Where Food, Kink, and Fetish Intersect

I’ve entered realms of the culinary underworld where food, kink, and fetish intersect; like Steve Burns (Al Pacino) experiences in the film Cruising, and I’m not sure I’ll ever be the same.

In popular culture, particularly film, we’ve had the opportunity to get a glimpse into food fetishes. Who can forget the scene in American Pie, where Jim Levenstein (Jason Biggs) is caught masturbating into a pie after being told that “third base” feels like warm apple pie? Or perhaps the supercharged scene in the film 9 ½ Weeks, where John Gray (Micky Rourke) spoon feeds Elizabeth McGraw (Kim Basinger) various kinds of food while blindfolded?

Given this topic is on the very edges of gastronomy, I was in search of an opening. Then I found a key. I stumbled upon the term “paraphilia.” Before getting in the weeds with too much Latin, paraphilia is the experience of intense arousal to atypical objects, situations, fantasies, behaviors, or individuals. There are 549 types of paraphilia, but a few that cross over into the culinary world, including sitophilia, sploshing, and Nyotaimori/Nantaimori.

Sitophilia

Does “sitophilia” ring a bell? It’s one of those 549 behaviors under the paraphilia umbrella, where an individual has an erotic attraction to (and derives arousal from) food. Upon further investigation, things started to come to focus. Sure enough, John Gray was onto something, as was Jim Levenstein. According to Dr. Mark Griffiths (Nottingham Trent University), there are many different types of activities to explore. Following are just a sampling:

• Eating food(s) off the body of another person (e.g., licking chocolate mousse off the body of a naked partner).
• Using food(s) to enhance a particular sensual act (e.g., sucking on a lime before engaging in oral sex to swell the taste buds and create more sensitivity when licking nether regions)—This could also technically involve the use of a foodstuff to enhance genital lubrication (e.g., use of olive oil).
• Using food(s) as a method of control and/or flagellation in sadomasochistic activity (e.g., the throwing of oranges at the backside as a form of humiliation or punishment). Dominant partners can also choose to control their submissive partner’s eating habits and food intake as a regular part of their role play.
• Using food(s) as a self-pleasuring aid. This may include hollowing out foodstuffs (such as a pumpkin) into which intercourse can be simulated and using phallic-shaped foods as a penis substitute (e.g., cucumbers).
• Incorporating bodily fluids that have been blended into other foods (e.g., mashed potatoes).

Sploshing

Then there’s “sploshing,” which is a little less Latin and a lot messier. Coined and popularized by British fetish magazine Splosh!, sploshing is a form of erotic food play wherein participants seek arousal by slathering various substances onto naked skin, face, or clothing. In the same realm as the Wet And Messy fetish (WAM), the term sploshing exclusively includes the use of food—compared to other substances like water, mud, or baby oil.

The mere presence of food, however, does not make it a sploshing activity. Bodily fluids are generally not welcome under the WAM umbrella. The fetish is also not about using a bit of whipped cream and chocolate to “spice up” the bedroom. It’s about using these same treats but in copious amounts.

BDSM is invoked when sploshers dominate sploshees with their consent, play-forcing their partners to eat unappetizing combos like hot peppers and ice cream or raw eggs and granola, pouring buckets of spaghetti on their heads, placing cucumbers or even handfuls of Hershey’s kisses into their orifices, allowing sploshees to safely feel weird, tickled, humiliated, and turned on.

Other spin-offs include free-for-all splosh parties, including eating while eating, e.g., an orgy where people smear food all over each other and lick it off. A birthday sploshing party might involve sitting on your own birthday cake and letting your partner(s) gobble it up off your backside.

For those who seek to know more, the Splosh! website has been resurrected.

Nyotaimori/Nantaimori

Lastly, and perhaps more mainstream, is Nyotaimori/Nantaimori, often referred to as “body sushi.” It’s the Japanese practice of serving sashimi or sushi from the naked body of a woman (Nyotaimori) or man (Nantaimori). And it has a history!

The origin of Nyotaimori can be traced back to the food play performed in Japanese red-light districts during the Edo period (1603-1867), where sake would be poured into a sex worker’s pubic region for drinking purposes. This practice was further evolved in the 60s by the hot spring bathing industry, where the erotic nature of Nyotaimori was used as an advertising tactic by the hot spring resorts to attract customers who were on company trips.

In traditional Nyotaimori, the model is generally expected to always lie still and not talk with guests. The sushi is placed on sanitized leaves on the model’s body to prevent skin-to-fish contact and on sufficiently flat areas of the body off which the sushi will not roll.

Talking with the models is discouraged, as are inappropriate gestures, and diners can only pick up sushi with chopsticks, although rules in some restaurants are less strict. For example, in some restaurants guests can nibble nori rolls directly off the body if they choose.

Denver has had establishments venture into offering special nights for Nyotaimori. Hapa, in Boulder, has offered it in the past (as recently as 2011). There are currently offerings in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and New York City that you can visit or arrange for models and/or private parties to enjoy this activity.

If a given activity is within the confines of the law and is consensual, bon appetit!