# Book food scenes that make your mouth water **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 21, 2004, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-food-scenes-that-make-your-mouth-water/265215 "2004-09-21T00:23:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2004, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-food-scenes-that-make-your-mouth-water/265215/21 "2004-09-26T02:09:45Z")
Oh, and there’s Lewis Carroll’s _Phantasmagoria_… \*“Who’s the Knight-Mayor?” I cried. Instead Of answering my question, “Well, if you don’t know THAT,” he said, "Either you never go to bed, Or you’ve a grand digestion! “He goes about and sits on folk That eat too much at night: His duties are to pinch, and poke, And squeeze them till they nearly choke.” (I said “It serves them right!”) “And folk who sup on things like these–” He muttered, "eggs and bacon – Lobster–and duck–and toasted cheese – If they don’t get an awful squeeze, I’m very much mistaken!\* Screw the indigestion part. I love the idea of a midnight snack of lobster _mayonaisse_, cold roast duck, and a big platter of bacon and eggs. And many’s the long night I’ve dreamed of cheese…toasted, mostly. ---
**Author:** ![Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f0a364/32.png) [@Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rube_E.Tewesday)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2004, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-food-scenes-that-make-your-mouth-water/265215/22 "2004-09-26T02:21:51Z")
I love this board. I came here to mention the chowder in _Moby Dick_ , and there it was, along with the glory that is the _Nero Wolfe Cookbook_. One more I’d mention – that glorious stew that Toad bought from the gypsy in the _Wind in the Willows_. Can’t find my copy, but in my memory it has every meat you could imagine in it. ---
**Author:** ![Pixiesnix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/898d66/32.png) [@Pixiesnix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixiesnix)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2004, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-food-scenes-that-make-your-mouth-water/265215/23 "2004-09-26T08:13:46Z")
In her book _I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings_, Maya Angelou describes the many goodies available at the yearly church picnic. She talks about pans of fried chicken, mountains of potato salad with hard-boiled eggs inside and baked hams coated with pinapple slices. And of course there was the barbecued pork and chicken roasting on the spit, and perch and catfish caught in the local pond and fried on the spot. Those were just the main dishes. There were desserts such as orange sponge cake, coconut cake with white frosting, and pound cakes loaded with butter. Just writing about it makes my hungry for all those foods familiar to my childhood. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2004, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-food-scenes-that-make-your-mouth-water/265215/24 "2004-09-26T08:48:58Z")
The breakfast scene (and song) at the beginning of Gravity’s Rainbow. This even though I _hate_ bannanas 😃 . ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2004, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-food-scenes-that-make-your-mouth-water/265215/25 "2004-09-26T10:02:01Z")
> [@Ukulele Ike](#): > > Squabs are baby pigeons. You don’t have pigeons in Springfield? We do, but the local law enforcement doesn’t cotton to people shooting them. And even if they did, I’m not much of a hunter. I do my hunting at Wal-Mart 🙂 . ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2004, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-food-scenes-that-make-your-mouth-water/265215/26 "2004-09-26T11:10:06Z")
The scene in the Ed Gein biography where they find his kitchen. Home _is_ where the heart is. _drool_ ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2004, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-food-scenes-that-make-your-mouth-water/265215/27 "2004-09-26T14:21:54Z")
> [@Ukulele Ike](#): > > I love cold pork pie, but the traditional Canadian-style recipes always sound a little funky to me…cinnamon? Cloves? Ick. > > I do something similar to your recipe, but I brown the ground (or chopped) pork first, along with the onions, chopped potato, plus minced celery and carrot and maybe turnip. I also limit the seasoning to salt, pepper, and parsley. Really, Uke? Haven’t you ever had some of that delicious African/Moroccan food that typically involves lamb and cinnamon and all those spices? And what about Cincinnati style chili - you like THAT, right? You’re a foodie, I’m surprised to hear you say “Ick” to meat & spices. Regardless, the French Canadian Tourtiere is very lightly spiced - it’s just enough to give it a bit of fragrancy. Plus, I ain’t speaking for the recipe I posted - it’s just an example I found on the Web, it’s not my great-grandmother Bolduc’s recipe. I’m pretty sure I’d have to get some sort of blood oath before I gave out that recipe. I will say the real recipe is typically made with pork and venison - at least, on the years one of the men in my family manage to get a deer. Yummm… meat pies, I’m gonna have to make some of those pretty soon. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2004, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-food-scenes-that-make-your-mouth-water/265215/28 "2004-09-26T18:45:42Z")
