06 Jul
Top-down view of the Greek Fisherman's Stew we made for our Snowpiercer menu. The frozen stew sits in a clear glass bowl and a spoon sits in the center of the horizontal image. The stew is surrounded by a white faux-fur background.

Snowpiercer

April 19, 2024munch

“That’s what people in the best place say to the people in the worst place.”

– Curtis

Did you think we could all come out of our homes and start dining out, shopping, and seeing people again? If you did, you’re wrong! We are still very much in the midst of a pandemic. Things may not be as deadly outside as they were in Snowpiercer, but they’re certainly not safe. This is why the Munch crew is still cooking, eating, drinking, and watching from the safety of our homes.

Snowpiercer is a visually striking movie with some truly incredible set design. The whole movie takes place inside a moving train that is seemingly thousands of feet long as the main cast of characters trek from the very end of the train to the engine upfront. Each car has a new and intricate design, many of which pay homage to the graphic novel “Le Transperceneige” by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand, and Jean-Marc Rochette on which the movie is based. We followed suit and prepared dishes for some of the most memorable cars on the train… And then we froze everything.

One of the earlier cars the characters enter resembles a greenhouse. It’s full of green, leafy plants – a stark contrast the dingy, metallic cars they started from. We also started with a leafy herb salad served with a squeeze of lemon and a pinch of flaky sea salt.

  • Eye-level view of the Leafy Herb Salad sitting in a bowl on top of a blue and white grid like pattern. A white mound sits behind it framed against a blue background. The background was built to depict the cool world in Snowpiercer.
  • For our Snowpiercer menu we made a Leafy Herb Salad that we frozen to really get a sense of the frozen nature of the movie. There is a blue and white rectangular plate sitting under the salad and the surrounding areas of the photo are white.
  • Top-down view of the Frozen Leafy Herb Salad that is sitting a top of a rectangle plate with a blue grid like pattern own it. A fork sits diagonally beside the salad, out of focus. A white fluffy blanket makes of the background under the rectangular plate.
  • Close-up on the frozen Leafy Herb Salad we made for our Snowpiercer menu sitting on the left-hand side of the vertical photograph. Out of focus in a fork sitting beside it and the blue and white backdrop sitting around it.
  • With an extremely shallow field of view you can see dew droplets on the tines of a fork sitting next to the Leafy Herb Salad that is out of focus on the left-hand side of the frame. A white and blue backdrop sits around the fork tines.
  • Eye-level view of the frozen Leafy Herb Salad we made for our Snowpiercer menu. The salad sits on a white bowl that sits on a white and blue rectangle plate. The salad is surrounded by white mounds against a blue backdrop.
  • Surrounded by a white blanket sits a frozen Leafy Herb Salad in a bowl. Bits of salt and Lemon zest can be see on top of the leafy greens. The bowl is above a white and blue grid-like plate with a fork on right-hand side of the salad.

Later on their journey, the characters make it to an aquarium car with glass walls all around housing schools of live fish. Here, they encounter a lone chef preparing a bi-annual sushi meal. We remembered the aquarium but not the sushi, so we ended up making a Greek fisherman’s stew. Given our June-uary weather here in Seattle, it was a completely appropriate meal and ended up being very flavorful and satisfying.

  • Close up on the Greek Fisherman's stew we made for our Snowpiercer post. The frozen soup sits in a simple clear glass bowl along the right-hand side of the frame. In the background is a white blanket sitting in front of a blue background.
  • For our Snowpiercer menu we froze a tasty Greek Fisherman's Stew that has fish and potato pieces in the stew sticking out of the frozen broth. a Spoon sits face-down on the stew and the surrounding image is a white blanket meant to look like snow and blue backdrop. The stew sits on the left of the frame in this vertical photograph.
  • Close up of a frosted clear glass bowl with a frozen orange-dish stew in the center. Some cod sits out of the stew and a spoon sits on the hard surface of the frozen stew. The bowl sits on a white blanket and is set against a blue background.
  • Top down view of the Greek Fisherman's Stew we made for our Snowpiercer menu. The stew is frozen in a simple clear glass bowl that sits on a white blanket against a blue background.
  • A frozen glass bowl sits frosted in the center of a frame. The bowl is holding frozen Greek Fisherman's Stew and a spoon sits on its frozen surface. To evoke the snowy world of the Snowpiercer film we put together a snow scene and a light blue background.

For dessert, we skipped ahead to the end of the movie when (spoilers!) the train crashes and spews fire, oil, and ash into the frozen landscape. We paired that scene with a cream cheese semifreddo served with a drizzle of both maple syrup and balsamic vinegar (even better if you have a balsamic reduction on hand). It may sound like a strange combination, but don’t overlook the balsamic vinegar. The acidity really adds a necessary depth and interest to the dish overall.

