Game of Thrones Premier: Host a Themed Dinner Party

Sara Bonisteel



Host a Game of Thrones banquet with our recipes and entertaining tips

Ingredients:
Starks, Lannisters, Targaryens, dragons, and direwolves

Preparation:
Winter is coming. Prepare to live this night as if it were your last (this is George R. R. Martin's world after all), and get ready to stuff your face till your belly aches

Yield:
A banquet of Medieval-inspired fare that would make King Robert weep for gluttonous joy

The Menu:
HBO's Game of Thrones is based on Martin's Song of Ice and Fire, a seven-book saga filled with tales of lust, greed, love, violence, food, and so many characters there's an updated genealogy in the back of every volume. With that in mind, we've devised a potluck menu, heavy on a Martin ingredient favorite-honey-that pays tribute to some of our fondest families and characters featured in Season One.

Two dishes stand in for characters in Ned Stark's Winterfell clan. Arya begins this second season on the run with a boy named Pork Pie, so we've found a Cupcake-Tin Pork Pie appetizer to kick off the feast. For Jon Snow, the bastard son of Ned, there's honey chicken with aroma bread, recalling his last banquet in Winterfell before he pledged his life to the Night's Watch and moved to the Wall at the end of the world.

Across the Narrow Sea, the rightful heiress to the Iron Throne, Daenerys Targaryens, is represented by Honeyed Prawns & Polenta, which we'd like to imagine uses spices from Magister Illyrio's compound. Daenerys' late "sun and stars," the Dothraki Khal, Drogo, was the inspiration for this menu's heartiest appetizer dish: a savory meat pie recipe from another horse-riding people, the Mongols.

Finally, for the scheming Lannisters, there's an onion and bacon tart for Tyrion, salty enough to match his quick wit. And Sansa Stark gets a nod in the form of her favorite snack, lemon cake, from her visits with Queen Cersei.

Party Tips:
Plan to serve this feast family-style. Divvy recipes up by house and have your friends choose which family they'll represent. Then serve the potluck dishes with place settings bearing the Grey Direwolf, Golden Lion, and Three-Headed Dragon sigils of the Starks, Lannisters, and Targaryens. Invite your jolliest drunkard friend to play King Robert. Be sure to serve drinks with cocktail swords. You'll be able to "needle" one another other all night (just be sure to "stick them with the pointy end")!

If you're really planning to go all out for this Game of Thrones feast, be sure to brew your own mead and ale. We've found great recipes for both. Otherwise, load up on gallons of your favorite wine and let the Game begin.