Ok, so my period started unexpectedly, which explains why I NEEDED dessert at dinner tonight, and have been scarfing Dove chocolates like they’re going to nuke the factory.

I hate Dove chocolate.

So, tonight, I bring you a post I’ve been thinking about for awhile:  Gaming Food.

I think we’re all familiar with the stereotypical gamer food, like Doritos, Mountain Dew, pizza, and Funyuns.  But does it have to stop there?

Initially, for gaming, I would swing by a stop and rob, pick up a six pack of either Mt. Dew or Pepsi, and a large bag of chips, and head over to whoever’s house.  If gaming was going to turn into a party after, I might bring a six pack of beer or a bottle of liquor, or cash for someone else to do the liquor store run when I was still underage.

I also used to game at Seattle Metro Gamers, which at the time was located right across the street from a Burger King, so Whoppers, fries and chocolate shakes figured largely in my gaming diet for awhile.

But as we got older, my husband, my friends and I, our palates matured.  Burger King and Jack in the Box shifted to being the really great Chinese take-out place down the block, or the Korean bar that also did sushi and Korean BBQ spare ribs.

Now when we game the foods resembles a wine-tasting or a fancy dinner party more and more.  We start off with a round of fancy cheeses and snooty crackers (rosemary and sea salt artisanal crackers).  Then a main course, whatever the Geek Husband What Rules feels like cooking, or more rarely takeout from somewhere.  And a round of fancy cookies or brownies for dessert.  We have an espresso maker.  We have a huge liquor shelf.  We sometimes go buy fancy cupcakes.  Or sushi.

When the Girl Game met regularly, we frequently had salad, roast chicken, home-made bread, and cupcakes.  Except for that one time when we all cycled together (it’s a thing uteruses do) and the GHWR walked in, saw a table FULL of cupcakes and one lonely salad.  He backed out of the room slowly and refused to make eye contact until the end of the night.

On occasion, we have been known to do fancy cocktails and cheese fondue.

What you will almost never find at one of our gaming sessions is Doritos, Funyuns or Mt. Dew.

It didn’t really happen suddenly, it was a gradual move away from stereotypical “gamer chow,” to fancy dinners with free-range meat and organic veggies.  I mean, sometimes we’ll have taco night, but they’re home-made street style tacos, with fresh spices.  And when we have pizza, the GHWR makes that from scratch, too, with buffalo mozzarella and really nice sausage.

Basically what I’m getting at is that you don’t have to eat like a garbage can when you game.  You can do whatever you want.

What are your gamer-food go-tos?

I’ll try to talk the GHWR into sharing a recipe or two here.