Worlds of Tastes {1}

Worlds of Taste

Food in the world of Francesca Lia Block

Part One :: Echo 
(Francesca Lia Block, 2001)

"her fruit trees bear lemons that taste like oranges and oranges the size of grapefruits." [2]

"She makes tamale pies, spinach lasagnas, Indian saffron curries, coconut and mint Thai noodles, grilled salmon tacos with mango salsa, persimmon bread puddings and lemon-raspberry pies, each one in minutes and without ever glancing at a recipe.

She can never duplicate a dish twice since she doesn't write anything down and is always too excited about what she will make next, so my father and I are sometimes left pining for a reenactment of the almond enchiladas or the garlic-tomato tart." [5]

"cakes so delectable as to be almost hallucinogenic-" [6]

"She is his unprecedented blossom, his chocolate-cherry-swirl birthday cake..." [8]

"She made brown rice and tofu and miso soup from a golden paste." [17]

"i went to all-night fast-food stands and ate burritos in my car in big gulps, squishing the beans and cheese out of the flour tortilla." [21]

"Sometimes instead of burritos I ate powdered sugar donuts with colored sprinkles. The powdered sugar cut and stung my mouth. The sprinkles reminded me of the lights of the city, shiny and sugary and fake and promising and nothing.

That summer tasted like a powdered sugar donut stinging my mouth." [21-22]

"He smelled of sea and salt and blueberries. I wondered if he tasted that way. My mouth tasted of blueberries when I was with him." [36]

"I attempted to make sweet green corn tamales but they hardened and stuck to the corn husk so I brought him cheese and apples instead." [36]

"She picked oranges and avocados when she was hungry..." [48]

"taught her about curries, the aphrodisiac properties of certain spices and how to make a mango yogurt concoction that was refreshing on the most burning days..." [50]

"his mother's secret recipe for risotto that shone in the dark." [51]

"window boxes of herbs and tiny vegetables." [54]

"She was sipping root beer in a state of bliss." [57]

"All summer we had looked out at the fruit-heavy plum tree and the honeysuckle vines..." [60]

"slurping coffee from huge cut-glass goblets..." [63]

"...all the Sunday croissants that soaked buttery stains through the napkins, the Kahlua and milks,..." [69]

"...I had dreams of chocolate cakes ascending stairs and smothering me in my my sleep." [71]

"I wanted Thorn to take me out to dinner and order brown rice and vegetables and white wine." [74]

"We built a fire in the shivery living room and ate our pasta in front of it." [79]

"...then they ate chocolates and kissed for hours..." [91]

"They had eaten curry and samosas at a restaurant shaped like a camera..." [94]

"...had a part at his glass house in the hills...champagne, sushi, coke." [104]

"...what if Smoke and I had made love, slept in, gone out for pancakes, walked in the hills..." [109]

"I bought some carrot juice and avocado sandwiches from the health food market..." [112]

"I picked some flowers from the garden and made green tea and lit candles." [113]

"Nothing to go home to except the canned soups and crackers she had started eating, the bottles of gin." [117]

"I made myself a salad for dinner and drank mineral water with lime." [132]

"'I live on fish and brown rice and vegetables..." [136]

"We ordered and the waiter brought carrot juice, miso soup, cold cold salads with grated vegetables, a basket of corn bread." [138]

""'Fish is the perfect food.' He squeezed a lemon slice, lifted a pink segment of salmon with his chopsticks. 'But he eats steak, too,' Nina said. 'Really bloody.'" [139]

"lick nonfat frozen yogurt, get our fortunes told..." [140]

"...we went out for sushi and sake. Mark ordered for us and we tried all different kinds of fish- translucent, firm, glossy pieces on neat beds of rice. Mark and Nina had a contest to see who could handle the most wasabi. They gobbed the pale green stuff into their mouths until their eyes teared. We laughed, sipping the rice wine that seemed to shine in our throats." [141]

"impossible to eat anything except a light vegetable broth. But I thought about food all the time. Muscles and bones and blood pleading: steak, sweet potatoes, buttery corn-on-the-cob quarts of vanilla-bean ice cream, pizza, pancakes, grilled pink salmon steaks." [148]

"Skye took a roll from under white linen, cracked the gold crust, buttered the soft inside, handed it to me over the red candle. My stomach was better. He ordered angel hair pasta for us." [153]

"Skye's hair smelled of smoke, corn bread and leaves." [154]

"We made chicken soup and potato latkes with apple sauce and sour cream. We made a large green salad and a side dish of peas, carrots, and pearl onions. Chocolate macaroons." [191]

"The book was full of mixed-up world cuisine-- Japanese burritos with fresh seared tuna, sweet rice and wasabi; Greek pasta with olives, tomatoes and feta cheese; Jewish pizza with smoked salmon and cream cheese." [192]

"I moved into the tiny room with the thirteen cats and got a job as a waitress serving blue corn tamales and kiwi margaritas at a Caribbean restaurant/gallery decorated with alters of roses and candles..." [195]

"I had taken myself to dinner at a Thai restaurant decorated in purple silk where they served rose petals in the salad, chunks of tofu with jasmine rice, hunks of sugared ginger, mangoes in coconut milk." [200]


~*~