Tag: Food

Cumquat

JACKSON: For some time now I’ve been toying with cross-pollination. Finally I’ve got it. I figured out a way to cross a raspberry with a cumquat.

A cumquat is a small cold-hardy citrus fruit native to south Asia and the Asia-Pacific. They were introduced to Europe and North America from China in the 19th century.

In reality, it is not possible to cross a cumquat with a raspberry. It’s clearly just a joke by the scriptwriter, but if you were determined to make this a semi-believable situation, yellow raspberries do exist, and Jackson might have bred one with an especially sharp, citrus-y flavour, making him over-excitedly believe that he had somehow crossed a raspberry with a cumquat.

Sookie’s Party Food

Sookie makes mini orange biscuits with honey-mustard ham and Cheddar cheese. In North American, the word biscuit refers to a small quick-bread, raised with baking soda rather than yeast. They are similar to scones and bannocks.

She also makes angel wings. Although angel wings can refer to a variety of foods, including a type of European fried pastry, I’m pretty sure Sookie means stuffed crumbed chicken wings, which are often served with spicy or Asian-style dipping sauces, and make suitable finger food for a party.

Soufflé

LORELAI: This is a very delicate, fragile situation. It’s like one of your soufflés. If you don’t do it right it’s a disaster.
SOOKIE: And you have to order it 45 minutes in advance.

A soufflé is a classic French baked egg dish which can either be savoury or sweet; its name is from the French for “breathe, puff”. After being cooked, a soufflé will be fluffy and puffed-up, but it will go down after a few minutes, so the serving must be timed with great precision.

Rory and Lorelai’s Study Session Junk Food

Take-out fried chicken and French fries (maybe from Al’s Pancake World); the Gilmore girls add horseradish sauce to the fries

Pepperidge Farm chocolate chunk cookies

Lay’s potato chips

Starburst soft candy

Rolo caramel-filled chocolates

… and more!

This may be the first time we see the Gilmore girls indulging in junk food: it will not be the last. The constant eating of junk food by the slender and healthy Lorelai and Rory is something which sticks in the craw of many fans, who either see it as a ridiculously unrealistic cheap gimmick, or an outright slap in the face to the audience.

But one of the themes of Gilmore Girls is a celebration of American culture. Rory reads classic American literature (like Moby Dick and Huck Finn), they watch classic American TV shows (like I Love Lucy and The Odd Couple), they watch classic American films (like The Shining and The Wizard of Oz), they reference American popular music (such as Elvis Presley and Barbra Streisand), so of course they eat classic American food – which is mostly junk. This in itself isn’t all that unrealistic – 25% of Americans eat junk food every day, just like Lorelai and Rory, and 80% of them eat junk food regularly (the numbers are even higher for children and teenagers, and Lorelai is stuck as a perpetual teen).

Yes it’s a joke, and not entirely a nice one – but there’s some real love there too.  The brand names of the food themselves are raised like totems, and can sound almost like poetry. If America means Mark Twain, Judy Garland, Jack Nicholson, and Lucille Ball, it also has to mean burgers, chili fries, Pop-Tarts and Jello-O.

Just as Rory can read an unbelievable number of book (six at once is normal for her), and she and Lorelai watch an unrealistic amount of TV and movies while still having plenty of time for work, school, and a social life, of course they can also eat insane amounts of junk food. It’s just that we tend to praise the first types of unreality as smart and savvy, and decry the last. In the Gilmore Girls universe, there is both not enough time to get everything done, and plenty of time for books and movies – and plenty of room for all the food you can eat.

Kitchen Confidential

While Rory is studying, Lorelai reads Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain, first published in August 2000. The book is a humorous behind-the-scenes look at the restaurant industry, both a confessional and a commentary. It provides many hints and tips for the consumer, which may be what drew Lorelai to read it. The book received good reviews and became a best-seller, giving Bourdain a large following and making him a celebrity.

Huckleberry

JACKSON: So, I hear the huckleberry crops are gonna totally suck this year!
[Sookie just looks at him.]

Huckleberry is an American dialect word for the shrub fruit known as the bilberry – a variant of the English dialect word hurtleberry or whortleberry. In America, the term huckleberry is applied to several different species of berry, including dangleberries and blueberries.

The peak season for huckleberries finishes in mid-September, so by this time of year the huckleberry crop would normally “suck” anyway. No wonder Sookie gives Jackson a look.

The huckleberry crops serve as a reminder of Huckleberry Finn.