Certain types of genre romance require that the characters eat certain kinds of foods; for example, Regency-set heroes and heroines are always noshing on tea cakes and ices from Gunther’s. If it’s in a traditional Regency, they go to Almack’s, where they have lobster patties and orgeat.
In contemporaries, the hero or heroine always has a couple of steaks in the fridge for when the other is over (who keeps steaks in the fridge without plans for them, by the way?).
In paranormal romance, food is either a human hindrance or a left-over indulgence from pre-PNR days. The Black Dagger Brotherhood, for example, frequently sits down to First Meal, where they chow down on sumptuous feasts prepared by Fritz and the other doggen (and of course they drink—Grey Goose vodka, usually).
Urban fantasy often finds the hero or heroine obsessed with a certain type of food; in Chloe Neill’s Chicagoland Vampire series, for example, Merit eats massive amounts of junk food, particularly Mallocakes.
What food preferences have you notice in your reading? Which of your favorite characters’ food would you like to try yourself?
