Know Me Come Eat With Me

“Tell me what you eat, and I’ll show you what you are.” This famous aphorism of the French gastronome and food writer Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin appeared in his 1825 treatise, The Physiology of Taste, a copy of which was owned by James Joyce. So when Leopold Bloom echoes this sentiment—“Know me come eat with me”—in the “Lestrygonians” episode of Ulysses, we know that food will be significant in the novel, and that what the characters choose to eat and the manner in which they eat it will tell us a great deal about them.

Bloom’s day begins with a contemplation of what to have for breakfast. He dismisses the idea of ham and eggs, and his thoughts turn instead to kidneys—he considers the possibility of a mutton kidney, before opting instead for a pork kidney from Dlugacz’s butcher shop. Bringing it home, he fries it in butter and seasons it with pepper, though in the process of serving breakfast