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Monday, March 18, 2024
March 18, 2024

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Check It Out: ‘Fictitious Dishes’ a tasty, literary read

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I have a healthy serving of cookbooks in my personal library. They cover a variety of cuisines and cooking styles; and upon examination, you would find that they have a not-so-insignificant amount of pages bookmarked for “future consideration.” The funny thing is, I don’t spend much time actually cooking; that’s my husband’s area of interest, thank goodness. To be perfectly honest, my collection of cookbooks has a lot in common with this week’s book. The idea that my persistent habit of bookmarking recipes will result in meals for my hard-working spouse is more fiction than reality (and I do feel a little guilty about that — just a little). Perhaps this is why I had so much fun reading “Fictitious Dishes.” It’s all about food, but there is not a recipe to be found — and that means no guilt. Priceless.

Serving up bite-sized passages from literature’s “most memorable meals,” author Dinah Fried takes the reader on a unique tour, sampling “foodie” moments from a variety of fiction, nonfiction, and children’s titles.

One of my favorite culinary descriptions comes from John Steinbeck’s “East of Eden.” This makes me hungry every time I read it: “Because the day had been hot, Lee set a table outside under an oak tree, and as the sun neared the western mountains he padded back and forth from the kitchen, carrying the cold meats, pickles, potato salad, coconut cake, and peach pie which were supper. In the center of the table he placed a gigantic stoneware pitcher full of milk.” If that doesn’t call up memories of summertime repasts, I don’t know what will.

A book full of tasty passages would be interesting by itself, but the interest-factor increases by a baker’s dozen with the author’s inclusion of relevant factoids and magazine-style food photographs bringing the imagined scenes to life. For example, the “East of Eden” quote has several fun facts including this tidbit about pickles: “The word ‘pickle’ comes from the Dutch word pekel (‘brine’). According to the Department of Agriculture, the average American eats more than 8 pounds of pickles a year.” And the photograph that faces the paragraph cited from “East of Eden” accurately represents all of the foods mentioned, laid out on a wooden, picnic-style table.

I should probably point out that not every literary feast included in “Fictitious Dishes” will necessarily be delicious or even edible. A brief but compelling passage is included from Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis.” If you’re not familiar with this work from 20th century German literature, you should know that the main character, traveling salesman Gregor Samsa, awakens one morning to find himself transformed into an insect — something like a cockroach.

I’m pretty sure that most of us try not to think about cockroaches at all, especially in connection with food. But the images are powerful, and when it comes to reading, imagery is king; and images of food and eating often become some of the most influential, primal reasons for connecting, or not connecting, with a piece of writing.

For some, reading snippets from famous literary works has to be enough because busy lives demand high levels of multitasking which means taking in information in small, digestible chunks.

For others, titles such as “Fictitious Dishes” offer such appetizing literary morsels that personal lists of “books I want to read” increase tenfold. It’s a quick read with the potential for creating more reading, so in that way it is like eating: sometimes eating one potato chip, or reading one paragraph leads to, well, you know.

Best part? Fictitious meals mean no dirty dishes.

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