Everyone says how awful they are at cooking, whilst they make their <insert pretentious dish here> and critique their michelin star meals at restaurants, but I genuinely CAN NOT COOK. I get bored, I forget things, I turn on the grill instead of the oven and almost set my flat on fire, I cooked salad leaves last year for God's sake so it is a good job that bae is a chef and cooks me good grub everyday.
What I do like is eating food, and I like reading books, and I especially like reading about food in books.
Listed below are some of my favourite literary feasts in some of my favourite literary works:
Being a bonafide Potterhead, there's no way that I could write a blog post about books without mentioning Harry Potter (read my Dedication to the World of Harry Potter here).
Throughout all seven of the books there are great descriptions of food and drink such as; the sweets and chocolates in Honeydukes, the taste of Butterbeer at The Three Broomsticks and The Hogs Head and the food and drink at the Yule Ball.
But some of my favourite food descriptions come from the very first time that we are introduced to Hogwarts, firstly there's the food trolley on the first journey on the Hogwarts Express:
"[Harry] has never had any money for sweets with the Dursleys and now that he had pockets rattling with gold and silver he was ready to buy as many Mars Bars as he could could carry- but the woman didn't have Mars Bars. What she did have were Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour Beans, Droobles Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Liquorice Wands..."
Harry's first meal in the Great Hall:
"Harry's mouth fell open. The dishes in front of him were now piled with food. He had never seen so many things he liked to eat on one table: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, chips, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup and, for some strange reason, mint humbugs."
The first Christmas Dinner:
"Harry had never in all his life had such a Christmas dinner. A hundred fat, roast turkeys, mountains of roast and boiled potatoes, platters of fat chipolatas, tureens of buttered peas, silver boats of thick, rich gravy and cranberry sauce- and stacks of wizard crackers every few feet along the table."
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This entire short novel is concerned with food, it follows the story of a renowned Parisian food critique in his dying days, as he trawls through a lifetime of memories in order to find the answer to the question that torments him- what is the most delicious food he has ever eaten.
The chapters alternate between different food types and the members of his family who are visiting him at his death bed, some of my favourite food descriptions include...
In the chapter 'Meat':
"The meatballs, grilled with the utmost respect for their firmness, had lost none of their succulence during their passage through fire and filled my professionally carnivorous mouth with a thick, warm, spicy, juicy wave of masticatory pleasure."
In the chapter 'Bread':
"Where the crust meets the soft bread...your palate has just taken possession of the honeycombed foam, now freed from it's yoke, and the labour of the jaw can begin. It is indeed bread, and yet you can eat it like cake..."
In the chapter 'Ice Cream':
"I adore ice cream: frozen cream saturated with milk, fat, artificial flavours, bits of fruit, coffee beans, rum; Italian gelati solid as velvet spiralled with vanilla, strawberry or chocolate; ice cream sundaes crumbling under the weight of whipped cream, peaches, almonds and coulis of all sorts..."
A Christmas Carol- Charles Dickens
This classic Christmassy tale of redemption will not only warm the heart of the even the coldest of souls but when Mr Scrooge visits Fezziwig's Xmas party, it will also make you bloomin' hungry. The party itself sounds like an absolute hoot with fiddlers and dancing and the food also sounds delicious:
"...there was cake, and there was negus, and there was a great piece of Cold Roast, and there was a great piece of Cold Boiled, and there were mince-pies, and plenty of beer."
On the Road- Jack Kerouac
The food in On The Road, although not necessarily as descriptive and mouth- watering as some of examples given above, is so iconically 'American' that it would be a crime to not comment on it (given that it's written in a book epitomising the antithesis of the traditional 'American Dream').
The most frequent mention of such food is Apple Pie and ice cream:
"I ate apple pice and ice cream- it was getting better as I got deeper into Iowa, the pie bigger, the ice cream richer. There were the most beautiful bevies of girls everywhere I looked in Des Moines that afternoon..."
"I ate another apple pie and ice cream; that's practically all I ate all the way across the country, I knew it was nutritious and it was delicious, of course."
There are mentions throughout the book of archetypal American food such as; hamburgers from food carts in Philadelphia, grabbing salami and mustard sandwiches before jumping on a Greyhound bus and cooked breakfasts and cups of coffee in Diners at the side of the road. The food seems to represent a warmth and comfort as a stark contrast to the craziness of the drugs, alcohol, jazz and sex.
This marmite book (food pun intended) created a huge divide with readers, some thinking of Gilbert as a whiny, New Yorker who was basically moaning for the sake of moaning. Some thought that she was brave for leaving her life in the Big Apple in search of 'herself' (yes I'm cringing as I write that).
I for one, enjoyed the book but not so much the film..soz J-Rob. Her descriptions of food during her time in Italy are amazing and therefore she has earned a spot on my prestigious list here:
"I walked home to my apartment and soft-boiled a pair of fresh brown eggs for my lunch. I peeled the eggs and arranged them on a plate beside the seven stalks of asparagus (which were so slim and snappy they didn't need to be cooked at all). I put some olives on the plate, too, and the four knobs of goats cheese I'd picked up yesterday from the formaggeria down the street, and two slices of pink, oily salmon."
"Pizzeria da Michele is a small place with only two rooms and one non-stop oven...They only have two varieties of pizza here- regular and extra cheese...The dough, it takes me half my meal to figure out, tastes more like Indian nan than like any pizza dough I ever tried. It's soft and chewy and yielding, but incredibly thin....On top, there is a sweet tomato sauce that foams up all bubbly and creamy when it melts the fresh buffalo mozzarella..."
So there you have it folks, if your mouth is watering now and your stomach is rumbling, why not go cook yourself a literary inspired feast!
Hello and welcome to This Ruth Is On Fire, a UK blog which is a haven for random thoughts and sarcastic observations.
I'm also into books, clothes and visiting places too.
