Discussion Friday

[geraineon]

It's time for Discussion Friday again~!

I woke up really hungry so in my quest to make everyone as hungry as I am, we're going to talk about food.

Does reading make you hungry? Have you read a particular good description of food or cooking in a c-novel* that made you salivate? Or perhaps you've read something that sounds absolutely atrocious (which makes you want to try it for Science). Did anything you read inspire you to cook, or seek that dish out?

Share them and let's make everyone hungry!

*feel free to very loosely interpret c-novel here for Discussion Friday, e.g., Chinese web-novels, Chinese novels, Chinese novellas/short stories, other language novels translated into Chinese, novels by Chinese (nationality or diaspora) published in non-Chinese language

Comments

[geraineon]

I have multiple meetings I need to show my face at today so, probably will edit/add more later but the first thing that came to my mind is Mo Du, the exact food I forgot (dongbao pork? Braised pork? Something like that??).

More recently in "Restaurant At The End of the Universe: Taichi Mashed Taro" by Anna Wu, in The Way Spring Arrives (this short story was translated by Carmen Tiling Yan). It reminds me of orhnee (red: https://www.bearnakedfood.com/2020/07/29/teochew-sweet-yam-paste-orh-nee/)

I like orhnee! Alas I do not have taro or yam with me right now.

[alterkrmn]

None of the cnovels I've read so far have any descriptions of food that made me crave the dishes, but that's because I've read only four (and one more in progress). But reading descriptions of food usually makes me hungry.

The only food related thing that comes to mind is Wei Wuxian's use of chili oil during Yi City arc to help the juniors with the corpse poisoning.

That made me realize one thing: as a mexican, the use of chili peppers is ubiquitous, almost everyone loves spicy food, some of them to levels I don't even consider edible.

And of course I have the knowledge that chili pepper is also used in Asian cuisines, but somehow I never even connected the dots that that wasn't always the case. That led me to read an academic book about the history of the chili pepper in China. This books traces the expansion of its use since it arrived from America to the point of becoming a very important part of Chinese cuisine.

This is absolutely one of those things I learn via the ADHD mental process lol

[halfcactus]

I did get hungry reading the early chapters of 我五行缺你 My Five Elements Lack You, where the MC is in charge of cooking for the household... Any mention or shot of noodles makes me crave them. XD

This post (and your mention of an anthology) just reminded me of a short story I read from a different collection (A Thousand Beginnings and Endings). The story is Olivia's Table by Alyssa Wong, which is about ghosts and food and *checks my old notes* apparently lesbians.

[snowynight]

I love the food description in "The Heartbeat at the Tip of the Tongue" by Jiao Tang Dong Gua. The heroine learns to cook from the main guy (a blind famous chef) after entering a cooking competition reality show, which her best friend pushed her to try-out for. The explaination behind the cooking is eye opedning to me.

[full_metal_ox]

Although I’ve yet to read it, one work that I’m told spreads a sumptuous banquet of prose Food Porn is Sleuth of Ming Dynasty; I’d love to hear readers’ accounts.