Cooking the Books with Jeannette Ng

Happy Monday and welcome to a regular monthly feature in partnership with Fran Wilde and Aliette de Bodard’s Cooking the Books Podcast!

Today’s guest is Jeannette Ng, talking to Fran and Aliette about her Gothic novel Under the Pendulum Sun!

Here at the extension kitchen, we have bonus Q&A content and an audio snippet:

The Book Smugglers: Let’s play Marry/Kiss/Kill, but with food.

Jeannette Ng:

I may be overthinking this, but logistically the only food I could think to kill is an Oyster, given how they’re still alive before consumption. It’s also an opportunity to reenact the Walrus and the Carpenter scene in Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, which seems a good idea. I’m also not the biggest fan of oysters and would likely not miss them, so success all round.

I’d probably kiss sushi because I apparently make indecent faces during their consumption. A friend once said that it was the closest to watching me have sex that they ever want to be.

I’m not sure I want to be pressured into marriage by any one food. Whilst not nearly as adventurous as some, I’m something of a neophile when it comes to food and I’m not sure how I’d feel about a roast dinner waiting for me at home with judging eyes. I would want to be a food spintster. That said, I’d want to marry Japanese bentos because not only are they an expression of love, they would look ridiculously amazing in the wedding photos (Eg: here )

And here is the audio snippet:

Go over to the main kitchen to check out the full episode and to listen to the whole interview!