There is a planet for dinner today!

When you realize that books are like meals, you can’t resist the exotic and spicy scents of science fiction and fantasy literature anymore.

I have always felt a taste close to food from books, and I have thought that a library resembled a wide kitchen. I decided this for the first time in the house where I grew up as a child. The house had a communist library full of thick volumes of Soviet writers and poets, small velvet-colored books from Varlık Publications, novels about third world countries and wars, Marxist-Leninist books that my mother had to throw off a bridge in the 80s, and libertarian and revolutionary philosophy books, and this communist library was in absolute harmony with the small and practical kitchen of the house facing the light, which was painted in yellow. Its opening and closing yellow plywood table, fabric-covered stools, and noisy exhaust fan made this place the kitchen version of the yellow library in the living room for me. Likewise, now whenever I enter someone’s kitchen, trying to guess their library entertains me. Even if they have never bought a book, everyone can have a library under suitable conditions, and even if it is not yet complete, this library generally resembles that person’s kitchen.

Of course, if books have a taste, then food should have a story too. As someone whose library is filled with science fiction and fantasy novels, sometimes my food becomes like the toughest age of science fiction, dazzling the gums, like the characters of Philip K. Dick whose reality is unknown if they are androids, smelling like iron that gets wet in the rain. Sometimes the bottom of the stove glows like a dragon flame, and a wise hissing rises in an unknown language, like in Ursula Le Guin’s books. Crackers resemble the lembas taken as a travel food in The Lord of the Rings, and a plate of lentils always tastes like the plain and tasteless meals cooked in a spaceship. One day, the soup I make is so spicy that I feel like I am in a khepri neighborhood in China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station. The narcotic scent of dark chocolate cake always conceals Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere.

My kitchen is also my happiest place, just like my library. Just as I can immerse myself in the world of the book, I can dive into the world of the food I prepare here.

Grandma kitchens

Big books are like big meals, and books that are the building blocks of fantasy literature resemble the recipes your grandmothers used to make when you were a child. They have secret ingredients that no one knows about, are full of riddles, and no book you read again will taste the same. Like grandmothers’ meals, they are otherworldly and wise. Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the Epic of Gilgamesh from Sumer, the Nibelungenlied of the Germans, and the Arabian Nights are the first examples of this genre. Shakespeare’s book The Tempest, which contains a mad scientist, and Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels are also considered the first novels of this genre. Then, with the industrial revolution, came the fear of science, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was written. However, science fiction and fantasy literature exploded during the time called the Fin de Siècle, which represents the last quarter of the 19th century, when science took off, the second industrial revolution occurred, and air pollution settled over cities like London, Paris, and New York like a gray monster. People worked like robots in factories, smokestacks were billowing, steamships crossed the Atlantic Ocean, and trains… Life was like sucking on a piece of coal-dipped cloth in those days. Jules Verne’s novels, fueled by the inventions and discoveries of the century he was living in, and H.G. Wells’ books, which examine social worlds, were printed during this period. While Verne dreamed of space travel, Wells incorporated Darwin’s theory of evolution, Marxism, and sharp critiques of English society into his novels, such as The Island of Doctor Moreau and The Time Machine. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Rudyard Kipling, who followed them, were the first modern writers to write in this genre. At the same time, in America, Edgar Allan Poe was examining the theme of death, and H.P. Lovecraft was writing stories about educated individuals struggling against degenerate societies that symbolized dark, primitive, and supernatural barbarism. Let us not forget those great writers who wrote stories about distant planets, sparkling rockets, and robots on typewriters that looked like they were about to break apart in the cold apartment buildings of the post-war years. Giants of their time: Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and Arthur C. Clarke. Finally, let’s move on to the last two of those old, good recipes, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea series. Imagine a grand feast. A big teapot full of coffee, beautiful round cereal cakes, buttery bread, beers by the pint, crackers with fish paste, fresh apples, puddings, baked potatoes… Middle-earth could be a world cuisine in itself. And then there’s my favorite grandmother’s dish; Earthsea, which includes dragons, wizards starting from childhood, swallowed little girls, and Arha. At first, it seems like a simple and single dish, but you discover that there are thousands of different tastes deep down inside. These small tastes communicate with you with all their courtesy. A pinch of herbs or spices from every woman’s wisdom from every corner of the world…

Appetizers and snacks

When you feel like your soul is sick, do you want a warm, healing soup recipe that will revive you, soothe you, and even make you laugh? Then Terry Pratchett is the author for you. If you’re craving Moroccan cuisine with a cup of mint tea, it’s time to dive into Frank Herbert’s Dune series, set on a desert planet. You can spend cold, gloomy winter nights with a cup of coffee and gingerbread cake while reading Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast trilogy, which evokes a sense of both infinity and entrapment. Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl, set in a world where sea levels have risen due to global warming, Thailand has become a world power protected by a giant wall built against the sea, and biotechnology has become the most advanced industry, leaves a taste of juicy, exotic fruits that are tasted for the first time in human history.

Karin Tidbeck’s Zeppelin, which was released in the last few months, reminds us of a dark mushroom soup with a nostalgic flavor that we can’t remember when we last ate. It’s as if all the magic in the world is hidden in this soup, waiting to be rediscovered, and you accidentally eat it all up. Zeppelin is a tragic meal that you can only eat once in your lifetime, which is why it’s so valuable.

George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series (more commonly known as Game of Thrones) has a taste reminiscent of a sea creature that has been pulled out of the water and cooked in a fiery spice blend. Lobsters, mussels, shrimp, and crabs abound! It tastes fresh and fiery, yet also seems to contain a lot of mercury. It’s like a meal eaten on long summer evenings.

Eat as if there’s no tomorrow.

Their names may be fantasy or science fiction, but they are secondary worlds that resemble sharp lenses focused on the realities obscured by the modern world. Despite their flashy appearance, they are all ultimately satisfying meals. J.R.R. Tolkien took the fears that humans experienced in the face of the Industrial Revolution and World War I and created the magical mythology of The Lord of the Rings. H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds is actually about the British Empire’s xenophobia rather than aliens. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World questions the sustainability of a human race perfected through genetic manipulation, while Zamyatin’s We examines the loss of free will in the face of a totalitarian regime, and George Orwell’s 1984 interrogates a dystopian country where everyone is under control and leaves a taste of a well-distilled malt whisky when you breathe in the wind blowing on the Scottish islands. China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station and The Scar are distorted versions of Queen Victoria’s England and are also a fusion cuisine of all the recipes that come from England’s former colonies, for me. And then there’s that little girl who chased the rabbit and fell down the well; Alice. She’s just a scared little girl who’s afraid of growing up. Don’t forget to listen to the story she tells you next time your biscuit dissolves in your mouth as you dip it into your tea…