Editor’s note: This is a companion piece to The Great Asterix Feast, Slurrp’s six-part series on food in Asterix, published in the centenary year of its writer, René Goscinny. It ranks the 25 best food moments in the series; the six parts are listed at the end.
AN ALTERNATIVE HISTORY of the series, told entirely through eating. Ranked, with a line on why each matters.
1. The village speciality (Asterix and the Banquet) — The regional dish of Armorica is a punch in the face. The finest culinary punchline in the canon.
2. Obelix vs Mannekenpix (The Twelve Tasks of Asterix, 1976) — Boar, geese, sheep, omelette, fish, ox, caviar, camel, elephant — and he calls it the starters.
3. The invention of chips and mussels (Asterix in Belgium) — Beefix, a pot of oil and a pile of mussels: moules-frites and fish and chips, sixteen centuries early.
4. The invention of tea (Asterix in Britain) — A bag of Getafix’s herbs in hot water rallies the Britons; the last panel names the drink.
5. Boiled boar with mint sauce (Asterix in Britain) — Obelix’s face is the whole Franco-British relationship in one panel.
6. The poisoned cake (Asterix and Cleopatra) — The Gauls prove their innocence by eating the evidence. Obelix asks for the recipe.
7. The strawberries (Asterix the Gaul) — The first food joke in the series: a delaying tactic disguised as an ingredient.
8. Fondue with penalties (Asterix in Switzerland) — Lose your bread, lose your dignity, then your life. Conviviality as regime.
9. The Bruegel banquet (Asterix in Belgium) — The last Goscinny feast, painted as The Peasant Wedding, with a rabbit mourning his signature.
10. The fish brawl (Asterix and the Roman Agent) — A whisper, a gift-wrapped vase, and the village is at war under a rain of mackerel.
11. The exploding cheese (Asterix in Corsica) — A cheese so strong it sinks the pirates.
12. The Gergovia anniversary feast (Asterix in Corsica) — An album that opens with the banquet, and lets the plot happen after dinner.
13. Beetroot juice (Asterix and the Black Gold) — A whole odyssey for rock oil; the substitute was in the garden.
14. The boar stall (Asterix and the Cauldron) — Asterix and Obelix as merchants. The price of boar does not survive.
15. The spa diet (Asterix and the Chieftain’s Shield) — Vitalstatistix on boiled vegetables at Vichy; Obelix in mourning.
16. The turkey (Asterix and the Great Crossing) — The Gauls discover Thanksgiving fifteen centuries early; Obelix’s only note is that it wants stuffing.
17. Cream on everything (Asterix and the Normans) — Terrifying seaborne raiders with the palate of a Rouen bistro.
18. Huevos y Bacon (Asterix in Spain) — A freedom fighter named after breakfast; his son on hunger strike.
19. The hangover cure (Asterix and the Laurel Wreath) — A stew made to be inedible turns out to cure the young master’s morning after.
20. Cacofonix at the table (Asterix and the Normans) — The one banquet where the bard is untied, and the reader feels the reversal.
21. The Belgian breakfast-to-sunset table (Asterix in Belgium) — The Gauls, for once, are out-eaten.
22. Roast camel and caviar (Asterix and the Magic Carpet) — Obelix’s substitute boars, and the loneliest he ever is.
23. The Roman governor’s orgy (Asterix in Switzerland) — Decadence drawn so squalidly that Swiss cleanliness feels like mercy.
24. Unhygienix’s price list (The Mansions of the Gods) — The fishmonger discovers tourism.
25. Oysters at Burdigala (Asterix and the Banquet) — The one stop on the tour that is entirely historically accurate — and nobody notices.
THE GREAT ASTERIX FEAST: THE SERIES
Start at the beginning: Part 1: A Confession Involving A Boar