We binged as we watched

James Bond's martinis, mafia meals from The Godfather, the coffee shop from Friends, Jughead's burgers. Characters come alive when they eat and drink. So why don't more of them do it?

- VIR SANGHVI

Do you remember that scene in Casino Royale, Daniel Craig's first outing as James Bond, when an overeager bartender asks him about his martini. "Shaken or stirred?"

Craig looks disgusted. "Do I look like I give a damn?" he responds.

The scene was supposed to tell us that this was a Bond for our times. It served as a self-referential jab at the (mostly phoney) snobbery that has characterised 007. Much is made of Bond's love for, and knowledge of, wine. In the climax of Diamonds Are Forever, the villains enter Bond's cabin on a luxury liner pretending to be waiters. They show him a bottle of Château Mouton Rothschild. Bond (Sean Connery), smelling a rat, says "I am surprised you haven't served a claret," using the traditional English term for a red wine from Bordeaux.

The waiters make excuses for not having a claret on the ship and Bond knows at once that they are imposters.

"Château Mouton Rothschild is a claret," he responds and proceeds to kill them.

Ah, movies and food and wine! When James Bond does eat, it is steak, lamb chops, and lots of eggs.

But at least he eats!

When I was a child, I used to read Superman and

Batman comics and think to myself, "Don't these guys ever eat?" Superman, a Kryptonian, perhaps did not need to eat at all. But Batman? He must have had to live on solid protein to build those muscles, right? Yet, every time Batman and Robin took on the Joker they seemed to do so on empty stomachs.