Food Dreams

[ruthcooks]

Ever since I was a teenager, I have had dreams about someone named Bill. The interesting thing is that I never catch sight of his face--or at least I don't remember that part. It seems like he knows who I am, but is toying with me in remaining anonymous.

In one of these dreams I am attending a party and go into the kitchen. The hostess has made decorated heart-shaped cookies, with the guests' names written in pink. As I stand there looking at all the pretty cookies laid out on the kitchen counter, a man's arm reaches around me and picks up the cookie labeled "Bill". Before I can turn around, the dream ends.

[Carrot Top]

My most recent food dream was where I met Tony Soprano on the fourth floor of A&S on Fulton Street in Brooklyn. They had made a cafe out of the part where you came off the escalator, small round tables, hanging lamps, bustling, pretty.

Tony was waiting for me. I sat down and ordered something and he said "You know, Karen, you make the *best* sauce with ribs in it that I've ever had." He didn't say it, he bellowed it out, laughing, happy, leaning his chair back then hitting the table with his palm.

The scene then shifted to some house where apparently I lived. Tony's guys were driving me home, and when I got out of the car, two of them got out with me and wandered over to the old lady neighbor who was weeding in her yard and said "She makes the best sauce. You know that?!" and the old lady just shook her head at it all.

I walked into my house, feeling famous and important. Though confused.

................................................

Nice when a dream sets itself up to stoke your ego, huh?

[Domestic Goddess]

I recently had a dream that I was back with my family in the Philippines and we went to the beach. I was in charge of the food and I made seared foie gras, duck confit and cassoulet. I remember eating and tasting all the food and my family loving every bite.

Funny thing is that I have never tried or sampled foie gras, confit or cassoulet in my life. I remembered waking up so disappointed.

[Pontormo]

In his biography of Sigmund Freud, Peter Gay reccounts a moment when the Austrian's adult daughter, Anna, was overheard murmuring "Strawberries!" in her sleep. An accomplished analyst herself, the alert dreamer interpreted this as a sign of lingering immaturity.

[Gruzia]

I once had an awfull, awfull dream: I was in Chinatown, in a grocery story, standing in an isle full of huge bags of different brands and varieties of rice and I couldn't make up my mind as to which one to buy! I kept going back and forth on my choices - the dream was seriously painful.

[laurelm]

I had a dream (or rather nightmare) that my husband decided he did not love me, was leaving me and hated my cooking.

My cooking I said? Even the lamb? (lamb made my way is his absolute fav)

And he growled back, especially the lamb!!

I was floored. How could someone fake loving a meal so much?

We both found it funny that I was more upset over his dislike of my cooking rather than the fact he was leaving me, haha!

[SuzySushi]

I recently had a dream that I was back with my family in the Philippines and we went to the beach. I was in charge of the food and I made seared foie gras, duck confit and cassoulet. I remember eating and tasting all the food and my family  loving every bite.

Funny thing is that I have never tried or sampled foie gras, confit or cassoulet in my life. I remembered waking up so disappointed.

←

I'd love to be invited! Never ate those foods at a beach picnic before -- just in restaurants.

[Sony]

Last night I had a dream that involved an ex-boyfriend and a fish....

Anyway, in the dream, we had found a bag that held a gorgeous piece of fish- the flesh was pale pink and the skin was a deep, shimmering, iridescent indigo and it smelled like clean ocean water. Though it was barely the size of a VHS tape, it weighed 2 pounds, so it was really dense for some reason.

We walked around the store asking what kind of fish it was- no one knew. The cashier decided to ring it up as catfish- and so we named it after a cat that lived in his house. (The cat's name is Furbus, so we called it Furbfish)

I wish I dreamed long enough to find out what we did with the fish, but I woke up...

(FYI, the guy and I are still good friends- we used to grocery shop/cook together a lot when we lived in the same town. Other than that, I have no idea where the rest of the dream came from )

[Carrot Top]

I was in Africa, along the shoreline on a dusty, hot, busy beach. The beach was filled with people, the sun was blistering. Along the waterline were built shed/houses - one or two rooms, dark old wood, shady, open to the water.

I was in the water, swimming/standing in front of one of these houses. Looking down into the water, the ocean floor was filled with the most amazing rocks and stones. I kept diving and picking them up and holding them towards the people who lived in the house. There were about seven people, a family of all ages. They told me they were Swedish and that they were watching the house for friends until they returned. They did not look Swedish as in white/blond etc but instead had African features and coloring. I wanted to find an opal. "Is this an opal?" I kept asking them over and over as I dove for stones. The stones were pink and purple and silver. "No", they said, over and over. I kept trying, smiling at them winningly each time I held out a stone.

They told me to eat something and I got out of the water. It was filo dough covered with braised snails. ( ) Wierd-looking. But good.

Next thing you know I was in some treetop restaurant with a staircase set in the center hung on thick ropes. It was difficult to climb but fun. I wanted to see what the people were eating. What they were eating was ordered by their names. Say, someone was named "Smith". The waiter would holler out "Smith" and a box would be found from the huge pile of differently shaped and colored boxes at the entrance to the restaurant. Then a cook appeared with a machete and he would chop the box in half to display what looked like the inside of a dollhouse with different rooms but instead each section was filled with some kind of food. He then took the box and placed it on a huge fire where the insides would cook from the heat. Some parts were dark and crisped, some were barely cooked at all. This box would then be carried to the table it belonged to and they would pull out the food from it to eat.

......................................

No, I don't take drugs of any sort. But I did get served a rotten french fry at a restaurant last night and that freaked me out. Maybe there was some chemical in that rotten french fry that caused all this. (?)

[Terrasanct]

I wondered if there was a dream thread here.

Last week I dreamed that I was baking my cookbooks. A few days later I dreamed that I was eating my clothing. Neither were technically about food, but I wonder what they meant.

[Mikeb19]

I've had plenty of restaurant related nightmares (any sort of dream about work is a nightmare in my books...), stemming from my days working as a cook. The most recent one, I dreamed that I was back at work in a fine dining restaurant (I've left the industry for the last 6 months). Pretty boring actually, but it sucks dreaming about work and then waking up, and going to work.

[Kouign Aman]

I woke up one morning and headed to the kitchen with a full meal menu in mind. I knew I had all the ingredients, and exactly where each of them was stored. None of them were there. Nor were they anywhere in the kitchen, house, car....

I apparently dreamed the entire trip to the supermarket, complete with checkout, wince at total cost, and unloading the bags at home.

[armchairchef]

I've had some interesting ones. I'll have to look in my old diaires for some of them that I wrote down.

One that comes to mind is being at a dessert buffet, and just STUFFING the food into my mouth because I have to taste everything there...I just HAVE to...and I'm not even chewing the food...totally disgusting.

Sometimes I dream my DH and I find a nice country inn with a fireplace that's serving comfort food, the kind of place I'm afraid doesn't exist in real life...It is usually some kind of beef stew, which is funny because we're vegetarians (or try to be).

[pansophia]

Okay, I had an odd one the other night and woke up thinking "Thank goodness eGullet has a Food Dreams thread to post this on!"

For some reason Anthony Bourdain, Rocco Dispirito, and Bobby Flay were coming for dinner, but I hosted them at my parent's house as we don't really have a dining room. I was so scared they wouldn't like the homemade pasta e fagioli soup I'd made that I ate that and served them Campbell's Chicken Noodle. Bourdain reamed me out while Rocco tried to convince me it tasted just like homemade. Bobby just sat there.

Weirdness.