Food in Crime Fiction

JULIA POMEROY: Rosemary Harris invited me to post today, so I'm going to use this forum to ask for your help. It's not a writing problem, it's a panel problem. I'm going to be on a panel in New York, in a few days, called Murder Most Fowl, about food and crime fiction. It's during the Roger Smith cookbook conference, so were not talking about casual mention of food.

I'm not going to list authors who's books are centered on food or recipes because Katherine Hall Page is on the panel and her character is a caterer and she includes recipes, so she'll know much more than I do about the lighter genre. (The character in my first two books, Abby Silvernale, worked in a restaurant - that's my connection).

 

Rosemary: Don't be so modest - you also used to OWN a restaurant, the cool one pictured here.

 

JULIA POMEROY: What I'm really interested in is what the protagonists we love eat, while they solve or commit crimes and what that food, or their attitude toward it, says about them.

Jack Reacher, all six foot  six or whatever he is, goes to diners, or places like Denny's. Perfect for Reacher. He's a big piece of machinery, doesn't care about fancy trappings, needs someplace roadside, walks a lot, fights a lot, etc. It's all about fuel and calories.

In A Dark Adapted Eye, by Ruth Rendell writing as Barbara Vine, the narrator describes a meal  for nine people prepared during rationing, meant to impress one particular man who never showed up. The meal required the slaughter of two household rabbits and the use of most of their garden vegetables. The entire group waited forever for the guest of honor to show up, and when they finally ate, everything was dried out and ruined.

 

Are there any meals your favorite protagonists or villains have eaten that help you understand them better, or that underline the scene at hand, or move the action forward in any way?

 

ROSEMARY: I was lucky enough to get an advanced readering copy of Julia's terrific new book, No Safe Ground - and she's got another for one of our commenters. It's a chilling, fast-paced story of an Afgan vet on the run in the US because of something she saw...

Visit Julia's website  www.juliapomeroy.com

to learn more about No Safe Ground AND the ereader versions of the Abby Silvernale books!

Pancakes Make People Happy!

ROSEMARY HARRIS: Back in the 80's there was a restaurant in NYC called Pancakes Make People Happy.
In celebration of National Pancake Day (yes, there is a national day for everything) we're going to put aside nutritional and caloric concerns and indulge ourselves today!
I'd probably denied myself for years before a visit to one of my favorite restaurants changed everything. Some of you may know that The Lakeside Diner in Stamford, CT gets my vote for one of the top ten places to eat in Fairfield County.  (It's also the inspiration for the Paradise Diner in the Dirty Business books.)

The owner, Jane, and Lizandra and the other waitresses have welcomed me and we've all been featured numerous times in local papers about Mysterious Doings in our town. It's all great fun and I've even had a few Coffee and Crime events there. But I feared I was disappointing them with a steady diet of two eggs, scrambled well, sliced tomatoes instead of potatoes. Where's the fun in that? Hubby is chowing down on the Lakeside Special (a little bit of just about every breakfast food) AND a donut and I'm left wondering what's wrong with this picture?

One day a diner at a nearby table ordered something that made my standard meal seem as appealing as a bowl of cold gruel -- Jane's Red, White and Blue Pancakes. Frisbee-sized  pancakes covered with a mountain of sliced strawberries and blueberries and topped with a dusting of powdered sugar. Whipped cream optional. It was enough to make me want to fling my eggs into the lake.

HALLIE EPHRON: Ah, breakfast, one of my favorite topics.
For me it's waffles, not pancakes. And they've got to be homemade (Bisquick), hot off the griddle, really crisp, with unsalted butter and real maple syrup. It doesn't get much better than that.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Um. I love breakfast, too, but I don't like pancakes. I think they're gluey and taste like paste. The THEORY of pancakes is good, and the theory of waffles, too. But I'm not...drawn to them.  Scrambled eggs with cheese and bacon? Yes, ma'am, yummeroo. Or just the bacon. I LOVE BACON. Just saying.
I also make gallettes--which is oat bran, eggwhites and lemon yogurt, fried like a pancake. DELISH, topped with lemon yogurt and raspberries.

