Since I decided on a fishing and cooking (and farming!) themed Bucket List, I’ve actually made pretty good progress. I wasn’t fond of the idea of chasing the low drop rate items, but I’ve been lucky so far. Let’s hope that keeps up… *crosses fingers*

I was very tempted to drop everything and start Pet Battling instead thanks to Navi’s post, but I’ve steeled my resolve and am going to resist. … At least for another few days. 😉

Thus follows my notes about polishing off the two achievements. (I’ll try to keep up a ‘how I muddle through’ theme running as the week goes on.)

Pandaren Cuisine

This seemed to be the easiest themed achievement to grab, so I grabbed my gold and headed off to the vendors…

All of the recipes can be learned from Sungshin Ironpaw in Halfhill. She also sells most of the ingredients, so I settled down to cook.

You’ll need 3 Golden Carp on top of the bought materials, but since I have roughly two hundred of those in my bags, it wasn’t an issue.

(If you want a full shopping list, check out Durran’s stickied comment over at WoWhead.)

Some of the food I’d already eaten, since it drops from mobs, but I ended up cooking most of the list. The highest recipe required a cooking skill of 510 and I’d have been able to reach that easy even if I’d be starting off below 500.

Must be level 85 to eat: Sliced Peaches, Toasted Fish Jerky (1 Golden Carp), Pounded Rice Cake, Dried Peaches, Roasted Barley Tea, Perfectly Cooked Instant Noodles, Dried Needle Mushrooms, Yak Cheese Curds, Boiled Silkworm Pupa

Must be level 90 to eat: Green Curry Fish (2 Golden Carp), Red Bean Bun, Peach Pie, Pearl Milk Tea, Blanched Needle Mushrooms, Tangy Yogurt, Skewered Peanut Chicken

Pandarian Angler

This is basically an award for stubbornness– although most of the fishing ones seem to reward fanatical pursuit of a tiny drop rate. *mutter*

I’d already fished most of these, since they are required for the cooking recipes. It was only the Jewel Danio and the three special fish that I had to hunt down.

The three 1-2% drop rate fish can take a good chunk of time to catch. It took me about 45 minutes for Spinefish Alpha and Mimic Octopus, but Flying Tiger Gourami took me only six minutes or so.

I also picked up Zen Master Fisherman while doing these, but since the process for that is ‘Fish. Lots.’ I figured it wasn’t worth including. 😉

Anywhere: Golden Carp (these are some hardy goldfish! o_O)

Jade Forest: (Inland) Jade Lungfish, Redbelly Mandarin (Ocean) Giant Mantis Shrimp, Reef Octopus. Recently all of the pools for Redbelly Mandarin appear to have vanished. You’ll need to fish in the inland lakes in order to catch any. :p

Valley of the Four Winds: Krasarang Paddlefish, Emperor Salmon

Kun-Lai Summit: (Inland) Tiger Gourami, Spinefish Alpha (1% fish) Binan Village seems to be the easiest place, since you get free water walking

Krasarang Wilds: (Inland) Flying Tiger Gourami (1% fish) I fished in Thundercleft since there were no hostile mobs, (Ocean) Mimic Octopus (1% fish) nabbed on right at the Angler’s Warf, since I’m lazy.

Vale of Eternal Blossoms: Jewel Danio