Bookish Tuesday: Food, Glorious Food

by Jeanette O'Hagan

I WANT TO EAT MAIZE-BREAD!
But seriously, everyone in Akrad’s Children eats it and it sounds delicious.  

Michael, Goodreads review.

I had to chuckle when I saw this review on Akrad's Children - not because seeing new reviews brings a smile of pure happiness to my face (mostly); okay not only because I love seeing new reviews, but because it was such a great way to start a review. And it got me thinking about memorable mentions of food in books I love.

After all, food tells us so much about the characters, the setting, the occasion. It grounds us in the story, gives us warm feelings and makes our mouth water (or our stomach curdle).

One of my short stories starts this way:

Dana snatched a food packet and shoved it into the rehydrator, keying in the sequence.

Not a mouth-watering meal perhaps, but in one sentence we've learnt something about Dana, about where she is likely to be, about the genre of the story.

Are you surprised to learn the title is Space Junk* and that this is a science-fiction story?

So what are some memorable food moments in literature that you remember?  Here are some of mine.

Blueberries in The Palace Thief, Ruhanna's Flight and other stories

Oliver Twist 

Who can forget in the book and the film, when Oliver draws the short straw.

"Please, sir, I want some more."

With only three small bowlfuls of oatmeal gruel per day, an onion twice a week and a bread roll on Sunday, the boys in the workhouse are ravenous. The empty bowl; Oliver's pale, wane face; the outrage on the well-fed master's face says it all. We feel Oliver's hungry and wonder how anyone could treat children this way. (Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens) 

Anne of Green Gables

Do you remember Marilla's famous raspberry cordial which poor Anne (unaware that it's alcoholic) gives to her best friend Diane in a wonderful tea party full of cake and cherry preserves. The results are catastrophic. Diane greedily guzzles three glasses and goes home tipsy. Her mother is rightly incensed and bans her daughter from ever seeing Anne again. Anne learns a hard lesson, but luckily for the bosom friends, Mrs Barry eventually relents. (Anne of Green Gables by L M Montgomery)

Lucy Pevensie in Narnia

Two food scenes stays with me in C S Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe  - one is Lucy's brother Edmond gobbling down the wicked White Witch's enchanted Turkish Delight. Her flattering words, false promises, his own jealousies, and the addictive sweetmeat all lure him into betraying Aslan, his siblings and all of Narnia.

In contrast, there is the cosy meal Tumnus the fawn offers Lucy- lightly boiled eggs, sardines of toast, honey on toast, sugar-topped cake. While this did seem a bit ordinary to my seven-year old self (but probably not to war-torn rationed Brits), I loved the homeliness of the meal. For sure, Tumnus was attempting to lull Lucy to sleep so he could hand her over to the White Witch, but he repents and he risks his life to save hers.

Two meals, two temptations, two different outcomes.

Hobbits and Elves

As a teen devouring J R R Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, I loved the idea of Lembas - the Elven waybread (a gift to Frodo and his companions from the Lady of Lothlorien). It was wrapped in leaves, nutritious, long-lasting, and delicious - and sustained Frodo and Sam on their epic journey into the horrors of Mordor in their quest to save the world. The gifts of friendship and fellowship make their heroic deeds possible.

And then there is the feast Bilbo unwillingly provided to his unexpected guests of twelve dwarves and Gandalf at the start of The Hobbit. Bilbo's pantry seemed endless, full of cakes, and cold meats, and tasty delights, though by the end of the night, it was pretty much empty - and Bilbo found himself going on an adventure into the unknown. The hilarious scenes tells us a lot about dwarves - and hobbits - and the need at times to let go of our familiar comforts.

Mina Improvises

In Stephen Lawhead's Skin Map (Bright Empire series), Mina is separated from Kit Livingstone and is lost in an alternative earth, in seventeenth century Bohemia. Fortunate for her, she meets up with a baker and together they create the best (and only) coffee shop in Prague with delectable pasties. While her talents languish in the ordinary world, the new situation brings out her ingenuity and grit.

Ruhanna's Flight

And before I leave, I'd love to share another food scenes from my recent release Ruhanna's Flight and other stories.

In the first story Ruhanna's Flight* - Ruhanna prepares for her father's homecoming with a gift - and a special meal.

From the little kitchen came tantalising smells fit for the palace in Silantis. Mariam had surpassed herself with Baba’s favourite dishes—turtle and seaweed soup, baked fish, baby tomatoes and sea-sage, oysters and rock crays with a creamy dill sauce, stuffed quails and fresh wave-berries with yarma cheese to finish off. Everything was ready by late morning.

