Rana Abdelfatah
Professor Adkins
CWL 190
December 6, 2018
Recipe Reflection
Okay, right from the get go I would like to put it out there that if you were to make this
recipe in real life, you would most likely get food poisoning on the spot. Definitely inedible, and
really gross. I’m not here to craft a gourmet dish though! I chose my first book that I read this
semester entitled Hunger, written by Roxanne Gay. The ingredients for this recipe were carefully
chosen, each possessing a certain aspect of the story. The recipe for the “Everything but the
kitchen sink sundae” is a beautiful mess of foods that translate into emotions and metaphors.
The first ingredient, which is more of a component to be more precise is “A dark,
secluded, and silent environment”. I think this is a MAJOR key in the recipe, and there was two
ways for it to represent the text. The first way being used to represent the setting of her incident.
When she was raped, she was taken into a dark, quiet cabin in the middle of the woods. No one
could hear her cries for help, and by including a specific environment in which the recipe is
prepared helps to convey the setting of the incident. This wasn’t the only way that this
component reflected the story though. Besides describing the setting of her life altering incident,
it represents most of the state that she possesses throughout the entire story. She secludes herself
in her room, becomes depressed and doesn’t speak to anyone. So having the recipe contain this
basically encapsulates the entire mood of the book.
The second component of this recipe was a big metal bowl. I could’ve plainly said bowl,
or made the bowl be made out of a different material. The reasoning behind this choice is the fact
that she ate to build up her body, and make herself “undesirable”. In this case, the adjective “big”
is used to describe her size. We all know that metal is used to make shields, weapons, and all
sorts of protective gear. By describing the bowl in this way, it’s a translation of how she used her
size to protect herself after going through that incident.
Third in line, we have one gallon of chocolate ice cream and one strong fist. The step that
correlates with this states, “make sure it’s slightly softened!” So the thought process behind these
choices working together was simple. Chocolate ice cream slightly softened was used to
represent Roxanne. She’s of African American origins, and she was very vulnerable when the
rape incident occurred. She was lovestruck by Christopher and she didn’t think he would do such
a thing. So by saying it’s softened ice cream, it’s showing that he made her melt in a way and she
felt safe around him. Bringing the fist into it now. If you were to punch a gallon of ice cream that
was straight out of the freezer, you wouldn’t make the slightest dent in it and you may actually
end up hurting yourself. But if the ice cream is softened, you can easily damage it, and no
consequences will circle back. This relates...
