It's best embodied by the image of Henry VIII, in full regalia at a banquet, taking a snarly bite out of a vast turkey drumstick and hurling the remains over his shoulder, to be devoured by slavering hounds. Other incarnations of this quintessential gesture include the sight of the Korean actor Choi Min-sik chewing his way through a live octopus in the film Oldboy, as its tendrils frantically clutch at his face; and the image of Mr T, the bling-drenched enforcer from The A-Team, seen in a TV commercial standing up in a tank turret, biting off the end of a Snickers bar and growling, "Ggggnnnnah! Get some nuts!". Men and food, eh? However sophisticated we become about the business of ingesting...
↧