Riddle me this:

 If broccoli is the new kale . . . 






and 50 is the new 30 . . .  

and teff (an Ethiopian grain) is the new quinoa  . . . 

and "Orange is the New Black" . . . 

Then, _________________ (in your opinion) is the new ___________________?

Get the picture?

Fictitious Dishes

Some of my favorite book scenes involve characters sitting down to a meal.  Remember Leopold Bloom’s kidney breakfast in James Joyce’s Ulysses?  Or how about Esther Greenwood’s famous crab stuffed avocado lunch in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar?  Don’t get me started on all of the apple pie, ice cream, and coffee in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, or the decadent party bites featured in F. Scott Fitzgerals’s The Great Gatsby. 

Dinah Fried put together a spectacular book, Fictitious Dishes:  An Album of Literature’s Most Memorable Meals (HarperCollins), showcasing her own photos based on said famous meals.  Fried, a designer, art director, and graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, has done a glorious job of visually representing these fictitious meals.  Check out the book’s website and pick your favorite among the sample photos displayed on her page.  Better yet, order the book as part of your coffee table collection.

My favorite?  At least today, I’m salivating over Holden Caulfield’s (The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger) grilled cheese and malted milk lunch – well, mostly the malted milk.  What about you?

Click here to check out photos of some fictitious dishes!  

For the Artsy Foodie

Talk about making you want to eat your vegetables (and fruit).  Vegan photographer Amber Locke uses her artistry to celebrate her passion for healthful eating.  She captures the natural beauty of vegetables and fruits in her stunning limited-edition prints.  This print, in particular, captured my fancy – violet and white kale, papaya, limes, passion fruit, pomegranate, clementines, black cherries, strawberries, kumquats, and cucumber.  I may just serve you such a concoction if you come over soon for lunch (although I certainly don’t promise to make it look this pretty).   Take a peek at some of her other offerings on her blog (www.ambaliving.com) and see what might inspire you.  From artichokes to zucchini, Locke has a visual feast for every taste. 

Happy 2015!