Everyday Canvas

Signature Foods and Fiction

Prompt: Signature foods and creative writing.
What do you think about signature foods in general? Then, when you are writing about a setting, have you ever created for or assigned to a city or town a signature food, such as Philly's cheesesteak and Chicago's deep-dish pizza?

----


In general, signature foods are fun, like gumbo in Lousiana, Cheesecake, bagels,and pastrami sandwiches for NY, Boston Cream Pie and New England Clam Chowder for Boston, Crabcakes for Baltimore, Key Lime Pie for Key West, beignets for New Orleans, and sourdough bread for San Francisco, which is what I can think of at the moment. And although this was my prompt, for the life of me, I can’t recall a signature food associated with a place in fiction. Go figure!

I can, however, recall many works of fiction that had to do with food. Such as Like Water for Chocolate,The Joy Luck Club, Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Ichabod’s slapjacks), Pudding in Harry Potter, and I can also think of Green Eggs and Ham, which my kids were never tired of listening to, back in the day. I should have changed their names into Sam-I-am.

This I’ll remember, if I live long enough, to assign a signature dish to an imaginary city and maybe build a whole story around it. Maybe next NaNo? If anyone wants to use the idea, they are welcome to it, too.

And look who's talking! Although I made it to 53 K, this year’s NaNo isn’t finished yet.

That my mind works in circles is an understatement.