Fiction with food on the side

Culture, Media, General
8

I remember reading Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “Farmer Boy” (about her husband’s childhood) and feeling famished after all the foods they had at every meal. (I later read that she’d included all those dishes because they were in contrast to what she’d eaten as a child and the feasts she described were overly fanciful rather than being accurate.)

I seem to recall that Peter Mayle’s fiction, set in Tuscany, contained excellent food - but that the novels were fairly light.

“Hotel Pastis” was a stand alone novel:

And he has the Sam Levitt series, the first being “The Vintage Caper” (I think all titles in the series have “Caper” in them):

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9

LOL! I don’t recall the food at all. The book was passed around by us 10 year olds and would fall open to the graphic descriptions of sex. We were fascinated and freaked out in equal measure! A few years later the movie came out. I was friends with the child of a minister. Her Mother brought us to see it. It was the first “R” movie I had seen.

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10

You’re surely referring to the “R” scene of Tom Hagen summoning Sonny through the locked door, and then the denoument of Godfather asking Johnny Fontaine (who was accused of having ruined the horse owner’s starlett (and he can’t be seen to be “ridiculous”)) about being a good family man while raising a brow toward Sonny who still adjusting his clothes arrives in a haste to the study overlooking the wedding party .

11

This is a particularly good anthology that came out a couple of years ago:

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/249850/stories-from-the-kitchen-by-edited-by-diana-secker-tesdell/9781101907597/

LIke the whole Everyman series, it’s a nice small pocket size and pretty cheap. Here’s the table of contents:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FOOD AND LOVE

Charles Dickens, “Love and Oysters”

Guy de Maupassant, From Bel Ami

Saki, “Tea”

M. F. K. Fisher, “A Kitchen Allegory”

Isaac Bashevis Singer, “Short Friday”

Nora Ephron, “Potatoes and Love” from Heartburn

Lara Vapnyar, “A Bunch of Broccoli on the Third Shelf”

Elissa Schappell, “The Joy of Cooking”

MEMORABLE MEALS

Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, “On the Pleasures of the Table”

Anton Chekhov, “On Mortality”

Virginia Woolf, From To the Lighthouse

Evelyn Waugh, “The Manager of ‘The Kremlin’’’

Isak Dinesen, “Babette’s Feast”

Gerald Durrell, “Owls and Aristocracy”

Shirley Jackson, “Like Mother Used to Make”

Amy Tan, “Best Quality”

CULINARY ALCHEMY

Emile Zola, “The Cheese Symphony” from The Belly of Paris

Marcel Proust, From Swann’s Way

Alice B. Toklas, “Murder in the Kitchen”

Günter Grass, “The Last Meal” from The Flounder

T. C. Boyle, “Sorry Fugu”

John Lanchester, “A Winter Menu” from The Debt to Pleasure

Erica Bauermeister, “Lillian”

Jim Crace, “#45” from The Devil’s Larder

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12

Only the one brief/bare mention of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe? Have they gone out of print again?

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13

@BadaBing talked about the Victorian cucumber sandwiches in the Oscar Wilde’s play “The Importance of Being Earnest” with a whole thread dedicated here:

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14

Marcel Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time” dedicated to his fond memory of the little spongy cakes madeleine.

Ernest Hemingway’s “A Movable Feast”, an account of observations and stories of Parisian cafés, bars, hotels and life.

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15

If you like a light but well-written mystery then check out the China Bayles series by Susan Wittig Albert! Some of the earlier books have become a bit of a time capsule of '80s culture but the characters and mystery remain strong. China Bayles is a former attorney turned herb shop owner in a small town located in the Texas hill country. Most of the books in this series stand alone so it is not necessary to read in order. So far all of the books I’ve read have had recipes and a great deal of interesting info (practical and historical) about herbs!

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16

Should have mentioned this series the first time you solicited titles:

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17

Perfect timing for summer reads! I have many “Fiction with food on the side” titles, (especially mystery thrillers with historical fiction,) on my Kindle and Audible, but not all suit my taste. Does anyone have any specific titles they would recommend?

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18

My MIL gifted me this for my BD
Not technically what you are asking for, but I’m looking forward to checking it out just the same

BD%20cookbook
BD cookbook.jpg3024×4032 2.06 MB

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19

That reminds me of a website with similar content, posted somewhere here.

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20

Not fiction but lots of fun: “An Embarrassment of Mangos” https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/200620.An_Embarrassment_of_Mangoes

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21

So much great stuff here already … thank you everyone :slight_smile: :+1::+1::+1:

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One that I have, but haven’t read. Fun is good!

23

I had posted that in the childhood book thread. Thanks for bringing the info over to this thread! It is really a lovely endeavor!

24

I came upon a food blogger who has many posts on this subject! If you’re looking for more good reads check it out:

https://maefood.blogspot.com/search/label/Food%20in%20Detective%20Fiction

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25

Read review of *The Widows of Malabar Hill" by Sujata Massey"!

Amazon search, select Audible, click and done!

Does anyone have a quick tip about buying audible vs Kindle when you want to switch between the two?

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Delmonico’s, the haute dining superstar of 1800s New York, was a recurring setting in Caleb Carr’s the Alienist. That novel is a fun pair to Delmonico’s chef Charles Rainhoffer’s cookbook “the Epicurean”, which is a window into the past (things like “alligator pears” aka avocados, a chapter on “cooking for invalids”, and ingredients largely extinct in contemporary American (maybe even French cooking)).

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27

Yes! I was watching that on Netflix for awhile! Should I assume the book is better?

So interesting you mentioned Alligator Pears! I hadn’t heard that in awhile, and I’m always asking husband why he calls avacodos pears!