Hey, it’s February, the month where you develop an unprecedented desire for flowers, can’t have a wank the two weeks either side of the 14th without feeling sad, and decide that your happiness may be solely dependent on a hastily written “You’re the gin to my tonic” card from Oliver Bonas. Thanks, capitalism!But beyond lonely wanks and supermarket flowers, Valentine’s Day is so often about food. Research conducted by relationship app Happy Couple found that 45 percent of couples would choose to do mark V Day with a “dinner, movie, or stroll,” meaning that at least a few of your pointless V-Day arguments will have been over a PizzaExpress Fiorentina. The language we use to talk about sex is often laden with illusions to, ahem, eating, and at the end of the day, if you’ve managed to sustain a “relationship” with someone but haven’t shared one single meal together, then you’ve kind of fucked it, haven’t you?
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As a result, our relationships are contextualised around food. We imbue meaning into every shared fried chicken box and each forkful of pasta yanked from another's starchy plate.For me, love and food are especially tied. When I broke up with my last long-term boyfriend, making scrambled eggs would send me bawling—a simple dish that had accrued meaning through the ritualistic breakfasts we shared, and him teaching me how to make them posh and creamy, rather than rubbery and shit.This marker of affection, this culinary connection, often evades snobbery. The expensive Nobu dinner I went to recently with my boyfriend was nice, but sitting on his bed drunk, eating a pizza from the corner shop at 1 AM on a Thursday, meant more. What's more, these connections aren’t exclusive to romantic love. Probably the most in love with a person I’ve been was my best friend from university, who turned up to visit me on my year abroad with a suitcase full of cheese. She proceeded to make tartiflette with the Reblochon, and the day after suggested we deep-fry the remains. It was so amazingly terrible. That meal is maybe only beaten by the time I put hash browns on a frozen pizza because I have never been more in love with myself than I was in that moment.This Valentine’s Day, MUNCHIES asked people about the foods that made them fall in love, from pre-bang dumplings to “I love you” over a £3 meal deal.
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Jamie, London
Ryan, London
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Sirin, London
Anon, New York
Indigo, Oslo
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Four years later, we’re still together, and he still makes that pasta sauce.After my first weekend on-call ever as a doctor, I went back to my boyfriend’s house and he fed me crumpets with butter and a bottle of Prosecco, and then fingered me and I fell asleep. It was the best night of my life.I was living in Phnom Penh, and it was my birthday. Me and this guy had only been dating for a few weeks, but dating for a few weeks and then having a birthday is terrible timing. I now know this and avoid all contact with love interests from January to March, which is when my birthday is.He asked me out for dinner, but because he's French, he “invited” me. The French don't fuck about, they have a rigid social code about paying for dinner. If you're invited by someone, they are paying for you. It's like saying “my treat” but 1,000 times clearer and sexier. I was 19. I did not know this.I happily agreed to dinner. Not knowing it was fancy and not knowing this fancy meal was basically a birthday present, I asked my friend along. I just thought we were going out for dinner. Clearly, that was not what he had in mind, but he rolled with it, and somehow me, my friend, and this guy all had very fancy steaks at the fanciest restaurant downtown Phnom Penh had to offer.I don't give much of a shit about men buying me dinner, but men embracing change when things don't go their way, and buying you AND your mate dinner, is lovely. The steak was fucking tasty, and we were together two years.It was a £3 meal deal he bought me from Crunchy’s in Leeds when I was coming down hard. I think that was the day I said “I love you” and, five years down the line, we’re still together so must have worked.