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'Eat Joy': Top Authors Serve Up Recipes That Gave Them Comfort In Dark Times

In a new book of essays, literary luminaries share stories of surviving dark times and the foods tied to those memories. Think of it as a cathartic dinner party. Meryl Rowin hide caption

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Meryl Rowin

The Salt

'Eat Joy': Top Authors Serve Up Recipes That Gave Them Comfort In Dark Times

In a new book of essays, writers such as Claire Messud and Edwidge Danticat share stories of surviving dark times and the foods entwined with those memories. Think of it as a cathartic dinner party.

Nobel Laureate Kazuo Ishiguro Once Wrote A Screenplay About Eating A Ghost

CANADA - OCTOBER 01: Author - Kazuo Ishiguro (Photo by Rick Eglinton/Toronto Star via Getty Images) Rick Eglinton/Toronto Star via Getty Images hide caption

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Rick Eglinton/Toronto Star via Getty Images

The Salt

Nobel Laureate Kazuo Ishiguro Once Wrote A Screenplay About Eating A Ghost

Written in the '80s, The Gourmet is an absurdist satire exploring the politics of food and the hedonistic culture of consumerism that treats it as a recreational drug. It's still strikingly relevant.

What If Willy Wonka Was Your Dad? Roald Dahl's Magical Parenting With Food

Children's book author Roald Dahl and his daughter Lucy. "Food was a huge part of our upbringing," Lucy Dahl says. Her father delighted his children with fanciful "midnight feasts" in the woods and often used mealtime to test out new characters from stories he was working on. Courtesy of Michael Faircloth hide caption

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Courtesy of Michael Faircloth

The Salt

What If Willy Wonka Was Your Dad? Roald Dahl's Magical Parenting With Food

Food played a big role in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Dahl's other books. His daughter remembers fanciful "midnight feasts" and says her father used mealtime to test out new characters.

You Can Eat It Here And There: Green Eggs And Ham Are Everywhere (On Menus)

Green eggs and ham is a dish at once familiar to many and yet mysterious — no one can say for sure what this meal would translate to as real, edible food. Mar'sel, a Los Angeles county restaurant inside the ocean-side resort Terranea, crafted a green eggs and ham Benedict with prosciutto and Californian touches like salsa verde hollandaise and avocado. Courtesy of Mar'sel hide caption

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Courtesy of Mar'sel

The Salt

You Can Eat It Here And There: Green Eggs And Ham Are Everywhere (On Menus)

The Dr. Seuss book that made the dish famous turns 56 this month. But what does this meal taste like in real life? Chefs across the U.S. are tackling the question.

In Shakespeare's Day, Hunger Tore Through England. His Plays Tell The Tale

An illustration depicts a scene from Shakespeare's Coriolanus, a play that opens with citizens armed with "staves, clubs, and other weapons" in protest against the city fathers they accuse of hoarding grain. In Shakespeare's day, food shortages tore through England — and the bard himself was fined for grain hoarding. Nicolas Poussin/Wikimedia Commons hide caption

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Nicolas Poussin/Wikimedia Commons

The Salt

In Shakespeare's Day, Hunger Tore Through England. His Plays Tell The Tale

Many food riots broke out during Shakespeare's era. Endless rain wiped out crops, and speculators profited (including the bard). The chaos and anxiety around food show up in some of his famous works.

Cooking With The Bard: We Suss Out Shakespeare's Forgotten Foods

The King Drinks, by the 17th century artist Jacob Jordaens, illustrates a feasting scene from William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. The Shakespearean larder teems with intriguing-sounding food. Culture Club/Getty Images hide caption

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Culture Club/Getty Images

The Salt

Cooking With The Bard: We Suss Out Shakespeare's Forgotten Foods

References to obscure foods abound in Shakespeare. Know your codlings from carbonadoes? Your umbles from jumbles? We crack open Renaissance cookbooks to figure out how to feast like the Bard.

50 Shades Of Shakespeare: How The Bard Used Food As Racy Code

The libertine Falstaff sits with a woman on his lap and a tankard in his hand in an illustrated scene from one of William Shakespeare's Henry IV plays. Kean Collection/Getty Images hide caption

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Kean Collection/Getty Images

The Salt

50 Shades Of Shakespeare: How The Bard Used Food As Racy Code

The eggplant and peach emoji are standard code for racy thoughts these days, but food has been used for sexual innuendo for centuries. Shakespeare was a pro. (Happy Shakespeare Week!)

'Lolita' And Lollipops: What Nabokov Had To Say About Nosh

Actress Sue Lyon eats a lollipop as Dolores "Lolita" Haze in a scene from Lolita, the 1962 film adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's novel. Nabokov made sumptuous use of food in his writing, and the acoustic affinity between Lolita and lollipops is no coincidence. MGM Studios/Archive Photos/Getty Images hide caption

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MGM Studios/Archive Photos/Getty Images

The Salt

'Lolita' And Lollipops: What Nabokov Had To Say About Nosh

Vladimir Nabokov was an indifferent eater, but his writing made sumptuous use of food. Fans will enjoy unearthing links between his fiction and private life in a new collection of letters to his wife.

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