  • Cream Cheese Semifreddo sits on the right-hand side of the vertical photography as it sits against a snow-white blanket with a blue backdrop behind the blanket.
  • To really get a sense of the snow-covered mountains in Snowpiercer we shot the Cream Cheese Semifreddo against a white blanket with a blue background above it. Maple syrup and balsamic vinegar are drizzled on top of the semifreddo.
  • Top view of the Cream Cheese Semifreddo. A white backdrop really enhances the brown hues in the maple syrup and balsamic vinegar that are poured on top. A white blanket sits behind the white plate.
  • Cream Cheese Semifreddo sits in the center of the photograph drizzled with maple syrup and balsamic vinegar. The dessert is surrounding by a white backdrop and a light blue background sit behind it. This was put together for our Snowpiercer post.
  • Tightly cropped view of the Cream Cheese Semifreddo focusing justing on the tip of the spoon sitting on the dessert. A blue and white background sits behind the dessert.
  • Cream Cheese Semifreddo on a white plate shot from above on a vertical photograph. Drizzled on top of the semifreddo is a combination of maple syrup and balsamic vinegar, both different colors. A spoon rests on the plate and the semifreddo against a blue background and a white blanket meant to look like snow for our Snowpiercer post.
  • Cream Cheese Semifreddo on a white plate on the right-hand side of a vertical photograph. Drizzled on top of the semifreddo is a combination of maple syrup and balsamic vinegar, both different colors. A spoon rests on the plate and the semifreddo against a blue background and a white blanket meant to look like snow for our Snowpiercer post.

Finally, continuing with our frozen theme, we made a frozen cocktail. We made a blended strawberry Negroni, and despite choosing to pair it with a wintry film, it was the perfect summer slushy.

  • In the center of the frame is a pile of frozen strawberries. Out of focus to the left of it is an amber cocktail glass with a twisted orange peel on top. This set was put together to shoot our Snowpiercer menu.
  • Three-quarters view of the Frozen Strawberry Negroni and a pile of frozen strawberries sitting to the right of the amber glass. A curled orange peel sits on top of the cocktail and both are surrounded by a white blanket and a blue background at the top of the photograph.
  • In a vertical photography sits a frosted amber cocktail glass in the center of the frame. The glass contains a Frozen Strawberry Negroni and an orange peel sits on top. Surrounding the glass is a white blanket and in the background is a light blue sky.
  • Straight-on view of the Strawberry Frozen Negroni. The amber of the glass and the orange peel twist contrast nicely to the light blue background. The frosted cocktail sits on a white snow-like mound.
  • Top view looking down at a Frozen Strawberry Negroni we made for our Snowpiercer menu. The cocktail is in an amber glass with a considerable amount of frost on the glass. A curled orange peel sits on top.
  • Looking up at a frozen amber rocks glass you can see a bit of a orange twist on top and frozen strawberry Negroni cocktail sits in the glass. That glass is sitting on a mound that looks like snow and there is a blue background put together for our Snowpiercer post.
  • An amber rocks glass is sitting high on a mound of white blanket against a blue background. The shot was meant to give a sense of the environment for our menu pairing with Snowpiercer.
  • As part of our Snowpiercer menu we had a frozen Strawberry Negroni Cocktail. The cocktail is in a heavily frosted amber glass sitting on a white blanket that looks like snow against a light blue background. An orange peel twist sits on top of the cocktail.

We all knew what we were getting into with Snowpiercer since we’d all seen it before and remembered quite well how dark things got, yet as we sat down to watch, we were all still a little surprised by just how hard some of the themes still hit. This speaks to the craft and care spent in writing and filming Snowpiercer because the setting itself is wild: in the not-so-distant future, a child obsessed with trains grows up to build a railroad that circumnavigates the Earth and a train that runs on it that houses all that remains of life on Earth after a chemically-induced winter freezes the whole world over. Wild!

But at the end of the day, this is very much a Bong Joon-Ho movie not just because it stars Song Kang Ho, but because it explores and challenges class divides and social order. While the movie could easily have spent more time explaining how the train works, it is much more focused on the social engineering than the mechanical. If you’re stuck inside (where you should be) questioning and challenging how our society is currently functioning, let us say that Snowpiercer might be a good companion.

The passengers in the best position on the train frequently lament that balance and order are key and must not be disturbed (does this sound familiar?). Everyone has their role, their preordained position, their purpose. The people at the back of the train know that their lot is entirely unjust and that some of the wealth in other cars could be redistributed so more people could prosper. Flashbacks show previous attempts to reach these cars, but each failure is met with harsher and harsher punishments to discourage uprises and break the spirit of the most marginalized (seriously, does this sound familiar?) It’s hard not to cringe (or cry) a little (or a lot) when you watch the propaganda shown on the Snowpiercer to justify and protect the prosperity of the elite at the expense of the most vulnerable. The déjà vu we experienced has never felt so nauseating.

If you take one lesson away from this post and from Snowpiercer, we hope it’s that you accept that sometimes you just have to blow the whole system up and start over because the system is too broken to be fixed (or in many cases, designed to be “broken” in the first place). We must take drastic steps today to defund the police, dismantle the prison industrial complex, fight climate change, and – don’t forget! – slow the spread of the coronavirus (just to name a few things that are top of mind for us right now). And we sincerely hope we do because we don’t want to see a bunch of memes in 2031 making dark commentary on how life isn’t so different from life in Snowpiercer.

Top-down view of the chocolate-dipped cherry almond biscotti. The Biscotti is stacked and you can see the glass plate below it and the red ribbon and bells that color the glass plate.