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"It's Bill's birthday."
"Yeah, I hate that guy."
"There's cake in the conference room."
"Well, I should say hello."

Two characters who come from very different places meet for the first time. They don't speak the same language? They have totally different backgrounds? No matter how different their culture and origins, they will always become friends if they go through an almost ritual exchange of food the first time they meet — doubly so if the food is chocolate-based.

Truth in Television: it's considered good manners in many cultures to offer food to people when you meet them, and sharing bread or salt created a real bond between people in the olden days. Several languages even have words for "friend" based around the concept of sharing bread (such as the English "companion"). There's actually scientific evidence to back this cultural practice up, as the part of the brain that responds to food is the same part that responds to social interaction.

The trope generally occurs when the hero is in a Fish out of Water situation, and very often when they meet a character whose language they can't understand. After sharing food, the character helps them become familiar with their surroundings.

Subtropes:

  • There's a tendency for the hero to give chocolate, probably because chocolate is awesome.
    • This works twice as effectively on children, who almost invariably become sidekicks, be they neighborhood hooligans or Disaster Scavengers.
  • The hero can also make friends with animals that way. (But use something other than chocolate. It's poisonous to many animals, especially dogs).
  • When food is given to the heroes, it will look absolutely horrible. Two possible outcomes:

When a villain tries to invoke this, he may inspire I'm Not Hungry.

Part of Sacred Hospitality.

The next step up: Through His Stomach, which typically goes for more than just friendship, and compare Food as Bribe, which tends to be more practically oriented toward getting someone on your side. The inverse of this trope is Tastes Like Disdain. Contrast Enemy Eats Your Lunch, for when someone proves their hostility by taking your food. For the romantic side, see Chocolate of Romance. Can involve Bread of Survival.


Examples

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 
  • Meat & Livestock Australia released a politically charged advert asking the question, "aren't we all boat people?" A group of Aboriginal Australians is setting up a barbecue on a beach when successive waves of 'boat people' arrive and bring their various foods and drinks with them.
  • An oft-mocked Pepsi ad features Kendall Jenner at an ambiguous protest offering Pepsi to police officers.
  • On a less controversial note, one of the most famous commercials for Coca-Colanote  depicts a young boy offering his Coke to the Pittsburgh Steelers' "Mean Joe" Greene, who repays the boy by offering his game-worn jersey. And 30 years after the original ad aired, Coca-Cola parodied it with the Steelers' Troy Polamalu.

    Anime and Manga 
  • In Arrietty, Sho tries to give a sugar cube to Arriety as a gesture of friendship. She returns it because Humans and Borrowers can't be friends. The gesture is repeated at the very end of the movie when Arriety is leaving and she accepts the sugar cube.
  • According to Another Junk Railroad, the moment Ennis realized that Firo (who, in consuming Szilard, technically inherited her as his homunculus servant) had no intention of being her new "master" was when he brought her home and cooked her dinner.
  • Delicious in Dungeon: One of the major themes is about food bringing people together, so this happens frequently. A few examples:
    • Team Chef Senshi introduced himself to the party by demonstrating his monster-cooking expertise — and how delicious the results can be.
    • Captured by a band of orcs, the party befriends them by showing them how to make leavened bread, and then by convincing them the bread should be enjoyed with a full meal. When the last of the food is finished off, the orcs let the party go voluntarily, with their blessing.
    • The party befriends the standoffish loner Izutsumi over the course of several meals. Izutsumi's character arc comes full circle when the rest of the party is incapacitated, and instead of abandoning them, she cooks a basic recipe on her own and nurses them all back to health.
  • Digimon Frontier: Junpei/JP invokes this trope. He offers chocolate to people in order for them to be around him. While it worked for that purpose, it did not help him make real, meaningful, friendships, and so he experienced loneliness.
  • Doraemon:
    • One of Doraemon's few useful gadgets is the Momotaro Dango (a reference to Japanese folklore), which can instantly befriend any creature it is fed to.
    • Doraemon: Nobita's New Dinosaur have the Tomodachi Chocolate, which can turn any animals into loyal, obedient pets to the feeders. Including dinosaurs. Gian managed to tame a Tarbosaurus attacking the gang by throwing the Tomodachi Chocolate into it's mouth, turning the Tarbosaurus into a doe-eyed cutie in the process who then follows Gian everywhere, and later on Suneo and Doraemon does the same, respectively to a Sinoceratops and a Brontosaurus.
  • Dragon Ball has an inversion. Goku and Krillin's first (one-sided) meal together involved Krillin preventing Goku from eating (He cheated at a contest in which the winner got dinner). Turns out Launch cooked untreated pufferfish that night.
  • In Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet, this is how the Gargantians open negotiations with Ledo: Amy shares a dried fish with him. He's reluctant at first because he's never eaten "animal corpses" before, but when he realizes it's a diplomatic gesture of goodwill he accepts it. Tensions with the Gargantians do not drop immediately, but they are eased a bit by the exchange.
  • Gourmet Girl Graffiti is about the social experience of food, so there are a few examples such that after Food Porn and Orgasmically Delicious, this is the most important trope of the series. The straightest ones include:
    • In Episode 10, the ice breaker between Ryou, Kirin, and Yuki is in fact Yuki's pizza that was delivered mid-conversation.
    • In Volume 3's coloured specials, it turned out Ryou and Shiina's friendship started by sharing lunches.
  • Gunslinger Girl. Henrietta and Triela are discussing Elsa, who refuses to associate with the other girls. It's mentioned that Claes is equally standoffish. Claes then turns up with cake she's made for the others, showing the difference between the two girls.
  • In Heaven's Lost Property, Tomoki does this twice. First with Nymph and a candied apple then later with Astraea and a full dinner at his house, along with an offer to feed her whenever she was hungry. Both instances of kindness eventually influenced their decisions to betray Synapse. Nymph also developed a Sweet Tooth.
  • Lyrical Nanoha:
    • The scenes showing Hayate's attempts to connect with the Wolkenritter in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's included one where Hayate cooks their first meal together, with Vita hesitantly tasting her share, finding it delicious, then asking for seconds in a Tsundere-like way.
    • The Blu-ray release of the first three seasons contained a What If? story where Hayate found Raising Heart instead of Nanoha. She ends up defeating Fate by cooking her a gourmet meal.
    • A flashback near the end of ViVid Strike! revealed that Rinne and Fuka became friends when Rinne gave Fuka a treat she had been saving.
  • In Monster, Tenma makes a traditional Japanese meal for his shooting instructor and his adopted daughter, whom he dragged home from Myanmar after killing her mother in self-defense. The girl shows nothing but icy hatred for him until his piss-poor skill with chopsticks makes her smile. The last we saw of them, she was happy as they walked hand in hand.
    • This trope goes in the other direction quite often, as well — Tenma Forgets to Eat, so a number of the good guys wind up feeding him (Maurer, Reichwein, and Grimmer, for instance).
  • In Negima! Magister Negi Magi, Kotaro is first greeted by Chizuru and Natsumi with a homecooked meal (after an appetizer of Marshmallow Hell); his constant complimenting of Chizuru's cooking seals it.
  • One Piece:
    • Even after Nami betrays Luffy and lets him get captured by Buggy early on, the audience knows she's gonna stick with the crew when she feeds Luffy while he's tied up and caged. Apparently, you can do anything to Luffy and he'll still wind up liking you if you give him some food and nice treatment.
    • Much later, in the Dressrosa arc, he was quick to befriend Rebecca after she gave him food, and likewise shrugged off her feeble attempt to kill him for that reason (well, that and the fact that she didn't even have any killing intent anyway, only doing it reluctantly (long story)).
    • Also happens between Hiriluk and Chopper; this being the first time anyone's been compassionate and kind to him, the poor little reindeer boy cries tears of joy on the bread he's eating.
    • The crew of the Roger Pirates initially gave a cold reception to the new arrival, Kozuki Oden, declaring that they only needed him for the information he possessed. As soon as he cooked them his namesake, all animosity dropped and they became lifelong friends.
  • Pokémon: The Series:
    • Subverted in an episode of Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl, when Jessie fails to lure Maylene's Lucario to her by offering chocolate. The offer itself is a reference to Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew, where Max succeeded in making friends with Aaron's Lucario — who was untrusting of humans — this way (so the movie is a straight example).
    • Played straight with James, who caught three of his Pokémon by offering them food. Though Inkay's sandwich-assisted capture was technically a trick, a croissant later snaps Inkay out of mind control by reminding it of their friendship. In an early episode, James also got a kidnapped Donphan to work for them when he fed it a huge pile of hay.
  • In Princess Tutu, one of our first indications that Fakir is not the Jerkass he seems is that he feeds, and is just generally kind to, a duck he found in his locker. The main character gets the same hint, since she's the duck.
  • In Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Mami's favourite method of making friends is by serving cake and tea. Kyouko also offers food to the people she likes — which is a big deal to her, due to lingering childhood trauma from times when her family didn't have enough to eat.
  • In School Rumble, Harima first got to know Karasuma at the school's watering area because neither of them ever bring lunch. Harima offers Karasuma friendship in the form of treating his fellow curry-fan to lunch at his next paycheck. Needless to say, seeing as this never happened, the two never became friends; Harima saw Karasuma eating with the girl he loves (Tenma) at the end of the chapter.
  • SD Gundam Force episode "Tears of Cobramaru" ends Cobramaru — once-again thrashed by the good guys, and abandoned by his once-allies — all but losing his will to live. Bratty Half-Pint Genkimaru tries to cheer him up with some riceballs, and the last scene is Cobramaru — tearfully — eating as the sun sets. This pays off as Cobramaru shows up as an ally.
    "I've come to pay you back...for the riceballs you gave me."
  • Not as great a cultural barrier as in other examples, but when Shima from Stellvia of the Universe goes to study into space, she takes a can of confections with her, which play an integral part in her making-friends process. Given the tone of the show (and despite her own nature), Shima's can is empty before the series reaches its mid-point and is then refilled.
  • A Central Theme in Toriko. To the point that a key part of its backstory was that a legendary Gourmet Hunter helped bring about world peace by feeding a sublime dish to world leaders.
  • In Tweeny Witches, Arusu won Eva over with a chestnut. These are not native to the world of the witches and so Eva had never eaten anything so sweet before.
  • Inverted in Yakitori: Soldiers of Misfortune. All everyone has to eat on the trip to Mars is some awful stuff from a tube called Great Satisfaction, so the recruits all squabble with each other.
    Akira: We only have that Great Satisfaction to eat. You really think we can become better friends over that crap?
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG Stories: After one of their fights, Raye offers Roze an apple. Since Roze has been raised as a fighting machine her whole life, she has no idea what an apple is until Ciela tells her it is edible. She likes it enough that it starts to awaken her humanity and she becomes reluctant to fight Raye again.

