Book Description
Delectable Dishes in Hello! A Modern Love Story
Food plays a more prominent role in Hello! A Modern Love Story by EJourney (www.amazon.com/Hello-Modern-Love-Story-ebook/dp/B00FIDG12U/)
than it does in the 19th-century romance novels (notably Pride and Prejudice, North and South) which inform its characterization, style, and plot. Hello! is a tale of deep love that irrevocably binds two people after their unexpected encounter, before he weds someone else.
In 19th-century England, when people did not yet have movies, television, theme parks, and such to entertain them, the main source for pleasant distraction and socializing with others were dinners and balls (where food, of course, was often served). So, main protagonists of novels of the period often met, talked, flirted, and found themselves falling in love at a dinner or at a ball. Tea was also served quite often with little sandwiches and cakes. As important as such convivial occasions are in those novels, not much is devoted to describing the meals that are served. There is only one such reference in Pride and Prejudice.
As in P&P, dinners and dinner parties figure in the development of “attachment” between hero and heroine in Hello! For instance, she meets him at dinner in an Indian restaurant where she orders a plate of tandoori lamb and a glass of mango lassi. At a dinner to which he receives a spur-of-the-moment invitation, her mother serves Moroccan tagine.
A later dinner in a little village near Aix-en-Provence, to which the lovers are invited, includes roast and ratatouille baked in a 17th-century stone oven. At their wedding celebration, the piece de resistance is a sucking pig, roasted for hours to yield crispy skin.
A few other scenes involve food and drink to help define mood or setting, as well as activity. A middle chapter describes the heroine, tired and sleepy, dumping her uneaten falafel on her coffee table next to a folder of paperwork she has brought home.
A saying goes: We are what we eat, which is often interpreted in physical health terms. In Hello!, the food (international flavors) and drink the characters partake of offer a glimpse into what kind of people they are (open and exposed to things exotic or not too familiar to many Americans). They also serve to subtly situate where the story happens (a cosmopolitan city).