Feast Your Eyes With These Mouth-Watering Films (And Recipes)10 min read
Reading Time: 7 minutesYou might have seen it going around on your social media accounts – everyone seems to be making banana bread while on quarantine. With everyone cooped up at home, people aren’t just turning to eating food to get some form of comfort anymore. All this time on our hands gives us an opportunity to make our own food, no more excuses about being busy! So if you’re still not sold about taking on cooking projects to kill time, watch these movies and you might just be inspired to get your pots and pans out – we’ve even thrown in some recipes.
Disclaimer: results of recipes provided may vary.
The Lunchbox (2013)
Multiple award-winner The Lunchbox tells the story of dejected housewife, Ila (Nimrat Kaur), struggling with an ailing marriage, and the growing friendship she forges with widower, Saajan (Irrfan Khan). The friendship is sparked after a misdelivered lunchbox meant for her husband lands with Saajan.
While the film isn’t a full-on cooking fiesta, food plays a subtle yet major role in the narrative. Each meal prepared in their cozy home is whipped up with care – yet Ila’s husband hardly notices and is frustratingly ungrateful of her efforts. By contrast, when it mistakenly reaches Saajan, he dives into the meal like he is discovering good food for the first time.
What makes the food in The Lunchbox delicious aren’t the obscene sizzles or picturesque food arrangements, but the love and attention that Ila pours into each dish. During these tough times, how better to treat yourself with love than with a personally concocted meal (that isn’t instant noodles)?
The Food: Paneer Kofta
The first dish Ila sends to Saajan after the delivery mishap is her husband’s favourite dish, paneer kofta. Infused with zesty tomatoes and delectable cheese, the North Indian dish is perfect for an afternoon snack. While the list of ingredients might be daunting on the wallet and cabinet, the snack is a sinful delight that will have you coming back for more. Plus, there’s always the added bonus of making your kitchen smell like an aromatic haven.
The Lunchbox is available for rental and purchase on Amazon prime video.
Flavours of Youth (2018)
From the studio that brought Japanese smash-hits Your Name and Weathering With You, Flavours of Youth may not carry the Makoto Shinkai cosign but it sure has his perchance to make food look absolutely delectable. The melancholic three-parter each follows millennials trapped beneath the weight of city life and a yearning for simpler times.
The first sees Xiao Ming (yes, really) reminiscing about his cheerier past – in particular about easier days enjoying San Xian noodles with his grandmother. While the narration dramatises the bowl of noodles to a level of divinity, it’s all almost believable with each gorgeous frame capturing the lushness of the ingredients.
More importantly, however, this first part is a reminder of the curious ability for food to take us back to a memory. The cacophony of looks, sound, taste and smell – all these are unique to food compared to something more commonly associatable like a film or a song. Whether this crippling pandemic is viewed in retrospect with triumph or sorrow is frankly out of anybody’s hands. But perhaps our meals these days can be a beacon of remembrance in the future that we went through an unprecedented pandemic and that things can only go up from here.
The Food: San Xian Noodles
A Google search found that a recipe for San Xian noodles is rather elusive thanks to the vastness of Chinese cuisine. I found no definitive recipe for the version seen in the film. But I did find the closest comparison in creating the more difficult part of the dish – the soup. Following that, I would imagine that it’s a matter of separately cooking the minced pork, slicing up the mushroom and cloud ear fungus, before topping it all off with an egg and spring onions to complete the look.
The San Xian or rice noodles are a staple breakfast in the south of China. While it may not look like much, Flavours of Youth shows that even a humble bowl of noodles can be a getaway to a lifelong font of memories.
Besides, this dish shouldn’t be an issue for any instant noodle cooking veteran, right?
Try out the recipe for the soup here!
Flavours of Youth is available for streaming on Netflix.
Julie & Julia (2009)
The 2009 feel-good hit centres around the culinary journeys of cooking teacher and television personality Julia Child (Meryl Streep) in the 1950s, and online blogger and writer Julie Powell (Amy Adams) in the early 2000s. Both of their paths coincide with Julia’s book Mastering the Art of French Cooking, often credited as key in introducing French cuisine to the United States.
The film details the perilous but still chirpy journey of Julia in penning the book, while criss-crossing with Julie’s goal to cook all 524 recipes from the book as a way to fulfill her life. Although centuries apart, Julia soon becomes a mother figure and a source of inspiration to Julie.