    Comic Books 
  • The Cartoon History of the Universe posits that offering scraps was how the first proto-humans befriended the first proto-dogs.
  • In one of the Wild Hunt arcs of ElfQuest, Ember tries to convince a human to work with the elves rather than against them, which involves offering him food, pointing out "We don't share meat with enemies".
  • Green Lantern Sodam Yat found an alien who crash-landed in the woods near his house and helped him as he recovered from his wounds. They shared meals together, learned from each other (even though they couldn't understand the other's language), and became friends. Unfortunately, Sodam lived on Daxam, a notoriously xenophobic planet, whose inhabitants proceeded to kill and stuff the alien and try to Mind Rape Sodam into fearing everything concerning space. It didn't take and pissed Sodam off so much, he had to be convinced his people were worth saving when Mongul conquered Daxam years later.
  • Hellboy: sort of. One of the shorter stories is about Hellboy being given pancakes by someone from the army. He doesn't want to eat them, then tries... and it's good! Meanwhile, in Hell, demons scream that he now is lost to them forever.
    • In B.P.R.D.: Killing Ground, Liz Sherman offers the mummy queen Panya a fruit smoothie to make her feel welcome. They hit it off pretty quickly afterwards.
  • After Loki moved, well, their apartment by magic, to the building where Verity lives in Loki: Agent of Asgard they invited her over for a self-made dinner. Let's that sink in: the God of Mischief can cook. Also Verity had to ask if there was an ulterior motive to this. It's Loki. Of course there was! But friendship was a factor too.
  • When they first meet her, Runaways Karolina Dean and Molly Hayes take Klara Prast out for lunch, which helps them earn her trust and leads to her seriously considering leaving her abusive husband. In a later arc, Molly offers pizza to a captured Majesdanian who attacked the team, though it doesn't endear her to him. And then, during the final arc, Chase is seen bringing Klara a sandwich and a soda as a way of making amends for the way he treated her earlier in the arc.

    Fan Works 
  • In Aquaman: Monster, Arthur and the Scavenger share coffee together as they watch the sunrise and bond.
  • By the Sea: Because Cody is confined to a bathtub, Obi-Wan shares his food with Cody as the latter recovers. It means a lot more in Cody's culture to share food, and Cody reads this gesture as a show of Obi-Wan offering friendship, although Obi-Wan himself wasn't thinking of it as anything more than a necessity. Cody, in turn, shares a raw lobster with Obi-Wan and is at first baffled and a little hurt when Obi-Wan declines at first before relenting at Cody's insistence. Later on, Obi-Wan shares more and more surface-world foods with Cody, in particular fruits and later some Chocolate of Romance. Obi-Wan continues the tradition with Cody's brothers- Eyayah becomes obsessed with blueberries, and Wolv comes to love peanut butter.
  • In Freedom's Limits, Smador and Madavi first become friends when she offers him some of her food, so he won't have to steal from the kitchens. She continues sharing her own rations with him; much later, after she's freed, she sneaks food from her employers to him when he struggles to find his own food.
  • In the Horseshoes and Hand Grenades story Month of Sundays, Jun gives a lollipop to Quetzie as an act of kindness. Said act also helps reconnect Quetzie to his grandfather, Damballa.
  • If Wishes Were Ponies: When Harry (newly arrived in Equestria) meets Princess Celestia for the first time, he's terrified of her and almost runs through a wall. When he meets her again (this time reassured that she's not a threat), she earns his trust and wins him over by giving him pancakes (and helping him eat them, because he broke both arms/front legs trying to run away). While he still fears her for a while, he's clearly more at ease around her than he was before.
  • In Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!, Izuku meets Momo Yaoyorozu when she drops her cellphone into a storm drain. After retrieving it for her, she invites him for a meal out of gratitude, and the two quickly become friends over a shared admiration for Princess Shazam and desire to be Pro Heroes.
  • The New Recruit: Coulson manages to earn Matt's trust when (after realizing the kid hasn't eaten a decent meal in a while) takes him to a diner. This gets Matt to lower his guard enough to tell Coulson about how he and Andrew got their powers.
  • Peter Parker Needs A Hug: After Spider-Man has a break down after a fight, Jason Todd takes him out for a late night snack, and tells him about how he died, and was brought back. He promises Peter that the Bat family members have all seen their fair share of traumas, and that they all want to help him through his. This is what gets Peter to open up about the events of Infinity War, Endgame, and No Way Home, and is what helps him finally accept the Bats as his new family.
  • Rocketship Voyager. Tom Paris invites B'Elanna Torres to the mess hall where they bond over Soylent Soy and a squeeze-tube of illicit moonshine. Later Captain Janeway invites renegade Spacefleet officer Chakotay to a formal dinner in the wardroom in an effort to find some common ground with him.
  • Subverted in Tiberium Wars; Corporal Goodman actually gives a captive Sandra Telfair some food, and along with it he treats her quite nicely, even trying to apologize for the rape attempt on her in the previous chapter. The subversion comes a few minutes later when Sandra cuts his throat with a ripped-up aluminum soda can. You know what they say, War Is Hell....

