There Is No Chocolate in Outer Space

Or is there?

Stumped for a topic to post on today, I consulted my twitter buds who helpfully suggested blogging about chocolate (Nicola) and science fiction/writing (Charlie Jane).* Long, long ago--2006!--I wrote about my annoyance with futuristic showers:

Here's the thing: Showers actually work pretty well. Water sprays out onto body, body gets clean (add soap in there somewhere). Do we really believe that there is a far better way that technology will find? I don't. If showering changes, my guess is it will be for the worse, because of lack of energy or fresh water. And that's okay, that would be interesting, but any time a character in a science fiction novel is luxuriating in a fancy shower with multiple sprays or a weird door or whatever? It's just gratuitous window-dressing. And it makes me want to kill.

Stay with me here, because I'm going to attempt linking these two things.

Where is the chocolate of the future? I'm trying to think of books where desserts figure in and not coming up with much, though I do have a vague sense of cube-shaped desserts that taste like deliciousness. Of course, even this concept ignores the part of eating good food that uses the senses besides taste. I'm thinking a gelatinous cube still has the texture of a gelatinous cube even if it tastes like cheesecake. Er, chocolate cheesecake.

And I know there must be thousands of banquet scenes of the future where there is food, but I can't think of any that are particularly memorable off the top of my head. Of course, there are vast holes in my knowledge of SF, which is where y'all come in. Point out good examples of food in SF (bonus points for dessert) in the comments, if you think of any.

Because it seems like the future of chocolate could make for some really interesting world-building opportunities. Does it still exist? If not, is there a synthetic version? What if in the future there is ONLY Hershey's syrup? What if cocoa becomes a fuel source instead of a joy source? What if the parts of the world where cacao trees grow no longer exist in a way that can produce the good stuff?

Certainly, in real life there's a fascination with the food astronauts eat--freeze dried ice cream and Tang, anyone? So why not in fiction?

Maybe this is more tied to the sense of discomfort science fiction has embraced. Yes, the vistas are vast and the stories all over the place, but when I think of characters in SFF stories, I don't think of hedonists. I don't think of foodies. I have trouble thinking of protagonists who especially enjoy that necessary part of life. Certainly, they aren't enjoying it as often as they step into the futuristic shower.

So, I guess that's what I'm saying: We need some foodies in science fiction. (And be careful not to be lame when you try to reinvent the chocolate of the future.)

*Yes, I think it's obvious I have no real point here. But my daily quota has been fulfilled. Thank you for playing along!