Suggestions for Food and Literature Pairings

[The Comedian]

Am I being too bold in claiming that a good book is like a fine wine? Each is consumed and the best are remembered forever.

Of course, we also know that a fine wine consumed by itself is hardly the best way to enjoy so noble a beverage. To say nothing new: Good food is the perfect companion for fine wine.

Now let me take this analogy into the realm of the ridiculous with this question: Shall we pair our favorite texts with an appropriate meal?

Walden (Thoreau) -- I would like enjoy a chapter or two of this book with a serving of spring water in a borrowed coffee cup and some old, burnt bread.

Desert Solitaire (Abbey) -- I could enhance my reading of this text if I were to pair it with a can of warm Pabst Blue Ribbon beer and some hunks of convenience-store, long-horn cheddar sliced with rusted pocket knife.

Maus (Spiegelman) -- This is best paired with starvation, say the waning hours of Yom Kippur.

Do you all have any suggested literary/culinary pairings?

[LitNetIsGreat]

Eating and reading is difficult, it often results in bits of food falling on my tie at work or pizza dripping on my bed T-shirt at home, but let's see...

Dorian Gray (Wilde) something with strawberries in it of course! How about Timmermans strawberry beer? Served sat in a beautiful garden, preferably surrounded by decadent artist figures in the heat of summer, no in the last days of fading summer...perfect.

Anything by Hardy: a big ploughman's lunch and flask of hot tea, served while sat in a field somewhere listening to the cows moan, alone.

Anything by Hemingway: 16oz steak and chips with a bottle of red in a cafe bar alone, but waiting for some friends to arrive to hit the town. Bulls testicles for dessert.

[The Comedian]

Eating and reading is difficult, it often results in bits of food falling on my tie at work or pizza dripping on my bed T-shirt at home, but let's see...

Dorian Gray (Wilde) something with strawberries in it of course! How about Timmermans strawberry beer? Served sat in a beautiful garden, preferably surrounded by decadent artist figures in the heat of summer, no in the last days of fading summer...perfect.

Excellent suggestion. I'm getting some ideas for my experiments in the Belgians.


Bull's testicles for dessert.

ASIDE: I've had these as an appetizer, but never as dessert. END ASIDE.

[Lokasenna]

I frequently pair medieval literature and a glass of iced mead. Also, anything is enhanced by tea and/or port. As for specific novels:

1984 - tasteless TV dinner, replete with aluminium tray.

The Importance of being Earnest - further to the above, I'd add tiny cucumber sandwiches, and Pimms.

Vathek - a particularly spicy curry, served with fresh Lassi by scantily clad Indian girls.

Anything by James Joyce - ham, jam, tuna, marmite and custard sandwiches, lightly grilled and done in a bernaise sauce, thereby creating a hideous mess (I'm not a fan of Joyce, as you can tell).

Beowulf - tweleve course banquet, with a different roast animal for each one.

[Lulim]

OK, what springs to my mind: "Gargantua and Pantagruel": a very rough carousal -- but then, who is able to read in a situation like this? :goof:

And secondly: "The Tin Drum" -- along with a dish of eels? :lol:

[LitNetIsGreat]

1984 - tasteless TV dinner, replete with aluminium tray.
Yuk!


The Importance of being Earnest - further to the above, I'd add tiny cucumber sandwiches, and Pimms.
And muffins of course, one has to munch on the muffins. Also we need some superior champagne for the bachelors...


Vathek - a particularly spicy curry, served with fresh Lassi by scantily clad Indian girls.
Nice! Scantily clad is cool.


Beowulf - tweleve course banquet, with a different roast animal for each one.

Cool! :cool:

[hellsapoppin]

No reading of Melville's Moby Dick would be complete without a good bowl of Boston clam chowder. Too bad Nabisco's Pilot Crackers aren't available anymore but there are good recipes online for hardtack (which are commonly called seabiscuits). They are a fine addition to a seafood platter and for a good reading of the book!

[haprdgn]

I read Charlie and the Chocolate factory with two bars of Cadbury chocolate and some orange soda.

The actual Wonka bars are unbelievably delicious, but the only place that I could find it sells it for like $4 a bar.

[Etienne]

OK, what springs to my mind: "Gargantua and Pantagruel": a very rough carousal -- but then, who is able to read in a situation like this? :goof:

And secondly: "The Tin Drum" -- along with a dish of eels? :lol:

:lol: Very good

I suggest:
The Hunger with... nothing;
Berlin Alexanderplatz with some ham;
The Fruits of the Earth with some pomegranate.

[Eryk]

Suddenly, Last Summer - Raw tourist with a nice chianti.

[Modest Proposal]

Maybe it's just me but I always think I want to eat something while I read but it never works out right.

I'm afraid to get food on the pages, I am careful of spines and hold books open with both hands--thus have no free hand--and I always end up reading and forget about the food. I barely manage coffee with reading.

I wish I wasn't so compulsive about book conditions.

[sauron89]

I am a big fan of reading in cafes; hopefully I don't look too pretentious reading Nietszche while sipping on an espresso! It always pops into my mind someone writing their screenplay in a Starbucks on a macbook.

As for a food pairing...

Fifth Business - Dark chocolate, in a box with bite size portions and tongs to pick them up, accompanied with a glass of port.

[Antimony]

I always end up reading and forget about the food. I barely manage coffee with reading.

I find myself alternating forgetfulness, resulting in the consumption of a day's worth of meals and a week's worth of books.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer- A can of spam, entirely to small for a meal, eaten with your trusty dull pocket knife.

Gulliver's Travels- Foods that are completely unknown to you. They would taste good and you wouldn't want to ruin it by finding out your dessert is Bull's Testicles.

[hellsapoppin]

Have yourself a pitcher of cold beer and a bag of salty pretzels when reading Tristan Jones mariner's tales. This is very manly reading and most women would find it kinda pukey. But it's good stuff even though none of his tales have much truth in them.

[prendrelemick]

Olives and feta cheese with rough red wine, eaten in the shade of an ancient olive grove overlooking the Aegean Sea. The pages of the Odessey, lightly ruffled by warm zephyrs wafting across the wine dark sea.