The Love Food Quiz: Does Erotic Food exist?

Are there foods that are aphrodisiacs? Does Erotic Food exist?
Yes and No.
Take this quiz to know more about them and their use in cookery.

Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com

Most medical textbooks and or health/wellness sites tell you that it hasn’t been satisfactorily proven that food is erotic.

Or can act like an aphrodisiac.

But they also say there is a lot to show that the foods that people perceive as aphrodisiacs cause a placebo effect and therefore do act like aphrodisiacs, perking libido, sending blood rushing to the nether regions, unleashing giant rushes of testosterone in males and females and increasing phenylethylamine, dopamine and anandamide in the brain.

Thus the mere suggestion that a food resembles genitalia, or can bring pleasure, not just to the stomach, is enough to convert it into an erotic food and set the mind racing. And for it to do the job of being a sex/love-enhancing food. So like, QED.

For Valentine's Day, here’s a little gourmet quiz about foods believed to be erotic and recipes associated with them.

*Information sourced from WebMD and Wikipedia.

**The most common banana species are Musa acuminate, Musa balbisiana and Musa paradisiaca.