I love cooking. Ever since my mom started to go blind I've been taking over as the primary cook in the house and while I'm not the best at it and I definitely let my depression get in the way of doing it a lot, cooking is a hobby I've really enjoyed. I've made a lot of friends with it, been exposed to a whole bunch of new foods and, by extension, cultures. One of those friends actually recommended this game to me! Shoutouts to my dear friend Sab, one of my favorite people, an amazing musician, check out her stuff. Cooking means a lot to me and I have been drawn to games about cooking for as long as I can remember. I was the token "Cooking Mama" person in my friend group growing up and to this day I keep an eye out for interesting games about food. So an entire puzzle/visual novel ABOUT food? Sign me up!
Venba - A Cute Game About Food and Culture
What Is Venba?
Released in 2023, Venba is a narrative cooking game set in a roughly 30 year period from the late 1980s to the recent past, around the late 2010s/early 2020s. You play as the eponymous Venba who, along with her husband, Paavalan, have recently immigrated to Toronto from their home of Tamil Nadu to seek out new opportunities. Life is hard for them in Toronto, however. Despite Paavalan's degrees, he struggles to find a job in his field due to it being more competitive and a not insignificant amount of racism. Venba, similarly, is having trouble gaining momentum in her career. Back in India, she was an accomplished teacher whose students loved her but in Toronto she's having far more trouble. Her English isn't great and she can't relate to her students in the way she could back home. And she keeps getting passed over for a more substantial position because of it (and also probably racism let's be honest). The two of them are struggling so much that they consider packing up and moving back to India. And then Venba discovers she's pregnant.
The game then proceeds to tell the story of the family through a series of vignettes, glimpses into specific days of the family's growth as they struggle to raise their son, Kavin, to have an appreciation for their native culture when he's surrounded by Canadian culture. In almost every instance, these vignettes also center around cooking. The central gameplay of Venba is actually very similar to something like Cooking Mama, you are tasked with cooking a traditional South Indian dish step by step completing little minigames to simulate the various cooking steps. Stuff like moving your mouse up and down to simulate chopping vegetables or moving it in a circular motion to rub paste into a fish. The recipes in Venba, however, also have a puzzle aspect to them. Venba is working off of her mother's cookbook, a precious family heirloom that she brought over from India, and being an old family cookbook it's covered in stains. It's up to the player, therefore, to "solve" the stain covered text and figure out the missing instructions. Food is so central to this game that it even comes with a cookbook (and I definitely need to print out and try some of these recipes.)
Spoiler-Free Review:
Venba is an incredibly charming game. With an adorable art style and a true love of Tamil Culture, Venba oozes personality throughout its short run time. You can tell this story was very personal to the devs, they are Indian of course and I imagine they must be Tamil and they talked about wanting to do an immigrant story from the perspective of the parents for once instead of basing it in the second generation as so many do. The themes explored in this game are handled incredibly well, I am not an immigrant to my country nor am I the child of immigrants, my family has been in America for several generations, but I could so easily put myself into the mindset of both Venba and Kavin throughout. The writer(s) did an excellent job at making a story that I'm sure most resonates with people who are either immigrants or second generation but also can be connected with even if you don't have these lived experiences. The puzzles are incredibly well designed too, just, they're very clever and really make you think about the art of cooking in such a unique way. There's a particular one later on in the game I REALLY love, I'll talk about it in the spoiler section of this post. The only things I'm not super sold on are, a, the length, I wish it was longer and had more to it, but b some of the recipes don't get the full attention I wish they would. I just want to solve these puzzles, I wish there was more game to this game. But overall I really enjoyed it. 8.5/10
A More Thorough Look:
A Game About Cooking:
One of the things I really enjoy about Venba is its depiction of cooking. Depictions of cooking in media, be it film, television, video games or just little TikToks are something I feel very passionate about. If you know me you know I've gotten up on my soapbox more than a few times about how I dislike media that makes cooking feel impossible because cooking is intimidating to a lot of people, it is a massive hurdle for them and cooking content that makes it seem complicated reaffirms these beliefs for people and ends up with them being turned off from cooking. Venba, I think, does a good job of both voicing these concerns, this hesitancy to cook, while also making cooking seem fun and accessible. I know the developers talked about the difficulty they had translating Tamil cuisine into puzzles because, like a lot of South Asian cuisine, they can get pretty complicated. But I think they nailed it, I think it gives people a good space who may be intimidated by cooking to learn that cooking is fun, cooking isn't something difficult that you have to overcome but an artform you can create in.
