June Food Stories in My Life

Food in Film and Fiction

Pixar’s “Bao”

A fun kitchen movie we watched this month: “Bao,” made by Pixar in 2018.

Bao, of course, are Chinese steamed buns — super delicious!

These bao are from a small lunch place downtown where they also show the movie over and over!
I’ve mentioned this restaurant several times, and it’s quite a favorite. Bao and a coke: perfect!

In the movie one of the bao turns into a living human-like creature.

Sherlock Holmes’s Breakfast

From Neil Gaiman’s Sherlock Holmes monster tale.

From a Murakami Tale

A mysterious business owner’s dinner in “Birthday Girl” one of the Murakami Manga.

Chinese Food from The Murder of Mr. Ma

A recent crime novel by co-authors SJ Rozan and John Shen Yen Nee features several Chinese inhabitants of 1924 London, including a reborn version of the ancient Chinese detective Judge Dee. They eat well, and I wished I could join them; for example:

“Dee and Jimmy Fingers contentedly devoured the spring rolls with copious amounts of hot mustard and, following those, a plate of steamed pork buns. The turnip cake and pan-fried noodles had arrived together … .Dee ordered a dish of clay-pot rice with sausage.”

Sweet treats from Madame Bovary

What were sweets like in France in the 1850s? The Bovary family received the following gift:

“Six boxes of jujubes, a whole jar of racahout, three cakes of marshmallow paste, and six sticks of sugar-candy … .”

Explanation:

• Racahout was a paste made from acorns and sugar, and used to make a hot drink or a porridge. 
• Jujubes are a fruit, also called red dates (not related to normal dates) — a candy made from this fruit had been invented in the 18th century. The modern candy called Jujubes does not contain this fruit.
• Marshmallows back then were made from a gelatinous substance produced by the plant called marsh mallow. The recipe for modern marshmallows made from sugar and artificial (or animal) gelatin is an imitation of this natural plant gelatin.

Fairy wine from Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries

“Like the food, the wine smelled lovely, of sugared apples and cloves, but it slid eerily within the ice, more like oil than wine.”

From Our Own Kitchen this Month

Len did most of the cooking this month. This swordfish was a really delicious dish!

A Julia Child recipe: Gratin Savoyard, or potatoes cooked in stock and topped with cheese.

We worked together on this recipe, which was tasty. We chose it because we had the ingredients on hand:
pork, green lentils, onions, carrots, and tomatoes with some interesting spices.

Of the dishes depicted here, this is the only one that I cooked.

Food Elsewhere

At Sweetwaters’ Cafe. An espresso with a classic donut.

Ice cream at the Dexter Creamery.

Blog post © 2024 mae sander

Shared with Sherry’s In My Kitchen and  Elizabeth’s Tea Party.