This Movie's Making Me Hungry
Some food recs, a newsletter rec and a TV show rec?
I have to be honest. I had little inspiration to Aerial Shot this week. The last few movies I’ve seen—Thor: Love and Thunder, Fire of Love, Don’t Look Now and The Black Phone—ranged from bad to meh to okay.
Honestly (and I hate to say this), the best thing I’ve watched recently is The Bear. This Hulu TV show (GASP) centered around the world of cooking is genre-breaking and immediately entertaining in all the best ways. For someone who quits on shows in a second, the fact that I rushed through all of these episodes in a matter of days is quite the compliment.
It’s been a big week, in my circles anyway, for food. The Bear has made me crave Italian beef sandwiches to the nth degree and Jake Richards (Aerial Shot contributor and Hot Rod die-hard) has started a newsletter of his own centered around recipes he makes for his fiancée.
Anyway, because I couldn’t think of anything else and we love vertical integration here at Aerial Shot, I’ve decided to write about the food from movies that I want to try. Okay, that's it for this extended intro. Watch The Bear. I still have to see Elvis. I’m sure that’ll inspire me for next week. In a good way or bad way? I guess we’ll find out together.
Let’s just start with the obvious one … ratatouille from Ratatouille. Consisting of veggies such as eggplants, Roma tomatoes, yellow squashes and zucchinis, nothing has ever looked tastier than this meal put together by Remy the rat. There’s something about animated food that makes it look even better than real food. Maybe it’s the fact that it’s impossible to have or the animators can do anything with it. I would love to try some Pixar cuisine or the burgers from Bob’s Burgers. There will be another animated meal later, of course.
If Saoirse Ronan makes it, I’m in. Mendl’s Courtesan au Chocolat from The Grand Budapest Hotel is one of those magical creations that looks too good to be true. The recipe is quite overwhelming but certainly seems to be worth it. These super-sweet desserts play a big role in the (perfect) film and lead to the prison-break sequence, which is gold. I’d love to try it, and I’m frankly stunned that a Brooklyn pastry shop hasn’t started making them just for the hullabaloo it would cause amongst people with fedoras.
Yes, it’s a fast-food burger. But I love a fast-food burger. I’ve always wanted to try the Big Kahuna burger from Pulp Fiction which Samuel L. Jackson menacingly handles while saying “motherfucker” a bunch of times. Just the way he slurps up the drink and chews on the fries and uses the burger as a prop makes me want to do the same. I don’t want to murder anyone. The burger and fries are enough.
Although it was used for evil in Matilda, don’t tell me that you didn’t want to try the chocolate cake that Bruce Bogtrotter gets to devour in front of everyone. Just one slice is enough. This reminds me of when my friends (including Jake) and I had a McDonald’s chicken-nugget-eating competition. Jake and I both ate 50 (separately) and then lounged around for the rest of the day. This has very little to do with this newsletter, but you’re reading it.
Nothing has ever looked better than this slice of pizza from The Goofy Movie. Look at that cheese. It’s luxurious. Imagine what it would taste like. It’s perfect garbage pizza. I would trade a year off of my life to try it. You know the animators designed this and then immediately went to lunch. How couldn’t they? It’s beautiful.
Okay, that’s it.
Subscribe to Cooking for Erica here, and go eat a slice of pizza or something.