Your Favorite Fictional Food

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July 19, 2012
5 Comments

I used to read the Little House on the Prairie series religiously when I was younger, paying extra close attention to the meals they would make, the butter they would churn. (This, of course, had we known how my food obsession would grow, would have made for a solid early indicator.) When I recall those books now, I can hardly do it without memories fortified by maple candy and cornbread. 

You try it: what were some of your favorite novels, and what are some meals that they summon? This is the exact subject of a photo series from Dinah Fried called Fictitious Dishes. Some of them are iconic (Oliver Twist and porridge), others are merely hinted at, implied throughout the novel and reinforced by their setting (open-faced sandwiches in Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). 

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We’d love to hear yours. (Bonus points if you take the picture.) Tell us in the comments! 

Fictitious Dishes: A Photo Series of Food from Your Favorite Novels from Bon Appetit

 

 

See what other Food52 readers are saying.

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Kenzi Wilbur

Written by: Kenzi Wilbur

I have a thing for most foods topped with a fried egg, a strange disdain for overly soupy tomato sauce, and I can never make it home without ripping off the end of a newly-bought baguette. I like spoons very much.

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5 Comments

smozark
smozark July 22, 2012
"To Kill a Mockingbird" and "A Farewell to Arms" have some amazing food writing, especially the booze in the Hemmingway. (surprise surprise)
 
avimom
avimom July 20, 2012
My favorite book as a child was Baby Island by Carol Brink, about two sisters who are shipwrecked on an island with all the other children from their ship. Wanna-be-babysitter fantasy! It made me very curious about hardtack, which is all they had to eat. Still haven't ever had an opportunity to try it.
 
Pegeen
Pegeen July 19, 2012
Tomato sandwiches, in the original "Harriet the Spy." I drove my mother crazy making them as my after-school snack ("you'll ruin your dinner!"). I so wanted to be independent like Harriet and took to climbing up trees to spy on our neighbors and write their doings in a composition notebook (4:10pm Mrs. S is vacuuming. Do not recognize figure in hallway.") I loved Dickens and Austen but there was little food appeal in those novels (mutton or gruel, anyone?). Although I love the quote, from somewhere, that a properly sliced cucumber for a tea sandwich should be sliced so thin you can read a newspaper through it. Linda Fairstein's detective novels are good for food... and she just got a shout-out in the NY Times. http://nyti.ms/NmcUV2. Great topic... thanks, food52!
 
TXExpatInBKK
TXExpatInBKK July 19, 2012
I remember reading Jane Austen novels and wondering what in the world white soup was. I read recently that it is made from almonds and is a fairly time consuming process so I don't think it is something I'd ever actually eat. But it made for good visuals when I was reading the book!
 
Amina F.
Amina F. July 19, 2012
I love seeing the way food and literature intersect -- so much so that I started a blog about just that! I recently read Trapeze by Simon Mawer (a gorgeous book about a young woman who spies in France for the English in WWII) and was inspired to bake some scones and top them with French vanilla glaze: http://www.paperplatesblog.com/2012/07/16/inspired-recipe-classic-scones-with-a-french-vanilla-glaze/

That's a slightly more creative interpretation, but I also loved the descriptions of food in the Hunger Games trilogy (even if the meals themselves sounded kind of strange) and tea time scenes in classic novels like Pride and Prejudice.