And Your Reward Is Edible - Television Tropes & Idioms

Bob is walking along minding his own business, when he comes upon Charlie who is in trouble; either having car trouble or being pursued by thugs or having lost something. Bob then takes it upon himself to help Charlie out of whatever pickle he is in. After that, Charlie is so grateful to Bob for his help that he gives him some food that he has with him, either a candy bar or a cookie or any kind of edible foodstuff.

Initially, this trope is Exactly What It Says on the Tin. A character is given food for his kind and selfless actions to the bystander in trouble. Expect this trope to show up in a lot of media.

Compare: Food As Bribe Contrast: Denied Food as Punishment

Examples:

Anime and Manga

Inverted in an episode of Kurokami, where a girl is revealed to be an Improbable Weapon User after being bought a bowl of ramen.
Tubby also receives this treatment in an episode of the Little Lulu anime after inadvertently finding Lulu's pop's lucky gold piece in the mud, while making a mud cake to pass off as a real cake ( He and the others ate the entire cake that was intended for Lulu's pop).
Par for the course in Toriko, since the food's what they're after in the first place.

Literature

There is a Clifford the Big Red Dog book where Clifford is rewarded with some meat by a meat truck driver after helping him with his truck while looking for Emily Elizabeth.
Invoked by Ciaphas Cain in Death Or Glory; after spending the entire novel leading an epic trek to safety through Ork infested territory he's pleased to realise that the regiment that's been sent to meet his group of ragtag survivors is Valhallan and promptly asks for his long awaited cup of tanna.

Live-Action TV

Also shows up in an episode of The Benny Hill Show.

Film

Subverted in Balto where Steele frames Balto by throwing sausage links that he stole himself from a butcher shop at Balto. The butcher blames Balto for stealing the sausages then promptly rewards Steele with the sausages that he stole himself. That Steele is a complete jerk.

Western Animation

Subverted in one episode of Doug, where Doug finds an envelope containing a huge wad of money. Everyone (including the police, who give him back the envelope after it goes unclaimed for a whole month) tells him to keep the money, but he eventually discovers it was lost by a slightly loopy elderly woman. He does the right thing and returns the money, and she rewards him for his good deed with a pack of chewing gum.
In The Critic, Jay discovers that the Oscar statuettes are actually chocolate.
"Now I want one even more!"

Video Games

World of Warcraft tends to have these, with the reward being a healing item which is slightly better than the ones available at the time.
In The Elder Scrolls food is pretty much Vendor Trash, apart from the fact you can use it in alchemy. Some quests give you it as a reward as flavor though (and at least one quest in Oblivion sees you get a free beer placed on a bar next to you in the course of a quest).
In Sam And Max Hit The Road, the Bigfoot shaman rewards Max with his prized medallion after he and Sam save the day; Max wastes little time in unwrapping his reward and wolfing it down.
"Mmm, chocolatey, foil-wrapped goodness!"
In Super Mario 64, Princess Peach rewards Mario for saving her and her castle by baking him a cake.
- In Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, Bowser is sent a cake for his part in stopping Fawful's plot.
Similarly, but more useful in the long term, there's a couple of side-events in Tales of the Abyss where you get recipes for helping people out. Cooking can be an important game mechanic for healing up between battles, so it's better than it sounds.
Kingdom of Loathing: The reward for clearing the cellar of the Typical Tavern is three Typical Tavern Swills, equivalent to a basic mixed drink (and can further be improved). Also, the final reward for finishing the subquest given from inside Degrassi Knoll are a half dozen Mushroom Fermenting Solutions, which can possibly be crafted into epic level booze, some of the best in the game, depending on what mushrooms you ferment.
- In this game, edibles are an important part of gameplay (they allow you do play for longer each day and may help you level up) so these are actually quite useful rewards.
- It may be worth noting as well that Meat itself is used as the game's currency.
Portal: GlaDOS claims that the reward for completing the test chambers is cake.
ADOM: the reward you get from the Tiny Girl for rescuing her puppy from a scary cave? A piece of candy. The actual reward is the cave itself - it's a good place to train your stats, and has a guaranteed vault at the bottom.

Real Life

This is very common in the more traditional parts of the U.S. It is understood that when you enlist a gang of your friends and acquaintances for some big task like moving or yard/farm work, you will at the very least provide lunch or dinner.

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Examples:

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troperville

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tools

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toys