    Film — Animation 
  • In How to Train Your Dragon, Hiccup makes friends with Toothless by giving him a fish. Toothless responds in kind, by regurgitating half of the fish for Hiccup to eat.
  • Kung Fu Panda:
    • While the Furious Five have differing levels of animosity toward Po essentially taking their chances at being the Dragon Warrior, they (aside from Tigress) start to bond after Po cooks his dad's noodle soup for them. They start off genuinely interested in Po's story as he's cooking, find him an amazing cook after trying it, and start laughing and joking with each other.
    • The Stinger has only Po and Master Shifu sharing a bowl of dumplings. As well as a Call-Back to their epic dumpling fight, it shows how the often harsh and grumpy Old Master has lightened up and accepted Po not only as the Dragon Warrior but as a friend.
  • John Smith befriends Pocahontas's raccoon Meeko by offering him a biscuit.
  • In Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Miles tries to invoke this trope when he first meets Miguel by offering him an empanada, since he hopes to get on the latter's good side and Jessica mentioned earlier that Miguel is fond of the empanadas they serve in the Spider-Society HQ's cafeteria. It's quickly subverted when Miguel seems to accept the food, but almost immediately throws it back at Miles in a fit of anger—an early indication that Miguel does not want to be friends with Miles due to viewing the latter as an "anomaly" that goes against his strictly fatalist views.
  • In Up, Russel wins over Kevin the "snipe" with a chocolate bar.

    Film — Live-Action 
  • Played for laughs in Aquaman (2018). Thomas Curry walks in on the Atlantean princess who washed up on his lighthouse and finds her eating his goldfish. "I was going to make you some eggs..." However he breaks the ice with her by inviting her to drink a mug of tea. Later in the movie when Mera starts to lighten up around Arthur Curry, she gives him a rose to eat.
  • In Aliens, Ripley gets Newt to start talking again by giving her a cup of hot chocolate.
  • Subverted in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice when Lex Luthor gives a politician a candy to seal an under-the-table deal they've just made. However as Lex insists on hand-feeding it to the politician, it only creeps him out.
  • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: in the Tim Burton movie, Willy Wonka gives the chief a cacao bean and is then offered a plate of mashed worms, which he pretends to like so the tribe will come work for him.
  • In Dances with Wolves, the main character befriends a wolf named Two Socks after giving him some meat, gaining his nickname.
  • Averted in The Duellists. After they fight off some Cossacks together d'Hubert offers Feraud a Quick Nip, but Feraud just walks off, making it clear he intends to continue their pointless feud.
  • Subverted in Edge of Tomorrow. While hiding an abandoned farmhouse, Cage makes coffee for Rita which starts to break down her Ice Queen facade...until she starts to Pull the Thread. It makes sense Cage would know how she likes her coffee from previous Groundhog Day Loops, but how did he know where to find the coffee and sugar in the first place?
    Rita: How many times have we been here? (no response from Cage) How many times?!
  • Subverted in Empire of the Sun.
    • "Hey, Jim, do you want a Hershey bar?" — "Yes please." — "So would I kid, ya got one?"
    • "He gave me a mango!" — "I'll give you a whole d____ fruit salad. There are Frigidaire's falling from the sky. Kingdom come." — "He was my friend!" — "He was a J__."
  • Subverted in Enemy at the Gates, where the German Cold Sniper was paying a child spy in Chocolate bars (to be fair to the kid, it was German Chocolate.) The kid was actually a Double Agent, working with the Soviets to feed false information to the German sniper to try and put him in The Hero's scope. It ends badly for him.
  • E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: Elliot makes friends with the alien by offering it Reese's Pieces. Interestingly enough, this led to Reese's Pieces sales rising as much as 65% in 1982.
  • In God of Cookery, Turkey befriends Stephen and breaks through his jerkass facade after she cooks him a bowl of barbecue pork on rice.
  • The Goonies: Chunk befriends Sloth with a Baby Ruth.
  • Subverted in Heart of Darkness (1958). Marlow offers a biscuit to a native child, but the boy spits it out: he'd prefer to eat Marlow.
  • In Hellboy, young HB is won over by Product Placement — I mean, Baby Ruth bars. Much later, when the new guy shows up with some in his possession, Hellboy knows that "Dad" has dropped by to visit him.
  • Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: Indy and Willie are given food in the village. He makes her eat it even though it tastes awful because he knows the villagers gave them all they had.
  • Exploited by civets in The Jungle Book (2016), where Mowgli offers a fig to a little civet. But it turns out to be a trick because several more civets steal the figs he collects and run off.
  • Kate has a Running Gag of the title character craving a Japanese fizzy drink called Boom Boom Lemon. In the final act she forms an alliance with a Yakuza boss, and as they are driving off to confront their mutual enemies, he takes a Boom Boom Lemon from the glove box, but on seeing Kate eyeing it hungrily, offers it to her instead of drinking it himself.
  • King Kong (2005): Subverted with a horrible aftermath involving cannibal natives.
  • Lawrence of Arabia: Lawrence gives his gun to his guide who answers by giving him some of his food. Lawrence tries to not let his horror show when he tastes it (but fails completely).
  • Éowyn offers Aragorn stew during the journey to Helm's Deep in the extended edition of The Two Towers. Though it's clearly awful, he tells her he likes it, and when she turns away, he goes to pour it out — but she turns back with a question, and he spills a bit on his hand, visibly attempting to prevent a grimace of pain at the presumably hot stew.
  • The Film of the Series Lost in Space Don offers The Blarp a "Banana Beef" bar (what?) The little guy gobbles it up wrapper and all and sticks around for the rest of the movie.
  • The Monuments Men. Confronted at gunpoint by a lone German soldier who can't speak English, Campbell breaks the ice by offering him cigarettes so they can sit down and have a smoke. This serves as a deliberate contrast to a later hostile interrogation where the German refuses a cigarette from the American soldier.
  • Outlander: After Kainan's failed escape attempt, he's chained to a well in the middle of the village. A local boy offers him some of his bread, and the two hit it off.
  • In Rollo and the Spirit of the Woods, Rolli initially refuses to befriend Millie the Elf out of the fear of what other rolleys might think. When he sneezes, she offers to make him lichen tea in order to strike up a friendship, but the offer is immediately rejected. She then notices some captured viviparous lizards and offers to make soup from their tails. That piques Rolli's interest, and they're soon conversing over lizard tail soup.
  • Stargate: Daniel gives Shau'ri's dad a 5th Avenue chocolate bar. He later is offered roasted dinosaur, which turns out to taste like chicken. Daniel also tries to share a chocolate bar with the yak-type creature at the beginning — he likes trying that one out.
  • Star Wars:
    • Leia befriends the Ewoks this way.
    • Yoda plays the reverse of this when he first meets Luke, deliberately swiping Luke's ration bar.
    Luke "Hey! That's my dinner!"
  • Steel Rain. South Korean presidential aide Kwak Chul-woo takes North Korean agent Eom Chul-woo a fast food burger, only to find he's in the throes of morphine withdrawal, so he eats it himself. After Eom recovers he takes Eom to a noodle restaurant where the by-now famished North Korean helps himself to several bowls. Kwak unlocks the handcuffs that Eom is wearing and attachs a cuff to his own wrist so Eom can eat, and by the end of the meal decides to discard the handcuffs altogether.
  • In Surf's Up, a tribe of native (cannibal?) penguins try to eat Chicken Joe, until Joe offers them roasted squid on a stick. Finding that it "tastes like chicken", they make him their leader instead.
  • The Transporter. After reluctantly rescuing a Bound and Gagged Lai, Frank unties her, leaves her a microwave meal of noodles, then goes to sleep, making it clear she's free to leave. He's surprised when she's still there to cook breakfast for him the next day and later accuses her of deliberately invoking this trope to get him on her side.
  • What Dreams May Come has the main character and his future wife share sandwiches the day they meet at the beginning and when they're reincarnated at the end.

