Pizza Possum News

For those of you who have only just joined our Pizza Possum journey following launch, we have since our announcement been regularly posting recipes about the delectable gigantic meals scattered across the village. For those of you in need of cooking inspiration fear not! Our traumatized neighbors have put together a cookbook showing off the district's famous dishes, which you can find links for below:

Beach District Ice Cream: This deliciously cold treat is perfect for a hot summer’s date and a pause to dip your toes into the sand-covered beach

Market District Caprese Salad: While this salad only consists of a few fresh ingredients, it satisfies both vegetable and cheese lovers alike

Harbour District Grilled Fish: Eating a whole fish can be daunting at first, but nothing beats the taste of a tenderly cooked fish drizzled with lemon juice

Venetian District Spaghetti Meatballs: A beloved dish across many countries and a favourite among cartoon dogs as well, no one can deny it allure

Posh District Wedding Cake: The centerpiece of any major celebration, digging into a decadent slice of wedding cake will make anyone day a little brighter

Vineyard District Tiramisu: This rich and luxurious dessert will make anyone jump for joy, and our possum and racoon are no exception

Bella Chonki’s Gigantic Pizza: Why have one style of pizza when you can have 4 wrapped into one? No one is stopping you, least of all when you are the dog leader

To get the tasty ending, you not only need to eat Bella Chonki’s pizza and steal their crown once, but you also need to do it two more times after that. On top of this, once you’ve gotten your first crown, you cannot get caught at any point, or you will lose all of your crowns. Let’s just say the dog guards aren’t fond of things being stolen from their leader.

This can pose quite a formidable challenge for those unprepared, as it leaves less room for trial and error. As such, here are some of our top tricks for how to get that juicy tasty ending:



[h2]LAY OF THE LAND[/h2]
Our Tour of the Village posts gave you an introduction to what the various districts look like, but our final post talked about what happens in the village between runs. For starters, the streets you will run through are lovingly handcrafted, meaning they won’t move around between each run. Learning what routes work best for you can therefore be crucial in getting to the top of the island in the smoothest way possible.



[h2]KEEP AN EYE ON THE FOOD METER[/h2]
As we talked about in one of our earliest posts, keeping an eye on your food or key meter can make all the difference when navigating the island. Make sure you have the means to enter the next district either to get further along your path or to get away from a pesky group of guards chasing you.



[h2]FOOD, GLORIOUS FOOD[/h2]
In order to maintain that meter, you will of course need to shove your face with as much food as you can. This doesn’t only have to mean running around being a walking, screaming vacuum cleaner of all things tasty, but it also means being strategic in what items you are using and what corners of the map you are seeking. For starters, the gigantic meals scattered across the village are an excellent source of tastiness. Secondly, you have items like the magnet that lets you grab food from further away that can be combined with other passive items like the mint, to decrease the time you are chonky after eating too much.



[h2]WEAPON OF CHOICE[/h2]
Lastly, to ensure you can maneuver past the guards both at the top of the village but also throughout your journey, make sure you identify what items work best for you. For some, it might be the Energy Drink, for others the Bag of Bones but regardless of what it is, make sure your active consumable item is the one you prefer so that you don’t accidentally lose all your progress right at the finish line.

Even our beloved mischievous possum must occasionally stop what they are doing, and take a small break to ensure they are ready for the next crown run. We therefore wanted to seize that moment and make sure to spackle any cracks we’ve seen in the village since launch, to make sure the possum’s and your eating experience go even smoother.



Below you will find some of the bugs we managed to squash while the possum was taking a breather:

🍕 If you managed to take a few bites out of Bella Chonki’s pizza before getting caught, upon your return the pizza will be full and whole again rather than having the previously devoured slices be smaller in comparison to the untouched ones
🍕 The Tiramisu can now be devoured from all directions, including standing right on top of it
🍕 The elite grammar dog guards have been sent in to fix the typo in the Magnet Item description and are now heading back to other important matters
🍕 The world and village have finally stopped shaking when the possum and raccoon run off in opposite directions in split-screen local co-op

And with that out of the way, you can get back to eating again!

