Bowtie Pasta with Asparagus, Chick Peas and Truffle Oil

Food of Love

Valentine’s Day is coming. Maybe you’ll have dinner in a restaurant that evening. Or perhaps you’ll create a masterpiece of a romantic repast for two at home.

Love and food are integrally connected. Or so it seems.

Screenwriters play up the notion in the movies. Remember, in Chocolat, how the townsfolk, and even the pompous, self-disciplined mayor, slaked their inner yearnings after eating some chocolate truffles? Remember the “I’ll have what she’s having?” moment in When Harry Met Sally?

Restaurants do their part too. On Valentine’s Day they entice customers with gorgeous multi-course meals that invariably end with something likely to be called “triple-chocolate-decadent-indulgence-fantasy thriller.” And food writers chime in with suggestions for an evening featuring ingredients touted for their lush, sexy appeal.

There may not be any scientific evidence to back any of this up, but throughout the ages experts have sworn that eating certain foods will make a lover more lovable.

And so, on Valentine’s Day you can expect to see oysters on the menu. Chocolates will sell by the ton. Recipes for dishes made with honey, carrots, chickpeas and bananas will be featured; caviar and truffles for budget-breaker meals; arugula and figs for foodies. These are some of the more well-known so-called aphrodisiacs, the foods of love.

What is it about oysters that may make you more amorous? Is it the eye appeal of their soft, moist, shimmering bodies? Or is it because although there are both male and female oysters, these bivalves can change their gender several times during their life span? Some claim it is merely attributable to oysters’ high zinc content (in fact, zinc is important for testosterone development).

Whether or not they stir passions, it is easy to fall in love with fresh, cold, briny oysters on the half shell. The flavor, to be sure, and much more. The meat is nutritious, an excellent source of several vitamins and minerals as well as omega-3 fatty acids. Oysters aren’t fattening either; only about 116 calories per dozen.

Fried oysters take some time to make, but if you’re willing to fuss a bit for a Valentine’s Day meal, tuck them into an Oyster-Avocado Peacemaker, a New Orleans style hero sandwich which features avocado and arugula, two other love-inspiring ingredients.

Avocado’s rich flavor and sensuous texture may account for its placement among the aphrodisiacs. On the other hand, it may have earned the reputation centuries ago because the Aztecs named it “ahuacatl,” which roughly translates as the fruit that resembles a male reproductive organ. If you don’t use avocado in the hero sandwich on Valentine’s Day, consider adding it to a BLT or, even simpler, slicing the fruit and serving it sprinkled with lime juice or Balsamic vinegar. As for arugula, it has been considered a love food since Roman times (used as an offering to Priapus, a fertility god), probably because of its spicy, peppery taste.

Because of their physical shape it’s easy to figure our why carrots, asparagus and bananas are on the list of love foods (in addition, bananas are high in certain vitamins needed for sex hormone production). Figs figure into this picture for a similar reason; when cut in half the fruit is said to resemble female anatomy. The same goes for strawberries (the only fruit with its seeds on the outside for all to admire). And raspberries. In the movie, when Lolita put 5 raspberries on 5 of her fingers and moved them one by one through her lips it put Humbert Humbert into a lustful tailspin.

Aromas can enhance libido, which is why anything made with vanilla, sprinkled with nutmeg or anise seed or studded with almonds is hailed as a fine choice on Valentine’s Day. Perhaps that’s also why truffles, with their musky, earthy scent are on the list of aphrodisiacs. (On the other hand, Elisabeth Luard, author of the book Truffles, says that truffles’ appeal has to do with pheromones. She says that “Pheromones, for the uninitiated, are the chemical cocktail produced by … people and pigs to attract a mate. They are also, as it happens, produced by truffles as a means of spreading their spores. Not to put too fine a point on it, when ripe and ready, truffles reek of sex.”)

Not to put another fine point on it, but truffles are also prohibitively expensive. If you’re eager to attract on Valentine’s Day, you can substitute fresh truffles with a few drops of truffle oil sprinkled on eggs, potatoes, pasta, asparagus or risotto.

It’s almost a given that a Valentine’s Day dessert contain chocolate in some form. The Mayans and Aztecs, who perfected its use as food and drink long before anyone else in the world ever heard of it, believed chocolate had divine origins and in fact, its Latin name, theobroma cacao, translates as “food of the gods.” Is it the fragrance? The flavor? The way it coats your palate like sweet velvet and slowly dissolves on your tongue? Or simply its chemical makeup, which contains a stimulant? There must be some reason that Casanova was said to be addicted to chocolate; why Montezuma drank hot chocolate before paying a visit to his harem. And why chocolate was once banned from monasteries.

For Valentine’s Day you can give the love of your life a box of candy and be done with it. That’s easy enough. But why not enhance romance with a quintuple whammy of a love food combo? The Banana Split with Honey-Fudge Sauce contains 5 ingredients on the love list. You can make the sauce ahead and put the sundae together at the last minute.