I'm also a massive fan about how each puzzle is not only a fun little brain teaser but also does help you conceptualize how to most effectively make the dish. They make for very good tutorials on the order of operations of the dish, the best way to ensure the dish is done well and what it should look like roughly when the dish is complete. I really do want to commend the artists for managing to so accurately depict what the final dish looks like in its stylized art style, like, it can be really helpful. And I understand, like, the recipes are VERY detailed, I haven't made any of them but I checked the recipe for Biryani and it is thorough. But it's also just nice to also have a visual indicator of what the dish roughly should look like when it's done, especially when it also comes with some practical instructions like "what order ingredients should go in". I know there's like a whole thing of "games simulating stuff don't always teach you how to do the thing in question" but I think Venba does give such practical instructions that for visual and hands on learners you can kind of get an idea on how to make the dish(es) in question.
But Venba is not just a cookbook. While it does give you the recipes and some knowledge on how to make these dishes, Venba is a game about culture. And, moreover, how integral food is to culture. Full disclosure, while I hope that I am able to communicate the thoughts and ideas in Venba well, as I have mentioned previously I am American and moreover a white American. My family has been in the country for several generations and, even if we were in touch with our original cultures, on my mom's side I'm German and Irish and on my dad's side I think I'm Danish? While these are cultures that have their own rich food history, their cultural identity is not as strongly tied to the food they make as, say, Indian culture tends to be, food is not as central a component to my ancestors. So if I say something wrong going forward or seem out of depth I apologize, thank you for being patient with me, lol. I try my best but this is definitely something much harder for me to connect with due to my own lived experiences.
Venba does an excellent job of showing cooking as not only important culturally but also the why of it. Why these little rituals, these quirks and ticks you engage in while creating this edible art, are significant. I'll touch on it later on, because I want to talk about the cookbook in more detail by itself, but Venba feels isolated, divorced from her home. She is pretty literally on the other side of the world and cooking is her way of touching base with that part of her she has left behind. So there's kind of a ritual to it. She turns on the radio to the only station she can find that plays Indian music (which by the way, soundtrack is great, it's sung entirely in Tamil and from what I understand evokes so many eras of Tamil music, again, I'm not an expert but it seems like those that are really vibe with it) and does things very traditionally in a way she might not have previously. She even points out in the first Chapter of the game that her recipe for Idli and the way she prepares is different from her mothers' but she wants to do it that way, she wants to engage with her traditions. It's her way of feeling at home while away from home.
You then grow to relate to her frustrations when Kavin, who grew up in Canada and is more connected to Canadian culture, seems to reject his native culture. It starts off in little ways at first, Kavin wants pizza over what his mom cooks as most children would. But it grows into a familiar story, he feels like his culture is stopping him from fitting in and he grows to resent it. There's a particular scene where Venba prepares her son a ton of Biryani to bring with him to college and he is not pleased about it, clearly worried about how he will be perceived if he's "the Indian kid". And like, I get it, but you also feel the heartbreak, feel how sad it makes Venba to keep trying to reach out to her son, keep trying to throw him a rope to his own culture, only for him to reject it. To Venba this food, this life, is everything and to Kavin it is smothering.
