After Burger - A Spicy Sega Sandwich

Today on Mealtime Strategy we are celebrating the recent announcement of After Burner Climax for XBLA and PSN, releasing this Spring, with a recipe to evoke the exuberance of SEGA's golden era that would be perfect served at a barbecue beneath SEGA-blue skies.

Nowadays, SEGA is sadly often remembered more for failure than success, but back in the 1980s the company was a real force to be reckoned with, especially in the arcades.

Their SuperScaler technology was the first chipset to really harness the power of the third dimension, albeit using pseudo-3D with sprites not polygons, and every machine seemed like showboating from a company brimming with confidence. Hydraulic machines such as Space Harrier, Outrun and our inspiration for this recipe, After Burner drew crowds at the arcades and we are hoping that this fiery recipe will be a real crowd pleaser once they smell your burgers sizzling.

The recipe draws on South American flavours, to mark the Brazilian love for all things SEGA, though it's more of a Mexican theme, as Brazilian burgers are just plain weird... (no offence, Brazil!)

Note: We are based in the UK, probably the largest SEGA stronghold outside of Brazil, but we thought a burger flavoured with tea and served in crumpets would not be quite so appealing!

Recipe: After Burger

Makes 4 quarter-pounder burgers

Ingredients:

• 1lb (500g) lean ground beef / lean beef mince
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped pickled jalapenos (more is hardcore, less is for wimps!
• Zest of 1 lime
• 1 tablespoon cumin powder
• Handful of fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves, roughly chopped
• 2 teaspoon dried oregano (Mexican oregano, if you can find it)
• Good dash Tabasco or preferred hot sauce
• 4 slices of strong cheddar cheese
• 4 lettuce leaves, shredded.
• 4 slices onion
• 4 burger buns, toasted (We recommend sourdough buns if you're in the USA or can find them elsewhere)
• 4 tablespoons of good quality salsa (shop-bought is fine)
• 4 tablespoons sour cream
• Salt and pepper
• Optional: Hot sauce, jalapenos, fresh coriander (cilantro) and lime juice to serve

Method:

• Combine the ground beef, chopped jalapenos, cumin, lime zest, oregano, coriander (cilantro) leaves and hot sauce.
• Season with salt and pepper, mix well and form into four equal-sized patties, approx 1/2 inch thick. If possible, leave these in the fridge for an hour or so for the flavours to develop and for the mixture to meld.
• Heat a small amount of oil in grill pan or frying pan to a medium-high heat (you can barbecue these burgers if preferred)
• Cook the patties for 4 minutes on each side for medium, or 6 minutes for well done. Place the cheese slices on top of the patties to melt for the last two mimutes.
• Take patties out of the pan to rest for a couple of minutes. While they are resting, we can assemble the buns!
• Smear the bottom half of each toasted bun with one tablespoon of sour cream. If you are using extra jalapenos, cilantro and hot sauce, place the required amount on the sour cream. Top with an onion slice each and share the shredded lettuce equally over the four buns.
• Spread one tablespoon of salsa on the top half of each bun.
• Place the rested patties on the dressed bottom halves of the buns, add a squeeze of lime juice, if using, and place the other half of the bun on top.
• Eat, and enjoy the burn!

The After Burger would be great served with sweet potato fries, a Mexican rice salad or even just a handful of tortilla chips.

Inspired By...

After Burner

SEGA's AM2 development team followed up the hit arcade driving game, Out Run, with this accessible flight-sim / shooter in 1987. In fact it is After Burner II that is more well known, but it's not a true sequel. more an update released very soon after the original.

The excitement of seeing a new hydraulic SEGA cabinet in arcades is difficult to explain nowadays, as home consoles and computers are just as powerful, if not more so, than current arcade machines, but suffice to say, folks would gather round these machines just to watch and be sucked into SEGA's glorious technicolour world.

Production of the game was headed by Yu Suzuki, perhaps the best known of all SEGA legends, and in a homage to his own output, the full AfterBurner II arcade game can be played, alongside other SEGA smashes, in his flawed masterpiece, Shenmue 2.

Many fans fondly remember After Burner's hard-rock tinged music, which rocked so hard that UK magazine, Computer and Video Games, gave away a cassette featuring tunes ripped direct from the arcade cabinet!

For those of you that have not seen or played the game, here's a video highlighting some of the gameplay:

In 2006, SEGA surprised their fans by releasing a new arcade game in the series, Afterburner Climax. The game is set to be released in Spring 2010 on XBLA and PSN, so you might want to get your Xbox 360 Live Points or a PlayStation Network Card in anticipation of the release!