RHYS BOWEN: Ah yes, pancake day. We celebrate it in Britain. Growing up my mom would make pancakes every Shrove Tuesday (or Mardi Gras as it's known most places. It was supposedly to use up the sinful things you couldn't eat in Lent)
Now my husband has become famous for Bapa's crepes in our family. He makes them whenever the grandkids stay over. Thin, thin crepes made with lots of butter. I often stuff them with strawberries then drizzle with maple syrup and a dob of whipped cream. Heaven. And Hank, I love bacon too. We treat ourselves every Sunday to a full English breakfast,but not the fried bread--that's bread fried in the bacon fat--too much cholesterol suicide!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Ross is the Pancake King in our house, and, especially in the summer, we often have a veritable pancake buffet: chocolate chip, strawberry, blueberry or plain. I like mine Maine style: blueberry with real maple syrup. Best Maine breakfasts I've ever had are at Jordan's Restaurant in Bar Harbor. Everything you can imagine in Wild Maine Blueberry and portions big enough -- well, big enough to satisfy teenagers. http://www.jordanswildblueberry.com
Rhys, my church is doing a Shrove Tuesday pancake supper next week. That, and our every-other-month pancake breakfasts, are fundraisers for the youth group. We always get a big turnout, which leads me to suspect that most people LIKE pancakes; they're just intimidated about cooking them at home.

LUCY BURDETTE: If I'm going to order pancakes, I like them to be buckwheat blueberry with real maple syrup. But my sister makes a wonderful pancake with cottage cheese and nuts, topped with plain yogurt and maple syrup. It tastes much better than it might sound. In fact I'm going to make some for dinner this week:). thanks for the idea Ro!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I love waffles and pancakes. For the waffles I usually use Arrowhead Mills Multi-grain Pancake Mix, but pancakes I make from scratch, with whole wheat flour and buttermilk (recipe from my old Laurel's Kitchen book.) I don't like white-flour pancakes; I agree with Hank that they taste like glue. In the summer I put fresh blueberries in my pancakes (Rick doesn't like them. I ask you, how can anyone NOT like blueberry pancakes?) and I use unsalted butter and real maple syrup.

But our most frequent Sunday breakfast is French toast. It's a great way to use up the week's leftover whole wheat or multi-grain bread, and I use a recipe I found in Gourmet about thirty years ago. The original recipe called for eggs mixed with equal proportions cream and orange juice. I use milk instead of cream, but add a bit of half-and-half. But the real secret is the dash of Grand Marnier.  And yes, we have bacon a couple of Sundays a month, but I try to do organic.  And now I'm hungry...

ROSEMARY: They are not something I order every week, but dang if they don't MAKE ME HAPPY! So 'fess up. Do you have a favorite pancake dish? One you make or order out? Cranberries? Chocolate chips? Navaho pancakes? What's your pleasure?

(Come back tomorrow when our guest blogger will be Julia Pomeroy, author of No Safe Ground, a cracking good mystery about an Afgan vet who comes home to the US with hazy memories of a crime - or was it?)

He Said, She Said......

ROSEMARY HARRIS: It started with her texts. Followed by his call. Clearly the couple was in trouble.

I’d known the man for decades, the woman for the 10-12 years that they’d been partners. Something was up and it wasn’t good.
Although the man and I were childhood (teenhood?) friends we’d never shared the intimate details – good or bad – of our relationships. It was beers at bbqs, punch at holiday parties and the annual kayaking or x-country skiing outing. We’d welcomed the new love interests, celebrated triumphs and bucked each other up over setbacks in an arm-punching, buddy-like fashion.
In many ways maintaining a friendship with a man is easier than with a woman. The absence of a sexual relationship takes the pressure off. (Unlike the Billy Crystal character in When Harry Met Sally I do think that men and women can be friends.) And there aren’t the unconscious (or conscious) comparisons..boyfriends, jobs, husbands, houses, dress sizes….

