For a light midweek snack, I share the following list of culinary titles that Helen Rosner, Liz Liedel, Mia Cabana, Laurel Damashek, Kat Rickenbacker, and Jim Basili offer up on their blog The Hairpin. (Thanks to my colleague Barrett Emerick for directing me to it.)
The list works also as a quiz, and while many of the works are obvious, not all of them are. I’ve come up with what I think are the original titles (you can find them after the break). Try your own hand at it. For bonus points, name the author:
A Midsummer Night’s Cream
The Flaming of the Stew
Troilus and Crescent Rolls
Julius Caesar Salad
Mac-and-cheese-beth
Ham-and-cheese-let
Rye and Prejudice
Ketchup in the Rye
To Grill a Mockingbird
Cod, It’s Me Margaret
Gravity’s Turbot
Lard of the Fries
Lard of the Onion Rings
Harry Pot Pie and the Sorcerer’s Stoneground Mustard
The Ground and the Curry
The Bun Also Rises
Huckleberry Gin
The Grape Fatty
Groats From the Underground
Fiddleheadmarch
Love in the Time of Cauliflower
King Beer
The Fed and the Blackened
Banana Karenina
The Book of Verjus
The Perch of Lost Lime
A Tale of Two Zitis
War and Peas
The Velveeta Rabbit
Ethan Fromage
The Tart of War
The Cake’s Progress
Spamela
If on a Winter’s Night a Waiter
Watercress Down
The Gizzard of Oz
The Fiddlehead
The Red Batch of Porridge
Lime and Punishment
Blueberry Finn
Brideshead Refried
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Soused
Tropic of Cornichon
The Fridges of Madison County
Seven Fries for Seven Brothers
Little House on the Dairy
Anne of Green Vegetables
Sophie’s Choice Cut Prime Rib
The Balsamic Verses
Nancy Drool
The Phantom of the Pasta
Foodie and the Feast
Of Rice and Men
The original titles are after the break:
Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare)
Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare)
Troilus and Cressida (Shakespeare)
Julius Caesar (Shakespeare)
Macbeth (Shakespeare)
Hamlet (Shakespeare)
Pride and Prejudice (Austen)
Catcher in the Rye (Salinger)
To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee)
Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret (Blume)
Gravity’s Rainbow (Pynchon)
Lord of the Flies (Golding)
Lord of the Rings (Tolkien)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Rawling)
The Sound and the Fury (Faulkner)
The Sun Also Rises (Hemingway)
Huckleberry Finn (Twain)
The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
Notes from the Underground (Dostoevsky)
Middlemarch (Eliot)
Love in the Time of Cholera (Garcia Marquez)
King Lear (Shakespeare)
The Red and the Black (Stendahl)
Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
The Book of Virtues (Bennett—what’s this doing on the list?)
In Search of Lost Time (Proust)
A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
War and Peace (Tolstoy)
The Velveteen Rabbit (Williams)
Ethan Frome (Wharton)
The Art of War (Sun Tzu)
The Rake’s Progress (Hogarth)
Pamela (Richardson)
If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler (Calvino)
Watership Down (Adams)
The Wizard of Oz (Baum)
The Fountainhead (Rand)
The Red Badge of Courage (Crane)
Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky)
Huckleberry Finn (Twain)
Brideshead Revisited (Waugh)
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Foer)
Tropic of Capricorn (Miller)
The Bridges of Madison County (Waller)
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (film, Stanley Donen)
Little House on the Prairie (Wilder)
Anne of Green Gables (Montgomery)
Sophie’s Choice (Styron)
Satanic Verses (Rushdie)
Nancy Drew (Keene)
The Phantom of the Paradise (I don’t see a pun here)
Beauty and the Beast
Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck)
5 Comments
Banana Karenina! I laugh every time I think of it…:)
I agree with Rachel that Banana Karenina is the highlight of the list, with A Tale of Two Zitis coming in right behind it for me.
My canon-respecting self is more offended by the Waller title than the Bennett, although I laughed to see your parenthetical opposition, Robin. It would be an easy emendation to switch the former over to Boulle’s superior Fridge Over The River Kwai. Kaye Gibbons’ fine novel A Virtuous Woman could pick up the verjus pun, which I enjoyed very much (the pun…and the novel).
Thanks for the pleasant light fare!
I agree with your canon-respecting self, Carl. Fridge over the River Kwai is inspired, as is Virtuous Woman.
Speaking of food puns, I remember reading Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” in high school and imagining a gigantic cabbage when I encountered the following line:
“Our vegetable love would grow
Vaster than empires and more slow.”
The Marvell is truly (in the spirit of your original post) marvellous. I especially enjoyed hearing it read aloud by a British actor, who was careful to pronounce “vegetable” in all its polysyllabic musicality — VE-je-ta-bull — instead of the usual slurred-American form — VEJ-ta-bull. Made a lovely little bit of difference!
Mr. Bates,
lol, I love this, truly made my morning…
Now I think I’ll go, and have some King size David, Edgar Allan Pie, that ol’ Henry David cook’d Thoreau, what a slice. lol
Good Day…
A better one, lol