A Novel Idea For Food

Did you know food tastes more delicious when you create a backstory for it?

Introducing "Mrs. Arbuthnot's Repast."

(My snack this afternoon.)

(Ingredients: flax and fiber sandwich thins, good butter,

raspberry and key lime jam, sliced nectarines, almond slivers)

I'm calling it that after the character in Elizabeth Von Arnim's "The Enchanted April." Succulent fruit on thin bread with a bracing crunch of almond seems an appropriate nibble for an unhappy Englishwoman longing for a fresh new start in life.

Why stop there?

After looking through my computer files, I've taken a stab at renaming some of the meals I've eaten since starting this blog. Can you guess which novel they're inspired by?

(Answers are at the bottom.)

1.

Old name: Cioppino

New name: "Dickie Greenleaf's Harbor Stew"

2.

Old name: Tomato soup with grilled cheese soldiers

New name: "A Small Measure of Count Rostov's Liquidity"

3.

Old name: Fig marzipan tart

New name: "Dick Diver's Taste of Midnight Galette"

4.

Old name: Mussels in white wine sauce

New name: "Mr. Peggotty's Seaside Savory"

5.

Old name: Roasted kombucha squash with parsley-vinaigrette salad and toasted pepitas

New name: "Friday's Foodstuffs For the Purpose of Quelling Famishment"

6.

Old name: Meyer lemon pound cake

New name: "Mrs. Bennett's Lip-Pursing Pleasure For Headstrong Young Ladies"

7.

Old name: Open-face sandwich with Marmite, butter, Jarlsberg cheese and cherry tomatoes

New name: "Causabon's Key to Health"

I know your brains are exploding with "novel food" pairings that are much more clever than mine. Unleash them in my comments section. :)

* * * * *

Answers:

1. The Talented Mr. Ripley/ Patricia Highsmith

Dickie Greenleaf meets a fishy end in the waters of San Remo. Enough said.

2. Tender is the Night/F. Scott Fitzgerald

Dick Diver likes to stay up late and have a good time. Enough said.

3. War and Peace/Leo Tolstoy

Count Rostov was loaded with dependents but very little money.

4. David Copperfield/Charles Dickens

Mr. Peggotty is a fisherman and lives in a beached houseboat by the ocean.

5. Robinson Crusoe/Daniel Defoe

Friday was the shipwrecked Crusoe's trusty companion.

6. Pride and Prejudice/Jane Austen

A reference to Mrs. Bennett and her daughters, especially Elizabeth.

7. Middlemarch/George Eliot

Causabon was obsessed with writing a book called "The Key to all Mythologies."