As a medium, food is rather underrated. I don't mean that in the sense that it provides sustenance and sensual pleasures, but rather in terms of the information it can convey. Mediums, after all, are tools for communication and are defined by what they provide directly to the recipient and what they leave to interpretation. Venba, for example, left without the senses of taste and touch, uses its vibrant art and lively music to convey the appeal of its food, and does so wonderfully. In the case of the medium of food, it carries with it cultural history, geographic context, our tastes and preferences, shared knowledge and tradition, and the product of collective and individual experimentation, and most importantly, our labor and care for each other. This is what makes the somewhat narratively contrived puzzle mechanic of the incomplete cookbook a compelling metaphor, it shows how cultural knowledge can be lost and restored across generations, provided the effort is put into preserving it. The actual plot of Venba explores the pain that can happen when direct communication fails at helping its characters understand each other, but it also shows the beauty in that such methods leave room for us to connect through more abstract means.