Thursday, October 07, 2010

am a cyber chef...

the lovely photograph of sous chef amelia is from facebook.com


am brewing up some depth charge, cooking up pastilla and feijoada for the anniversary catering and yep still needed 2 tesla coils and 7 flux switches for my lightning stove assembly….

did you think I’ve gone mad and started talking gibberish? the statement above makes total sense, at least to the 2 million people hooked on this game in the much-visited, most famous networking site, Facebook - the caffeinated gamers of caféworld, that is!

I have started playing this game a little after jared was born. in between chaging diapers and feeding and doing my son’s laundry and later on add a tiring day from work (as i have gone back to work a few more months from maternity leave before finally turning my back and decided to be a SAHM in may) into the melee, i would find a couple of hours each day, if it were possible, to go online and squeezed in playing this lovable game whilst I check my mail or change my shout out in facebook. I was hooked. For a struggling and frustrated cook such as myself, who wouldn’t get past my staple of frying a tacky sunny side up or sautéing, it was a person’s dream come true and for someone dreaming of putting up his own diner in the not so distant future this is a restaurateur’s idea of nirvana. I can easily whip up a yummy triple berry cake, or fix lox and bagel, or cook up a homestyle pot roast and later on, can even brew some cappuccino and lattes. But unlike in real life, where a few dishes could probably take you elbow greasing in the kitchen for 3 hours or so, dishes in this game could be whipped up in 30 seconds, an hour and some could run in up to two days depending on its level of difficulty. So must watch out when you’re cooking time’s up lest you want unpleasant aroma of spoiled food wafting thru your entire restaurant. 

Apart from the sheer joy of a click-away cooking, caféworld also offers an array of kitchen functionalities to choose from, be it a lightning stove which allows you to cook a meal in just a single click, or an assortment of fancy counters, or funky wall and floor decors and every bit of accessories you might want to add in your café. Possibilities are endless and it is 100% pure fun! And as your customers doubled up, your levels reaching sky high, a little something will be given as a token like you can cook this particular dish if you reach this particular level and of late, they’ve given each café junky a coffe machine where you start practicing your brews before opening up your own coffe joint a la starbucks! And yes they have also introduced catering, wherein you need to cook specific dishes and complete several items for special occasions such as dinner parties, weekend barbeque, a children’s party and more importantly a first caféworld anniversary party.

October 02 marks the end of a week-long first caféworld birthday celebration, and to mark the momentous occasion zynga has cooked up something special for all its avid followers. You cook 4 special dishes for the occasion, complete it in seven days, get a three-star rating and you get to keep the special dishes, unlock the next catering order and you can even win a roundtrip ticket for two.  Plus, you can even recruit your friends to help you with all the work in the kitchen. How fab can it get?

So we cook away….

but several days past and I haven’t finished my catering task so I would have to forget about the three star rating and unlocking the next catering order. Probably this is what happens when taking care of my baby is the utmost priority and everything else, yes including the café addiction, falls crammed up to second place. And for someone who’s idea of a computer game actually only includes having the main character plunge into the abyss a number of times till I used up all my turns, what I achieved in my jared’s café is actually worth the noble prize (or whatever is the equivalent in cooking!). so here’s the point I give meself a pat on the back!

Kudos, too, to zynga and for the wonderful ideas you’re coming up with to make my café adventure swell. Cheers to more years of brewing, catering and tinkering with the pots and pans in my cyberrestaurant. And to everyone out there who’s hooked too, I’d very much appreciate it if you can add me as a friend, am such a dearie, I’ll spice your dish while you’re away, send you gifts and yep, help you to achieve that ever elusive catering three-star, so what are you waiting for?

In the meantime, the mummy has to attend to this little man tugging at my sleeves,30 minutes to one hour is all that he allows me to play this game, enough for him to marvel at the graphics, enjoy the catchy sound and let him be entertained and hopefully just enough for mummy to finish all her tasks, coffee brewing and stove and other assembly and keep all them hungry customers at bay.

So enjoy brewing, keep the kitchen spick and span and continue serving those mouth-watering café dishes. And don’t forget to send me that flux switch while you’re at it!
 
Cheers!




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