Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Flirting with Food in Fiction

We have seen how food moved from simply spicing up a story to a more sumptuous status. Food in fiction, today, has a larder full of themes, from romance and crime to science fiction and beyond. 

Romance makes a heady mix and can swing between light and frothy and hot and steamy.  



...ice cream and pie loving portrait photographer, Dan McDowell, (who) finds himself in a moment of existential crises...And the food throughline? Before, during, and everywhere along the way of Dan’s journey, he seeks the comfort of his favorite confections: home-baked pie and the toffee ice cream bars from his neighborhood ice cream truck. That motif is interwoven throughout the tale, often to hilarious effect, vaunting those simple food items into enduring emotional touchstones. By the time the unexpected and poignant conclusion is reached, readers just might find themselves yearning for a warm slice ala mode...and maybe taking sweeter notice of the jingling ice cream trucks wending its way down their own neighborhood streets.

A delightful recipe for a romance read! 

When things get steamier, there's Food in Erotic Literature: 12 Examples to Make Your Mouth Water.

For me, reading ‘Comfort Food’ upon recommendation of fellow bloggers was somewhat similar to your friends suggesting you put a dollop of wasabi on your sushi if you’re never tried it before. You may very well say “but it’s green and it smells weird - are you sure I’ll like it?” and your friends all nod and say “yeah, it’s great! It’s like mustard. It’s Japanese mustard. It’s great.” Well that was kind of my reaction to ‘Comfort Food’. The novel was like wasabi, a literary shock to my senses... but not awful, and surprisingly sinus-clearing.
... the title piece (which)tells the tale of a pregnant woman who discovers and succumbs to irresistible new cravings. Reader warning: Since this is erotica, some parts of the content are explicit.


In the context of romance and erotica, it is only fair to add that there also exists a small section of His and Hers - I've deliberately muddled the order as we need to shuffle and stir things frequently to prevent the fatal consequences of stickiness:

At only Rs. 76 on Kindle 
A TASTE OF HEAVEN is a 57,000 word short novel that includes a foodie romance, second chances, and a wee bit of haggis.



“He presses down a hissing hamburger with his spatula. He lays the split buns on the plate to toast and heat. He gathers up stray onions from the plate and heaps them on the meat and presses them in with the spatula. He puts half the bun on top of the meat, paints the other half with melted butter, with thin pickle relish. Holding the bun on the meat, he slips the spatula under the thin pad of meat, flips it over, lays the buttered half on top, and drops the hamburger on a small plate. Quarter of a dill pickle, two black olives beside the sandwich… And he scrapes his griddle with the spatula and looks moodily at the stew kettle.”


From a glance at food in children's books we graduated to a somewhat more adult look at the genre. Tomorrow's post examines the flavours that regional cultures bring to the table in food fiction from around the world.

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