Yum, Crunch, Yuck: 6 Famous Foods in Literature

In Search of Lost Time, by Marcel Proust: Madeleines
The narrator of Marcel Proust’s epic novel In Search of Lost Time is the original literary food obsessive. He eats a madeleine—a light, fluffy, shell-shaped cake—that launches him into an extended “involuntary memory.” “No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me,” Proust writes. “An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, something isolated, detached, with no suggestion of its origin.” Maybe we should all eat madeleines to prevent memory loss? Even if we’re still forgetful, we’ll be happily filled with buttery cake, so we might not even notice.

 Harriet the Spy, by Louise Fitzhugh: Tomato Sandwiches
Don’t mess with Harriet M. Welsch’s lunch! She eats a tomato sandwich on white bread with mayo every day for lunch for five years. Her mom urges her to “try a ham sandwich, or egg salad, or peanut-butter.” Ha! Obviously Harriet’s mom doesn’t know her as well as we do. If only we could all sit down with her at 3:40 for her daily slice of cake. And then have that madeleine at 4 p.m., the traditional time for a French quatre heure snack. And then just kick back and enjoy our ample selves.

Norwegian Wood, by Haruki Murakami: Cucumbers
Has anyone besides me noticed Haruki Murakami has a major thing for cucumbers? Whenever I read the word “cucumber,” I can almost taste the fresh, crisp, juicy vegetable, an experience I frequently have when reading Murakami. His most notable cucumber interlude is probably in Norwegian Wood, when Midori is upset her sister has brought cucumbers to her father in the hospital, instead of the requested kiwi fruit. When Midori goes for a walk, the protagonist, Toru, begins to eat the cucumbers with her father. “Fresh, simple, smells like life,” he says.
But Murakami’s cucumber love doesn’t end there—he mentions them in 1Q84 (“Fuka-Eri picked up a piece of cucumber and bit it carefully, as if tasting something she had never seen before.”) in Sputnik Sweetheart (“Do you mean to tell me that when you’re having sex with a girl you imagine cucumbers in a fridge?”), The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (“My body felt cold and shriveled and dull, like a cucumber long forgotten in the back of the refrigerator”), and just about every other book he’s written. Listen up, scholars: if you want to understand Murakami, first you must understand the cucumber.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter, Bread and Milk and Blackberries
Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit is famous for turning Mr. McGregor’s garden into an all-a-bunny-can-eat buffet. When I think of Peter, I picture the drawing of him nibbling insouciantly on a purloined carrot, something I imagine all of us have longed to do in the face of those who would thwart our ambitions. But the standout food in The Tale of Peter Rabbit is that delicious meal his well-behaved but—let’s be honest—rather boring sisters get to enjoy while he’s dosed with chamomile tea and put to bed: “bread and milk and blackberries for supper.”

 Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens: Gruel
Literature proves a food doesn’t have to taste good to be coveted. Take poor Oliver Twist, still starving after being presented with his daily portion of gruel at the orphanage workhouse. He loses in a drawing of lots and so must ask Mr. Bumble for a swill refill. “Please, sir, I want some more,” Oliver asks, occasioning an outraged rumpus that results in him being sold as an apprentice for £5. Eventually Oliver meets up with Fagin, and the rest is history. Was this the gruel that launched a thousand adventures?

 A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole: Dr. Nut
Ignatius J. Reilly, the unforgettable hero of John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces, is a man of vast appetites and low opinions of the intellect of others. He fuels many of his musings with a regular infusion of Dr. Nut, an obscure Southern soft drink that tasted of almonds and is no longer sold. It’s really too bad, because it sounds like it would be the perfect beverage to wash down a feast of gruel, madeleines, tomato sandwiches, bread, milk, blackberries, and cucumbers.