Eat at Mom’s

It’s tough love, Japanese style, over at Passionate Nonchalance, where Aria’s addicted to the Nintendo game Cooking Mama. Using a pointer on a touch screen, you make dishes under the flaming gaze of Mama’s all-seeing eyes. If your knife slips or your dumplings flop, Mama will fix it, but you’ll lose points, and worse, Mama will be disappointed in you.

And, being a food blogger, Aria’s taking the game to heart.

“I’ve been playing the game so much I’m pretty sure I’m getting subliminally programmed because I’m now craving all the things Mama and I made. Like gyoza, I want those soft juicy little dumplings so bad right now I can’t stand it.”

After a link to a flash cartoon and theme song, Aria posts her own step-by-step gyoza-making adventure, including an imagined biography of the two-dimensional Mama. And whatever Mama says, those finished dumplings sure do look delish.