So, have you ever read a book and the characters are eating dinner and you salivate? You go get your own dinner? You like the idea of what they’re eating so much you have to have their meal?
Oh, yeah. I do that.
Especially if what the characters are eating is a favorite of mine, like Mexican food, or Moo Shu Pork, or whatever.
I’ve heard (and been told) that eating scenes should be avoided because they are most likely passive and places where information can be dumped. Of course, this is NOT when an author is using food as a sensual prelude to sex.
As for me, I tend to use food and meals in my books. And since I write fantasy, the food is part of my world building.
OF COURSE there must be interesting food in any world. Or disgusting — but definitely memorable.
HeartMate had cocoa mousse and I got to continue that throughout the series — beloved of FamCats, and probably the best line regarding it came from my friend “Never eat anything bigger than your head.” And, of course, mousse may be an exception.
In Lladrana, Guardian of Honor, I had sweetcheese. Apparently I tickled someone’s taste buds because I was asked for the recipe. I looked around the web for brie in puff pastry with brown sugar and didn’t find the exact recipe, but at least pointed her in the right direction. That really amused me.
So, what’s your favorite scene with food (excluding food during sex which is another topic!)?
Robin
-
Robin,
I don’t have a favorite scene with food in it because I tend to like all the ones that have food scenes. And yes, that does make me hungry for what they are eating. I feel that when an author includes food or meal scenes in a book, it makes the book more enjoyable. I get so engrossed in a book that I feel like I’m there with the characters. I really enjoy the Joanne Fluke mystery novels. The amateur sleuth has a shop where she sells cookies and other pastries and it never fails to make me want some of those.
-
I still the lobster eating scene in flashdance is pretty hot
by cathy
on August 24th, 2006 at 3:25 pm
-
I use food all the time, Robin. It’s part of my character’s lives and always, the scenes are either comic or sensual. In DIRTY LITTLE LIES, the book I have coming out next week, I have a scene at a festival where my heroine and her guy are sampling all sorts of delicious Hispanic delicacies. I tried to describe them enough so that people would want to try them. My favorite food scene, though, is probably the strawberries and praline sauce in one of my old Temptations. Very sweet. 
I love food scenes, but then, I’m a foodie! So long as it is used for a reason. My culture associates food with socializing, so it’s unnatural to me when characters never eat, or if they do, don’t savor their food.
by Julie Leto
on August 24th, 2006 at 5:46 pm
-
anything with whip cream. u can’t go wrong with 91/2 weeks.:oops:
by KIM H
on August 24th, 2006 at 5:52 pm
-
I just finished reading Nora Roberts’ Angels Fall and wanted to be a gourmet chef afterwards! I could almost taste the things she cooked. I probably gained 5 pounds. There was another one, I can’t remember the name now but I remember hot chocolate in particular. It was the middle of summer (last year) and I was dying for homemade hot chocolate after reading this book. Wish I could remember the title…Anyway, I made that homemade hot cocoa I craved.
-
Bread Alone by Judith Hendricks (I think) was somewhat serious but I loved the passages about baking.
Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder started me on my path to loving passages on food…it’s preparation, looks, and the eating of it.
by Little Lamb Lost
on August 25th, 2006 at 7:40 am
-
Yum, good answers to my question….robin