I tried to be as supportive as possible during the texting phase (her side of the story) AND during the long, uncomfortable phone call (his side.) But the dialogue was ratcheting up. Other friends were taking sides. Perhaps unsurprisingly all the males were on his side and all the females on hers. I felt like the swing vote.

Interestingly enough, the woman admits to behaving badly. Not to be too mysterious about it, it was not infidelity, it was a shopping addiction that resulted in massive credit card debt. But either would be a betrayal of trust. This one is just going to take years to get over even if they do split up.
I know they may get back together, in fact, I’m rooting for it. But staying neutral has been hard. And it’s made me feel like I’m not being a good friend by not revealing my true feelings.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: AH, taking sides. IMPOSSIBLE. Someone always gets the friends. It is so difficult. I try try try to stay out of it, you know? I try to --listen. Just listen. But people always say: "Aren't I right? Don't you agree?" As if they're accumulating ammunition. Which they are. And it blows up in everyone's face.

A shopping addiction? I think--Hank answer here, but a real one--it depends. Could be medication-needed manic behavior. Could be psychological-treatment-needed behavior that's filling an emotional need. I mean--she's lying, hiding behavior, got to be feeling guilty, putting something SHE wants over what her family needs. Hope she's in therapy.

LUCY BURDETTE: Hear, hear Hank on your interpretation of shopping addiction. If it's gotten to the point of massive credit card debt, best to consult a professional to help understand WTF happened!

I think Ann Landers had a Q and A about taking sides sometime this past week. A person in pain should have a friend or two who aren't neutral. Who can say, you're right, she/he did you wrong. But if there's a chance the two might get together again, how about saying exactly what you said Ro? "I'm rooting for you guys to get back together. I hear you're mad and hurt but I'm uncomfortable taking sides"--or something like that.

ROSEMARY: I guess the woman has always been the "and one" for me. Is that horrible to say? And I have a hard time thinking of a shopping addiction as a serious ailment or condition.
I told her she needed to get help and I would help her try to find substitutes for the shopping (which she says is the only thing that makes her feel good about her life.) And I told him if he loved her and wants to spend the rest of his life with her, that he had to forgive her. They'd have to work together to get out of this incredible hole though and she seems to think "he's the man, it's his fault I did it, so let him fix it."

HALLIE EPHRON: I'm not a big confider or confidee, I confess(!). But I'm fiercely loyal to my friends. Individuals. Not in pairs.
But I try not to badmouth a friend's jerky boyfriend/partner because honesty is not really what the friend is looking for. Learned the hard way: I once lost a dear friend who asked me if I disliked her husband and I told her the truth.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Oh, that's so right. When someone is in the throes of the relationship, anything you say can and will be used against you. Someone very dear to me was involved with a horrible jerk at her college. I mean, this guy was an inch shy of being outright abusive. All the people who loved her could do was remind her over and over that she was good, smart, pretty, and loveable. Did it give her enough sense of self to dump him? Dunno. They did break up, after she left the state for a job, and THEN we all told her what he thought about him.
Ro, I'd think that if shopping is "the only thing" that makes your friend feel good about her life, she needs professional help, pronto. That's not someone with poor money management skills or a lust for designer clothing. That sounds...broken.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Oh, I hate these things. I try for the "You have to do what's best for you," approach, because you cannot bad mouth a friend's partner without it coming back to bite you. Even if, like Julia's friend, they eventually dump the partner and you think NOW I can say what I really thought, they might get back together. Even after a divorce. And I've seldom come across a break-up (unless there was abuse involved) where it was strictly one partner's fault.

I should qualify the above by saying the one exception to the "neutral but supportive" position is a situation where there is physical abuse. Then you have to say what you think, regardless of the consequences, even if it ruins your friendship.

On the shopping addiction, I'm with Julia. It may not be a chemical addiction like drugs or alcohol, but there is something seriously wrong and this woman needs professional help.

ROSEMARY: So Red readers, please weigh in. Is it ever a good thing to get involved in this kind of conflict? Also, do you think a shopping addiction is a real disease or is it just an explanation for irresponsible spending?