Foodie Friday: Food In Literature

My girlfriends and I have started what's turned out to be a "thing" for us: dinner parties to celebrate the release of movies based on our favorite books. It started with the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. CJ, my publisher, is a huge HP fan as well as an awesome cook and a fabulous baker, so what better way for her to celebrate the release of the movie? We had such a great time that we repeated it for the second Deathly Hallows movie (when, incidentally, we created this awesome recipe for Butterbeer Martinis).

For the Twilight movies, we had usually gone out to eat before seeing the movie, but another friend decided to host a dinner party featuring an Italiano menu for Breaking Dawn Part I. And next weekend, we're doing a potluck for The Hunger Games. I've been re-reading the book and taking note of all the foods and meals mentioned. Obviously, something called "The Hunger Games" is going to have a lot of food references.

And this all got me to thinking: How does food play a role in our favorite books? What books seem to emphasize food more than usual? Is it because of the plot or the characters or the author's attention to detail?

In my own books, Tristan and Alexis love to cook together (isn't a man who cooks sexy???), but, I've realized, food isn't as prominent in my books as I'd expect it to be. Or is it? Maybe I just don't see it as much as others do because I've seen my words so much. I could definitely do a dinner party for each book - in fact, the girls and I had a whole weekend of reading Promise/Purpose with food based on the story (back in the very early days when I didn't even know if it was something anyone would want to read, so I bribed them with food).

We had a Greek lunch, a Caribbean-flavored dinner (featuring mangoes and papayas) and a brunch consisting of characters' favorite foods and drinks. From our brunch:

 

If you've read my books, could you plan a dinner party with them? What would you serve? What other books can you think of that would be a good theme for a dinner party? Have you ever been in a book club where the food served went with the book being discussed? That would be my kind of book club!