Not to be reductive towards a work of passion, but Venba doesn't say much at all despite seeming to touch on many subjects.
The cooking aspect is simple, you have incomplete recipe steps, so there's some intuitive guesswork included. However it's not difficult by any means.
Something that disappointed me is that it wasn't able to foster an interest in the food itself. They briefly gloss over the dishes being made, since they wanted to give space to include the narrative in each cooking sequence.
The story of Venba's family is realistic, as an immigrant I can't deny that I co-sign the experience even when my cultural transition wasn't as severe as the one depicted. Add upon it the tension of having a kid torn between two cultures with the added societal of trying to fit in. Yet, like most of what Venba presents, it's glossed over.
The fuzzy art is alright, but I think it doesn't serve the food justice visually. I'm not expecting Ghibli styled food, but I wouldn't know to separate the different spices if not for the text labels.
So you've got the story of immigrant parents struggling with a foreign environment with the added burden of raising a kid, the idea of balancing heritage with surroundings, they credited food consultants yet couldn't build a quantum of curiosity.
Venba - in my opinion - is a vapid representation that thinks itself an exposé on a very nuanced and intersectional topic. God I hate Canadian fund games.
The cooking aspect is simple, you have incomplete recipe steps, so there's some intuitive guesswork included. However it's not difficult by any means.
Something that disappointed me is that it wasn't able to foster an interest in the food itself. They briefly gloss over the dishes being made, since they wanted to give space to include the narrative in each cooking sequence.
The story of Venba's family is realistic, as an immigrant I can't deny that I co-sign the experience even when my cultural transition wasn't as severe as the one depicted. Add upon it the tension of having a kid torn between two cultures with the added societal of trying to fit in. Yet, like most of what Venba presents, it's glossed over.
The fuzzy art is alright, but I think it doesn't serve the food justice visually. I'm not expecting Ghibli styled food, but I wouldn't know to separate the different spices if not for the text labels.
So you've got the story of immigrant parents struggling with a foreign environment with the added burden of raising a kid, the idea of balancing heritage with surroundings, they credited food consultants yet couldn't build a quantum of curiosity.
Venba - in my opinion - is a vapid representation that thinks itself an exposé on a very nuanced and intersectional topic. God I hate Canadian fund games.