Engrossing works of fiction inspire all manner of reader reactions.
But hunger? That’s a surprisingly common takeaway for obsessed fans of
George R.R. Martin’s best-selling series, “A Song of Ice and Fire,’’ the
fifth book of which, “A Dance With Dragons,’’ hit shelves this summer
after HBO’s adaptation of the first book, “Game of Thrones.’’
Millions of readers around the world have been devouring the epic fantasy phenomenon — some more literally than others.
Chelsea
Monroe-Cassel and Sariann Lehrer, two women who met by chance when they
became roommates in Allston last year, were so inspired by Martin’s
descriptions of the food in his realm of knights, lords, dragons, and
meat pies, they decided to create the dishes themselves. That includes
pigeon pie, potted hare, even honeyed locusts.
The result is the blog Inn at the Crossroads
(www.innatthecrossroads.com), launched in March, where the two have been
detailing their attempt to cook almost every meal mentioned in the
series. The blog has gotten so popular that its authors just landed a
book deal with Random House’s Bantam Books, which publishes Martin’s
series. “A Feast of Ice and Fire’’ will be come out next September.
The
food blog-to-book project is reminiscent of Julie Powell’s “Julie and
Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen,’’ which
chronicled her experience cooking her way through the first volume of
Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.’’ There are a few
glaring differences, though. Monroe-Cassel and Lehrer have had to dream
up their own recipes, as there are none in Martin’s books. Also, there’s
a dearth of dragons in Child’s oeuvre.
“It all happened very
quickly,’’ says Lehrer, 25, a personal assistant at an investment
banking firm. “We’re a little blown away by it but very excited.’’ She
began reading the series earlier this year after Monroe-Cassel, 26, a
longtime fan, recommended it to her and their four other roommates.
“I
was a very quick fan of the books,’’ says Monroe-Cassel, who’s now
focusing full time on the cookbook. She began reading them about seven
years ago. The first book, “A Game of Thrones,’’ came out in 1996.
“I
think like a lot of people I started reading the first book and
thought, ‘I know how this is going to go, typical fantasy story.’ You
get to, like, Page 50 or something and Martin throws the first monkey
wrench in there and breaks the rules. That’s when I was really hooked.’’
Lehrer grew up reading fantasy books, but “then I kind of got out of
it,’’ she says. “It’s weird that this is fantasy because it’s not like
typical magical fantasy. I think the story lines are a lot more in depth
than a lot of fantasy novels, and the characters are more
well-developed.’’
That may be why fans have become so invested in the characters. And their eating habits.
“I
was tickled by it. It seemed like a fun idea,’’ Martin says by phone,
of the Inn at the Crossroads blog. “There had been other people that had
written to me over the years that said they were trying to cook some
dishes from the [books], but the two women from the Inn at the
Crossroads are the ones who really took up the ball and ran with it and
began cooking all the dishes. But I had to warn them right away that
they shouldn’t cook all the dishes.’’
Like the seagull, he says. Or peacocks served in their plumage. Or rat on a stick.
Obviously
grotesque options aside, Lehrer says she is not very squeamish about
most of the dishes they’ve whipped up. She’s even looking forward to
making eel pie. “There’s pretty much nothing that I won’t eat,’’ she
says. “I’m the one that’s going to be making the lamprey pie when my
lampreys arrive.’’
Monroe-Cassel, on the other hand, says that
while there are a few things she does not want to try (jellied calves’
brains), they draw the line, of course, at ingredients that are hard or
illegal to acquire, such as horse meat. (Nor would they ever attempt to
cook camel, dog, or heron. Blech.) But a lot of simply exotic fare
doesn’t scare them off. Honey-spiced locusts, for example.
“We
used crickets, figuring it was pretty close,’’ Monroe-Cassel says. “They
were actually very good. A little nutty, very crunchy.’’
It’s
been a steep learning curve for two people with no formal background in
cooking. “All I know is what my mama taught me,’’ Lehrer says. That was a
mix of old Jewish recipes, French-Canadian fare, and traditional New
England dishes.
Martin himself is even less skilled in the kitchen. He says all of the food references in the series serve a literary function.
“I
do describe [the food so thoroughly] in the books, because it’s part of
my general philosophy as a writer,’’ he says. “I really want to put my
reader in a story, want them to experience it. It’s a much more vivid
sensory input, the smells, tastes, and sounds of a story that make the
story come alive.’’
The dishes are not all arcane. Recipes for corn fritters, rustic
breads, baked venison, and seafood stew are also on the blog. The first
recipe the roommates attempted was the iconic lemon cake, often
associated with the romantic character Sansa Stark. The cakes’
importance in the book goes beyond nourishment, the cooks say. They
serve as a literary device.
“I think in the books they’re
representative of Sansa’s naivete,’’ Monroe-Cassel says. “There’s a
moment where [her sister, the defiant] Arya is out on the streets of
King’s Landing in Book 1. She’s dirty and on the run and she sees a tray
full of tarts and lemon cakes. She wants one, and it’s kind of a
longing for her previous life that’s clearly gone now.’’
Roy Kamada, assistant professor in the Writing, Literature and
Publishing department at Emerson College, says cooking the dishes
described in a book series is another way for readers to bring the books
they adore to life. He compares it to people who journey to
Stratford-Upon-Avon for Shakespeare festivals, or take tours of
Dickens’s England, or learn to speak Elvish.
“When you read, you
ingest the language and the world of the author,’’ Kamada says. “But to
literalize it like this is a particularly powerful way of bringing a
book into your world.’’
Cheryl Apicella, 31, of New York, heartily agrees.
“While
reading the book, I’d always wished I could make the tasty-sounding
food described in it,“ says Apicella. “I’ve been possibly [the blog’s]
biggest fan ever since and cook meals for my family from it regularly. I
was always surprised that it took this long for a site like this to
happen.’’
Loving both the books and to cook was not enough to get
the blog started. It required much research by Monroe-Cassel and Lehrer.
While “A Song of Ice and Fire’’ is not set in the world we know, the
culinary landscape is a rough equivalent of medieval Europe. For added
“authenticity,’’ Monroe-Cassel and Lehrer look to medieval cookbooks for
ideas on how to best organize their recipes. That’s where Martin gets
much of his culinary inspiration, too.
“That’s why we wanted to do
a medieval and modern version [of each dish] to take a look at how food
preferences have changed over time, if they have, and to see how far
back you can trace a certain dish,’’ Monroe-Cassel says. “It’s really
neat to have the two of them side by side and compare. We get into some
fierce debates in the house over which dish is the better version
sometimes. People pick favorites quickly.’’
Boston Globe
