The days leading up to February 14 are marked by a frantic frenzy to find foods that in turn lead to love — and declarations, expressions, and reaffirmations thereof.
When St Valentine sent out his famous epistle, he surely didn’t expect latter-day versions to be accompanied by red-hued, heart-shaped bonbons. Elizabeth Barrett counted all the ways she loved her sweetheart, but she did not include sweets, or sweetmeats. Thomas Hardy’s Bathsheba famously sent a valentine to a farmer, asking him to marry her, and not to dine with her. Food is neither factored in Cupid nor in Christianity associated with the legends of Valentine’s Day. But no one pays heed, even as everyone pays a fortune to feed their beloved. It is a heady plunge into the new philosophy that food makes love go around.
Those who play by the book may choose the ancient but still alluring aphrodisiac route — figs, asparagus, artichoke and avocado as standard fare, while hand-picked oysters and micro arugula mark the more ambitious. There are also the enticingly coloured combinations of cherries, strawberries, watermelons and pomegranates.
That old adage — the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach — holds good in many homes, where favourite dishes vie with comfort foods, and time-tested recipes declare the depth and height of love. And then there are timeless classics for romantic tables laden with roses — nuts and nibbles, pasta and steak, chocolate and candlelight.
Some sorts think there is no greater date delight than a meal where the menu is largely liquid in nature: starting off with a smart shot glass, moving on to perfectly paired goblets, and topped off with a sumptuous snifter. For them too, love gets consumed before it is consummated.
For everyone else who is in a pickle or a jam over what to serve, websites are agog with foods for the day. They range from magically fulsome to merely foolish.
— The author believes that any day can be Valentine’s Day — great food is to be made and shared every day, with large lashings of love.
