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Have you ever read a book where there is a meal or banquet that it is described so beautifully that you can almost taste the flavors in every word?

I have, there are authors that really know how to stimulate the senses, specially when it come to food.
Some of my favorites are: Mark Twain, Salman Rushdie, G.K. Chesterton, Jhumpa Lahiri and Roald Dahl.

Do you guys have favorite authors, books or foodie quotes?

" Then there is the beefsteak. They have it in Europe, but they don't know how to cook it. Neither will they cut it right. It comes on the table in a small, round pewter platter. It lies in the center of this platter, in a bordering bed of grease-soaked potatoes; it is the size, shape, and thickness of a man's hand with the thumb and fingers cut off. It is a little overdone, is rather dry, it tastes pretty insipidly, it rouses no enthusiasm.

Imagine a poor exile contemplating that inert thing; and imagine an angel suddenly sweeping down out of a better land and setting before him a mighty porterhouse steak an inch and a half thick, hot and sputtering from the griddle; dusted with a fragrant pepper; enriched with little melting bits of butter of the most unimpeachable freshness and genuineness; the precious juices of the meat trickling out and joining the gravy, archipelagoed with mushrooms; a township or two of tender, yellowish fat gracing an outlying district of this ample county of beefsteak; the long white bone which divides the sirloin from the tenderloin still in its place; and imagine that the angel also adds a great cup of American home-made coffee, with a cream a-froth on top, some real butter, firm and yellow and fresh, some smoking hot-biscuits, a plate of hot buckwheat cakes, with transparent syrup—could words describe the gratitude of this exile? "
A Tramp Abroad, Mark Twain

Wow, you do really like food in books! It does make me feel hungry, reading the descriptions above. I'm serious. Now I should go for some snicksnack~ for me, I don't usually encounter books with such detailed information about the food, but I would love to!

If you are interested here is a list of authors that write, not specifically about food, but that have great descriptions when it comes to it:
Julian Barnes - The Pedant in the Kitchen
Jack Kerouac - On the road, and most of his road novels
Salman Rushdie - Midnight's Children
Jhumpa Lahiri- Interpreter of Maladies
Terry Pratchett - Witches Abroad
G.R.R. Martin- Game of Thrones
J.R.R. Tolkien- Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit
When reading Tolkien those section frustrated me a little because, specially in The Fellowship of the Ring, you had Frodo saying "we must move fast and begin our journey" ... But first a 1 month pause to eat all of the food in the shire so that we can leave after my birthday! Which makes no sense! I thought that the trip was urgent, but can you do? You don't mess with a hobbit and his food.

If you want a talented food writer, I highly recommend Clarissa Dickson-Wright, who passed away recently. She was half of the "Two Fat Ladies" cooking team, and her "History of English Food" is marvelous. Anything she writes is interesting. She writes a ton of food history.

Thanks, I'll take a look at her work.
I was also thinking that I forgot to put Chaucer on the list, after all the whole point of The Canterbury a Tales is winning the free meal. And maybe Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is another good example, which comes to show that medieval literature takes its food very seriously.

I loved Interpreter of Maladies!

All the time. Remember the Redwall books by Brian Jacques? Those would drive me crazy with the food descriptions!!!

Francesca Lia Block writes with a lot of flowery, sensual language to describe food. I love it and it makes me want to cook intricate meals.

ghostpixie wrote:All the time. Remember the Redwall books by Brian Jacques? Those would drive me crazy with the food descriptions!!!

Yes! Those books always made me feel soo hungry

Try:

M.F.K. Fisher
Julia Child
A.J. Liebling
Ruth Reichel
Gabrielle Hamilton ( first time author NYTimes best seller list ) for her memoir " Blood Bones and Butter )
Lawrence Saunders, Miami crime writer who has his detective preparing the most DELICIOUS Sandwiches EVER!...you'll be SALIVATING...
The Larousse Gastronomique...

I have always enjoyed George R.R. Martins writing about food. I don't know how historically accurate it is but I imagine it was what they ate in medieval times. I can't imagine trying a lamprey pie but if I ever come across something like that I may just need to take a bite.

I like food in books when they include a recipe, or they tell you what it is (and if it's a real thing, you can find the recipe on your own) Sometimes the descriptions are just so perfect, you have to make it for yourself.

HeneryKnox wrote:I have always enjoyed George R.R. Martins writing about food.

Hmmm, I always thought the George R.R. Martin food paragraphs were symptomatic of an author that was too commercially successful for decent editing; there's such a thing as too much of a good thing. Which is not to say they didn't make me hungry...

I agree about Gabrielle Hamilton. Not only is a good read about her rather unorthodox life, but food descriptions are fantastic.

Ahahah I don't remember reading food descriptions in a book. Or I don't remember it made me hungry.
That must be fun.

-- 27 Jul 2014, 10:23 --

Ahahah I don't remember reading food descriptions in a book. Or I don't remember it made me hungry.
That must be fun.

-- 27 Jul 2014, 10:23 --

Ahahah I don't remember reading food descriptions in a book. Or I don't remember it made me hungry.
That must be fun.