What Do You Think Your Favorite Book or Movie Character Eats For Dinner?

Eleven from “Stranger Things” loves Eggo waffles. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live on pizza. Harry Potter routinely chugs Butterbeer. What do you think your favorite characters eat? What does Katniss Everdeen in “Hunger Games” eat when she’s hungry or the Incredible Hulk when he is hangry? Does Baby Yoda eat baby food?

In “From the ‘Sopranos’ to ‘Star Trek,’ Pop-Culture Cookbooks Fuel Fandoms,” Priya Krishna writes about the growing genre:

Chelsea Monroe-Cassel is currently developing a recipe for a dish whose traditional version she’ll never be able to taste, and whose place of origin she’ll never be able to visit: Plomeek soup, a staple on the fictional planet Vulcan. In writing “The Star Trek Cookbook,” out next March, she has spent hours watching old episodes and movies from her home in West Windsor, Vt., trying to deduce what might be in the reddish soup.

“We know shockingly little about Vulcan cuisine, given how much of a fan favorite Spock is,” she said. Some people believe that Vulcans are vegetarian, as their strong morals and fear of their own capacity for violence would mean they avoid food that requires slaughtering. But do those arguments hold up, she wondered, in a universe where meat can be replicated with machines?

The result: “A cold gazpacho with tomato and strawberry and a little bit of balsamic.”

Ms. Monroe-Cassel, 36, has dedicated her career to bringing to life the food of her favorite television shows, movies and games. She has written “A Feast of Ice and Fire: The Official Game of Thrones Companion Cookbook,” “The Elder Scrolls: The Official Cookbook,” “Firefly: The Big Damn Cookbook” and “World of Warcraft: The Official Cookbook.” Together they have sold more than a quarter million copies. She is not a trained chef, but she is hugely enthusiastic about pop-culture food.

For fans like her, “it is a big way, a new and tangible way, of connecting with a world that they love,” she said.

“Video games are a form of escapism and books are a form of escapism,” she added, “and I think this is a form of escapism that appeals to extra senses.”

The article continues:

As fan cultures have deepened, these cookbooks have evolved, too. Less prevalent are the ones that simply name recipes after characters. Today’s pop-culture cookbooks are heavily researched tomes about their fictional worlds. They consider climates and character motivations. They fill in gaps in the narrative. Authors pore over every element — down to the props in recipe photos — so fans can feel fully immersed.

“For better or for worse, if a brand isn’t publishing and merchandising itself,” Mr. Miers said, “it isn’t as alive as fans want it to be.”

When the chef and writer Nyanyika Banda started working on the upcoming “The Official Wakanda Cookbook” based on Marvel’s Black Panther comics, she knew Marvel’s rabid fan base would expect a high level of detail.

“If we had written this book 15 years ago, you probably could have gotten away with including a lot of things from the entire continent of Africa without giving explanation to why they existed,” said Mx. Banda, 39. “There is this need for people coming up with these recipes to know what they are talking about” in terms of both the comics and African foodways.

Mx. Banda’s recipes — like chambo, a traditional fish dish from Malawi — speak directly to Wakanda’s varying locations in Africa throughout the run of the comics.

Mx. Banda considered the role that colonialism played in adding a Western influence to certain African dishes, and how to explain that influence when they included those foods in the book — since Wakanda is supposed to be isolated from the rest of the world. (Mx. Banda found a solution in referencing more recent comics about Wakanda opening itself up to outsiders.)

This approach is a far cry from the early books in the genre, which place little emphasis on compelling recipes and complex storytelling.

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

• What do you think your favorite book or movie character eats or drinks? Tell us your most beloved character and make the case for what you think his or her favorite foods are. Justify your claim based on what you know about the character. What do you think this food reveals about that person?

• What do you think of all these fictional cookbooks coming out? Are they silly? Fun? Informative? Have you ever read or purchased one? What do you think this growing genre says about pop-culture fandom?

• The article says that there are cookbooks for “World of Warcraft,” “Harry Potter,” “The Simpsons,” “Game of Thrones” and “The Walking Dead.” Which of these titles interests you most? Which dishes and recipes would you most likely try? Which pop cultural book, movie or television show would you like to see a cookbook published for?

• What other types of information about your favorite characters and stars would you like to know? Maybe the music they like? Preferred mode of social media? Favorite book or sneakers?

• The article refers to “the Narnia problem”: when children who read about Turkish delight in “The Chronicles of Narnia” later tried the actual candy and were greatly disappointed. Have you ever eaten or cooked something because it was in a book, movie or show? How did it go?

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Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.