    Literature 
  • Angel Child, Dragon Child: When Raymond is crying, Ut feels sympathetic and offers him a piece of her cookie. This is when they first start to become friends.
  • Subverted in Brotherhood of the Rose by David Morrell. CIA chief Elliot befriends the protagonists as orphaned children by offering them candy bars. Later, when they're adult hitmen working for the CIA, Elliot continues to give them candy bars when briefing them on a mission, which they assume is done out of sentimentality. It turns out that Elliot has been manipulating them from the beginning — the candy bars are only to subconsciously remind the protagonists of their love for their surrogate father figure.
  • In A Brother's Price, one of the first things Jerin does after meeting Cullen (who sneaked into his room to get away from his sisters) is to order tea (the kind that goes with sandwiches) and share with Cullen. They become best friends. And brothers in law
  • In The Cricket in Times Square, Chester and Tucker bond over a piece of liverwurst that Tucker had found earlier.
  • In The Dark Tower novels, when Jake befriends Oy (an intelligent, capable-of-talking creature like a long, thin dog), he does so by feeding him some of Jake's food. Oy then gradually becomes a vital member of the group, saving several member's lives over the course of the books.
  • Averted in A Deepness in the Sky. The Emergents put on a Fancy Dinner for the Qeng Ho traders, but it's actually a means of exposing them to a virus that will kill or mind control them.
  • In Dinoverse the kids regroup after finding themselves in the Cretaceous and in the bodies of dinosaurs (and a pterosaur). Candayce takes being a dinosaur the hardest and is nearly unresponsive, but Betram manages to persuade her to eat some leaves, which brings her back to herself. Janine and Mike, as carnivores, go fishing in the sea and have a sincere conversation. Later, Janine notices that Bertram hasn't been eating and realizes that that's because his dinosaur ferments its food in its hindgut resulting in terrible flatulence, and takes him aside to persuade him that fainting from hunger will be worse.
  • Discworld: According to Mrs Bradshaw's Guidebook to the Ankh-Morpork and Sto Plains Hygenic Railway, this has become a popular way of breaking the ice when getting to know your seatmates. Mrs Bradshaw specifically notes a man who shared a large amount of assorted pickles with the entire carriage (his wife ran a pickling company, so this largesse was actually a combination of stock-control and advertising), and a dwarf who offered her one of his sandwiches, which turned out to be rat pate on traditional dwarf bread, but which she ate, to the best of her ability, out of politeness.
  • Early in Dr. Franklin's Island, Miranda's finding of a source of fresh water and young coconuts, soon after the plane wreck, do a lot to put her companions in a better mood and stops Arnie from being argumentative and contrary, briefly — though Arnie being Arnie, it doesn't last.
  • In one Eighth Doctor Adventures novel, it's mentioned that the Doctor's companion Fitz Kreiner, who had a really crappy childhood due to being half-German during World War II, doesn't think too badly of military-type people because his most prominent memory of them was meeting some American GIs when he was about nine, who played with him and gave him a candy bar. He doubts they'd have been as nice if they'd known his surname, though.
  • Discussed several times in The Elenium when the knights encounter the Peloi, and their tradition of "Taking salt and talking of affairs".
  • In Evil Star, when Pedro and Matt first meet; granted, Pedro tried to steal Matt's watch, so...
  • Subverted in the Goosebumps book Deep Trouble, in which the main character tries to befriend a captured mermaid by dropping a chocolate chip cookie into her tank. She is not impressed.
  • Invoked and subverted in The Hammer (2022). Rendley von Narsa attempts to buy his way into Tiny's good graces by offering to order Tiny a meal. Tiny is prepared to refuse him on account of Asgard's warning to be careful and lay low. Then it becomes clear that Rendley is attempting to use Tiny to get close to Chloe, resulting in Tiny slapping Rendley across the room.
  • Harry Potter:
    • Harry and Ron in their first year on the train to Hogwarts. Though the fact Harry bought every single kind of candy that was for sale on the cart certainty didn't mitigate anything.
    • Another Harry Potter example would be in the third book where Lupin gives Harry chocolate after the Dementors attack. Though in this case, the chocolate does more than just introduce the two. Chocolate in the Potterverse is apparently an actual remedy for the effects a Dementor has on people.
    • When Hagrid first arrives, he gives Harry a birthday cake.
    • Hagrid feeds Ron when they are being introduced as well.
  • In the Honor Harrington backstory, it is mentioned that Sphinxian Treecats go absolutely nuts for celery, being more than happy to utterly debase themselves to convince a human to hand over any stalks in his possession. It is mentioned that when she was at Saganami Island, Honor's instructors would bring some to give to Nimitz even while they were chewing her out over something.
    • This backstory is fleshed out more in the Stephanie Harrington spinoffs, where it is explained in A Beautiful Friendship that the breed of celery raised on Sphinx has high concentrations of a chemical that boosts Treecats' telepathic abilities. In fact, celery is to blame for the First Contact between the two races, when a treecat got caught raiding a greenhouse.
    • Later, in The Treecat Wars, several of the characters discover a clan of Treecats suffering from famine, and arrange for a discreet food drop to help them and earn their trust.
    • Honor herself regularly hosts dinners as a major part of her technique for forming a Band of Brothers out of her subordinates.
  • The Innsmouth Legacy. A flashback shows how the Marsh family met the Kotos in a US government concentration camp, which has just been filled with Japanese-American internees during World War 2. Rei Koto brings them tea, having heard one of them coughing (because he's dying as they're far away from the water). She's shocked to see who they are nursing, but then asks if maybe he needs tea as well? The Marshes find this Actually Pretty Funny.
  • Subverted in Jingo; Carrot warns Vimes that not to accept food from the D'regs would be seen as a terrible insult. But in fact, Vimes and the D'reg leader bond when Vimes becomes the first visitor not to fall for the old sheep's eyeball gag.
  • John Rain: Played with in Requiem for an Assassin. Jim Hilger has kidnapped the friend of John Rain, to force Rain to do a job for him. Rain insists on a face-to-face meeting which naturally gets a bit tense; at one point Rain has a knife at Hilger's throat and is struggling not to kill him on the spot. He's forced to back down, however, whereupon Hilger surprises him by suggesting they get lunch. The trope in this case signifies not friendship, but an unspoken agreement to resolve things through negotiation rather than force. At least for now...
  • In the Elizabeth Moon novel The Legacy Of Gird, a fellow from the Evil Wizard Class tries to make friends with Gird by offering him food, only to be rebuffed because in Gird's culture providing for someone establishes your superiority to them. They realize that their two cultures have been misunderstanding each other literally from first contact, as the EWC had always thought of Gird's people as natural servants because they were so eager to provide for the new impressive strangers.
  • Matilda: Averted in that while the older girl Hortensia is telling Lavender and Matilda horror stories about the Trunchbull, she is cramming crisps into her mouth, without offering them to the younger girls.
  • Averted, subverted and played semi-straight in Nation. Daphne first sees Mau when he's dragging the bodies of all the Nation's people into the sea; recognising his numb grief, she leaves him mangoes when he finally goes to sleep. When she wants to make a proper introduction, she decides that tea and scones will surely overcome the communication barrier; unfortunately, she's trying to have a civilised English tea party in a grounded and listing shipwreck, and her terrible (first-time) attempts to make scones taste like rotten lobster, as the rather odd captain kept one in the flour barrel to eat the weevils; Mau comes away from the whole experience bemused and horrified by the foul taste, but recognising that the poor, strange Ghost Girl is making an effort. The third time, Mau makes a fish stew on the beach, which is much better; though they still can't talk to each other, their nervousness (and ridiculous attempts at table manners given the circumstances) makes them crack up laughing, and they become proper friends.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire
    • Guest right is traditionally invoked with an offering of bread and salt.
    • In a subtle version of this trope, Sandor Clegane is always sharing his food with his hostage Arya Stark in scenes where they threaten and insult each other. Although they never become friends, they do form an unconscious bond via A Shared Suffering.
    • In Archmaester Gyldayn's Histories, the peasant girl Nettles is able to tame a feral dragon and become its Dragon Rider by bringing it food, whereas more foolish men tried to tame it the hard way.
  • In The Stand, the first thing Glen Bateman does when he finds Stu Redman, the first fellow survivor he's met in weeks, is to invite him to lunch. Mother Abigail does something similar when she greets the first group of survivors to find her with a small feast of fried chicken, corn-on-the-cob, and strawberry-rhubarb pie. Even the villains get in on this: Flagg gains Lloyd's loyalty by rescuing him from starvation. When Trashcan Man reaches Vegas, Lloyd's first act is to offer him some Kool-aid and a burger dinner.
  • Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein. The entire Martian society is based on the ritual sharing of water (a rarity on Mars). "Water brother" is the equivalent to the human "blood brother".
    • Also, the greatest compliment you can pay the dead is to consume them.
  • In William King's Warhammer 40,000 Space Wolf novel Grey Hunters, after a tense Friend or Foe? meeting, Trainor offers Ragnor a flask. They both drink.
  • In Gav Thorpe's Warhammer 40,000 Last Chancers novel, Kill Team, the kroot offer Kage a human brain to eat and he forces himself to do so. Afterwards, the kroot admits it was a test.
  • Though it doesn't happen right away, Firestar from Warrior Cats decides to hunt a rabbit for Yellowfang, even though he ends up breaking one of the rules in the warrior code.
  • In The Worst Witch book A Bad Spell for the Worst Witch, Mildred is turned into a frog. She meets the frog in the school pond, who offers her a nice fly from his store. Mildred says she is hoping to be changed back into her usual self before she gets used to such delicacies.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Averted in Agent Carter. In a flashback to her childhood in the Black Widow program, the Soviet female assassin shares some bread with a fellow inmate in their Orphanage of Fear, only to Neck Snap her without hesitation during training.
  • Arrow. In Season 1, Oliver Queen is trying to repair some bridges with his former fiancée Laurel Lance, and brings her a tub of mint ice cream to share with her, saying it was the one thing he missed while marooned on Lian Yu. In a later episode, he takes his upper-class mother for burgers and malt drinks when she expresses a desire to reconnect to her emotionally distant son.
  • In Band of Brothers, during operation Market Garden, a couple of soldiers from Easy Company come across a Dutch farmer and his son and share some of their chocolate with them. The father then reveals to the soldiers that this is the very first time that his son tasted chocolate.
  • The minor character Zack from The Big Bang Theory is very upset when the science guys make fun of him for his lack of scientific knowledge, but he quickly forgives them after Sheldon offers him Milk Duds as an apology.
  • Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern: The philosophy of Andrew Zimmerman is that sharing food is the greatest way to break down barriers between different cultures.
  • Subverted in the final episode of Blake's 7. Roj Blake is cooking an animal he's killed, and offers some to a wary Action Girl who's creeping up on him. This seems like the fundamentally decent Blake we all know, but it turns out he's now a Bounty Hunter and he takes her prisoner after they share a meal and fight off some other bounty hunters. Blake does turn out to be still one of the good guys, but the Action Girl turns out to be a Federation spy sent to capture Blake, so the trope is subverted again.
  • In Bones, when Booth shoots an ice cream truck and is pulled out for psychiatric evaluation, his temporary replacement Sully offers numerous delicious sandwiches to Brennan in the spirit of this trope. (It...doesn't help that much)
