Wordy Wednesday

In carrying forward yesterday's cooking theme, today's post explores food words. Certain foods instantly evoke a sense of history -- I was quite thankful not to have lived in Elizabethan England, as did Karen Cushman's Meggy Swann (Alchemy and Meggy Swann), where eel pies were de rigeur!

Mention

and I'm back in pedal pushers and saddle shoes, walking up to Lee's Grocery from my grandparents' house for the tasty treat. Skybars -- my mom's favorite childhood treat -- played a role in my forthcoming book (The Fences Between Us, Scholastic, September) And there would have been no small adventures for Popeye without Yoo-Hoo (The Small Adventures of Popeye and Elvis, Barbara O'Connor)

Food and drink help to convey a sense of place, too. Sweet tea seems inexorably Southern; soda, (rather than pop) East Coast and, in my mind, Frangos will always belong to that Seattle institution, Frederick and Nelson, no matter what the label says!

Food can make us curious -- just what are bangers and mash? How about blueberry slump? -- and wary -- I still cringe when I read about a child being dosed with cod liver oil.

I'm curious. How do you use food and beverage words in your writing? What do they do for a story, do you think? Share your tastiest examples!