Before the Golden age of Gaming. Before Kickstarter changed the hobby forever.  Before Clue saved us from Monopoly. Even before WWII. People were throwing Murder Mystery parties. It’s our cultures oldest game night theme. And although the parties back then were probably very different to today’s, the thrill of solving a mystery has never changed.

The Murder Mystery Game spectrum is so massive that an entire website could be dedicated (and probably is somewhere) on just that subject alone. So instead we are going to narrow our focus to a game night with some awesome murder themed party games with an Asian twist for dinner. This is a great place to jump in if you’ve been thinking of starting your own game nights. And we’ll show you ways to customize your meal so it’s as easy or challenging as you desire. And remember it’s ok if you decide to just put Chinese take-out on the table. Just get out there with your friends and game!

So here’s what your going to need for this game night.

Food- Preferably of the Asian type.  We’re going to show you how to make Peking Duck (or chicken) bites with Steamed Buns.

Drinks- We broke out the Sake Set and picked up some inexpensive Sake to sip on. (We know we’re mixing some different countries here but when is Sake not a blast?) We also served beer and made pots of Green Tea as an alternative.

Games- We are going with Deception: Murder in Hong Kong and Mysterium to match with out theme.

Peking Duck sounds complicated but it’s really not. If you look at the meal above there’s actually very few ingredients. To serve 6 guests you’ll need a

1 whole duck or chicken (get duck if you can because ducks are delicious and adventurous eating is fun)

Some soy sauce, honey, and kosher salt

40 Steamed Buns (We’re going to just show some cool pics of us making these rather than going over the recipe because its a long process. Don’t worry about making them, just buy them in the frozen section of any Asian Grocer. Or if you don’t have one nearby just serve the meal with some rice. If you absolutely must make them we used a fantastic recipe found in the cookbook Momofuku.)

Assortment of condiments- Siracha, pickled bamboo, shiitake mushrooms, scallions, hoisin, cucumbers, or anything else you feel like.

4 Cups of rice

An hour the day before the party. Add another 2 hours time if your crazy like us and decide to make your own buns.

 

The day before:

Get your duck or chicken out and wash it inside and out, making sure to wash away any blood or juice that was in the packaging. Dry it completely with some paper towels and place it on a rack over a pan. This will allow air to circulate all around the bird so you can get that awesome crispy skin.

Take 2 Tablespoons of honey and soy sauce and mix them together in cup.

Then brush the mix all over the duck and inside the cavity. It will probably take a few coats until the bird turns a nice copper color. (Ours took 3 coats)

Sprinkle the entire top of the bird with kosher salt and put it in the fridge uncovered. That’s it your all done for today!

Unless of course your crazy and making your own steamed buns. In which case you night will look like this..

The day of the party:

Now it’s time to cook that bird that’s been awkwardly in your fridge since last night. About 2 hours before eating (90 minutes if your doing a chicken), start preheating your oven to 375 degrees. The ducks going to take around 90 minutes to cook (50 minutes for a chicken) so start a timer when you put your bird in the oven. While that’s cooking away we’ll get everything else ready.

Rice: No one likes cooking rice, not even supposed professionals like us. So if you haven’t invested in a good rice cooker yet, seriously think about it. It’s like having a microwave, it becomes a tool you can’t live without anymore. If you don’t have a rice cooker than follow the instructions provided on the bag. If you do than go ahead and push that cook button.

Cut up any cucumbers, cilantro (just rip off the stem), scallions, carrots, or cabbage you want as thin as possible.

To make the Siracha mayo add Siracha to plain mayo until it’s as spicy as you’d like

If your doing shiitakes go ahead and add them to a pot of equal parts soy sauce and water. Throw in a pinch sugar for good measure and leave it gently simmer on the stove for 30 min.

Get a wok or pot of water boiling and then turn it off. You’ll use that to steam the buns and preheating the water will make everything faster. If you have a bamboo steamer load it up with buns (keep them in the individual papers they came with). If you don’t have a bamboo steamer (grab one sometime, they are very cheap and people will be impressed) then grab whatever you would steam veggies in (most pan sets come with a steam pan that has holes). If you don’t have anything don’t panic! You can just microwave batches of them. At 10 seconds per batch.

 

After all this final prep work is done the bird should be just about ready. Go ahead and pull it out to see what it looks like. If you have a probe thermometer (and you should if you cook anything at home) see what the temperature is. Try to take a reading from the deepest part of the breast. If it’s at 165 degrees or higher take it out. If not put it back in and check again in 10 minutes. If you don’t have a thermometer than slice open the breast and see if it looks at all pink or the meat is kind of jello looking. If your not sure just throw it in for 10 more minutes and check again. If it’s done take it out and let it sit on the counter, while you steam some buns.

Go ahead with the final step and steam up some buns! Just turn the water back on to a boil and throw those puppies on there for about 10 minutes. Then pull one out (be careful when you first open the lid because hot things, like steam, are hot) and check it. It should be soft and warm but not stick together.

Now just slice up the bird and serve with bowels of rice and sides. Like so…

Just kidding! This is a party with a group of chaotic neutral human beings, not a recipe book. So just throw it all on the table and let everyone fend for themselves!

 

 

Dont forget to have something sweet for later. A little sugar can be a boost during that final game of the night so we served some grocery store bought Ice Cream Mochis.

 

 

There are many great mystery related games out there but today we are going to look at two of the best introductory games that match our theme. The first one is called Deception: Murder in Hong Kong and it’s a game from 4-12 players. It’s a game of hidden identity where one player is the murder, one player a forensic scientist, and everyone else an investigator. Only the forensic scientist knows who the murderer is and what murder weapon and clues were used. They can’t speak so they need to try and point everyone at the table (who all have no clue which one of them is a murderer in disguise) to the right clues, by marking off  words on the tiles in front of them. Everyone gets one vote to guess the murderer and clues or the murderer wins.

Theres also some very fun alternative roles for bigger groups that shake up the game if it starts to become boring!

 

The next game in our line up is Mysterium   another game with a silent clue giver. In this game one player plays as a ghost haunting a mansion while everyone else is a psychic trying to solve the mystery by interpreting strange visual images that the ghost is sending them. So kind of like a cooperative Clue. Just don’t get scared when you first open the box. It looks like a lot of pieces but it’s a very simple game.

And that just about wraps up our first Themed Game Night post! We’re going to include a list of other games that might be a good fit for this theme. As well as some suggested reading if you enjoyed the food and would like to learn more about how to cook this kind of cuisine. Thank you so much for your support and being part of this project. Please let us know what else you’d like to see, or anything we didn’t talk about that your interested in. If you have other ideas for this game night or want to see us do a specific type of game night leave a comment.

Other games:

10 minutes to Kill, Betrayal of House on the Hill, Mansions of Madness, Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective

Suggested Reading:

Momofuku, Lucky Peach’s 101 Easy Asian Recipes