  • The Boys. Averted when Frenchie prepares a meal for the Female; she knocks it aside and tries to tear his eyes out, but she's chained up. What works is when he has to abandon his hideout because the Supes are coming for him, he takes the risk of freeing her so she won't be found and killed, and she reciprocates by saving Frenchie from Black Noir.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  • Cowboy Bebop (2021). In "Callisto Soul", Spike Spiegel is not happy when Jet Black not only treats Faye Valentine's injuries, but also gives her a meal from the fridge—the same meal she interrupted earlier by asking for their help. Unsurprisingly this is the episode where Faye joins the BeBop crew (though Spike only accepts this after she saves their lives).
  • Dane Cook had a bit where he offered a candy bar to a co-worker and in an Androcles' Lion moment repays Dane by not killing him during his later homicidal rage.
    "...and as he's going from stall to stall, <kaboom-chk> <kaboom-cchk>, he's gonna reach me and go <sharp intake of breath> "..Thanks for the candy."
  • Daredevil (2015). At the end of the first episode, Karen Page cooks lasagna using a recipe her mother told her only to serve to her future husband to Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson, and offers to work at Nelson & Murdock for free, given that she has no money to pay them for getting her acquitted.
  • The Defenders (2017). After meeting during their battle against the Hand at the Midland Circle Building, the title characters hide out in a Chinese restaurant that's about to close, and the owner is pacified by Danny Rand agreeing to pay the restaurant's rent for six months and ordering a meal for everyone. It's during this round-table dinner that the idea of them teaming up is first proposed, though it would be wrong to call them friends at this stage. It's notable though that Danny makes a point of offering the last dumpling to his future partner-in-crimefighting Luke Cage.
  • Subversion: In Desperate Housewives, Susan welcomes her new next-door neighbours with cookies that she buys and pretends to have made herself. One of them turns out to have nut allergies, so she has to confess to her deception and just drives them further away.
  • Doctor Who:
    • "Would you like a jelly baby?"
    • In Matt Smith's first episode, he meets a little girl who feeds him. She grows up to be his Companion.
    • Also used to consolidate a relationship with a Companion. At the end of their first adventure off-world, the Ninth Doctor asks Rose Tyler whether she wants to keep traveling with him. As she nearly got killed, Rose hesitates...but then asks if he wants fish and chips. Even though she's delaying her decision, we know then that she's going to stay. Likewise, when the Doctor regenerates into his Twelfth persona, he worries whether Clara Oswald will stay with him, so at the end of the episode he asks her out for coffee. Or chips. Or something with chips and coffee?
    • In Series 10, the Twelfth Doctor has what is implied to be a highly dangerous monster imprisoned in a vault in his basement. However, at the end of one episode, the Doctor is shown bringing Chinese food and offering to share his latest adventure. It's no surprise when the prisoner turns out to be Missy.
  • The Expanse. Invoked by Alex at the end of the first episode of Season 2, when he makes lasagna (albeit missing some ingredients as they're IN SPACE!) for the crew of the Rocinante and insists they eat it around the same table. This is especially important for easing tensions with Miller, who has only just joined their crew. There's a discussion during this meal of how a confiscated shipment of black market cheese mysteriously disappeared from the police lockup to be consumed by the population of Ceres, leading to a short-lived outbreak of brotherly love on that Wretched Hive.
  • Hannibal finds a way to make this trope creepy. Will Graham is fairly cold to Hannibal Lecter in their first meeting, but Hannibal later wins him over by bringing him a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs and sausages. But this is Hannibal Lecter, so unbeknownst to Will, the sausages are almost certainly made of people. In later episodes, Lecter is shown cooking delicious meals for all his friends. Those meals are definitely made of people.
  • The sealing-the-deal version is in the Russian 2020 series Hope. Leo offers Hope a bar of chocolate when meeting her in prison, but she refuses saying she's already eaten. When she accepts his offer of freedom in exchange for becoming his assassin, she takes a piece.
  • Kamen Rider places a major significance on the act of sharing food / offering food.
    • Kamen Rider Blade: Kenzaki took care of Hajime after finding him out cold after a bad fight, including making him some food. Hajime is hesitant to accept but does so anyway and this becomes the first step at improving their previously hostile relationship.
    • Initially averted in Kamen Rider Ghost as when Alain was first offered food by Grandma Fumi, he rejected it as a piece of stupid humanity and suspected her of ulterior motives. She was just trying to be nice to that weird, angry kid who occasionally ended up at her takoyaki cart. Then it was played straight when he accepted the peace offerings of rice and a juice box from Makoto, allowing the two of them to actually have something like a normal conversation.
      • Onari earns Javel's favor by giving the downed warrior some rice balls, which he then comes to repay at the right time.
    • Kamen Rider Build: Sawa thought her new family will reject her after her past and lies have come to light. She was moved to tears when Misora invited her to the dinner table and it cemented her decision to become her own person unburdened by past and orders.
  • A tragic example in M*A*S*H occurs when an American soldier and the North Korean soldier he shot are brought to the MASH together. The American is proud of shooting the North Korean at first, but when they're placed in beds next to each other in Post-OP, an uneasy friendship starts to grow between them, helped by the North Korean giving the American a chocolate bar. When the North Korean ultimately dies from his wounds, the American is devastated.
  • NCIS. In "Kill Ari, Part II" Tony DiNozzo is tailing Mossad officer Ziva David. As he stands under an awning outside her hotel trying to keep out of the rain, she brings him coffee, and Tony gives her a slice of his pizza in return. The exchange lampshades their future partnership — though as they haven't reached that level of trust yet, Tony makes sure to take her coffee rather than the one she's offering him.
  • In the Once Upon a Time episode "Good Form", Regina tries to win one of the Lost Boys over by offering him chocolate. Subverted in that, while he seems to accept it cautiously, he instead throws it as far into the woods as he can and laughs. So she seizes his heart and uses it to mind-control him instead. She only tried doing it the other way because she was working with the heroes.
  • The Punisher (2017). The strength of Frank Castle's relationship with David Lieberman can be tracked by their food preparation. At first, David does not even bother to let Frank know about the sandwich ingredients in the fridge, letting him eat StarKist Pouches while making subs for himself. In later episodes, Frank can be seen eating a nice pasta dish made for him by David, and he later cooks a meal for his new buddy.
  • In Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Sabrina uses a spell to make Friendship Bread to get Harvey and Josh to stop fighting over her. It works a little too well.
  • SAS: Rogue Heroes. The French recruits refuse to take orders from Paddy Mayne after a Bar Brawl, so he cooks up a gazelle that he'd shot earlier, pretending he shot it for their sake.
  • The Silent Sea. On the shuttle trip to the Moon, Dr. Soong is given a packet of sweets by the crew that she later shares with Luna, though the latter has to be shown to take the wrapper off first.
  • Stargate SG-1: Daniel exchanges food with an Unas who captured him. Daniel goes from being an intended sacrifice to a valued friend. He even hangs a lampshade on this with a Continuity Nod, mentioning he met his father-in-law the same way.
    • Which would make Daniel's third use of the trope, and that's just the ones noted so far on this page. He'd already used it several times on earlier SG1 episodes. You might as well call it "The Daniel Jackson Method".
  • Stargate Atlantis episode "Childhood's End" has Ford offering chocolate to a few "guards" (they're young children.) He gets excited when he discovers that this will be their first chocolate experience.
  • Subverted in Stargate Universe — Scott gives one of the Ursini a piece of fruit. It seems as if they might be able to bond... but the alien then spits the fruit out in disgust.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation. In "Journey's End", Captain Picard realizes that his ongoing tension with Admiral Nechayev isn't good for either of them, so he prepares tea and her favourite canapes when she visits to give him a Mission Briefing. Surprisingly this has some effect, probably because she recognizes that Picard is extending an olive branch.
  • Star Trek: Voyager
    • In "Gravity" Tuvok is stranded on a desert planet and rescues an alien female from attackers. It's a Scavenger World with other stranded aliens fighting for resources, so to gain her trust Tuvok offers her a ration bar, no small gift given that she has to hunt her own food, and that consists mostly of large spider-like creatures.
    • In "Muse", B'Elanna Torres has crashlanded but is saved by a local poet, who sees her as the inspiration for a play he's writing. B'Elanna drives him off at phaser-point, but he just returns the next day with food, knowing B'Elanna hasn't eaten for a while. She's in a more conciliatory mood by then, realizing she's going to need his help getting off the planet.
    • Invoked in "Parallax". After B'Elanna Torres punches Joe Carey, Chakotay suggests she try bonding with him over a hot cup of perjuta instead.
    • Subverted in "State of Flux". Chakotay's New Old Flame Seska is introduced bringing him mushroom soup, but they get into an argument when Chakotay finds out the mushrooms were stolen by Seska. At the end of the episode, Seska is revealed to be a Cardassian Deep Cover Agent who has been spying on Chakotay the whole time.
  • Star Trek: Picard: Averted in "Absolute Candor"; Picard delivers an unwitting snub when Elnor hands him a loaf of bread he's baked himself, only for Picard to casually dismiss this chance to "break bread" with Elnor as he's not hungry and is busy talking to Zani.
  • Star Wars
    • The Mandalorian
      • In "Sanctuary", Din Djarin gets into a hand-to-hand fight with rebel deserter Cara Dune who thinks he's there to collect a bounty on her. They end up with their blasters pointed at each other, only to realise the Child is watching them while drinking a bowl of soup. Din then asks Cara if she wants soup as well, and they have a more civilised discussion.
      • In "The Marshal", Din is negotiating the help of the Tusken raiders to kill the Krayt Dragon, and one of them offers Marshal Cobb Vanth a black melon that smokes when it's cut open. Cobb nearly ruins everything by refusing to eat it, out of disgust of the fruit and hatred of the Tuskens. Eventually they form a reluctant alliance and just before they implement their plan, a Tusken offers Cobb another such fruit. He grimaces but eats it without complaint. After they kill the Dragon the Tuskens are shown cutting it up for food, and Din loads a huge cut of meat onto his speeder.
    • The Book of Boba Fett
      • In the first episode Boba is Made a Slave of a Tusken tribe and forced to dig up the black melons. It's thirsty work in the desert, but when he tries drinking from one the Tusken child who's guarding the slaves beats him. However when Boba saves that child by killing a sand monster, he earns their respect and the chieftain hands him a melon to drink from.
      • Inverted in "Return of the Mandalorian". Din Djarin brings the head of his bounty to his current paymaster. Impressed, he asks Din to join him at his dinner table and discuss further business. Din shows they're not friends or even business partners by curtly refusing and leaving once he's received payment (in fairness Din was in pain from a leg injury).
      • At the end of Season One, Boba Fett has won the respect of the people of Mos Espa, and some children come up and offer him a bowl of fruit. Boba takes one, which he then throws to Black Krrsantan who fought at his side. Krrsantan though growls at the others when they jokingly suggest sharing.
  • Early on in the pilot episode for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, John offers Cameron a bag of chips, before remembering that she's not human. To his surprise, Cameron then accepts his offer and eats some chips anyway.
  • Daniel offers Betty half of a bagel as a peace offering in Ugly Betty, but when Betty says she had already forgiven him, he takes the bagel back.

