What to Serve

Seeing as this is Book Three: Fire, anything spicy would probably match the whole Fire Nation setting fine. We haven't seen much of Fire Nation cuisine, but as far as we've seen, it's pretty close to Chinese cuisine.

Of course, some of you may want to make a more balanced representation of the four elements, so I've included some other ideas.

Noodles and roast duck:
Iroh's favourite meal of roast duck and noodles is a good (and cheap) way to feed dinner to your guests. A whole BBQ duck from your local Chinatown BBQ meat place should run you about $10 and can feed 4-6 people (ask them to cut it up). Udon or egg noodles are best with it, made with chicken broth with a bit of green onion. Add some nappa cabbage and you'll all be happy Avatards. Note: this is a staple at most Chinese noodle/BBQ houses, so you can usually order this as takeout if you don't want to cook. It's about $5 per serving.

Jook: AKA Rice congee (thank you, Mike and Bryan, for using the correct Chinese word!). If you've never eaten it before, as Iroh put it, "I don't think you'll like it." It's just thick rice porridge. Easy to make but kinda weird to serve. Maybe you could substitute it with oatmeal.

TEA: Face it, if you don't serve tea at your party, you are not an Avatard at all. Even iced tea will do.

Deep Fried Tofu Puffs: Meng's little guest welcoming dish tells me the writers and creators of the show know their Chinese cuisine. You can buy bite-sized deep fried tofu ready-made in the refridgerator section of your local Chinese supermarket. Lightly frying them in oil and serving them with Thai spicy sweet and sour sauce or peanut sauce makes a delicious and healthy snack.

Skinless chicken wings: Courtesy of Bumi's health kick. Add lettuce (or cabbage!) for garnish. Oh, Shake 'n' Bake, you never let me down....

Egg custard tarts: Aang's favourite dessert tarts are sold in most Chinese bakeries, and go for about $1.00 each. Substitute with Portuguese (or other) custard tarts if you have no Chinatown.

Fire Flakes: Any red-coloured chips with a label that reads "Fire Flakes, Dad?" will do. BBQ, ketchup, or if you're more daring, try Doritos' Tandoori curry, or Sweet Chili Pepper flavours.

Uncooked Dough?: Eew. I suppose passing around a tube of cookie dough would pass, but better substitute that with donuts/beignets. Who cares if the Avatar wasn't boiled in oil?

Stewed Sea Prunes: Regular prunes will do. Though, you'll want to take it easy on those, otherwise the lineup for the bathroom is going to get kinda long. Raisins in oatmeal might pass, too, though it's kind of hard to serve...and no, I do not have a thing for oatmeal.

Nuts: rock-shaped or otherwise.

Seal Jerky: Ol' Slim Jim doesn't make seal flavoured jerky, but any old smoked dried meat will do. Bison is especially good, if you can get your hands on it (poor Appa...)

Giant Bug: For you creative types, you might try your hand at make a giant "larva" bread--a variation on pumpernickle and spinach dip: get a chala egg braid bread, hollow out the centre, and fill it with your favourite dip--spinach and chive, roasted red pepper, hummus, whatever. Decorate the bread with eyes and legs made of vegetables and voila: you're eating a giant bug!

Cactus Juice: There are all kinds of recipes for Cactus Juice that involve tequila for the older folks; but for those who aren't of age/don't want to ruin their viewing of the show by destroying their brain cells, suggestions I've read include hollowing out a small melon rind and filling that with juice. Prickly pear juice is available in some places, but you might want to go for something tamer like pineapple or guava if you're not adventurous.

Slushies: shaved ice and your favourite fruit juice=desert oasis treat.

More Generic Food Stuff...

Coloured Jell-O: Blue, green, red and...er...yellow for air? Or maybe a nice layered mix of yellow and orange to represent Aang's outfit.
Cookies: Shortbread or sugar cookies decorated with the elemental symbols in coloured icing. Works well with muffins, too.
Dumplings: Mmm, dumplingy goodness. Frozen, ready-made boil-in-water-type Chinese/Korean/Japanese dumplings serves with a little soya sauce, hot sauce, and sesame seed oil, with a touch of shredded ginger, if you want to make the sauce fancy. Cheap and tasty!
Dim Sum: The people of Kyoshi served it to Aang and Katara--nice little bite sized goodies perfect for noshing on.
Fruit: apples, (moon) peaches, lychee...

What to Do

Pin the Tail on Zuko: depending on you level of maturity, you might want to consider other places to rightly pin that sexy ponytail of his. Blow up a screen shot, cut, paste and print!

(Alcoholic) Drinking Games: Drop keywords in a hat and make your friends pick one. Every time the word is said throughout the episodes, take a drink. Words could include: Avatar, Spirit, Zuko, Katara, Aang, Sokka, Toph, Appa, Momo, Fire, Bending, Water, Earth, Air, Nation, Kingdom, Tribe, Father, Roku...you get the idea.

Charades/WIn, Lose, or Draw: have your friends act out/draw quotes, scenes, places, people, things, animals, etc. from ATLA. Think it's easy? Just try acting out, "I'll save you from the pirates."

The Game with no Name: Give everyone a sticker to put on their shirts. Everyone is forbidden to say the word "Avatar" throughout the evening. Anyone who does say it gets their sticker taken away by whoever catches them. The person with the most stickers at the end of the night is the winner!

Trivia: But you all know the episodes inside out, right?