Three come to mind… In his WWII memoir **The Brass Ring** , Bill Mauldin describes the great food he got in the French countryside. Not that it was fancy or anything, but after a few years of K rations, a crust of pumpernickel and some red wine can be pretty freakin’ delicious. He talked about swapping canned peaches for ordinary farm food, and both sides of that deal really felt like they’d come out ahead. In **Crime and Punishment** , Raskolnokov is so hungry and destitute that any scrap of food he gets seems inordinately delicious. Dostoevsky’s descriptions of the humblest teas and sausages sound pretty mouth-watering in context: > [@](#): > > \*She set before him her own cracked teapot full of weak and stale tea and laid two yellow lumps of sugar by the side of it. > > “Here, Nastasya, take it please,” he said, fumbling in his pocket (for he had slept in his clothes) and taking out a handful of coppers- “run and buy me a loaf. And get me a little sausage, the cheapest, at the pork-butcher’s.” > > “The loaf I’ll fetch you this very minute, but wouldn’t you rather have some cabbage soup instead of sausage? It’s capital soup, yesterday’s. I saved it for you yesterday, but you came in late. It’s fine soup.” > > When the soup had been brought, and he had begun upon it, Nastasya sat down beside him on the sofa and began chatting. She was a country peasant-woman and a very talkative one. \* Finally, in Thomas Harris’s **Hannibal** –No, I’m not referring to the gross-out scenes here–we finally get to see the Evil One strut his stuff as a gourmet in a couple of scenes. I particularly enjoyed the scene in Williams-Sonoma where he bought an expensive picnic basket, discarded the cheap plastic china and replaced it with some good stuff. The actual food, I’ll refrain from describing. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2004, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-food-scenes-that-make-your-mouth-water/265215/29 "2004-09-26T22:36:39Z")
> [@Athena](#): > > Really, Uke? Haven’t you ever had some of that delicious African/Moroccan food that typically involves lamb and cinnamon and all those spices? You mean like _kofta_? Where you saute diced eggplant in olive oil? And then saute chopped leeks and carrots, then add ground lamb with garlic and ginger and fresh chiles? And deglaze with a little water and put the eggplant back in, along with cinnamon, coriander, cumin, paprika, turmeric, cloves, lemon zest, chopped tomatoes, and yoghurt? And simmer for around a half-hour, then stir in chopped cilantro? And serve over broad noodles, garnishing with more yoghurt and some fresh mint? Yeah, I’ve had some of that. …I wasn’t saying “ick” to meat and spices; although I’m not crazy about cooking meat with what I consider the “sweeter” spices…cinnamon, cloves, etc…I do it sometimes. We make an ass-kick “peasant sauce” of ground beef and tomatoes with cinnamon, cumin, and oregano, a sort of faux-Greek pasta sauce. It just doesn’t sound right to me for a meat-pie. _Do_ you put it in yours? ---
**Author:** ![flamingbananas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f4b2a3/32.png) [@flamingbananas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flamingbananas)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2004, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-food-scenes-that-make-your-mouth-water/265215/30 "2004-09-26T22:42:25Z")
All the Harry Potter meal scenes. 'Nuff said. _drools_ ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2004, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-food-scenes-that-make-your-mouth-water/265215/31 "2004-09-26T23:51:52Z")
> [@Ukulele Ike](#): > > You mean like _kofta_? > > Where you saute diced eggplant in olive oil? And then saute chopped leeks and carrots, then add ground lamb with garlic and ginger and fresh chiles? And deglaze with a little water and put the eggplant back in, along with cinnamon, coriander, cumin, paprika, turmeric, cloves, lemon zest, chopped tomatoes, and yoghurt? And simmer for around a half-hour, then stir in chopped cilantro? And serve over broad noodles, garnishing with more yoghurt and some fresh mint? > > Yeah, I’ve had some of that. > > …I wasn’t saying “ick” to meat and spices; although I’m not crazy about cooking meat with what I consider the “sweeter” spices…cinnamon, cloves, etc…I do it sometimes. We make an ass-kick “peasant sauce” of ground beef and tomatoes with cinnamon, cumin, and oregano, a sort of faux-Greek pasta sauce. > > It just doesn’t sound right to me for a meat-pie. _Do_ you put it in yours? Yes, I do put nutmeg and cinnamon and cloves in my Tortiere - but it’s so little that I doubt most people would notice. It’s enough to give the dish a distinctive taste, but not enough that a non-foodie would recognize the “sweet” spices. I’m guessing that if you asked most of my family (excepting, of course, the people who make the pies) if there was cinnamon in our meat pies they’d think you were smoking something. I’m a nut for mixing sweet with savory. My favorite pizza is one I made up that involves carmelized onions, smoked chicken, and blueberries. I have a pint of fresh blackberries in my fridge, and I’ve been noodling on either a quesadilla or taco with smoked duck and an adobo-blackberry sauce. Lamb with cinnamon and cloves and all that is dreamy to me. So I guess it all depends on personal taste! Still, though, the spices in tortiere are so subtle that even my father (who detests the sweet/savory stuff - he won’t eat my pizzas!) loves it. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-food-scenes-that-make-your-mouth-water/265215/32 "2004-09-27T01:11:12Z")
