One of my favorite YouTube channels is Feast of Fiction. It's a YouTube channel entirely dedicated to recreating food found in popular books, movies, TV shows, games, and graphic novels. The two leads, Jimmy and Ashley, have created an awesome show that entertains and teaches viewers about food. A lot of times the food they are making doesn't have a known recipe to follow, so they have to create the recipe.
It takes a lot of creativity and guts to come up with recipes that might sound good on paper, but aren't practical to make. For example, it might be a little hard to make acid pops from Harry Potter as they are known for burning holes in people's tongues. I'm also not too keen on the idea of cockroach clusters.
But it's the inclusion of these odd treats along with descriptions of butterbeer, pumpkin pasties, and sugar quills that add to the Harry Potter universe.
I love it when authors weave in small details about food. They make the world feel more alive and believable.
I've always been curious as to what is in lembas bread that keeps away hunger from Lord of the Rings. I'd love to try Tiana's gumbo and beignets from The Princess and the Frog. And which deity do I have to bribe to bring the creations of Food Wars into existence?
Now, food doesn't have to prominently feature in the narrative. There seems to be an entire section of Amazon and Barnes and Nobel dedicated to food themed mysteries (complete with recipes in the back). Like Water for Chocolate has chapters that start out listing ingredients and describing how to make a dish, then slowly transitions into the plot. Food is used to show wealth and prosperity in Charles Dickens's classic A Christmas Carol, especially once the second spirit shows up. And it's occasionally used as an innuendo in steamy romance novels (Like Water for Chocolate can be used euphemism for sexual tension or passion).
The thing about food in fiction is that it's not always just about the food. Descriptions of decadent meals show off wealth and power, especially when poverty is also heavily described (The Hunger Games series is an excellent example of this). Character's who don't often think about when they'll eat next are more likely to be in a stable environment versus a character who is constantly worrying about where they're next meal is coming from. Does a culture hold a certain animal or plant as sacred? If so they might not be including it in their diet or it could be the most central part of a meal.
How do character's react when they're hungry? Are they irritable or can they manage it no problem? Is that character used to hunger? Do they overeat the first chance they're with in grabbing distance of a good meal? These can be important tiny details that help to define a situation in the narrative.
For example, in the seventh Harry Potter book Harry, Ron, and Hermione are on the run with little food and almost no money. They're hungry and each reacts slightly different to the situation. Harry was used to going hungry after being neglected by his Aunt and Uncle for years. He wasn't happy about being hungry, but otherwise wasn't that affected by it. Ron, however, was used to never going hungry and was irritated and angry the second he missed a meal. Despite growing up poor, his family always had enough to go around and he was always well fed at Hogwarts. Hermione was the middle of the two extremes. She wasn't used to going hungry like Harry was and could be irritated by the lack of a good meal, but she wasn't quite to Ron's level of anger.
The situation was made worse by the fact that they had a cursed object with them, adding to they're already short tempers.
So if you're a writer, I'd recommend incorporating some descriptions of food into your work. Don't over do it though. Describing a meal down to the tiny detail of "the cinnamon garnish carefully floating on the frothy cappuccino milk" is going to make me put down the book and head to the nearest coffee shop.
Also I don't recommend the use of food to describe characters, especially skin color for non-white characters. Describing people this way can be seen as objectifying or down right creepy. If you'd like a blog post on how to describe a person's skin tone without using food, check out this blog post. It's a few years old, but I think it's still a good guide for modern writes who'd like to include a diverse cast (which writers should be doing anyway).
So, the moral of this food related post is: include descriptions of food, but don't over do it and don't use food to describe a character's looks.
Until next week!
If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.
But it's the inclusion of these odd treats along with descriptions of butterbeer, pumpkin pasties, and sugar quills that add to the Harry Potter universe.
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| Yes, I've actually tried making pumpkin juice. It turned out alright. |
I've always been curious as to what is in lembas bread that keeps away hunger from Lord of the Rings. I'd love to try Tiana's gumbo and beignets from The Princess and the Frog. And which deity do I have to bribe to bring the creations of Food Wars into existence?
Now, food doesn't have to prominently feature in the narrative. There seems to be an entire section of Amazon and Barnes and Nobel dedicated to food themed mysteries (complete with recipes in the back). Like Water for Chocolate has chapters that start out listing ingredients and describing how to make a dish, then slowly transitions into the plot. Food is used to show wealth and prosperity in Charles Dickens's classic A Christmas Carol, especially once the second spirit shows up. And it's occasionally used as an innuendo in steamy romance novels (Like Water for Chocolate can be used euphemism for sexual tension or passion).
The thing about food in fiction is that it's not always just about the food. Descriptions of decadent meals show off wealth and power, especially when poverty is also heavily described (The Hunger Games series is an excellent example of this). Character's who don't often think about when they'll eat next are more likely to be in a stable environment versus a character who is constantly worrying about where they're next meal is coming from. Does a culture hold a certain animal or plant as sacred? If so they might not be including it in their diet or it could be the most central part of a meal.
How do character's react when they're hungry? Are they irritable or can they manage it no problem? Is that character used to hunger? Do they overeat the first chance they're with in grabbing distance of a good meal? These can be important tiny details that help to define a situation in the narrative.
For example, in the seventh Harry Potter book Harry, Ron, and Hermione are on the run with little food and almost no money. They're hungry and each reacts slightly different to the situation. Harry was used to going hungry after being neglected by his Aunt and Uncle for years. He wasn't happy about being hungry, but otherwise wasn't that affected by it. Ron, however, was used to never going hungry and was irritated and angry the second he missed a meal. Despite growing up poor, his family always had enough to go around and he was always well fed at Hogwarts. Hermione was the middle of the two extremes. She wasn't used to going hungry like Harry was and could be irritated by the lack of a good meal, but she wasn't quite to Ron's level of anger.
The situation was made worse by the fact that they had a cursed object with them, adding to they're already short tempers.
So if you're a writer, I'd recommend incorporating some descriptions of food into your work. Don't over do it though. Describing a meal down to the tiny detail of "the cinnamon garnish carefully floating on the frothy cappuccino milk" is going to make me put down the book and head to the nearest coffee shop.
Also I don't recommend the use of food to describe characters, especially skin color for non-white characters. Describing people this way can be seen as objectifying or down right creepy. If you'd like a blog post on how to describe a person's skin tone without using food, check out this blog post. It's a few years old, but I think it's still a good guide for modern writes who'd like to include a diverse cast (which writers should be doing anyway).
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| What does a basket of apples, peppers, tomatoes, and peaches say about a character? |
Until next week!
If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.
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