in the usual sense of foods or drinks which stimulate the sexual appetite and improve performance, are prominent on the list of human ‘wannahaves’, but virtually non-existent. Alcoholic drinks may affect appetite and (sometimes detrimentally) performance, but are outside the scope of this book. So are drugs. That leaves, for consideration here, substances which can be classified as food.
A study of the literature on the subject shows that most foods have, in one culture or another, been perceived as aphrodisiacs. No doubt foods which contain nutrients and therefore help to maintain human bodies in working order can be said to be aphrodisiacs in the very weak sense that they help to maintain the sexual function as well as the numerous others which our bodies are expected to perform. But this sense is so attenuated as to be without significance.
There are a very few substances which improve blood circulation in the genital areas. The most notorious is ‘Spanish fly’, also known as cantharides. It consists of the powdered bodies of a bright green beetle of N. Africa, which in the past was sometimes an ingredient in the Moroccan spice mixture ras-el-hanout. It can be very harmful indeed, and its sale in the spice markets of Morocco was finally banned in the early 1990s. However, it continues to be the subject of tall tales and anecdotes. One Moroccan, asked by a researcher whether he had any personal experience of the effects of Spanish fly, dissolved into laughter and, between laughs, related how his wife had once added some to a pan of spaghetti which she was boiling. When she came to serve this, she found that every single strand of spaghetti was standing bolt upright in the pan.
Johimbine, a substance derived from a S. American tree, improves blood circulation and is considered by some medical authorities as being useful for some people in facilitating the erection of erectile tissue; but it is a drug, not a food. The same applies to the male hormone, testosterone; it is not present in any foodstuffs.
Otherwise, one is left with the psychological effects of certain foods. It may be that sexual appetite is increased for some people if they eat something which they know has an aphrodisiac reputation (oysters); or which is thought to bear some resemblance to sexual organs (carrots, figs); or which is so rare and expensive that it creates an atmosphere of luxury or thoughts of wealth and power (such thoughts being sometimes linked to sex). What this comes down to is that a person's mind may be turned to thoughts of sex by eating something which is in some way a symbol thereof. But this is not a very compelling idea. A remark attributed to a Roman prostitute, that kissing and embracing are the most effective aphrodisiacs, rings true and makes the nibbling of carrots or sucking of figs seem, by comparison, pathetically feeble.
The same verdict, ‘pathetically feeble’, could be applied to a book by one master of English prose (Norman Douglas) and furnished with an approving preface by another (Graham Greene). It is called Venus in the Kitchen (1952) and, whether regarded as a joke or as a source of information, is an embarrassing failure.
There are other books which attempt to deal with the subject seriously, but they—while not irritating their readers by misplaced levity—provide no real food for either sex or thought. Typically, they list foods which have been deemed to be aphrodisiacs in various cultures around the world, to about 1% of which they are able to attach an unconvincing testimonial, such as that a medieval herbalist stated that he had a colleague whose nephew believed that he had been excited after eating the food in question, but which are otherwise unsupported by anything more substantial than superstition and legend.
The negative nature of this survey may prompt the question: why have so many people looked for something that is not there? The answer must surely spring from two sources. First, human beings are subject throughout their adult lives, to a greater or lesser degree, to sexual urges (these being necessary to ensure propagation of the species). Secondly, it is not always easy to satisfy these urges, and an obstacle frequently encountered is outright unwillingness, or at least lack of a matching simultaneous desire, on the part of the prospective partner. If, therefore, a human being of either gender knew of a seemingly innocuous food which, when ingested by the prospective partner, would immediately produce a flood of sexual desire, how happy that human being would be and how often would this knowledge be utilized! In short, the concept of a truly aphrodisiac food is on a par with that of finding a crock of gold at the end of a rainbow.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
