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XVII. Cooking in Harvest Moon One of the most enjoyable aspects of Harvest Moon games for many players is the ability to cook. Every Harvest Moon game has its own recipe collection and method of cooking. Harvest Moon DS is most similar to FoMT and MFoMT in this respect. In order to cook, you first must purchase a kitchen from the Shopping Network. The kitchen will not be offered until you have expanded your house once. All building projects are ordered by telephone from Gotz, the carpenter of Mineral Town. The Shopping Network will not offer the Kitchen until you purchase a Refrigerator to store your food items. As soon as you obtain the Kitchen, you will be able to start cooking, as there are a number of Recipes that require No Utensils. To make an item without utensils, highlight the item, then choose 'N/A' as the Implement. The item will be prepared and you will be able to add the Recipe to your Cookbook. Even in your first Summer, you should be able to make a number of Recipes as soon as your Kitchen arrives. A salad can be made with a Tomato. Pickled Turnips can be made with a Turnip, and Pickled Cucumbers can be made with a Cucumber. One of the best recipes you can make without any utensils is Sashimi. All that is required is a Medium or Large Fish. Sashimi is a favourite for Takakura and Carter, two individuals who are difficult to please until you have a Kitchen. It is a good source of energy as well. You can approach cooking through trial-and-error, but you probably will find that most experiments result in 'Failed' or 'Burnt' Dishes. You need to use a recipe that is acceptable to the game. Six books of 'Cooking 101' Recipes, each dedicated to a different method of cooking, can be purchased with Medals from the Casino. The recipes included in these books are not only a few of many and if you wish to complete your Recipe list, you need to expand upon your knowledge. Moreover, buying a book will not add the recipes in that book to your list. You actually need to make the recipe successfully in order to add it to the Recipe List. I have compiled a list of all recipes in this game and it can be found at: Harvest Moon DS Cooking 101 Recipe Guide In many cases, the 'basic' recipe represents the only form that recipe can take. In other cases, however, there will be a basic recipe and a 'best' recipe. The 'best' recipe adds optional ingredients that will enhance the potential of that dish to restore Stamina and combat Fatigue. Here is an example of the difference between the 'basic' and 'best' recipe: Curry Rice (basic): +30 Stamina -2 Fatigue Curry Rice (better) with Green Pepper: +38 Stamina -2 Fatigue Curry Rice (even better): with Carrot, Green Pepper, Onion and Potato: +53 Stamina -2 Fatigue Curry Rice (best): with Medium Fish, Carrot, Green Pepper, Eggplant, Onion and Potato: +64 Stamina -2 Fatigue Please note that using an upgraded level of raw ingredient will not improve the SR or FR of a dish. In FoMT and MFoMT, cooked dishes were worth more when shipped than the raw ingredients from which they were made. In this game, they are virtually worthless when shipped, but they are included as items in your Shipping List. Even if cooked dishes do not add substantially to your total earnings, the advantages of cooking are threefold. First, they are much more powerful than raw ingredients when consumed in terms of restoring Stamina and combating Fatigue. For example, a medium fish will give you +3 Stamina and -1 Fatigue. The same medium fish when converted to Sashimi in your kitchen will give you +30 Stamina -3 Fatigue. In fact, as Sashimi requires no utensils whatsoever, you will be able to make it as soon as your Kitchen is delivered. If you were sustaining your energy with expensive Bodigizer and Turbojolt medicines purchased from Van for 500G and 1000G respectively before you had a Kitchen, you will be delighted to be able to use Sashimi instead! The second advantage is the ability of a cooked dish to raise FP. You will find that there are a couple of individuals in the Valley who respond with indifference to all gifts until you are able to give them 'cooked' dishes. Takakura is one of these. Most items will boost his FP only by 1 point until you have a kitchen. Once you do, you will be able to give him sashimi which will raise his FP by 9 points! The final reason to complete your Recipe list is because you need to ship one of each 'cooked item' in the game in order to complete your Shipping List. You cannot ship 'cooked items' in the ordinary shipping containers on your farm but you can ship them by placing them in your Basket, then dumping the contents into a shipping container or you can ship them directly through the Cannery. You therefore need to purchase the Basket and/or Cannery if you wish to complete your Shipping List. Special Ingredients Ingredients for Recipes in Harvest Moon are found in a number of different ways. There are ingredients that are gathered in the wilds, such as all grasses, bamboo shoots, wild grapes and matsutake mushrooms. There are ingredients that are produced by farming, both as crops and as fruit harvested from trees that you plant. There are ingredients that are purchased from Karen's Supermarket, from riceballs to chocolate and wine. Fish must be caught using a fishing rod and only medium and large fish can be used in cooking in this game. Finally, there are special items that can be obtained only by attending specific Festivals. These items are buckwheat flour/noodles and rice cakes. By attending the Year End Festival, you will obtain either 9 Buckwheat Flour or 9 Buckwheat Noodles. The actual item that you receive is a random result. Buckwheat flour is the more valuable of the two as you can make Buckwheat Noodles from Buckwheat Flour but there are two recipes that cannot be made unless you have the actual Buckwheat Flour. (If you do not receive the Flour, reload your game and try again!) By attending the New Year Festival on New Year's Day, you will obtain 9 Rice Cakes. Incidentally, in early versions of the game, you only could obtain Buckwheat Noodles. In later cartridges, Buckwheat Flour was given at the Festival. The Cooking Festival The Cooking Festival in this game occurs on the beach each Spring and the Gourmet judges the entries as he does both in FoMT and in MFoMT. There are a couple of differences between the games, however. Theme in HM DS is designated by a cooking implement rather than a type of food. In other words, you will be asked to make any dish using a Pot in the second year. In FoMT/MFoMT, you would be asked to make a specific type of dish, such as a 'noodle dish' or 'bread'. The other difference is that winning the Festival in HM DS is more difficult. Making the 'best' version of a recipe will not suffice. Only certain special recipes will allow you to win the Festival in any case. For example, in the 2nd year, when asked to make a dish using the 'Pot', it was only when I made 'Ultimate Curry' that I won. (N.B. The Gourmet HATED 'Finest Curry', which is alleged to be superior to 'Ultimate Curry'. When I entered that, I lost and he declared it to be 'B A D'. 'Ultimate Curry' on the other hand, he pronounced to be the work of a chef of professional quality.) The very best version of 'Cheese Fondue' or 'Curry Rice' failed to impress the Gourmet! Evidently there is one exception to this, however. Any sort of 'Relax Tea' will win when the category is 'Pot'.