Food 'n' Flix Roundup - When Harry Met Sally

This month I guest hosted the Food 'n' Flix challenge and the movie I chose was When Harry Met Sally. The idea behind the challenge is to cook something inspired by the film - whether it's a meal the characters eat, or something that ties in more loosely to the city in which it is set, for instance.

It's the story of how a friendship over many years turns into love - but to many people, When Harry Met Sally means just one thing - the "I'll have what she's having" scene. It's the most memorable moment in the film, and comes about because Harry (Billy Crystal) insists he's never been with a woman who has faked an orgasm and that he would be able to tell - so Sally sets out to prove him wrong. She very loudly fakes an orgasm in the middle of a deli (Katz's in NYC). When she's finished, a woman at the next table tells the waiter "I'll have what she's having!".

The themes of food, eating and restaurants occur again and again in the film, even at the very beginning, when Harry and Sally car share on a trip to New York, Harry offers Sally a grape and she says "No, I don't like to eat between meals" - this is just the first indication of her rigorous and rather picky attitude to food. Not long after, we see them in a restaurant, and Sally - without pausing for breath - orders "Chef's salad with oil and vinegar on the side and apple pie a la mode, but I'd like the pie heated and I don't want ice cream on the top I want it on the side and I want strawberry and vanilla if you have it and if not then no ice cream, whipped cream, but only if it's real, if it's out of a can then nothing, just the pie but then not heated." She is certainly a woman who knows what she wants!

So without further ado onto the roundup... my own entry was the apple pie a la mode, described by Sally above. There was so much food mentioned and eaten in the movie I wanted to recreate one of the recipes, and I really like apple pie.

Heather from Girlichef made this Smoky Chicken Paprikash Soup. She was inspired by a funny scene from the movie where Harry and Sally decide to talk in silly voices and he gets her to say "Waiter, there is too much pepper on my paprikash but I would be proud to partake of your pecan pie". Paprikash is a stew of Hungarian origin and here Heather has turned it into a soup.



Camilla from Culinary Adventures with Camilla made these "mess-omars". In the film, Mallomars are described as "the greatest cookie of all time". I'd never heard of them, but apparently they are called Schokokusse in Germany - which I absolutely adored when I lived there. Camilla very bravely decided to make her own Mallomars, infusing them with ginger. It's a complicated three-stage recipe so I think she did a great job - though the name comes from the fact that Camilla thinks they look a bit of a mess! I'd be more than happy to try one :-)




In the film, Sally is typically specific when she orders a Bloody Mary, asking for "Regular tomato juice, not too much ice, and fill it up about three quarters, and then add a splash of Bloody Mary mix,  just a splash, and a little piece of lime, but on the side.” Evelyne from Cheap Ethnic Eatz has made these Bloody Mary Popsicles - I love the idea of the frozen cocktail, and the stick is a piece of celery. Evelyne says you have to eat these fast before they melt!



I was hoping someone would bake or cook a dish inspired by the famous "I'll have what she;'s having" scene, and Evelyne didn't let me down. She also made this Tropical Orgasm, which is a cocktail based on a strawberry daiquiri with added vodka and rum, topped up with pink lemonade. It looks delicious!

Debra from Eliot's Eats had never seen When Harry Met Sally so I'm glad to have introduced her to the film! She also used the "paprikash" scene as inspiration and made this Dilled Chicken Paprika, which she served with noodles. It looks like a tasty dish and one I might have to try myself.

But that's not all - Debra also made this coconut chocolate cake. At the end of the film, you see an interview with Harry and Sally, some years later, where they are talking about their wedding.

Harry:   We had this – we had a really wonderful wedding.

Sally:  It was – it really was a

[laugh]

Sally:   Beautiful wedding.

Harry: [overlapping] It was great. We had this enormous coconut cake.

Sally:   Huge coconut cake with a – with a – tiers and there was this very rich chocolate sauce on the side.

Harry:  Right, cause not everybody likes it on the cake, cause it makes it very soggy.

Sally:   Particularly the coconut soaks up a lot of excess and you really – it’s important to keep it on the side.

Debra's cake sounds delicious and looks really pretty in this bundt form:

Thanks to everyone who entered. The movie for September is Toast (based on Nigel Slater's book) and is hosted by This Mama Cooks.