    Mythology and Folklore 
  • Grimm's Tales are full of stories where The Fair Folk (or other supernatural creatures) respond to acts of hospitality with random boons (often, the Ugly Stepsibling then tries to replicate the event, but their stinginess gets them cursed instead).
  • In the tale of Momotarō, he gains animal companions by offering them kibidango (millet dumplings).
  • The Kappa will normally murder people and eat their intestines. If a person offers the kappa a cucumber, the one thing it loves eating more than human guts, it will be so overjoyed that it will spare them. In some cases, the kappa may even offer a gift in return and become a lifelong friend.

    Video Games 
  • In BlazBlue, Ragna sharing food with Taokaka in both his and her story paths prompts Taokaka to call him "Good Guy". Of course in his story path, he makes her pay for the meal.
  • In Caves of Qud, water is a precious resource to the point where offering it is considered to be a sacred ritual to establish friendship. It can be substituted with appropriate fluids for different creatures that don't need water, like sentient machinery (who will welcome oil instead).
  • Name-checked in Deltarune when Susie offers to let Lancer have the tree candy he'd just helped her reach.
  • In Deus Ex, giving a candy bar to a kid early in the game will prompt him to give you some valuable information about how to get into the terrorist's hideout.
  • Played with in Dragon Age: Origins. If you attempt to have your dog be your champion against Loghain at the Landsmeet. Arl Eamon will have a "No. Just… No" Reaction based on this trope.
    Arl Eamon: Ah, Warden... No. I'm afraid we can't leave the fate of all Ferelden up to your dog. Anyone with a leftover ham bone could buy his allegiance.
  • In the Dragon Quest Monsters series of games, you make monsters your friends by feeding them. If you give them enough food (or good enough food), they'll gladly become your friends.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • In Final Fantasy VI, you befriend Gau by offering him some dried meat.
    • In Final Fantasy IX, should you choose to recruit Quina on the first disc, you can do so by giving Quina its favorite food: frog.
  • Gaius, a thief character in Fire Emblem: Awakening, has a hell of a Sweet Tooth. When Chrom recruits him (from the opposing army, no less), it's because he offers him a bag of candy.
  • In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Dorothea offers to cook Petra a meal from the latter's home in Brigid (despite rumors of Dorothea being a Lethal Chef) in their "C" support to help her feel at ease in her stay on the mainland. If the player chooses to share a meal between Edelgard and Petra, Edelgard will make the same offer.
  • Galaxy Angel: In the second game, Moonlit Lovers, Milfie reveals on her route that she's fond of invoking this trope to make friends. She uses it to get Noa to talk, offering her some food she made as a token of friendship.
  • In I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, Tammy bakes a cake for you for your birthday, and you can share it with her to bond with her.
  • In Little Nemo: The Dream Master, you can ride on (or in) animals by feeding them candy.
  • Lonely Wolf Treat: The friendship between the wolf Treat and the rabbit Mochi begins when Treat saves Mochi from a fox and Mochi prepares a curry dinner for Treat as thanks. This is a significant moment for both parties, because Treat is happy to make a friend after facing constant racial harassment from the other rabbits, and Mochi comes to realize that wolves and foxes are not as scary as she thought. Mochi then starts planning to make more curry and share it with the foxes in an attempt to befriend them.
  • In Mass Effect 2, on Tuchanka you can buy a piece of pyjack meat which you can then feed to Urz, a nearby varren, who will then gleefully follow you around the camp.
  • In Minecraft, feeding ocelots and wolves respectively fishes and bones will turn them into pets who will follow you around (unless you command them to sit).
  • In the Super Famicom Miracle Girls game, throwing candy is the girls' main defense against enemies.
  • In the roguelike game NetHack, tossing food at some monsters will make them friendly towards you, or even make them your pet. With the right foods, you can even train pets to steal things for you.
  • In Octopath Traveler II, Ochette's Befriend skill allows you to temporarily recruit NPCs by giving them food. It's even a plot point during her second chapter, where Pom leads her to one of the legendary creatures she's seeking out after she uses the Befriend command on him.
  • In Pikmin 4, Olimar befriends his Canine Companion Moss by feeding her a Scrummy Bone.
  • Pokémon: Since Gen III, one of the ways to increase your Pokémon's friendship towards you is to feed it food it likes.
    • Several Pokémon in the Safari Zone can only be caught if you leave food out for them.
    • Additionally, in Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon, sometimes, you'll find a traveling Pokemon fainted from hunger. If you give them an apple, they'll join your team. This can also happen in the remake of the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team games.
    • The player character giving the tired cover Legendary a sandwich kickstarts the overarching plot of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. The fierce-looking Pokémon immediately becomes loyal to them, becoming your main mode of transportation until it's strong enough to battle with your command.
    • You "catch" Pokémon in Pokémon Sleep by giving them Biscuits. Biscuits come in Poké Biscuit, Great Biscuit, the daily Bonus Biscuit, and Master Biscuit varieties, with each subsequent tier granting a bigger boost to the Friendship Gauge. Giving a Pokémon a Master Biscuit immediately maxes the gauge out, while a Pokémon that is particularly hungry will triple the boosts it gets from eating Biscuits once. However, you cannot skip Snack Time because any leftover Bonus Biscuit will be fed to a random Pokémon if you try to do so.
  • In Potion Permit, Moon Cloves are traditionally given to Moonbury residents as gifts, and they provide a big boost to their friendship meters. They're given to you as rewards for completing certain quests and treating patients, and you can give them to villagers once an in-game day.
  • In Roots of Pacha, the Golden Pomegranate is a rare item that lets you instantly befriend an animal you feed it to.
  • In Shepherd's Crossing 2, if you walk around town while holding cooked food, you'll have the option to visit various NPCs. They'll tell you about themselves and their lives while you share the food you've brought.
  • In Sonic Unleashed, Chip often tries to offer a bar of chocolate to any character he meets.
  • In Spore's Tribal Stage, you can domesticate wild creatures by offering some food to them; this turns the entire species into your allies, if they didn't have the "mortal enemy" relationship status with you.
  • In Super Smash Bros. Brawl's "The Subspace Emissary" mode, Fox and Sheik were about to fight each other because of a misunderstanding (Fox attacked the Halberd while Peach was standing on it, making Sheik believe that he was attacking them) but Peach intervened and suggested a Mid-Battle Tea Break. Confused at first, Fox then realized that they were on the same side, and later helped them to fight Duon.
  • A variant occurs in World Neverland. You can't start giving people food until you're already friends with them. However, once you reach the "Friends" stage with them, you can give them food as a gift, and it'll increase their Relationship Values.
  • In Yandere Simulator, joining the Cooking Club allows you to make snacks that you can give out to people, giving you a huge reputation boost.

