Listicle: 10 foods that almost outshine the books they’re in

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Pork belly with rice. In The Kamogawa Food Detectives (2023), author Hisashi Kashiwai has created a magical restaurant that serves up food and old recipes that linger only in memory. A diner, Hideji, looks at a mouthwatering feast before him, one of which is “pork belly simmering in Kyobancha tea”. As he lifts up a braised slice delicately, dripping in sauce, and places it on a spoonful of hot rice, he smiles wide in contentment. As do we.

In Heartburn (1983), the main character makes a Key lime pie and throws it at her cheating husband. (ADOBE STOCK)

Key lime pie. Six egg yolks, two cans of condensed milk, and a cup of lime juice, all blended together and served with fluffy whipped cream on top. Nora Ephron’s Heartburn (1983) is a story of heartbreak, divorce, and separation. But she does marvellous things to food. In the book, Rachel Samstat throws Key lime pie at Mark, her husband, who is having an affair. What a waste!

Madeleines are synonymous with Marcel Proust’s seven-volume series, In Search of Lost Time. (ADOBE STOCK)

Madeleines. Make your peace with the fact that you’re never going to read all seven books of Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time (1913) with this reference from Book 1, Swann’s Way. The narrator eats a spongy, buttery madeleine and is transported to his childhood. The scallop-shaped cake has been associated with Proust ever since; in French, a madeleine de Proust is a reference to a sound, taste, or smell that brings up a memory. Yum!

In her memoir, Dolly Alderton writes about preparing sole fish with butter and lemon seasoning for an ex. (ADOBE STOCK)

Sole meunière. In Dolly Alderton’s 2018 memoir, Everything I Know About Love, recipes are interspersed among the complicated love stories she experienced. One of these is a sole meunière, a dish she made for an ex-boyfriend. The golden-brown sole fish are served with butter and lemon seasoning and lightly sprinkled with capers and parsley, with a side of roasted potatoes—though Alderton advises serving it to people worth your time.

The passionate heroine of Like Water for Chocolate serves quail in rose petal sauce for her brother-in-law. (ADOBE STOCK)

Quail in rose petal sauce. In the 1990s, when Like Water for Chocolate (1989) was everywhere, this is the dish everyone talked about, but only few dared to cook. Tita, the passionate Mexican heroine served it up for her brother-in-law Pedro. Author Laura Esquivel fashioned the dish, with its layers of spices, flavours, and the pink rose petals stained red with her blood to symbolise their passionate affair.

The avocado and crabmeat salad in The Bell Jar was a dish enjoyed by 1950s American high society. (ADOBE STOCK)

Avocado and crabmeat salad. The hipster cafe favourite has had its moment in the literary sun. In The Bell Jar (1963), Sylvia Plath’s story about a woman struggling with her identity, avocados are the main character Esther Greenwood’s favourite, and show up throughout the book. The “yellow-green avocado pear halves stuffed with crabmeat and mayonnaise” is a summer salad enjoyed by 1950s American high society. Take that, millennials!

In Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870), the characters relish hot roasted breadfruit. (ADOBE STOCK)

Roasted breadfruit. Breadfruit tastes what it sounds like. But for sea-weary prisoners trapped on the submarine Nautilus in Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870) it’s a delicacy. They embark briefly on land, come across a breadfruit tree, and roast it on an open fire. The heart of the fruit, caramelised by flames, looks like a white pastry, and tastes like an artichoke.

Apfelkuchen is a German apple cake that shows up in the 1911 book Dawn O’Hara: The Girl Who Laughed. (ADOBE STOCK)

Apfelkuchen. Tricky on the tongue, but crumbly and gooey to taste, the German apple cake appears in Dawn O’Hara: The Girl Who Laughed (1911). Edna Ferber’s book is about a girl who sees humour in all sorts of situations. In one scene, she visits a confectionery shop, its shelves groaning with treats of every kind, but zeroes in on the apfelkuchen. You would too if you noticed “juicy fruit stuck thickly into the crust”.

Santiago and Manolin eat black beans and rice while they discuss baseball, in The Old Man and the Sea. (ADOBE STOCK)

Black beans and rice with fried bananas. Ernest Hemingway’s rendition of this Cuban dish in The Old Man and the Sea (1952) takes us straight to the hut of old fisherman Santiago, where he and his young friend, Manolin, eat the meal together while they discuss baseball. The beans are accompanied with a side of fried bananas and brothy stew. Delish!

Bonda, the deep-fried potato snack, makes an appearance in RK Narayan’s book, The Guide. (ADOBE STOCK)

Bonda. RK Narayan’s book, The Guide (1958) manages to make the familiar deep-fried potato snack, seem utterly delicious. Raju, the slick yet corrupt tour guide who undergoes a transformation in the book, reminisces about eating a plate of hot, steaming bonda at a railway station, and wonders when he’ll next be able to satisfy his cravings.