from chocolatl to soylent green

[rm]

So I'm finishing up my SF/F end of the world piece and am thinking that next week's is going to be on food from the sublime to the horrifying. This is one of my less well thought-through ideas, but strikes me as hillarious. Anyone got any thoughts?

Comments

[phaenix-ash.livejournal.com]

i think it's brilliant and i can think of tons of examples and traditional myths (i.e. don't eat the fairy food!) but is it just an overview or...?

[rm.livejournal.com]

Just random books SF/F with memorable food stuff, all of which came to mind only because of my obsession with finding the perfect hot chocolate because of various fictional ones.

why oh why do i remember these things?

[phaenix-ash.livejournal.com]

all the stuff in HP (pumpkin pasties, cauldron cakes, butterbeer, pumpkin juice, etc etc), lembas in LOTR (i always thought it must taste like nilla wafers). lots of references to red fruit in fairy tales, nettle wine, dandelion wine (which while i'm sure they exist somewhere are still not the norm), references to salt in fairy tales, the fruit on the tree of knowledge, delirium's chocolate people filled with raspberry jelly in sandman "brief lives". you already know about all the chocolatl references in the golden compass et al. elf or fairy wine has tons of different references too, said to be revitalizing but if you drink it you'll pine away for it the rest of your life or be unable to leave faerie. spice in the dune series. cherry cordial and plum preserves in anne of green gables though that's not SF/F (i just always wondering what cherry cordial was like). eggs on horseback in heinlein's world and eggies in a basket in v for vendetta. :) the memorable hangover meal of pickled eggs and kippers in gaiman's neverwhere. the aliens eating rats and guinea pigs in V. puffballs and chokeberries in king's dark tower series (actually there are several memorable meals in those books, from feasts to surviving off the land and a character who eats raw frogs occasionally).

i think that's way more than enough but i know i could think up more if i tried. of course, i also second the gargle blasters.

this also reminded me of someone i used to know who would go out with people for a hemingway-dedicated movable feast where they would have each course at a different restaurant and go all over town trying different things.

Re: why oh why do i remember these things?

[fuyukodachi.livejournal.com]

Dandelion wine is sweet and light, much thinner than muscatel, but a little broadly similar in flavor profile.

I don't like sweet wines, so I was unimpressed. One of my lovers rather enjoyed it, however.

Re: why oh why do i remember these things?

[storyjen.livejournal.com]

Bendan wine and klah (analogous to coffee) from Dragonriders of Pern. Spice from Dune? (Or are you saving that one for an essay on SF/F and drugs?) How about the silver apples that bring immortality/healing from C.S. Lewis's The Magician's Nephew? (Hmm, or getting back to the people-AS-food theme, in Lewis's The Silver Chair, the Gentle Giants invite the protagonists to their Autumn Feast, primarily so the protagonists can serve as one of the main delicacies that's traditional for that feast, man-pies.)

Hmm, in the Thomas Covenant series there's a healing berry called aliantha - he's always eating that stuff.