Written Meals

[sunstruckdream]

We all love them...food scenes. A well-written one can make you drool on your laptop. My question: how do you go about them? Do you like lots of detail, flavor and taste description, or do you prefer to just say what's being eaten and skim over it? Clearly it has to be appropriate to the story and the moment, but how long do you linger over your written meals? If you'd like to post any of your examples, that's more than welcome.

Personally, unless it's for a special occasion in the story, I just say what the meal is and get on with it. Sometimes I do more - I have a scene with my character gorging on a piece of fruit, and I go into immense, juicy detail with it, because a few moments later she gets to throw it all up, which has a hand in altering the course of the story.

So yeah. That's me. What's your favorite kind of written meal?

 

[Lessien]

I usually don't spend a lot of time on meals. If it's a special occasion, I'll say what's being eaten and maybe describe the smells and a few tastes. I'll describe what it looks like and how the characters react to it, then move on with the story. If it's not a special occasion, I'll just say what's eaten, whether or not the character likes it, and then move on. No point in lingering over a meal and slowing down the story. (You get that, Mr. Paolini?)

 

[Ubik]

I've never really written a real detailed meal scene. However I know a perfect oppurtunity for one in my book!

 

[Tariel]

I usually don't spend a lot of time on meals. If it's a special occasion, I'll say what's being eaten and maybe describe the smells and a few tastes. I'll describe what it looks like and how the characters react to it, then move on with the story. If it's not a special occasion, I'll just say what's eaten, whether or not the character likes it, and then move on. No point in lingering over a meal and slowing down the story. (You get that, Mr. Paolini?)

lol

My characters don't each much, really, especially not during the story. Generally stuff just happens "after breakfast" or other meals, or things like that.

 

[Paladin Dave]

I do it now and then. Usually it's a werewolf or some such creature devouring a fresh kill, but... wait... no, I actually did more scenes of characters enjoying feasts after long journeys, and one of a female character enjoying some cherry pie on a rainy, lonely afternoon, at that time of the month. I don't normally focus on the bad aspects of the food if I go into detail to describe it, mostly because they're usually REALLY hungry. *shrug*