In my mind I’m walking along a plain; on a broken world. The earth here is purple coloured, the soil sparse and small islands float in the sky around me. In front of me a monster arises from nothing and rumples with its giant feet, squeaking with its metallic joints. I am tiny in comparison, a fragile blood elf and still I confront it. I rise my hands and cast a fire ball, another one. The nether wind whistles through my hair, the air sizzles by the flames and my green eyes glow. This is where I belong! Next to me a paladin crosses the way of the monster to confront it and deflect it from me – fighting just is better done together and it is always nice to have a paladin for a friend. The boss goes down, we raid the loot and lovingly fight about the blue item in the TeamSpeak while proceeding to the next adventure with lots of new experience points.

I’ll probably always look back to that time in my past in which I met with almost total strangers online and that nearly daily to paint the town red in Azeroth. Karazhan, Black Temple, Naxxramas… from time to time I tend to dream about those places, even after all those years. And boy! What a good time I had, making magical bread for everyone, blinked myself into mob groups and fought really bad monsters with the guys! And who tells me, that everything really was just a game? I fought, lived, laughed, cursed, managed mischief, met a lot of wonderful people and even made real good friends. Maybe someday I will have a peek back into the game. Just to see who still is there and to hit one of the old raids.

And then I will need dishes like this: Cooked with just a few ingredients – almost a meal made from leftovers – and so simple, so quick. Also you can eat it with chopsticks, so you always have one hand free for casting spells. Three keys (that’s what they always say right?) are all you need as a mage and on the first try we will wipe anyway…

„Nothing-at-home-no-time-have-to-raid“ 10 minutes pasta with bacon, spring onions and gari

Ingredients for 2 bowls

• 2 portions Japanese noodles (e.g. Somen, Soba, Udon or Ramen)*
• 50 g bacon, cut in small pieces
• 4-6 spring onions
• 1 tbsp oil
• 20 ml Sake or sherry
• 4 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar (or black rice vinegar if you can find any)
• 1 tbsp mirin (or 2 tsp sugar)
• some gari
• some furikake

Put a pan on the stove at medium heat and slowly fry the bacon until it is crisp. Meanwhile bring a pot with water to a boil and cut the spring onions into finger long sticks. Scoop the bacon out of the pan, put the pan back on the stove and pour in the oil. Add the spring onions and fry them all around until they are a little brown, almost caramelized.

Put the noodles into the unsalted and boiling water and cook it according to the recommendation on the package. Strain them through a sieve and wash them under cold running water to get rid of the excessive starch.

Pour the sake over the spring onions, wait until the alcohol cloud has dissolved, then add soy sauce, vinegar and mirin. Let it reduce very shortly, then add the pasta. Stir quickly and divide the dish onto two bowls. Add the bacon and also a little bit of gari and furikake. Perfect!

*If you really really are in a hurry you can also use shirataki noodles. They just have to be unpacked and rinsed unter cold water, before you can already add them to the onions in the pan.