Thursday February 8, 2007 // By Sandy
Citizen punography
It’s mid-February, which means it’s time again to put on our wordsmith’s caps, and then our toques, and start thinking of the best movie-related foods for our annual Oscar-watching party. The crop from the last two years was so good, I’m worried about our abilities to match it. Add to that the fact that despite our best efforts, we’re always shown up by our brilliant friends, and it’s clear to me that it’s time to make the brainstorming a public affair. We need your help.
We’re looking for the best movie-related foods for Oscar-nominated films. The relation can be as tenuous as you need it to be; what’s important here is that it’s clever. It can be a food featured in the film (see Volver), a food that’s related to the setting of the movie (see The Queen), or simply a play on the movie’s title, theme or nominated actor (pretty much everything else). We’ve got a starting list, some of which are good, but some which I feel deserve better:
- The Queen: Crumpets and Yorkshire pudding
- Little Miss Sunshine: Fried chicken
- The Departed: Ratatouille
- Pan’s Labyrinth: Cornbread (Pan de maize)
- Volver: Mojitos
- Devil Wears Prada: Devil’s food cake
- Last Kind of Scotland: Scotch eggs
- Borat: Teabags
- Marie Antoinette: Cake
- Jesus Camp: Wine
- Children of Men: Something without eggs
- An Inconvenient Truth: Water, with little ice
- Water: Samosas
And there are still many movies that remain untapped. There’s Babel and Letters from Iwo Jima, the two Best Picture nominees I haven’t seen yet, and so don’t have a good entry for. Plus a bunch more, mostly from the acting categories, that I’m sure are ripe for the plucking. Here they are:
- Babel: ?
- Letters from Iwo Jima: ?
- United 93: ?
- Venus: ?
- Pursuit of Happyness: ?
- Blood Diamond: ?
- Half Nelson: ?
- Little Children: ?
- Dreamgirls: ?
- Notes on a Scandal: ?
- Cars: ?
Care to help us out? Post suggestions — for any movie in either list, or any movie still left in the list of nominees — in the comments. If yours is chosen, you’ll be thanked on the ID card next to the dish on Oscar night.
Ooh, just thought of another one:
* Dreamgirls: Pizza Supreme
United 93: peanuts or tvdinners?
Pursuit of Happyness: Cheese!
Also, for Pan’s Labyrinth, you should have grapes, but not let anybody eat them. If they do, kill them!
Cars: Foster’s oil can beer
black forest (whitaker) cake…
beef tongues (for babel)...
a big ball of tripe (little miss sunshine).
Blood sausage for “Blood Diamond,” duh.
A Rubik’s Cube plays a pivotal role in “The Pursuit of Happyness,” so how about cheese cubes? Or the ice cubes that you’re not using for the water from “An Inconvenient Truth.”
I would go with Sunshine brand Cheez-It crackers for “Little Miss Sunshine.”
Because of the departure time of “United 93,” instead of peanuts, those “breakfast biscuits” that they serve instead on morning flights would be more appropriate, assuming such a thing exists outside of the world of aviation.
For The Departed, mostly because i want to eat it (not because it’s particularly clever): Boston Cream Pie.
Labyrinthine (well, chocolate with lots of goodies—nuts and dried fruit—secreted within) Panforte?
Dreamsicle Pie?
For The Devil Wears Prada:
a trifle conspicuously saturated with Starbucks coffee.
for babel: a miso tamale tangine. it would be both confusing and difficult to digest.