I like to get in the mood, when I’m reading. Here’s my list of how to pair your nosh to your book:
- Westerns
- Riders of
the Purple Sage. Cow country. This would suggest a certain menu. Steak,
medium rare. Tempting, but hard to cut a steak while
simultaneously holding a book and turning pages. Really, Mel Brooks had
the right idea. Beans, and plenty of them. Make sure you’re NOT reading
in public.
- Chick-lit
- Slipping
into the realm of the unknown here. Chicks are slim young things,
right? They would eat salad. I hate
salad. Ergo…hand me a western.
- Action-Adventure
- The
trouble with Bond-clone movies and books is you’re apt to spill your
martini
with all that racing around in the plot. Things blow up a lot in the
action-adventure genre. This might suggest popcorn. But make sure you
pop it before you eat
it. Keep the explosions to your
book. (Or switch to westerns.)
- Horror
- This is
obvious. Ribs. Dripping with BBQ sauce.
- Herself's
personal additions: Cilantro and goat cheese <<shivers>>
- Romance
- Chocolate.
- CanLit (Literature, for all you American types.)
- It will
be unusual, expensive, and unpalatable. You won’t “understand” why
others think
it is so good. Your palate has not been
suitably developed to appreciate such fineness. Caviar. Escargot (it
always
sounds so much better in French.) Duck liver (you can look up the
French
spelling.) If you get beyond the first
bite (er…page one,) Yay for you. Hard to
read – hard to eat.
- Mystery
- Should be
obvious, right? Chinese food! Get someone else to order it for you, so
the
mystery deepens.
- Fantasy
- Try to
find Ambrosia. They really dig it on
Olympia. If you can’t find that,
substitute ice cream. (I know. You
thought I was going to say wine. But my fantasy is ice cream with a
suitably
delicious Greek God-ling. Okay, he
doesn’t have to be a God yet. Just young
and Greek. Okay, this is slipping into
erotica…
- Erotica
- Forget
the oysters, artichokes, or other silly vegetable-type aphrodisiacs.
(Fish is
almost a vegetable. Trust me.) The answer is more chocolate. (Silly.
That’s the answer to almost anything.)
- Sci-fi
- KIND nut
bars. Okay, is the metaphor too obvious?
- What to Eat if you’re a Writer:
- Coffee.
- And humble pie.
Melodie Campbell’s latest mob comedy,
TheGoddaughter Caper, has just been released. It’s an offer you
can’t refuse. Available at all the usual suspects.