Ruhanna sank down on a cushion in the reception room, stroking the carved albatross on Baba’s box, and waited.

I have fun thinking up food appropriate for the different people and places in my fiction.

What meals do you remember in your favourite books? I'd love you to share them in the comments.

* Space Junk - first published in Mixed Blessings: Genre-lly Speaking (Breath of Fresh Air Press, 2016), also included in Ruhanna's Flight and other stories.
* Ruhanna's Flight first published in Glimpes of Light (edited by Jeanette O'Hagan and Nola Passmore: By the Light Books, 2015), and also included in Ruhanna's Flight and other stories.

Giveaway  Ruhanna's Flight and other stories

Ruhanna's Flight and other stories by Jeanette O'Hagan (By the Light Books, 6 March 2018)

Tales of wonder, romance, adventure - dip into the world of Nardva with this exciting collection of stories. It includes Ruhanna's Flight,  Before the Wind, Heart of the Mountain, The Herbalist's Daughter, Moonflame, Rendezvous at Alexgaia and many other stories. A delightful introduction to Jeanette O'Hagan's fantasy world of engaging characters and stirring adventures.

Available from amazon.com

Jeanette O'Hagan is giving away a e-book copy of Ruhanna's Flight and other stories. To enter the giveaway, on this post and/or ICFW's March New Releases post on March 19. Receive two entries in the drawing by commenting on both posts. I'll draw a winner from the comments on Saturday, March 30.

Jeanette recently published a collection of fantasy and sci-fi Nardvan stories, Ruhanna's Flight and other stories. She started spinning tales in the world of Nardva at the age of eight or nine. She enjoys writing secondary world fiction, poetry, blogging and editing.

Her Nardvan stories span continents, time and cultures. They involve a mixture of courtly intrigue, adventure, romance and/or shapeshifters and magic users. She has published numerous short stories, poems, two novellas and her debut novel, Akrad's Children.

Connect with her: website | facebook | pinterest | twitter

Doughnuts and Books

Last week, some poor teenagers were mugged for the boxes of doughnuts they'd bought at our new Krispy Kreme factory outlet which has just opened in Adelaide. In news reports, the robbers were hailed as the 'Krispy Krooks'. I'm not sure if they've been discovered and apprehended yet, but our city is going crazier over the new outlet than I ever would have expected, just because they are a well-known brand we've never had before.

 On Saturday, my teenage daughter and her best friend got caught up in the hype and decided to make a trip to the factory outlet. They had to catch a bus into Adelaide from the Hills where we live, followed by a tram to the suburb where the shop is situated. They found a line twisting and curling from the shop door way down the road. The girls decided that as they had already spent so long getting there, they might as well join the end of the queue.

The wait turned out to be almost three hours. As they inched closer to the door and into the shop premises, they saw a policeman on the job, striding around eating doughnuts the staff had given him. I don't think there would have been any risk from muggers in a crowd that size. He was probably there just to make the public feel safe. The two girls decided to buy a couple of boxes each, since they'd already put in such a lot of effort.

On the way back to the tram stop, they began feeling nervous that crooks might spring out at them from the shadows, to steal their doughnuts. By the time they'd caught the bus back to the Hills and made it nearly home, the winter night was pitch black and had started to rain. They had covered many kilometres in public transport for their treats.

I couldn't really blame my daughter when she snapped at her brothers not to dig into them straight away. 'You don't know what I've been through today to get these doughnuts. My feet are aching, I've spent heaps of money, and I was cold and bored. You can have some when I say so.'

When we did get a taste, were they any good? Well, I have to be honest and admit that they were okay, but nothing special. Certainly no better than the doughnuts we can buy from our local shopping centre. The boys agreed they were nice but nothing to rave about. If I'd done what the girls did, I might have considered it a bit of a wasted day.

In fact, the loveliest, most delicious cakes and doughnuts I've ever eaten were from an Aussie country town named West Wyalong. It's like a scrub oasis in the middle of New South Wales. We were on a tour of our country with our three children, aged 9, 5 and new born. We stopped to stretch our legs and chanced upon the bakery with these delicious goods. Even though it was 2004, I've never forgotten them. I'm afraid they were far more delicious than those from Krispy Kreme last week, but nobody hears about them.

How true such things are in all of life, including the books we read. We can't help hearing about the books which are at the top of the most well-known publishers' lists, because they tend to spread through the media. Maybe these are the equivalent of Krispy Kreme in the literary world. They are the books which we hear hype about, and can't help having our curiosity aroused. We may find it easy to forget that these are by no means the only books in the market.

