American Psycho, by Bret Easton Ellis

I have long neglected you, dear novel eats. But it isn't that I wasn't reading. I just didn't find any food that was different, in a meaningful way, from what I keep posting. I will keep posting boring food items when I have the energy, of course. This post, though, is a little different. That is, the food detail and the choices.

• First, our hero meets friends for dinner at the friends' house, and they have sushi with many different types of alcohol. Much is made of how the hostess tries to array the pieces on the platter and of how one uncouth guest actually puts his in his pocket.

Our hero later goes out to dinner with friends. They eat at a restaurant in NYC and they have:

• Our hero (actually the psychopath) orders monkfish and squid ceviche with golden cavier as an appetizer and gravlax potpie with green tomatillo sauce as a main course.
• His friend Price orders tapas for appetizer and venison with yogurt sauce and fiddlehead ferns with mango slices for main.
• Friend McDermott orders sashimi with goat cheese as appetizer and smoked duck with endive and maple syrup for main.
• Van Patten has scallop sausage for appetizer and grilled salmon with raspberry vinegar and guacamole for main.

Another day Patrick takes a woman out to dinner at a posh restaurant. He doesn't patronize any other type of restaurant. They order:

• Patrick has shad-roe ravioli with apple compote as appetizer, meatloaf with chevre and quailstock sauce as entree.

• His date has peanut butter soup with smoked duck and mashed squash as an appetizer and red snapper with violets and pine nuts for her entree.

Another dinner out with friends:

• Patrick has radichio with "some kind of free range squid" for an appetizer.

• Anne and Scott both have monkfish ragout with violets for an appetizer.

• Courtney has something off-menu, like Cajun popcorn, for an appetizer.

• All have a blackened medium-rare redfish for the entree.
  

There is a bit of an odd moment when Patrick recommends that Anne have rum with diet pepsi instead of coke. It becomes much too important.

Another day, Patrick discusses a meal a friend had at another restaurant, and asks some interesting questions:

Was the chicken cut into a particular shape? ("No, just...chicken"). Was the cheesecake warm? Made with goat cheese? Something else? ("No..just cheesecake"). What's "broiled"? ("Something they do in the oven")

Dinner with Evelyn:

• Patrick: dried peppers in a spicy pumpkin soup as appetizer, free-range rabbit with Oregon morels and herbed french fries for main

• Evelyn: dried corn and jalapeno pudding as appetizer, quail stuffed into blue corn tortillas garnished with oysters in potato skins for main

Dinner with Armstrong:

• Patrick: poblano chiles with orange-purply marmalade, free-range chicken with raspberry vinegar and guacamole and extra tomatillo sauce

• Armstrong: sun-dried tomato brioche ("looks like a big bloody sponge"), calf's liver with shad roe and leeks

Christmas party hosted by Evelyn:

roasted hazelnuts
lobster and oyster bisques
celery root soup with apples
Beluga caviar on toast points
creamed onions
roast goose with chestnut stuffing
caviar in puff pastry
vegetable tars with tapenade
roast duck
roast rack of veal with shallots
gnocchi gratin
vegetable sturdel
Waldorf salad
scallops
bruschetta with mascarpone and white truffles
green chili souffle
roast partridge with sage, potatoes an donion and cranberry sauce
mincemeat pies
chocolate trufffles
lemon souffle tars
pecan tarte Tatin

There are other meals but this selection should do.

Seven Up, by Janet Evanovich

The condensed version:

donuts, beer, pancakes, pineapple upside down cake, fried chicken, donuts, donuts...

Elephants Can Remember, by Agatha Christie

I am rereading this book. It has been many years and I do not remember any of it. It's a treat.

Hercule Poirot likes his little glasses of sweet wines, usually berry-flavored. So we get late-night meetings when he has that.

* A meeting at nine at night with a woman asking for help: strong coffee and petits fours. I couldn't help but think how times have changed when I read this. The woman commented that sweets help re-energize. Which is true!

A Charmed Death, by Madelyn Alt

Our psychic hero, Maggie, eats like most fluffy mystery folks eat.

* watching television alone: grilled cheese with tomato sandwich

* making teen helper feel better: hot chocolate with lots of marshmallow creme, dusted with cinnamon, eaten with candy cane

* At a diner for lunch: chicken noodle soup (which she perceives as a "light meal") and cheesecake

* Dinner at home: classic coke, canned ravioli, large-curd cottage cheese with pepper

The Devil's Corner, by Lisa Scottoline

Our heroine, Vicki Allegretti, is an Assistant U.S. Attorney who feels the need to go Nancy Drew from time to time. She also pines for a married man, Dan.

Dan comes to her house early and fixes breakfast: coffee, eggs scrambled in butter.

The night before, Vicki notes that she had eggs too. A lot of eggs get eaten in these fairly fluffy detective novels.

At home for lunch: turkey sandwich, coffee

On stakeout with new friend: McDonald's burger (friend has salad in a cup)

Dinner at home with Dan (Vicki cooks): filet mignon with onions, baked potato

The Rottweiler, by Ruth Rendell

We don't get to watch many of these characters eat. It is a cast of many, but the ones who seem to eat most often are Becky and her nephew Will.

Will appears to subsist on eggs, toast, fried potatoes (chips), sometimes fried tomatoes. He brings sandwiches for lunch with the ingredients not divulged.

Becky too offers and eats eggs for dinner from time to time, more often than I'd expect. She prepares a meal of porked chops, mashed potatoes, peas and carrots for Will and his "girlfriend" Kim.

Kim and Will go out to eat at a Lebanese restaurant one time, but we don't know what they had.

S is for Silence (Kinsey Millhone Mysteries), by Sue Grafton

I missed reporting on several books. There wasn't much eating going on in them, but that's meaningful in itself.

Breakfast after a run: cereal

Lunch with Chet, one of the characters in the case: Santa Maria-style barbecue (tri-tip, salsa, beans, rolls)

Lunch at local restaurant-bar with client and friend: filet mignon, medium rare, salad, baked potato (not for these folks any adventuring)

Lunch in car with client Daisy, from deli: braunschweiger on rye. Daisy and another character have sliced-turkey on sourdough. Also nibbled: potato chips, sodas, cookies.

Breakfast at motel: eggs, bacon, toast