barcraft bites [hors d’oeuvres trifecta]

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Over the weekend, I attended a BarCraft event at my friend’s home. We’ve had BarCraft events here before (with the occasional karaoke involved), but none of this caliber. Blizzard, being the awesome folks that they are, sent Ray some StarCraft swag to help with the festivities.

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PRESENTS!! A GSL calendar, TONS of coasters, authenticators, stickers, and lanyards!

To prepare his bar for eSports, Ray put decorations honoring all of the international StarCraft teams.

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Unlike Joeyray’s Bar on Mar Sara, Ray’s Bar in California does not stock Benson Cognek or Scotty Bolger’s Old No. 8, but there is a plethora of other fine spirits…

blog_barcraftbites_barNo shortage of refreshments here. 

In order to have a proper BarCraft, we had to have proper bar food and that was my job. I created a menu full of finger food that could be easily enjoyed with a beer-in-hand. Each race is proudly represented here in a very foodie fashion:

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For Terran, I’ve created the Hellbat Sliders, turkey sliders with a spicy BBQ base and apple coleslaw. These hellbats won’t damage your economy.

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For Zerg, I’ve created Swarm Host Bites, stuffed mushrooms with mozzarella cheese and Italian sausage. Warning, unlike in-game swarm hosts, these swarm host bites cause major splash damage!

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Finally, for Protoss, I’ve created Tempest Croissants, prosciutto, spinach and mozzarella stuffed croissants. Let these croissants siege your taste buds.

These recipes are meant to be very simple and I will be taking some shortcuts in order to reduce the prep time and the ingredients list.

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psionic storm burgers [lamb burgers with horseradish tzatziki]

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Playing StarCraft II multiplayer can be a bit of a mental strain for me. I don’t think I’m up to the challenge of sitting down and laddering non-stop for hours. I end up getting absurdly frustrated and the more I play, the worse I preform. Even 3v3 and 4v4 games can be pretty exhausting for me (the fact that my laptop can’t handle 4s anymore doesn’t help either).

There’s days I want to play StarCraft without really playing StarCraft, which is why I turn to the “Arcade” section of StarCraft. The Arcade section is full of games created by players from around the globe who’ve messed around with the map editor to create some really spectacular things.

One of my favorite games in the whole world is StarJeweled. It combines my love of StarCraft and my unhealthy addiction to match-3 puzzle games.

I will admit that I am much much better at StarJeweled than StarCraft. My skills of match-3 puzzle games was fine tuned during my business calculus classes in college. In my defense, optimizing revenue with integrals is super boring compared to my fancy puzzle games on my phone… Zzzzz

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HARDCORE

In StarJeweled, you earn energy by matching 3 or more of the same jewels. Energy can be spent on building units or using skills. One of the skills that can be used is everybody’s favorite AoE High Templar skill, Psionic Storm.

In StarJeweled, Psionic Storm is pretty helpful in destroying the continual onslaught marines coming to destroy your lovely base.

Though I am not a Protoss player, I can still enjoy the lovely destruction caused by dropping a big ol’ Psi storm on a flock of marines. I assume that a Psi storm leaves quite a sting, similar to eating a bunch of horseradish on a lamb burger! Ok, a well place Psi storm will be a bit more painful than eating horseradish-covered lamb burger… But at least this lamb burger with horseradish tzatziki is delicious!

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