I’m not much of a fan of Valentine’s Day, really. We should celebrate love, but I don’t believe in being peer pressured into big romantic gestures. I’m proud to say that I’ve never been out for dinner on Valentine’s Day. I couldn’t think of anything worse. So cliché, contrived. In my Café Rouge days, if I had to work on Valentine’s, I always thought how dreadful it was for couples to be packed into an overcrowded restaurant in their little blocks, crooning over a flickering tea light, having pained conversations and coughing up a premium for an ‘intimate’ dinner a deux.
I’m not alone. It’s a night that’s loathed by many waiters who have witnessed horrors at the hands of hard-to-please diners drunk on love or on some kind of power trip as they blindly and blitheringly brandish their bad manners in an attempt to impress their beloved (or belusted, if that was a word).
Just stay at home instead.
Nothing says I love you like a home-cooked meal.
Out of all the people staying in this Friday and cooking up something special, 53% will celebrate with a nice steak and usually serve it with chips.
Who says romance is dead?
“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”
Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own
There are well-known foods that go hand in hand with love, but why?
Oysters
Oysters have been synonymous with love since Aphrodite rose out of the waves riding an oyster shell. Legend aside, they do contain dopamine, which increases feelings of desire, and zinc which is needed for testosterone production. Raw, salty and slimy. Perhaps some Tabasco might be needed to help them go down. Which brings me nicely on to….
Chillies
Well, they’re red (or can be) for a start. The colour of love and passion. Capsaicin found in chilli peppers – it makes them spicy – can stimulate the nerve endings. Eating spicy peppers can also increase blood flow, heart rate and boost endorphin levels.
Red wine
Any alcohol could probably feature on the list, but again, because it’s red, red wine ends up on the love list. I’m not sure a bottle of Strawberry Mad Dog 20/20 sounds quite as romantic as a bottle of Shiraz. Scientifically though, red wine is a healthier option as it has antioxidants and anti-inflammatories.
Avocados
Smooth, creamy and packed full of vitamins, these fruits might not be an obvious one on the list, but I did find out that the Aztec word for avocado is ahuacatl, which means testicle.
Chocolate
Talking of the Aztecs, they liked a bit of chocolate – a dream ingredient. Sweet, seductive and melts at body temperature into a liquid velvet texture. It’s not all bad, either. Pick one with a high cocoa percentage for more iron and natural stimulants to give you a little boost.
31 / #Write52
Photo by Esther Wechsler on Unsplash