I enjoy receiving recommendations of more obscure books from trusted reader friends who tell me, 'I'm sure you'll love this.' And I love stumbling across books I can spread the word about in turn. It is a joy to get stuck into fiction from different nations, which I can pass on to others, saying, 'You really get the feel of the setting from this story,' or 'You'll never think of the place in the same way again.' This blog is a good springboard for such unexpected, excellent discoveries. There are often guests, who let us know about their new books, and regular contributors whose engrossing published novels are set all around the world. The best thing about them is that, thanks to digital purchasing options of the 21st century, they are readily available, unlike the delicious doughnuts from West Wyalong.

Paula Vince is an award-winning author from South Australia. Her contemporary dramas and romances contain elements of mystery and suspense. She enjoys hanging out with her family, homeschooling her youngest son, and making the most of the four distinct seasons in her beautiful Adelaide Hills. Her most recent novel, 'Imogen's Chance' was published in April 2014. For more talk about books with Paula, visit her book review blog. Or catch up with her at her at It Just Occurred to Me

Is Your Soup Staring at You?

A young Brazilian friend, filling up on
rice and beans at lunch.

There was a chicken head in my soup.   Between the grains of rice and bits of tomato and parsley floating in the yellow broth, his unblinking eye looked up at me. While a chicken staring from the soup was no doubt perfectly normal to the Brazilian family at the next table, it was somewhat disconcerting to me, an American missionary. (My husband across the table pushed aside the clawed foot that reached for the sky from his own bowl.)

What do your characters eat? People in different places enjoy different foods. A hard boiled egg, aged to a mottled purple, brought back delightful childhood memories to my Chinese friend while I made it a point to breathe through my mouth. My friend assured me that what gets called “century eggs” these days weren’t really that old.  “Probably no more than forty.”

Century eggs

Foods are always an important part of culture.  If you are writing about another country, researching local foods is important. Within a country as large as the US, regional differences may give your writing authenticity or make it obvious to the reader that this writer doesn’t really know and thus invalidate your whole story.

For those of you living outside the US, making us smell and taste your foods in your writing (and creating the same emotional response you would have to it), is a good way to draw an American audience into your character’s world.  There is nothing like a Christmas cookout/braai/barbie at the beach to let your readers know they are not in Kansas.

Food preparation plays an important role in women’s socialization in many cultures. I once watched a Mozambican woman glide gracefully across our churchyard with a five-gallon kerosene can of water balanced on her head. Her arms swung easily at her sides, and she never spilled a drop. A little girl of about eight followed with a restaurant-size butter tin of water on her head, held with one hand. Behind the little girl came a toddler, clutching a soup can to her head with both hands. Water sloshed out at every step.

Me, trying my hand stamping grain in tandem
with the ladies at a church conference

Mozambican women spend hours stamping, winnowing and grinding grain to prepare the staple mealie porridge (hard corn meal mush to my Southern US friends). It is a daily activity for traditional Africans. Clusters of women gather in back yards to chat while they work. And if it is a conference, there will be a dozen women or more sharing tasks around several wood fires that give the food that smoky flavor I can’t replicate on the kitchen stove. An urban African woman with a fulltime job outside the home may well grab a bag of dry mealie flour at the supermarket, but she will undoubtedly lament that although it is quick, it doesn’t taste as good. And she will miss the socializing around the huge log mortars that she remembers from her childhood.

Food preparation can provide a background activity while your characters carry on a conversation that reveals character or moves your plot forward.  The preparation itself will give readers insights into the setting. The way a character wields a knife, pounds a chicken breast, or responds to a spilled glass of milk can demonstrate aspects of your characterization. (I once heard a lecture that defined spiritual gifts based on response to spilled milk. The giver says, “Don’t worry; there’s plenty more,” and jumps up to refill the glass. The helper grabs a cloth and mops up the spill. The encourager says, “That’s all right; I know you didn’t mean to spill it.” A teacher like me irritates her kids by saying, “Next time set your glass further back from the edge so you don’t bump it with your elbow.”)

Brazilian "salgadinhos" ready for a party

My teen novel Between Two Worlds includes a scene of food preparation for Brazilian-born Cristina’s longed-for fifteenth birthday party. In that scene I show the different reactions of characters to such a non-American event.  I was also able to bring out differences and similarities (pizza!) to a typical American teen party in a natural way.

So how have you used food in your writing?

If I were to write about your region, what are some foods or food-related activities I should mention to make my story sound authentic?

___

LeAnne Hardy has lived in six countries on four continents. Her books for young people come out of her cross-cultural experiences and her passion to use story to convey spiritual truths in a form that will impact lives. You can find out more about her books and travel adventures on her website and blog.