With cooking being a dominant theme, Julie & Julia still manages to twist the rather innocuous activity into a tale of self-discovery and about finding the strength to shatter what is previously thought to be impossible. Beyond the delectable array of dishes both women cook up throughout the film, Meryl Streep’s infectious charisma is sure to spur anyone to throw their aprons on.
The Food: Boeuf Bourguignon
Yes, even the name of the dish is intimidating but Julia always had the ability to demystify even the most complex of recipes. The dish also happens to be the first dish she taught on her television show The French Chef. The show was so popular that it apparently led to a surge of demands throughout the United States on the particular ingredients used by her for the week’s episode.
Clocking in at more than six hours on most recipes, the dish is more of a dedication than something to whip up at a moment’s notice. However, the tantalising smell of the stew mixed with the sharp aroma of wine is sure to impress the whole family. Besides, now that we are all stuck at home, the dish could be prepared in the morning and watched over throughout the afternoon before capping the day off with a sophisticated French classic.
For the true Julie & Julia experience, follow along with Julia on the original episode of The French Chef. Alternatively, check out one of the many boeuf bourguignon recipes here.
Julie & Julia is available for streaming on Netflix.
Little Forest (2018)
This film is torture for anyone who loves Korean food. An impromptu trip back to her country home turns out to be a permanent move for Hye-won (Kim Tae-ri) as she finds comfort and meaning in idyllic countryside life. Little Forest follows a year in her life through the seasons, while detailing every sizzle and every crunch of the food she concotes with the ingredients found in the surroundings.
In our interview with director Yim Soon-rye, she shared that the film was a gift to the youths today caught up in the hectic pace of the concrete jungle. It’s a charming film through and through, weaving a light-hearted “will-they-or-won’t-they” romance between scenes upon scenes of cooking and eating. Perhaps its most impressive feat is in making the creation of these delectable treats an effortless breeze, showcasing the relaxing qualities of time in the kitchen.
Check out our review of this hidden gem here!
The Food: Kimchi Sujebi
Cooped up in the middle of winter, Hye-won decides to cook up a bowl of Sujebi to warm herself up. The bowl of Korean noodle soup is a well-loved dish amongst Koreans thanks to its simple recipe and cheap ingredients.
While people in this part of the world would love to deal with anything other than the blazing sun, a bowl of Kimchi Sujebi is still sure to melt away the cold harshness of the urban world with the strong taste of Kimchi soothing the soul.
The film is available for rental and purchase on Amazon prime video.
Practically every Studio Ghibli film
Studio Ghibli has an unnerving ability to make any food seem far more delicious than even its real-life counterparts. From the hearty breakfast featured in Howl’s Moving Castle to the simple rice balls shared in Spirited Away, all food, no matter how simple or exquisite, is treated and handcrafted with the same amount of detail to spring them to life.
Food plays just as much of a role as any character in these films as well – both in their lush animation and their significance in the plot. Spirited Away, for example, has food as a central theme and is basically the catalyst of the plot. Meanwhile, the rice porridge and its layers of flavours in Princess Mononoke could signify the equally layered motivations of the film’s characters.
There is no way anybody can finish one of their films without feeling hungry or inspired to create something similar to the delicacies featured.
The Food: Satsuki’s Bento In My Neighbor Totoro
Similar to its varied themes and settings, the films of Studio Ghibli features a plethora of cuisines from all over the world. One of the more memorable meals would definitely have to be the cutesy bento boxes prepared in My Neighbor Totoro. Compared to the adventurous feasts in Kiki’s Delivery Service or the more mundane (but still delicious!) ramen in Ponyo, we think these bentos present the right amount of challenge and aesthetics for that warm feeling of satisfaction.
Check out the recipe for this cuddly dish here!
Getting the itch to cook more?
Well, you’re in luck because as a bonus, we’re compiling a short list of resources we frequent when we feel like doing our best master chef impressions.
As the website’s name suggests, the local cooking blog is perfect for entry-level chefs with its wide-array of recipes and easy to follow instructions.
While not as straightforward to follow, the subreddit is home to recipes boiled down to one minute. Perfect to scroll through while lounging on the couch.
The YouTube channel is dedicated to recreating dishes and treats from films, television shows and video games. Why not check out their recipe for Ram-don featured in Parasite, Teddy Brûlée from Bob’s Burgers, or the $5 Milkshake from Pulp Fiction?
Read more:
– A Marriage of Sounds, Pictures and Ideas – A Brief Introduction to Analysing Films
– A Little Cheeriness For These Times – Life-affirming Films To Beat The Cabin Fever
