Mardi Gras: Mardi Gras: Food

King cake is a delicious dessert associated with the Mardi Gras holiday. The cake itself is made from a blend of coffee cake and cinnamon roll with green, gold and purple icing to represent the famous Mardi Gras colors. This cake is a staple during Mardi Gras season. USA Today

Lamb, pork, wieners—extravagances unheard of a year before. All the Light We Cannot See

Then families and friends gather to feast on sumptuous food and honor the person’s longevity. First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers

The feast appeared suddenly on the golden plates, as it had at the start-of-term banquet. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Marcia was walking around, still stunned, looking into the trays of catered food spread on the dining table, and then up at the mass of balloons bobbing against the ceiling. Americanah

New Orleans' Cajun and Creole cuisine has become so representative of the area that many forget the indigenous, immigrant, and African roots behind the cuisine. Salon

For dinner that night Milo served him broiled Maine lobster with excellent Roquefort salad and two frozen eclairs. Catch-22

Dinner was prawn cocktails in wine glasses for starters, lamb chops with chef’s hats with duchesse potatoes and braised celery for main, and a Baked Alaska for "dessert," not "afters." Black Swan Green

There were caterers offering bite-sized quiches and poached eggs in puddles of velvety hollandaise. Little Fires Everywhere

“Steam the asparagus, saute garlic and green onions, add some cream, blend it up, add salt and pepper.” The Queen of Water

Add whole lemon balm leaves to green salads, or chiffonade the leaves and scatter them over a fruit salad for added zesty flavor. Salon

It was flank steak marinated in a rice vinegar and fish sauce and green onions, served with crusty bread, pâté and mayonnaise, a little salad with julienne carrots, and two fried eggs on top. New York Times

Alongside classic flavors, there are a handful of wacky options — such as eggnog, bacon bourbon caramel and cotton candy — emerging as fan-favorites, thanks to a slew of gourmet popcorn shops. Salon

And Bill sold plates of his spicy, delicious Creole dishes—gumbo, jambalaya. The Autobiography of Malcolm X

But the satisfying mélange of “Nawlins” grub — fried grits, Creole jambalaya, stuffed quail, blackened redfish with crab chile hollandaise, smothered chicken with biscuits — is, quite simply, the stuff of Southern foodie fantasies. New York Times

My mom asked me to grab the fish and clams and mussels out of the walk-in to make seafood paella. The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora

They joined Mel Willis’s honey clusters and piles of sandwiches and vats of chili and dozens of bean and tuna and macaroni casseroles on the counter. Bone Gap

The dinner is sublime: We start with oyster bisque and follow with prime rib, boiled potatoes, and asparagus in cream. Water for Elephants

The appetizer arrives—a steaming Crock-Pot of bubbling cheese fondue with three types of breads and apples with tiny dipping forks. Love, Hate & Other Filters

We sit on chairs with red velvet seats and eat meat loaf with an egg cooked into the middle, chicken croquettes, black beans and white rice, fried plantains, and a salad with avocados. Lucky Broken Girl

Today we have cold roast chicken, tomato-basil salad, Camembert, baguettes, and strawberry lemonade in the dining room. We Were Liars

The sugary, spicy smell of the apple turnover almost made her dizzy. The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street

To prepare for Lent, Christians prepared pancakes to deplete their stock of eggs, milk, butter, and fat, giving rise to Pancake Day in England. As the tradition spread through Europe, it became Mardi Gras in France, where waffles and crepes are prepared as part of a lavish feast. CNN.com

Plates of petit-waffles, boiled eggs, tiny quiches, grape clusters, and sweet luna pastries are placed in front of me. The Belles

The smell of unfamiliar food in the air now, fish caught from the nearby river, pig knuckles, hominy grits, fried baloney, black-eyed peas. Middlesex: A Novel

There was black bread and honeycakes and oaten biscuits; there were turnips and pease and beets, beans and squash and huge red onions; there were baked apples and berry tarts and pears poached in strongwine. A Clash of Kings

There were small roast birds and pastries glistening with honey, cubes of meat in fragrant sauce, and curled crustaceans impaled on sticks. Strange the Dreamer

She was the kind of cook who would heap up your plate with such as ham hock, greens, black-eyed peas, fried fish, cabbage, sweet potatoes, grits and gravy, and cornbread. The Autobiography of Malcolm X

This evening they had supped on oxtail soup, summer greens tossed with pecans, grapes, red fennel, and crumbled cheese, hot crab pie, spiced squash, and quails drowned in butter. A Clash of Kings

It is braised short ribs that have been stewed in a delicious marinade until the meat falls off the bones. Finding Junie Kim

She poured the sautéed vegetables into the boiling greens, dropped in two bouillon cubes and the smoked catfish, boned but not skinned, and cut in two whole tomatoes. The New Yorker

The White House table featured such soulful favorites as fried chicken, greens, okra and sweet potato pie next to consomme and blancmange. Washington Post

A final finishing dollop of aioli swirled into the al dente rice sleeks it with satiny richness. New York Times

“The secret is to add a splash of lemon juice and a handful of lemon zest to give it that nice tart flavor.” The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

He trotted off determinedly in the direction of the tantalizing smell. The Incredible Journey