*dimsumdolly* - the different morsels of the life of a foodie

Sensuous vs Sexy

I’ve been reading Stalking the Green Fairy: and Other Fantastic Adventures in Food and Drink by James Villas, who’s an American food writer. The book contains his essays on various types of food like the meat loaf, chicken salad, pumpkin pie, and he muses about his love for peanut butter and canned tuna.

In his essay on onion soup, he writes that there is a big difference between foods that are sensuous and those that are sexy. This got me piqued. To Villas, sensuous is: foie gras, truffled eggs, sea urchins, Stilton cheese and white peaches. Sexy is: oysters, braised beef cheeks, roast grouse, gumbo (it’s a type of stew originating from New Orleans containing many types of meat and vegetables).

He writes, “To be sexy, a food must awaken certain primal instincts, stimulate the id, and inspire a little recklessness.” To him, onion soup has “the earthy allure, the wanton charm, and the saturnalian ability to seduce”.

And I just love the way he personifies the dish—“Like the bohemian lady she is, onion soup is neither trendy nor sophisticated, but she is irresistible. Dressed in her golden mantle, she is most often spotted in the dark, romantic Left Bank bistros of Paris, but wrapped in any number of other dazzling guises, she also haunts the tascas of Lisbon, the wood-paneled pubs of London and Copenhagen, the smoky stuben of Munich, and even the rutty cafes of Buenos Aires. In these places, the nocturnal courtesan is still not only greatly appreciated but respected as the fickle creature she is."

To me, the two words didn’t seem tttoooo different from each other. So I went to check up their meanings on dictionary.com. The given definitions were:

Sensuous (adj): appealing to or gratifying the senses

Sexy (adj): Arousing or tending to arouse sexual desire or interest.

And then I was enlightened.

So here’s my list:

Sensuous
- Warm apple pie with old-fashioned vanilla ice cream
- A crisp 油条 with warm soy bean milk
- Moist carrot cake (the English kind)
- Carrot cake aka Cai Tau Kueh
- Claypot rice aka Lap Mei Fan which is probably best eaten in HK at this time of the year!
- Good Cantonese porridge
- Smooth, silken beancurd dessert
- Roasted chestnuts
- 合桃糊，栗子糊

Sexy
- dark chocolate
- a tasty steak done rare to medium-rare
- tiramisu
- any good Cantonese soup
- grilled oysters with generous amounts of garlic
- any yummy stew
- chocolate dipped strawberries

OK, brain is not working very well at the moment, and of course I’m sure I have more to add to the list. But time’s not on my side for me to mull over all the cuisines of the world. Would love to hear what others consider as “sensuous” and “sexy” food too!

Posted by DSD at November 30, 2005 3:19 PM