01-20-2009, 07:07 AM
Okay, I know this is a trivial thread. But am I the only one who is susceptible to the power of suggestion when authors describe food in stories?
I remember when I first became aware of this phenomenon: I was reading At Bertram's Hotel by Agatha Christie in which Miss Marple savors a hot buttered [English] muffin. I was overcome by an irresistible craving for one myself, and it's not something I usually eat. I had to make do with a slice of hot buttered toast and a cup of coffee, but it just wasn't the same. I think Agatha waxed gluttonous about this muffin for at least sixteen pages, or so it seemed.
I'm presently reading The Winter Bride by Carola Salisbury, and I find myself drooling over the descriptions of Victorian feasts. Sideboards groaning under mounds of succulence, multiple courses, rich aromas of roasting meats wafting from the kitchen . . .
I have learned that the old maxim about shopping applies equally well to books: Never read while hungry. You might stumble on a description of an ortolan flambéed in brandy and now where would you get that?
-- Penfeather
I remember when I first became aware of this phenomenon: I was reading At Bertram's Hotel by Agatha Christie in which Miss Marple savors a hot buttered [English] muffin. I was overcome by an irresistible craving for one myself, and it's not something I usually eat. I had to make do with a slice of hot buttered toast and a cup of coffee, but it just wasn't the same. I think Agatha waxed gluttonous about this muffin for at least sixteen pages, or so it seemed.
I'm presently reading The Winter Bride by Carola Salisbury, and I find myself drooling over the descriptions of Victorian feasts. Sideboards groaning under mounds of succulence, multiple courses, rich aromas of roasting meats wafting from the kitchen . . .
I have learned that the old maxim about shopping applies equally well to books: Never read while hungry. You might stumble on a description of an ortolan flambéed in brandy and now where would you get that?
-- Penfeather