This cultural divide comes to a head in one of the last stages of the game. It is Kavin's birthday, one of the first after Paavalan died, and Venba asks him if he's coming home for it. Kavin tells his mom he wants to (probably a lie) and that he'll see what he can do. Venba, excited to have her son home, excited to be a family if only for one night, makes an absolute feast. Every dish she can imagine, all laid out for her son's arrival. It's an attempt, an attempt to get Kavin to embrace his heritage, to see the beauty, the vibrance in the culture he's always been hesitant to embrace. And he doesn't show. Venba is clearly heartbroken, silently waiting all night for her son before going inside, defeated, the food left out, the dishes still in the sink. You kind of get a glimpse into how much the relationship between the two has broken down, with Venba sending her son messages he did not reply to, trying to keep touch with him even as he grows. This food is not only an attempt for an Indian parent to try and get her son to embrace his culture but a mom trying to bridge a gap to her son. Tragic stuff man.
We then take control of Kavin. It's a few years later and Kavin now works as a television writer. He's on one of those Western kid shows that is designed to show the diversity of the nation in question and the person in charge asks him to pitch a dish for a scene where all the kids bring food from their native culture. And he is uncomfortable about this fact. He sees a group of kids hanging out in a cafeteria and talking about their culture and their food as being not even close to his lived experiences. That he was uncomfortable and embarrassed by his culture growing up, that he was so desperate to fit in he rejected everything Indian about himself, and that having a character show pride in that when he didn't feels like a betrayal. But he relents. He decides to make a dish from his mother's cookbook, which she left with him as she has moved back to India, for the show. He's clumsy with it, unsure of the process, but along the way he realizes what he has done. He falls in love with Tamil culture, wants to be a part of it and, most importantly, wants to do right by his Amma. Cooking this dish, immersing himself in his culture, has caused him to have a revelation. He quits his job and flies back home to India, where the game ends with him learning to cook directly from Venba.
Systemic Racism and the Language Barrier:
Unsurprisingly, a game that deals with immigrants a cultural preservation in the face of said immigration does have some themes of racism in it as well. Venba doesn't touch on this theme in depth by any means as, first off, that's not what the game is about. It's not a game about racism, why would they touch on it in depth. But also I think it's more accurate to the lived experiences of a lot of immigrants in the big cities of the west to not really depict racism in any super present way. Like, a lot of Western cities, both in the past and still today bill themselves as cultural melting pots and so explicit racism isn't usually present. But you still see it in the very subtle ways that our society works, how these places may put walls up for people who have trouble speaking English, people who are poor because of moving to the west, etc. Venba touches lightly but poignantly on elements of systemic racism, and I think it does so very well.
I want to first touch upon typography in Venba, as I think it's a good scene setter for this section. Venba does something very clever with its typography. We are, obviously, playing as Venba, an Indian immigrant whose native language is not English but Tamil, Tamil is the language that we are seeing most of the time. English is, in this case, the foreign language, a second language that Venba and Paavalan are both "fluent" in, Pavalaan moreso, enough to get by in Canada but not enough to where speaking the language is natural. This presents an interesting problem, we are always seeing Tamil so Tamil is the language that we should be "understanding" and, like a lot of fiction, we see that as the language that is native to the localization, in my case English. But English is also a language meant to be understood and it's difficult when you're already using English to then find a way to treat English as a foreign language. So what Venba is color the font. When characters are speaking Tamil, they have white text and when they are speaking English they have Yellow text. Simple, easy to understand, genius.
Due to this very easy to understand dichotomy, you also get a good grasp on the specific nuances of the conversations they have with other English speakers. One of the early parts of the game sees Pavalaan trying to get a job in his field. He has a couple degrees from Indian universities and, back home, was a pretty notable writer, writing is his passion. And you have him trying to get jobs over the phone, trying to show his enthusiasm for the work, point to his degrees, point to his experience. But, it doesn't seem to matter. He may very well be a good fit for the job, the best fit even. But the people on the other line only seem to take one thing into account: his English. Pavalaan speaks English pretty well but his words are slow and can be disjointed, the way a lot of immigrants' words can be. And you know he probably has a thick accent. He is being kept from this job that he is very qualified for because of where he comes from.
