Night City Mac & Cheese
Greetings food adventurers! Today we jump forward in time a bit to 2077 for a dinner in Night City. One prolific restaurant chain in the busy downtown area is Mac & Cheesus – you’ll see billboards for them everywhere during our taxi ride. We ask the AI-powered taxi to bring us to the most popular location, which will be the best for people-watching while we wait for our food. It is on the ground floor so we don’t need to take one of the rusty elevators that are everywhere in the high-rise buildings. Those things are always breaking down. We will be ordering mac & cheese, obviously. Tasty and classic.
Why Night City? Well, mac & cheese is not exactly common in most of the worlds I visit, and sometimes I just want a big bowl of cheesy gooey goodness. This is the place. It is raining today, calm and steady. We run between our drop-off point at the curb to the front doors before we get too soaked. Flashing neon signs reflect off wet pavement. We put in our order at the counter then find a table – which we wipe clean before sitting down at. Probably best not to read the graffiti.
Every time the automatic doors open, we hear nearby traffic, echoes of a few billboards with their sounds turned on, and often sirens. When the doors close we hear the restaurant’s sound system and recognize the guitar riffs of popular Johnny Silverhand tunes. The other patrons are fascinating to see, especially those with lots of cybernetic enhancements. We try not to seem like we’re staring but their outfits are so interesting!
Finally our number appears on the pick-up board and we can bring our bowls of freshly baked cheesy pasta back to the table to enjoy. It’s just a bit spicy, with a buttery crunchy topping. Perfection on a cold wet day.
Or we can cook it at home – no time traveling required. I guess that’s easier.
Tip: Do not try to grate the Velveeta. Especially do not use the grater attachment on the food processor. It turns into a big gloopy mess and nobody wants to clean that thing. Just cut it into cubes with a knife.
(Inspired by Cyberpunk 2077)
Night City Mac & Cheese
Equipment
- Kitchen scale
Ingredients
- 8 oz dried macaroni noodles
- 5 oz Velveeta cubed to 1/2”
- 7 oz Cheddar cheese grated (medium or sharp yellow cheddar)
- ¾ cup milk
- Big pinch of habañero salt (or kosher salt)
Optional Extras for mix-ins:
- 1 can of diced hot green chiles drained
- 12 oz Shredded pork from carnitas
- Cooked bacon diced
- Cooked hot dogs sliced
Topping:
- ¼ cup butter MELTED
- 1 cup Panko
Instructions
- Cook pasta al dente. Strain. Rinse pasta with cold water so it’s less likely to stick together. Set pasta aside.
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Set a large pot to low heat.
- Add the milk and salt. Gradually add both cheeses, stirring constantly, preferably with a wire whisk, until sauce is smooth.
- Add pasta and stir together until well mixed. Remove from heat.
- Gently fold in any extras (chilies, shredded pork, bacon, hot dogs, etc).
- In a separate bowl, mix the melted butter into the panko until all the panko is moistened.
- Put mac & cheese into a baking dish (or several small baking dishes) and cover the top with the buttered panko.
- Bake at 350 F until the top is crispy, about 20 minutes.