We have collected together some of the best SEGA games available on all systems in our Classic Sega Store, to save you sorting the wheat from the chaff! For readers who don't yet own a Sega Dreamcast, we can highly recommend picking one up from the USA store while there are still some available; if the Dreamcast's "geek-cool" status doesn't grab you, the sheer weight of triple-A games will!

Classic Sega Store USA

Classic Sega Store UK

If you are thinking of picking up a Dreamcast or some SEGA games for current or retro systems and have enjoyed our recipes, please consider using our stores, as this helps us keep the site up and running. Thanks!!

Gin Midori Tensei - A Devilish Cocktail

We're celebrating the launch of Mealtime Strategy with a classy concoction based on the Japanese role playing game series, Shin Megami Tensei (SMT). Series fans will remember SMT Persona 3 causing much controversy with the theme of teenagers blowing their heads off to access their hidden Personas... this drink is a bit like that! However your hidden Persona is more likely to wobble about slurring "I bloody love you, man!" than to slay demons.

Midori is a melon flavoured liqueur and was chosen, alongside ginger, to represent Japan. Some of the other ingredients are to provide a boozy backbone and others just because they taste nice but we must point out that this cocktail is only suitable for those above the legal drinking age in your country.

As with all our future recipes, you can learn more about the featured games in our "Inspired By..." section below the recipe.

Interestingly, "Megami Tensei" can translate as "Reincarnation of the Goddess" so perhaps this would be good as a hair of the dog!


Recipe: Gin Midori Tensei Cocktail

Makes one serving, simply multiply the amounts to make a pitcher to share!

Ingredients:

• 1 oz (30 mls) Midori melon liqueur
• 1 oz (30 mls) gin
• 2 oz (60 mls) champagne or sparkling wine (or Mountain Dew at a pinch!!)
• 1/2 oz (15 mls) lime juice
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 slice of fresh ginger

Method:

• Muddle the lime juice, honey and ginger in your serving glass until the honey has dissolved (Muddling essentially means smooshing the ingredients together. Bartenders use a muddling stick, I'd just use a wooden spoon or something!)
• Add the Midori and the gin, then muddle a little more. At this point, you can add an ice cube if you like.
• As gently as possible, pour the champagne/sparkling wine on top of the drink. It should sit on top, so that when you guzzle you get the champagne first, followed by the other flavours.
• Drink it then make another! (Responsible drinking is encouraged :D )

Inspired by...

Shin Megami Tensei

The Shin Megami Tensei series, often referred to as MegaTen, has been a staple of the Japanese RPG industry for over two decades but has only become popular in the West in the past five or six years. Unlike the traditional RPG tropes of orcs and princesses, the MegaTen games are set in the near-future and are more akin to cyberpunk literature than Tolkien.

There are a vast number of games in the series, with some spin-offs having become series in their own right, and with 7 games on the Playstation 2 alone, it can be daunting for a newcomer to know where to start. The Persona games are perhaps the most accessible, with Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES on PS2 being a great value way to get a feel for the series. Persona 3 FES is a standalone expansion on the original Persona 3 and contains a prologue chapter and myriad improvements as well as the original game.

The Shin Megami Tensei series is become increasingly collectable, with USA releases commanding ever higher prices. However, bargains can still be found, especially in the PAL territories. For those in the United States, Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne is a good buy and is especially collectable considering it also features Dante from the Devil May Cry games. The PAL releases were all, until very recently, amazingly affordable (I picked up two copies of Lucifer's Call/Nocturne for £5 total in Blockbuster last year!) but as more people discover the series, prices are also making moves upwards.

We have set up sections devoted to Shin Megami Tensei in our USA and UK stores, which will be updated as stock becomes available (or not!)

Shin Megami Tensei Store USA

Shin Megami Tensei Store UK


If you are thinking of buying any games in the Shin Megami Tensei series and have enjoyed our recipes, please consider using our stores, as this helps us keep the site up and running. Thanks!!

All Meals Served with Chips

Hi, my name's Dan and I'll be your server for this evening.
I'd like to welcome you to Mealtime Strategy, the world's first site devoted to recipes based on video games!
In addition to new recipes for you to try each week, we will also be serving up healthy portions of nerdy food news and reviews of food-related games and books.

Each recipe contains some background information on the game or series that has inspired the dish, and we have set up the Mealtime Strategy UK Store and the Mealtime Strategy USA Store to help you find the games easily if you wish to try them yourself. The stores also carry a number of foodie books that we have grown to love and will help improve your culinary skills.