Everyone in town knows of Bella Chonki’s love for this pizza, as there is always a freshly baked one right in front of their shining throne. While the recipe is a well-kept secret and likely the reason why our possum is so eager to steal a bite, the villagers have attempted to recreate the recipe anyway, if nothing else than to claim that they have had a bite themselves. Only Bella and our stealing possum and raccoon know if the taste is accurate.



For the dough (6 pizzas worth):

• 850 g of strong flour
  
• 12g of instant yeast
  
• 550 g of water (105° - 115°F/41°C - 46°C)
  
• 17 g of salt
  

Toppings for Classical quarter:

• Sauce: Whole canned tomatoes crushed using your hands (the higher quality the better)
  
• Cheese: Buffalo mozzarella (after it has baked)
  
• Fresh basil (for after it has baked)
  

Toppings for Salami quarter:

• Sauce: Whole canned tomatoes crushed using your hands (the higher quality the better)
  
• Cheese: Mozzarella
  
• Salami of your choice (Bella likes Pepperoni)
  

Toppings for Vegetable quarter:

• Sauce: Whole canned tomatoes crushed using your hands (the higher quality the better)
  
• Cheese: Mozzarella
  
• Sliced green bell peppers
  
• Sliced black olives (the higher quality the better)
  

Toppings for Tomato quarter:

• Cheese: Mix of mozzarella and scamorza
  
• Freshly sliced tomatoes (the higher quality the better)
  

For the dough, you want to mix the flour with the yeast and stir until thoroughly mixed through in a mixing bowl. Next, you’ll want to add the salt and water, but make sure it’s within the acceptable temperature range so you don’t kill the yeast. Start kneading the dough in your preferred method for 5 - 10 minutes until it’s settled into a nice consistency, after which you put it into an oiled bowl and put plastic over it.

If you want to do the faster bulk fermentation method you leave it out for 2 hours before continuing to work with it, while if you want to try the cold ferment, you let the dough rest for 3-5 days in the refrigerator. Once that time is done, divide the dough into 6 equally sized pieces, shaping each into balls in your hands by using the rolling and pinging technique. By the end, they should end up round and taut, after which they are put onto a lightly floured baking sheet and covered to proof for an hour (or 1½ - 2 hours if you are taking them out of the refrigerator).

Make sure before you continue that you have started preheating your oven to 450 - 500°F or 250°C - 260°C. Also if you have a pizza stone, this is the perfect time to use it. Once it’s time to roll, flour both your surface and the dough and start patting out the dough as wide as possible using your fingers. Remember to leave a small rim so you end up with a crust and continue to slowly stretch it using your knuckles until it is nice and thin and once done, place it on top of a well-floured pizza paddle.

Now we move onto the toppings. For all but the Tomato quarter, you want to spread a thin layer of your crushed tomatoes onto the dough. Don’t go too thick or it’ll end up soggy. Next, you want to sprinkle on your cheese (except for your Classical quarter) as well as put any of the other toppings that require baking (e.g. the salami, the bell peppers, and the olives).

Finally, it’s time to bake. Put the pizza into the oven for 5 minutes and then check. Add some olive oil if needed to add some nice additional colour and taste, and then put it back in for an additional couple of minutes. Make sure to check regularly. Once you are happy with the colour, take it out and add the last ingredients in the form of buffalo mozzarella and basil to the Classic section and you are officially done.

Give it a second so you don’t burn yourself and there you have it, Bella Chonki’s favourite recipe, or at least as close as we will get to it without stealing it ourselves.

It’s just a fact of life that all dogs love bones, be they your loyal friends at home or patrolling guard dogs that have learned to walk on two paws. There is something so irresistible about the texture and joy of grabbing one on the ground, it can make even the most disciplined of dogs cave into their baser instincts. Because after all, who can resist the sound of a squeaky toy?



So what better item to have on you than a bag of bones, easily dropped behind you as you are being chased or used as a distraction when trying to get through a particularly tricky spot? And what can we say, there is something oddly endearing about how happy the guard dogs also get when they manage to grab one of the bones.