Food + Fiction

The fictional Nadia's Café is the heart of its Arab community, and our heroine Sirine, the Iraqi-American chef, is its soul. These recipes bring some of that kitchen magic to your table to share with your favorite people.

The enticing aroma and salty-sweet crunch of caramel popcorn is literally the taste of the circus. You can easily make a batch in about half an hour — plenty of time to escape into the magic of 'The Night Circus.'

This picadillo recipe is homey, earthy, a little bit exotic, and tastes even better when it's shared with the people you love. Fire up the stove, crank the timba music, pour a cuba libre, and dance in your kitchen.

How about a delicious meal to go with your immersive reads?! This is just the recipe to give you a taste of Sweden. It's comforting with luscious contrasts between hot, cool, tart, sweet, and savory in every bite.

Treat yourself to a recipe for homemade Chicago-style hot dogs! It's an all-beef dog 'dragged through the garden' with colorful toppings for a taste explosion, inspired by Erik Larson's brilliant romp through history.

Zakuski, cold snacks enjoyed with vodka (or black tea), are a Slavic celebration of this life, this day, this moment with the people you hold dear. Grab your besties, this book, and raise a glass. Za vashe zrodovye!

This colorful salad combines sweet oranges, cool fennel and mint, and salty olives for a taste that's bold and a little exotic. It's a tribute to 'Tangerine,' a taut noir thriller set in 1950s Tangier, Morocco.

The Tom Collins is the ultimate highball, a combo of gin, simple syrup, lemon, and bubbly water. This classic is effervescent and refreshing — the ideal go-along for a literary thriller set on a retro luxury liner.

Bake a batch of Scotch eggs and get caught up in a police procedural that travels from a peat bog in the Scottish Highlands to beautiful Edinburgh. Sure, there's murder afoot, but that's no excuse to go hungry.

Forget everything you know about hot chocolate! This luscious recipe is rich, creamy, and not too sweet — the perfect thing to sip while you snuggle up with a book. Ready in minutes, no paper packet of brown powder in sight.

This recipe for slinky, garlicky noodles is about as laidback and easy as it gets, the kind of food you make while wearing pajamas and losing yourself in an excellent book. They're basically a hug in a bowl.

The pages of 'Like Water for Chocolate' burn with the various ways humans can love each other: passionately, platonically, painfully — and food is a full-fledged character in this lush, satisfying family saga.