Dungeon Daidokoro- Delicious in Dungeon in The Kitchen #2
(Daidokoro is kitchen in Japanese)
Ok, so the last one got 90-ish notes. Close enough.
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Man-Eating Plant Tart
In chapter two, Team Laios ventures into the second layer of the dungeon, a large apparently open-air space full of trees and lush foliage. The first meal they eat here is a tart made of man-eating plant fruit.
Which is a difficulty here.
First, there are no man-eating plants. Obviously. Like, we're not even dealing with something like "there aren't giant scorpions (but there are large crustaceans)" or "there aren't walking mushrooms (but there are big mushrooms)." This is just... this thing doesn't exist. There are carnivorous plants, but they're rather small and, to my knowledge, don't really fruit.
There are giant (non-tree) plants, but, to my knowledge, they also don't fruit, and they tend to be in the realm of "pollinated by carrion insects, so they smell like rotten meat." So, even if that giant flower that smells like corpses has fruit, I doubt anyone would want to eat it.
But, let's start by looking at the recipe-
So, to start with, you need some leftover "scorpion hotpot." Which is to say Lobster Portabello Soup, and some Slime Gelatin--which is maybe jellyfish, but I don't think you can really get anything like gelatin from a jellyfish (at least that you'd want to eat), so we're probably looking at agar agar (a gelatin-like substance from seaweed).
Baraselia, Mearauk, Betahn
It's difficult to really figure out similar real fruits to these. In fact, it's not even particularly clear which fruit is which in the manga. But, I did find Ingredients on the wiki, which makes it more clear-
(minor transliteration differences aside)
Baraselia is interesting, its seeds seem similar, broadly, to a pepper's, and led me to initially think it might be basically a bell pepper-
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that a bell pepper's flesh wouldn't stand up to heat the way the baraselia's does
On further thought, I think the baraselia is a bit more like a squash. Thinking about it, pumpkin seeds also cling pretty tight to the stem, but I don't think the baraselia is a pumpkin exactly.
I think a Cassabanana is probably pretty close-
And, while I'm completely unfamiliar with this plant, I saw notes online that the unripe fruits can be cooked like a vegetable. So, I think cassabanana is probably a good candidate for "Baraselia."
I think the betan is the chopped fruit that gets mixed in. It's an interesting looking fruit, particularly in the anime-
It has a vaguely chili-like appearance, which it could well be, but I'm also struck by the visual similarity of the inner nodes of jackfruit-
Jackfruit is noted for it's "meaty" texture, and is used in several savory dishes. I think jackfruit is probably a very good candidate for a Betan stand-in.
Which leaves Mereoak/Mearauk-
Honestly, they look a lot like cherries or tomatoes, and tomatoes used in savory tarts are just, like, a thing. I think you could very well use a mix of cherries and cherry tomatoes for mereoak.
"Man-Eating Plant" Fruit Tart
~7 oz Leftover "Scorpion Soup
~3 oz Agar Agar or Gelatin
~1 lb unripe Cassabanana
~10 oz jackfruit, roughly chopped
5-6 cherry tomatoes, 3-4 cherries
Salt to taste
Dash of pepper
Lightly steam the fruits and let cool until you can safely handle them. Cut open the cassabanana and remove the seeds, then the skin from the flesh. Mold the skin into a shell for your tart, outside against the plate.
Mash the cassabana flesh, and add the gelatine and soup, stir until slightly thickened. Taste, adding salt and pepper as needed. Add the chopped jackfruit and the rest of the soup, stir till well combined and pour into tart shell.
Put in oven at 400 degrees. Check for setness at 15 minutes, and give an additional 5 minutes if needed.
Remove once set, let cool slightly, serve.
