History Main / ThroughHisStomach

* In ''Anime/{{Maburaho}}'' Yuna constantly cooks for Kazuki and brings him obento, because "that's whata wife is supposed to do". This is also played with in two episodes, one being where Rin wants to try to cook an obento for a teacher she had a crush on, however as she isn't as feminine as the rest of the female cast, her cooking tastes horrible. [[spoiler: In the end, she doesn't give the obento to the teacher, but instead gives it to Kazuki who eats it all, despite its horrible taste.]] In another episode, when Kazuki's parents are supposed to come over to visit, upon learning eel is their favourite meal, all three girls attempt to prepare eel to impress his parents.

* Early in the manga ''Manga/DuskMaidenOfAmnesia'', Yuuko is shown feeding Teiichi from a bento. On the next page, she pulls him down onto her LapPillow. He's a bit weirded out by this, because Yuuko, although very good-looking and ''[[BuxomIsBetter built]]'', has been dead for something like fifty years. (She doesn't ''quite'' fit the CuteGhostGirl terms, though, as everyone else in the school either can't see her at all or sees her as a StringyHairedGhostGirl.)

[[quoteright:320:[[Anime/MyHime https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/through-mikotos-stomach.gif]]]]
[[caption-width-right:320:For some, the first stage of love is also the most delicious.]]

* ''Manga/MonthlyGirlsNozakiKun'': Kashima attempts to appeal to her beloved senpai Hori by secretly making a cake for him (he doesn't like being given homemade food so she pretends she bought it). The approach she uses for this plan is hilariously unromantic (for example her asking a coworker to keep it a secret makes it sound like she's whipping up drugs). She makes brandy cake, and Hori ends up eating most of it. The problem? Hori turns out to have really bad alcohol tolerance and so ends up ''drunk''.

** Unintentionally by Gwendolyn. Her attempts to talk to Frederick [[PoorCommunicationKills are fraught with misunderstandings and accidents]], but when he first tastes her cooking her natural warmth and kindness finally become clear to him, opening the way for him to take the first step towards actually getting to know his fiancée. The fact that he dozed off out of contentment from the meal (eaten after a very stressful day for him) and dropped his head onto her shoulder probably helped too.

* ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'': On multiple occasions, Kaguya has attempted to give Shirogane food, but -- with the exception of a single slice of birthday cake -- something always happens to prevent him from eating it [[spoiler:until after they've already been dating for several months]]. She has much better luck when it comes to her tea, with a third party noting after drinking it that she's perfected it for his specific tastes.

* ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'': On multiple occasions, Kaguya has attempted to give Shirogane food, but -- with the exception of a single slice of birthday cake -- something always happens to prevent him from eating it [[spoiler:until after they've already been dating for several months.]]

* Creator/AGnosis' comics on [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Greek myth]] have a platonic version in [[GodOfDarkness Mother Nyx]]. Though she's [[ScrewPolitenessImASenior not warm or outwardly affectionate]], she always makes sure to feed the people she cares about, even [[https://theia-mania-comics.tumblr.com/post/690684586837032960/queen-of-the-dead-122-finally-it-was-a-bit-hard appearing]] from BehindTheBlack in the middle of a field to shove some breakfast into Hades' hands.

* Parodied in one of the female troll joke emotes in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': "Da way to a man's heart is through his stomach, but I go through da ribcage."

** There's also a non-romantic example when Gwen hosts a dinner party; throughout the series up to that point, Frederick's mother Queen Isolde had been aloof and disdainful of the {{Arranged Marriage}}s of her sons or any other interactions with her future daughters-in-law (to the point of ''reading a magazine'' at the table during said party), but eating a delicious dessert of Gwen's finally makes her perk up and get involved in conversations with the other guests.

* On ''Series: LawAndOrder:SpecialVictimsUnit'', Italian-American detective Sonny Carisi often shows his affection or appreciation through food, particularly with his partner, Amanda Rollins. His compulsive desire to feed her (claiming she doesn't eat enough) is bordering on RunningGag, and he is often at her home cooking for her and her daughters, or teaching her oldest to cook. When he brings her home to meet his parents, his Ma proves this is an inherited trait, as she takes one look at Amanda and declares "she needs to eat."

* On ''Series: LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'', Italian-American detective Sonny Carisi often shows his affection or appreciation through food, particularly with his partner, Amanda Rollins. His compulsive desire to feed her (claiming she doesn't eat enough) is bordering on RunningGag, and he is often at her home cooking for her and her daughters, or teaching her oldest to cook. When he brings her home to meet his parents, his Ma proves this is an inherited trait, as she takes one look at Amanda and declares "she needs to eat."

* On ''Series:LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'', Italian-American detective Sonny Carisi often shows his affection or appreciation through food, particularly with his partner, Amanda Rollins. His compulsive desire to feed her (claiming she doesn't eat enough) is bordering on RunningGag, and he is often at her home cooking for her and her daughters, or teaching her oldest to cook. When he brings her home to meet his parents, his Ma proves this is an inherited trait, as she takes one look at Amanda and declares "she needs to eat."

** Unintentionally by Gwen. Her attempts to talk to Frederick are fraught with misunderstandings and accidents, but when he first tastes her cooking her natural warmth and kindness finally become clear to him, opening the way for him to take the first step towards actually getting to know his fiancée. The fact that he dozed off out of contentment from the meal (eaten after a very stressful day for him) and dropped his head onto her shoulder probably helped too.

* ''Webcomic/CursedPrincessClub'': Unintentionally by Gwen. Her attempts to talk to Frederick are fraught with misunderstandings and accidents, but when he first tastes her cooking her natural warmth and kindness finally become clear to him, opening the way for him to take the first step towards actually getting to know his fiancée. There's also a non-romantic example when Gwen hosts a dinner party; throughout the series up to that point, Frederick's mother Queen Isolde had been aloof and disdainful of the {{Arranged Marriage}}s of her sons or any other interactions with her future daughters-in-law (to the point of ''reading a magazine'' at the table during said party), but eating a delicious dessert of Gwen's finally makes her perk up and get involved in conversations with the other guests.

* ''Webcomic/CursedPrincessClub'': Unintentionally by Gwen. Her attempts to talk to Frederick are fraught with misunderstandings and accidents, but when he first tastes her cooking her natural warmth and kindness finally become clear to him, opening the way for him to take the first step towards actually getting to know his fiancée.

* In ''Anime/{{Colorful}}'', Makoto's mother spends most of the film making homemade meals, much of which the main character refuses to eat because of his resentment towards her. [[spoiler: Mitsuru yells at him about this toward the end of the film, as before Makoto had tried to commit suicide, she always bought prepackaged meals, and is now putting in far more effort that he is cruelly refusing]].

Related to FeminineWomenCanCook, and often these two tropes are run together in the same plot line. If the main LoveInterest is a {{Tomboy}} expect her to (often comically) struggle until some older mother figure takes pity on her and helps.

* An inordinate amount of time in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' seems to be spent on cooking. Shirou, Rin and Sakura can cook (different styles, but they can all cook). Taiga [[LethalChef can't.]] Saber mainly just [[BigEater eats]].

* Combined with the FlorenceNightengaleEffect in ''WesternAnimation/{{Encanto}}''. Mirabel's father is ''extremely'' accident-prone, while her mother heals people though her food. Needless to say, they saw a ''lot'' of each other.