This systemic issue also hangs over Venba. Like I said, we don't see Venba in the work environment at all but it still casts a shadow. Almost every level ends with a letter from the school Venba works at part time. Venba was a teacher back in India and back home she was very good at her job. She was the young, cool teacher who could relate to the kids and pull them out of their shells to learn. In Canada though, this is a much more difficult issue for her. The cultural barrier is a big part of it, she has a much more difficult time connecting to the kids here. But she's still very good at her job and she is gunning for a full time position, a proper teaching job that will not only be fulfilling for her but help make ends meet. The duo are struggling and have had to make compromises just to make their bills and Venba having a full time position would help immensely. But, throughout the entire game, Venba is repeatedly rejected for this job, a job she loves and is good at. We don't know a lot about the other teachers that have taken this position but we can assume things about them given the other context clues present in this game. In a bit of dramatic irony, she is finally approved for the job after Pavalaan dies, after she can no longer afford to stay in Canada and chooses to move back to India, her last reason for trying to make it work (Kavin) no longer answering her texts.
I have to also imagine that the racism really shaped Kavin. Kavin is very interesting with the text thing, while Tamil is his first language, like a lot of second generations, Kavin quickly adapts to the native language of the country he's in over his own native language just from osmosis. It is very early in the game where Kavin is also majority speaking in English and his mother has to remind him to speak Tamil. This problem only gets exacerbated as the game goes on, with there eventually being such a language barrier that not only is Kavin speaking faster than his parents can understand but the words don't even make sense. Words become smudged and blurry as his parents struggle to communicate with their son who now exclusively speaks in English. Put in a pin in the blurry text, by the way, it'll come up later in a very cool way.
Anyways, Kavin is doing what a lot of second generation kids do in a culture that not only surrounds him but is prejudiced against them, even in smaller systemic ways: he assimilates. He embraces the local culture, tries to fit in(even going so far as letting people call him "Kevin"), even at the cost of his culture and his relationship with his family. To bring you back to him going off to college, Venba has made her son a lot of meals to take with him, to remind him of home. Not only that, but his parents want to go with him, want to see his college, see his dorm, meet his friends. He fully rejects this. Kavin worries about being the "Indian kid in Canada", of being othered in that way. He just wants to fit in, wants to be a part of this world he was born into. And doing that means being "the Canadian kid who happens to have Indian parents", because at the time he grew up (and probably still now), it was an easier life to live, an easier way to fit in.
But the biggest thing that happens with regards to depictions of racism in this game is Chapter 3. Chapter 3 is rather unusual for this game in that it's the only chapter that does not have a cooking section. Instead it's full Visual Novel, you're just progressing the plot and maybe selecting some dialog options here and there. By Chapter 3, Paavalan has swallowed his pride and now works as a salesman for a relative. He does not like this turn of events even remotely, something he makes abundantly clear, but it's paying the bills. One night, Paavalan is late coming home, nobody has seen him since he left work and he was meant to be home hours ago. Worried and confused, Venba and Kavin set off into the night to look for him. While they try to keep their spirits up, with Venba choosing to practice Tamil with Kavin, they eventually find Paavalan at the bus stop. He's beaten and bloodied, his paperwork flying everywhere and his glasses shattered on the ground. He was the victim of a seemingly racially motivated attack, the game letting very little be confirmed but allowing the implication to cast a massive shadow over this scene. When I first got to this sequence I actually was really worried Pavalaan had taken his own life because they show his glasses on the ground without him there first THEN show him beaten at the bus stop.
A Story About A Cookbook
Let's talk about the cookbook, the most important element of Venba. Not the one the game includes so that players can learn to make the recipes in question, the in-game one, the one Venba had passed down to her from her mother and the one she inevitably passes down to Kavin. The in-game cookbook is the central gameplay element of the game. It contains within it the puzzles that need to be solved, the recipes missing text due to stains and smudges that the player must figure out to complete the stages. This is not only a fun little gameplay element, a fun and creative way to build a game around cooking puzzles. While it does certainly accomplish that, the Cookbook holds incredible narrative significance as well. In a game about connecting and reconnecting with your culture, this cookbook with its stains and blemishes is paramount.
