Reading descriptions of food in books is maybe one of my favourite things. I often read the descriptions two or three times, imagining how the combinations work and comparing the food to what I’m already familiar with.
Recently I read a food description in Ethan Frome that was among the most unusual I’ve seen:
She set the lamp on the table, and he saw that it was carefully laid for supper, with fresh doughnuts, stewed blueberries and his favourite pickles in a dish of gay red glass.
I read this on the bus and put the book on my lap and looked out the window, thinking about it. Donuts, blueberries, and pickles. Yes, the donuts were likely plain cake or yeast donuts and not the glazed and sprinkled things we think of now, but it still sounds so odd.
And I kind of want to try it.
That’s interesting because it makes me wonder what our familiar foods really used to be 50 or 100 years ago (at least for the traditional ones, which already existed at the time). What were the first pizza like for example? Doughnuts are not really a part of the French table but I’d like to try one of these nonetheless. Somehow it sounds better than the modern kind.
It was so strange to read about them as part of dinner instead of as a treat for dessert. I wonder if, back when this book was set, they were more of a substitute for a bread product. Or maybe it was even weird back then, who knows? I want to find out!
An unfamiliar combination, and I kind of want to try it too. ;)
If you do, let me know how it is!