    Webcomics 
  • The Adventures of Dr. McNinja subverts the "eats the awful food given anyway", when Gordito is forced to visit the McNinjas. The pickled beets turn out to be horrible, but he pretends to eat them, excuses himself to the bathroom, and then spits them out. It turns out they were poisoned as part of a test where they were going to force Gordito to earn the antidote, but instead, Gordito is praised for outsmarting them.
  • In City of Somnus, "feed it gefiti" seems the standard way of taming critters. Paollo's guards even manage to do that with Dynn, which takes some more gefiti than with most.
  • In Freefall, Sam realizes that feeding her would help cement his relationship with Florence.
    • They later earn acceptance from security guards by offering doughnuts.
  • Homestuck: You warm yourselves in the glow of this human emotion called friendship.
  • In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!, Bob has repeatedly expressed annoyance that whatever manner of weird alien creature or paranormal being ends up in his house, they always seem to find their way to his fridge. On the other hand, this does reliably seem to calm them down.
  • Noblesse Shinwoo buys Rai a bowl of ramyeon/ramen on his first day since Rai came to the school carrying nothing; Shinwoo also buys lunch for Ikhan because he forgot his wallet. This is especially significant because this is the first meal Rai has had since waking up in Korea after 820 years of sleep and has been friends with Shinwoo and his friends ever since.
  • In Red's Planet, Red offers Tawee some food.