> [@Athena](#): > > I’m a nut for mixing sweet with savory. That’s _it._ The marriage is _off_. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-food-scenes-that-make-your-mouth-water/265215/33 "2004-09-27T01:21:27Z")
The Ladies’ Day luncheon scene in _The Bell Jar_, at least until the part where they all get food poisoning. The description of grape jelly makes me run to the fridge with a spoon. ---
**Author:** ![dinahmoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8797f3/32.png) [@dinahmoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dinahmoe)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-food-scenes-that-make-your-mouth-water/265215/34 "2004-09-27T01:28:16Z")
Robert Parker’s _Spenser_ mysteries generally have him whipping up some sort of nummy treat, or spilling some great sandwich filling on his shirt. Years ago, my dad and I asked Parker if there would ever be a Spenser cookbook. He said yeah, it may be in the works, but we never heard another word about it. ---
**Author:** ![FilmGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-food-scenes-that-make-your-mouth-water/265215/35 "2004-09-27T03:20:56Z")
> [@Ukulele Ike](#): > > I love cold pork pie, but the traditional Canadian-style recipes always sound a little funky to me…cinnamon? Cloves? Ick. Never eaten at Chipotle, huh? Barbacoa with cloves. Nummy. Ardred was on a $3 a week food budget when he read the first four Harry Potter books. Poor kid. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/278dde/32.png) [@Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Runs_With_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-food-scenes-that-make-your-mouth-water/265215/36 "2004-09-27T03:33:59Z")
I love the description of the food served in James Joyce’s _The Dead_. ---
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-food-scenes-that-make-your-mouth-water/265215/37 "2004-09-27T12:56:38Z")
One food scene that sticks out is in a book I can’t even remember the title of. The main character is cursed by the wizard so that he is constantly hungry and constantly growing. His first food after the curse was a gypsy camp. They had made a huge pot of stew and he proceeded to trade everything he had for it. It was described as having meat, rice and spices. I think I pictured my mom’s spanish rice. ---
**Author:** ![evilbeth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/evilbeth/32/2268_2.png) [@evilbeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilbeth)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-food-scenes-that-make-your-mouth-water/265215/38 "2004-09-27T13:29:32Z")
There was a children’s book I loved years ago about some gargoyles who lived above a pizzeria. I cannot remember the name of it and I haven’t been able to find it. But there were the most incredible descriptions of how the pizzas would just drip with gooey cheese. I always wanted pizza after I read that book! ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-food-scenes-that-make-your-mouth-water/265215/39 "2004-09-27T13:42:05Z")
> [@Ukulele Ike](#): > > That’s _it._ > > The marriage is _off_. Does that mean I have to give back the ring? And, more importantly, the All-Clads? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![N.Sane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f19dbf/32.png) [@N.Sane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N.Sane)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-food-scenes-that-make-your-mouth-water/265215/40 "2004-09-27T14:08:18Z")
There for awhile I was devouring the _The Cat Who . . ._ books, and they always contain the most luscious drool-worthy meal descriptions. I did buy the cookbook for that series of books, although I haven’t had time to try any of the recipes yet. I, too, was most disappointed with my first taste of Turkish Delight after having read about it in _The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe_. When I discovered seafoam some years later, I decided it was the true Turkish Delight, having corresponded precisely with my mental picture of the treat. I’m another one who loves all the food descriptions in the Harry Potter books. So much so that I buy every one of the Harry Potter-connected candies. So far they’ve all been disappointing, with the sole exception of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans. Those I refuse to eat because they’re just plain disgusting, although I still relish the time I got my husband to try a handful. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-food-scenes-that-make-your-mouth-water/265215.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-food-scenes-that-make-your-mouth-water/265215.md?page=3)