“Dripping Thighs, Sticky Chicken Fingers, Vanilla Chicken, Chicken with a Lardon, Bacon-Bound Wings, Spatchcock Chicken, Learning-to-Truss-You Chicken, Holy Hell Wings, Mustard-Spanked Chicken and more, more, more!” – F.L. Fowler, “Fifty Shades of Chicken: A Parody in a Cookbook.”
Both seasoned and amateur chefs have long recognized the intimacy involved with food preparation. From handling the ingredients to the marriage of flavors in the first bite, the experience can mirror that of a romance.
As the greater public attempts to parody this relationship, it has become an apparent sexualization of food. The “food porn” social media accounts discussed in the “Food selfie” craze are catching on with diners, but are eating away at chefs and lead to advertisements being reprimanded for their implied sexual messages, turning the tasteful into the tasteless.
For several years Burger King was criticized over a 2009 burger advertisement that ran only in Singapore which suggested oral sex with a strategically placed model. Another burger tycoon, Carl’s Jr., is famous for its advertisements of women washing cars with burgers and licking mustard off their arm. Paints quite the picture, doesn’t it?
Food and its uses are sometimes illustrated as a means to self-growth and acceptance in movies like “Eat, Pray, Love” and books such as “The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted.” They seem to satisfy our craving for self-realization and liberation, but still leave us wondering why the path to the bedroom leads through the kitchen.
While this might be interpreted as the sexual objectification of women or the general acceptance of sex in mainstream culture, it can also be considered the motivation of a feel-good society.
Food and sex fulfill our primal appetites for self-sustenance and reproduction. Certain stimuli like sex, food or pain release endorphins in the body and produce a temporary euphoric feeling that convinces you to want that feeling again. Some foods, called aphrodisiacs, are thought to increase sexual desire or response. You could probably find an old folklore or cultural tradition for nearly any food, but some of the common ones are oysters, chili peppers, chocolate, red wine, vanilla, watermelon and pomegranate.
And hear me out ladies, it’s sexy when a man cooks for you.
Food serves as a means for us to explore our sexual and spiritual nourishment, but with any action comes the possibility of moral judgments. You can be judged as disgusting or prudish based on the foods you eat, how much and how frequent. And as sex enters the mainstream media, talking about it still remains somewhat taboo.
I like food – you all know this. But there is a difference between getting pleasure out of a meal and rubbing it all over yourself. With the right intentions both food and sex unify people. They are exhilarating and fun. But they are also inherently different, whichever way you like to spice it up.
Dripping Thighs
From “Fifty Shades of Chicken: A Parody in a Cookbook”
Serves 2-4
Ingredients:
•1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, patted dry with paper towels
•2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
•1 tsp. salt
•½ tsp. pepper
•1 sweet onion, thinly sliced
•1 cup white wine
•1 bay leaf
•1 cinnamon stick
•1 tbsp. honey
•2 tbsp. unsalted butter
Instructions:
1.Preheat the oven to 450⁰. In a large bowl, toss together the chicken, garlic, salt and pepper.
2.In a small saucepan, simmer together the onion, wine, bay leaf, cinnamon stick and a pinch of salt until most of the liquid has evaporated (15-20 minutes). Mix in the honey and butter.
3.Spoon the mixture over the chicken and toss well. Spread the thighs, onion mixture, and juices onto a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until the chicken is no longer pink and the onions are meltingly tender and caramelized (about 25 minutes).
