'Otai from the Tomb Raider Cookbook
'Otai is a Polynesian drink made from coconut milk and water, and a combination of tropical fruit. The Tomb Raider Cookbook's version uses watermelon, crushed pineapple and the juice from a lime. Somewhere in there is a missed opportunity for Lara Croft to dance around a kitchen counter to Harry Nilsson's classic song with a midnight margarita. I made this recipe and two more from the cookbook (their posts are coming soon) on the same day with my two most trusted taste testers.
This recipe takes inspiration from the South Pacific Islands, which Lara visits during Tomb Raider III. Tomb Raider I-III Remastered suggests that Lara is exploring Indonesia, but the islands are supposed to be in Polynesia. Lara comes here in search of the Temple of Puna, where the Ora Dagger, one of the four meteorite artifacts she is pursuing, ended up. She is forced to fight velociraptors, cannibalistic tribesmen, and yet another T-Rex as she goes for her goal.
I got 3/4 of a watermelon for this recipe, and then cans of everything except the lime, as you can see above. The recipe only calls for a cup of coconut water, which meant there was enough left for us to drink. I had my friends try it, having drank it at one point myself, and we all agreed it's rather bland on its own. It's better when it's mixed into other drinks, like this.
Since I had a lot of cooking to do that day, I had my friends try their best to mash the watermelon. The recipe says to grate, mash or shred it. In the process, one of my friends stained his shirt and had to wash it in the sink, then dry it. That's on me for not giving him an apron earlier; I gave him one afterwards.
Watermelon is actually quite tough to mash, or I could have cut it into smaller pieces. Clearly, the solution is to cut it very large or slice it right off the rind, then grate it. This drink is meant to have some texture.
The stages of 'Otai. It looks rather like Dole Whip you might get at Disneyland, before the creamy white is turned pink with the addition of watermelon.
When the drink is fully mixed up, you let it sit in the fridge for half an hour. We let it go longer than that, since we'd started to watch a movie, then took a break midway through to try this. The watermelon was... very chunky when mashed. Tasty, but hard to drink in any form.
We got spoons to eat the watermelon out of our glasses, and with what was left, I pureed it using an immersion blender to remove some of the chunks. If I make this again, I will definitely be grating my watermelon. I only used 2/4 of the watermelon we bought, and chopped the last quarter for us to eat as a snack. Pro tip: eat your watermelon chunk with a piece of feta. I introduced my friends to this and we all concurred: it somehow really works!
If you want to make this recipe for 'Otai yourself, you can find it in Tomb Raider: The Official Cookbook and Travel Guide.