Flash back, if you will, to the first chapter of the game, the chapter where Venba makes Idli. As mentioned previously, she forgoes the way she would usually make it to opt for her mother's recipe, a more complicated one but one that feels like home to her. This is when she discovers that the cookbook is missing pieces, text is being obscured by stains, it's hidden or blurry. These stains are not just stains, as I'm sure you could probably piece together. The stained pages are meant to represent Venba's disconnect from her culture, the divide that forms between her and her home now that she is in Toronto. And these half complete recipes are her trying to bridge that divide, she wants to feel at home, feel her culture, feel her family with her, but she doesn't know how. Something is holding her back, something is stopping her from being able to form a complete bridge. So she works with incomplete recipes. Until she has mastered them herself, as her own mother did.
This incredibly unique and creative puzzle element adds so much depth, so much nuance to the narrative. It kind of blew me away when I realized that's what was happening, how much this cookbook represents to Venba and her own story. How well it contextualizes the events of the game. How significant it is that we don't see her ever bring the recipes together herself. The recipe book she gives Kavin is a "fixed" version of her mother's book, all the stains gone, all the recipes rewritten, a master passing on her craft to the next generation. To Venba, that bridge is no longer shaky, it has been built. This is who she is, Tamil culture is her culture, and she not only can see through the stains, she doesn't need the book at all. It's second nature to her.
But you know what's not second nature to her? English. We're bringing it back, the realization I had when I made this connection. So, we've established, through the cookbook, that blurry or missing text = a disconnect. That is the metaphor we are working with here. Where else have we seen blurry or missing text outside of the cookbook? Kavin. When Kavin leaves for college, he has one final meal with his parents and talks about his upcoming move. And every so often, words are missing from his speech, words that his parents have trouble understanding because their English is still limited. This is also the conversation where Kavin tells his parents that he is not bringing the food they've packed for him to college and he does not want them to come with him on move in day. This is a gap that has formed between him and his family. And just like with the cookbook, this divide, this disconnect, is represented through missing text.
When Kavin inherits the book himself, his mother has done a lot of work to make it pristine. The pages are clean with no stains, no blemishes, the recipes are precise and well written, all of them by hand. But, the disconnect still exists, and in Kavin's case, it's much worse. His mother wrote the recipes in Tamil, in their native language. She's actually always writing in and reading Tamil throughout the game, we just perceive as English because of the perspective we are seeing it from having Tamil as the "normal" language in her brain. The thing about it is, Kavin's Tamil is very rusty. He hasn't read in Tamil in ages, probably since he was living at home, and his translations are really poor. He mixes up a lot of words and just fully mistranslates some of them. It's a very neat puzzle in the game, probably my favorite, having to use context clues to figure out what words Kavin is messing up.
But it's also an interesting layer to the theme of this cookbook in the storytelling. While Venba saw the cookbook as incomplete, she understood it. The bridge to her home was shaky but it was there, she just needed to find the way. Kavin, meanwhile, has been running away from his culture his entire life, trying to fit in with another world entirely. So rather than the cookbook manifesting to him as an incomplete but recognizable text, he sees it in a language he has forgotten. He doesn't feel connected to this culture at all, it's literally a distant memory to him, and so he views the book at first like an outsider would. He is having to rebuild his relationship with both his culture and his mother from the ground up, this is not a bridge that exists that he needs to learn how to cross, it is a bridge he needs to build. And he can only build it by choosing to stop running away, by confronting his guilt. By learning his mother's recipes.
Final Thoughts:
Venba is marvelous. It manages to pack so much into its very short length. I spent an hour and a half on it and I think if you had a good grasp on the puzzles you would spend less. It's a very good single sitting game. But there's so much to it, you can tell that this was a very personal story to the developers. As you can tell from the pieces I wrote, it covers so much about the experiences in trying to keep your culture alive while living away from it. It's fun, it's creative, it's the kind of experience you can only get from a video game. I really enjoyed it. I wish it were longer, I wish there was more Venba to experience. This is a game that's going to stay with me long term, I don't think it's one of the best games I've played all year but I will be thinking about Venba for a long time. It's something very special, I hope everyone gets a chance to play it.
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