Food and literature

welsh dragon said:
It was more the bible in general I was thinking of rather than the instances of which there are quite a few.
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I think you will fid that as early as 1400BC food was written about in Chinese literature. And here is a quote from the Ancient Egyptian 'Tale of Sinhue' which dates from the early 20th century BC:
Loaves were made for me daily, and wine as daily fare, cooked meat, roast fowl, as well as desert game. For they snared for me and laid it before me, in addition to the catch of my hounds. Many sweets were made for me, and milk dishes of all kinds.
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There is a wonderful imaginary dinner in Tales from the Thousand and One Nights. In the Tale of Shakashik, the impoverished Shakashik seeks alms at a splendid mansion in Baghdad. An old man teases him by bringing out a whole series of imaginary dishes, making Shakashik even hungrier. Finally, the old man relents and tells Shakashik that nobody has ever shown such patience and proceeds to feed him with all of the real dishes.
 
If we are looking for ancient references, how about the Babylonian epic Gilgamesh, which dates from around 2000 BCE?

Gilgamesh encountered Siduri, Woman of the Vine, beside her house making wine for the gods. She urged him to live from day to day, taking pleasure in food, wine, and the love of wife and children, "for love was granted men as well as death."
 
In Jose Rizal's Noli Me Tangere the tinola (chicken soup) played a major part in the first chapter where the main characters sit down to have dinner. The guest of the house is given the seat at the head of the table but he get's the chicken's neck which is the worst part of the meal but ofcourse he takes offense at it but the host couldn't tell. The novel is wrapped in all this micro-aggression, social diaspora and political dialogue which is at times part funny and dramatic. Great novel.
 
Duck59 said:
If we are looking for ancient references, how about the Babylonian epic Gilgamesh, which dates from around 2000 BCE?

Gilgamesh encountered Siduri, Woman of the Vine, beside her house making wine for the gods. She urged him to live from day to day, taking pleasure in food, wine, and the love of wife and children, "for love was granted men as well as death."
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Eve giving Adam an apple, be hard to get anything older than that.
 
I suppose that Dickens' most famous food scene is where Oliver Twist asks for more, but in The Pickwick Papers, the Pickwickians and their associates are forever stuffing their faces with all manner of food and drink.
 
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