Venba brings us into the lives of an immigrant family who has moved to Canada. We explore their lives, their family, identity, challenges and most importantly their food. In this narrative cooking game, you’ll learn more about South Indian and Tamil culture through food and storytelling.

You’ll play alongside the titular Venba, a wife and mother who is missing her homeland of India. She discovers her mother’s old cookbook amongst her things and is trying to recreate the recipes in there. It’s been a while since she’s looked at the book and some of the recipes have suffered damage over time. You’ll need to discover the missing ingredients and steps to uncover more of her story.

In this gameplay walkthrough, we’ll go through all the steps of each recipe in case you’ve gotten stuck.

 

All Recipes

Chapter 1	• Idlis
Chapter 2	• Puttu Flour • Puttu
Chapter 4	• Briyani Gravy • Briyani
Chapter 6	• Tamarind Water • Rasam Masala • Chicken Stock • Chicken Rasam
Chapter 7	• Dosa • Oothappam • Kari Dosa

 

Idlis

1. Put water in the cooker
2. Put the towel on the idli plate
3. Put the idli batter on the covered idli plate
4. Put the idli plate in the cooker, and rotate it so that the three holes are at the bottom of the screen
5. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for the next idli plate. Once again, rotate the idli plate in the cooker so that the three holes of the upper idli plate are at the bottom of the screen.
6. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for the final idli plate.

 

Puttu Flour

1. Put the soaked rice in the blender and then use the blender’s control
2. Use the blended rice on the sieve
3. Move the sieve with the blended rice over the towel until all that’s left is some chunks
4. Use the sieve on the blender and then use the blender’s control again
5. Repeat steps 2, 3, and 4
6. Once there are no more rice chunks left to blend, pick up the towel and put it in the water

 

Puttu

1. Put water in the puttu kettle
2. Put the puttu kettle on the stove
3. Put coconut flour in the mould ONCE
4. Put puttu flour in the mold TWICE
5. Put coconut flour in the mold ONCE
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5, so that your mold looks like the screenshot below
7. Put the lid on the mould
8. Put the mould on the puttu kettle
9. Use the stove control to start cooking

 

Briyani Gravy

1. Put in the cloves, fennel seeds, cardamom, and bay leaves (order does not matter for these)
2. Put in the onions, chillies, ginger-garlic paste, and tomatoes in that order
3. Put in the chilli powder, turmeric, biriyani masala, and salt (order does not matter for these)
4. Put in the marinated beef
5. Put in the water

 

Briyani

1. Use the empty bowl on the gravy
2. Put the rice on the gravy in the pot (not the bowl)
3. Put the gravy in the bowl back into the pot (layered over the rice)
4. Repeat step 2
5. Put all the remaining ingredients on top of the second rice layer (order does not matter for these)
6. Cover the pot to finish the recipe

 

Tamarind Water

1. Put the tamarind and the water in the upper bowl and mix
2. Put the sieve on the lower bowl
3. Use the upper bowl on the lower bowl
4. Remove the sieve and use it on the upper bowl
5. Add water to the upper bowl and mix
6. Repeat from steps 2 to 5, twice

 

Rasam Masala

1. “Toast both of the grains first”: Put in mustard seeds and cumin
2. “Next add red leaves and green chillies”: Put in the (red) chillies and curry leaves
3. “Add minced ??? and crushed ginger garlic”: Put in the shallots and the ginger and garlic
4. “First add ??? that “creates” water. Then add water itself”: Put in tomatoes and then water
5. “Add ??? and ??? to taste”: Put in salt and rasam powder

 

Chicken Stock

After the cutscene, remove the cooking weight and the lid to proceed to the next recipe.

 

Chicken Rasam

1. Put the chicken stock on the pan
2. Put the coriander in the pan

 

Dosa

1. Put water on the pan
2. Use the stove control to set the heat to the lowest setting
3. Pour the dosa batter into the pan and rotate to spread it
4. Add oil to the pan
5. Use the stove control to set the heat to the highest setting
6. Once parts of the dosa turn orange-brown, use the dosa flipper to flip it
7. Use the dosa flipper again to finish the recipe

 

Oothappam

1. Put water on the pan
2. Use the stove control to set the heat to the lowest setting
3. Pour the dosa batter into the pan and rotate to spread it
4. Put ghee on the oothappam
5. Put any (or all) of the other ingredients on the oothappam
6. Use the stove control to set the heat to the highest setting
7. Use the dosa flipper to flip the oothappam
8. Use the dosa flipper again to finish the recipe

 

Kari Dosa

1. Put water on the pan
2. Use the stove control to set the heat to the lowest setting
3. Pour the dosa batter on the pan and rotate to spread it
4. Put the ghee on the pan
5. Put the beaten eggs on the dosa
6. Put the kari on the dosa
7. Put the coriander on the dosa
8. Use the stove control to set the heat to the highest setting
9. Use the dosa flipper to flip the kari dosa
10. Use the dosa flipper again to finish the recipe

 

Venba

Venba is a short narrative cooking game, where you play as an Indian mom, who immigrates to Canada with her family in the 1980s. Players will cook various dishes and restore lost recipes, hold branching conversations and explore this story about family, love, loss and more.

Venba is available now on the PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch and PC.