as Itto would later bring up "appreciate what you got."
This may be a shoutout to the story Itto represents, Japan's delinquent culture. The man typically bites off more than he can chew and it gets him into trouble. But as his events continue he's gotten more perspective and I think this dish was to serve as a hint for where he should end up.
Anyway the dish itself is also based on a real dish or rather a bunch of them. Traditionally Buddhists weren't allowed to eat meat but if you're going to be limited to a vegetarian diet you might want to try being creative and come up with all kinds of flavors including vegetarian meats. These days those kinds of bean-based meat-inspired dishes are a staple of Chinese cuisine and they "appreciate what they got."
Then Day four the Mondstadters order fried rice, but it's not called fried rice is it? Right at Home. Amber is actually what Asians call a hapa. Her grandfather came from Liyue. This feels like a shoutout to all the overseas Chinese out in the world who can get a taste of home any time they go for some fried rice.
Now keeping with the theme related to Day two, fried rice is actually a really cheap dish. You can even call it Chinese fast food the way you're meant to prepare it. Here, ++let Uncle Roger tell you all about it.++ (with some additional help) But the "Right at Home" based on the description in-game is a specific kind of fried rice where the egg is evenly mixed into the rice such that each grain is coated in a thin layer of egg, giving it a golden color.
Believe it or not ++this was the plot of a movie.++ True to the super fancy jade related names for things in Liyue this kind of fried rice is named something like "Enlightened Jade Chamber" lol (菩提玉斋 putiyuzhai)
The message of the film also relates to the message of the day's quest. The main character of the film spent a long time perfecting his craft of making this supposedly simple dish and ultimately succeeded where those around him that kept taking shortcuts to get ahead eventually crashed. Amber, Eula and Mika are all leading members of the Knights of Favonius and Amber specifically even strives to be the best at Outriding which sounds very simple on paper.
There's actually more. Going back to Itto, we had the vegetarian meat dish but the story was about how Itto being an oni was allergic to the soy beans in the dish. Of course his allergy is rooted in the actual Japanese belief that oni can be warded off with soy beans, a ritual called 豆まき mamemaki.
But where does mamemaki come from? The practice is done during Setsubun which celebrates Risshun aka 立春 lichun or the first day of spring in the lunar calendar. What else happens around this time? Chinese New Year or the Spring Festival. One of the things they did during this time was ward off evil spirits that bring misfortune by setting off things like fire crackers. The mamemaki developed from this custom because as I've pointed out before, oni used to be a catch all term for evil spirits which is now what "youkai" is for. "Oni" is still used as that catch all term in China. Fitting reference to make for a Lantern Rite patch huh?