I remember the Boeuf en Daube from Virginia Woolf's "To the Lighthouse."
"It was rich; it was tender. It was perfectly cooked. It was a triumph." In fact, when I took an interest in cooking in fall 2005, the first Bon Appetit I purchased included this recipe, except I subbed beef instead of venison.
It was not a triumph, but still, I like authors who trouble to tell you what their characters are eating. It's just as important to mood as where they're at and what song is on the radio.
Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot is a gourmand, and as I tried to remember great meals he has eaten, I pulled out "Funerals are Fatal." He is host to the elderly Mr. Entwhistle, a retired attorney who has met with the survivors of a rich client and suspects that one of them did the client in.
To stimulate Entwhistle's storytelling and soothe his palate, Poirot serves:
Pate de Foie Gras on hot toast by the fire
Sole Veronique
Escalope de Veau Milanaise
Poire Flambee with ice cream
Served with Pouilly Foisse, followed by "Corton and a good port."
(Poirot, "who did not care for port, sipped Creme de Cacao.")
Any sources of literature ever whet your appetite?
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2 comments:
I can't really remember much food in literature. I do remember a scene in The Sun Also Rises where they cool wine in a freezing-cold stream and have it with lunch. "Won't you partake of a little, brother?" They get drunk and talk funny and have a pseudo-religious experience that conveys Hemingway's point that Western civilization was moving beyond religion.
I wonder why Poirot didn't care for port. Perhaps continental Europeans are less infatuated with port than the English.
The literary meal that leaps to my mind is the titular one in "Babette's Feast." The Baroness Blixen, aka Isak Dinesen, sustained herself entirely on grapes and champagne (at least in later life), so it's a marvel to me that she could appreciate and describe a sumptuous indulgence such as the one she had the Parisian Babette prepare for her dour Danish hosts. (The food is beautifully depicted in the film of the same name, too).
And I always enjoyed reading food descriptions in British lit — mentions of kidney and pork pie, fruit tarts, curds, mutton chops, scones, fresh cream, marmelade, plum pudding, leg of lamb, cakes and ale, fish and chips, chowder, oysters on the half shell, pickled herring, etc. Most of it is "common" food and not nutritious and not even remotely vegetarian, but I always think it sounds delightfully romantic!
In the book I'm currently reading, "Absurdistan," the author has described more than one meal that made my mouth water (things like sturgeon kebabs and beluga caviar and other Russian delicacies).
cl, we should attempt a sole veronique one evening.
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