    Western Animation 
  • Toph bonds with Iroh over a cup of tea in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
  • In Dinotrux, Ty the T. Trux and Revvit the Reptool meet when the latter can't break off enough ore to eat. So Ty helps him out by smashing some of it into smaller pieces, and Revvit rewards him by fixing his broken tread for him.
  • DuckTales (2017): The thing that convinces Webby that Huey, Dewey, and Louie are her new best friends is when they offer to fulfill her Humble Goal of eating a hamburger (though her eventual relationship with them is much closer to siblings than friends).
  • Gravity Falls: After she and Pacifica call a truce in "The Golf War," Mabel shares some tacos with her... and has to explain the concept to her. Literally. Pacifica can't even pronounce the word "sharing" correctly.
  • Inspector Gadget: In "Tyrannosaurus Gadget", Gadget travels back in time and befriends some wooly mammoths by giving them fruit. The mammoths then scare off some dinosaurs that M.A.D. agent Thelma Botkin had brought from another era to try to eliminate Gadget and his prehistoric ancestor.
  • Both Applejack with a pile of apple products, and Pinkie Pie with all manner of sweets in her party try this with Twilight Sparkle when she first comes to Ponyville in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Then it's subverted, in that she considers it a waste of her time; it isn't until they trek through the Everfree Forest to stop Nightmare Moon that she warms up to them.
    • In "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone," Gilda befriends her first non-pony friend by offering a freshly-baked scone.
  • Primal (2019): Mira is able to gain Fang's trust using some stewed tubers, which the tyrannosaur finds delicious. Ironically, she was intending to give them to Spear, who ends up disliking them (living in a mostly prehistoric setting, the concept of spices and cooking are totally foreign to both Fang and Spear).
  • Parodied in one episode of The Simpsons, when Marge decides to take care of Nelson because her children don't want her to take care of them. The first thing she does is offer him a sandwich and he approaches it like a frightened squirrel.
  • Skull Island (2023): Annie and Dog's first meeting in the flashback of episode 6. Dog tried to make off with a pack of hotdogs from the shipwreck where Annie was holing up, only to stop and hesitantly return them to her when she demanded it. After cutting the pack open and eating half a hotdog for herself, Annie offers Dog another half, to the latter's visible and pleasant surprise. Ten years later, girl and monster are practically inseparable.
  • Teen Titans Go!: Just one bowl of coconut curry is enough to have the Alien Skull Hunter abandon his initial mission of collecting their skulls and instead befriend the Titans.
  • In the animated Transformers movie, The Universal Greeting (Bah Wheep Granna Wheep Ni Ni Bong) is supposed to be accompanied by the offering of Energon (Which transformers uses as food/fuel). It works with the Junkions, but earlier the Allicons only ate all their snacks, then got mad when they ran out.

    Real Life 
  • Older Than Feudalism: Sharing of "bread and salt" is recorded in the ancient Eastern Mediterranean as a sign that the sacred bond between host and guest has been established. The custom survives today in cultures of that region and those heavily influenced by them, including:
    • In the Arab world saying that two people "shared bread and salt" signifies a bond between them; eating bread and salt still ritually creates the bond of Sacred Hospitality.
    • In Slavic countries, who are historically strongly influenced by the Eastern Roman/Byzantine/Greek culture (even in the Catholic Slavic countries, Byzantine influence is felt, although it's obviously much stronger among the Orthodox Slavs), it is traditional to welcome guests (nowadays, mostly important guests like foreign heads of state) with (what else but) bread and salt.
  • A common team-building exercise in the workplace. Potlucks, pizza days, and food brought into the office are a way to unite people who might not otherwise interact.
  • Providing someone with food affects them on a very basic level. It's a good way to get animals to like you, and of course, people are animals. Hospitality and providing someone with a meal is a tradition in all human cultures to gain their respect and friendship.
  • Prehistoric humans probably first managed to win over the proto-dogs by letting them eat scraps from their campsites. This would have served both groups — the dogs would learn that if they left humans alone, they'd get free food, and the humans would get a waste-disposal system and early warning of any more hostile animals approaching. Later, cats began to hang around humans for scraps too and to get at the pesky mice that were invading the humans' grain stores, which made the humans very happy.
  • During World War II, American soldiers came over to the UK with chocolate, unobtainable in Britain due to rationing. Let's just say the women were very grateful.
    • After the war (and after relaxation of their non-fraternization policies), they did this in occupied West Germany too. This situation did also lead to many German kids of that era being introduced for the first time to American POP Culture. (Even stronger examples may be the CARE-packages and the Berlin Airlift, or the Marshall Plan, which helped to kick-start the West German Wirtschaftswunder.)
      • And an example-within-an-example: The Candy Bombers, starting with Gail Halvorson, who would drop sweets from their planes with little parachutes while flying into Berlin. Halvorsen would signal that a candy drop was imminent by waggling his wings, leading to his nickname: Onkel Wackelflügel, or Uncle Wagglywings. This gained the attention of Halvorsen's commanding officer, then the press, and supporters back home, and eventually snowballed into "Operation Little Vittles", with the dropping of 23 tons of sweets over Berlin by the time the Airlift had ended.
    • After WWII during the reconstruction of Japan and through the end of the Korean war American troops often shared chocolate and other goodies sent to them with the Japanese people and showed them how to make other western foods like hamburgers and hot dogs (the latter would become a staple of many Bento lunchboxes) while the Japanese introduced the Americans to sushi in all its different forms (many of which would become very popular back home). This had the dual effect of re-introducing the Japanese to western concepts and ideas as well as forging a lasting partnership between the two nations that persists to this day.
    • This is standard operating procedure for the US military. Giving out chocolates was done during the Vietnam War, both Gulf Wars, and remains ongoing in Afghanistan. Chocolate is cheap, it's a common item in combat rations, children are easily bribed to reveal info with it, and most adults see the gesture as benign.
  • The word "companion" may come from "cum pane" which in Latin means "with bread," making a companion someone you share bread with.
  • In many places in the world, showing hospitality to a stranger is still commonplace, and it's very bad manners to refuse anything offered to you, even if you're only doing it out of a desire not to impose.
    • This can cut both ways: in Mongolia (and some other countries), it's traditional to leave a small amount of food on your plate to indicate your hosts were generous and gave you too much food to eat. In British & American society, it's considered rude not to finish everything you're given. Whoops...
    • If that's not complicated enough for you, in Tibet your cup/bowl/plate will be refilled as soon as you're done eating. Every time. The only way to be polite is to eat most of the food and finish eating/drinking precisely upon leaving.
  • A good way to win over a domestic animal is to offer it some food. Offer really good food, and you've got yourself a friend for life. It's also an easy way to hand-tame pet animals that aren't technically domesticated, such as budgies or cockatiels.
  • This is a bad idea when it comes to dealing with wild animals. "Do Not Feed the Bears" signs exist for a reason.
  • Although food itself hasn't been given to them out of concern of spreading illnesses they may not be able to cope with, an expedition to North Sentinel Island by the National Geographic Society in 1974 presented the Sentinelese with aluminium cookware, which they gladly accepted, as despite the small size of their homeland they are thought to be adept metalworkers.
  • In 2014, an Ecuadorian street dog who was later named Arthur followed a Swedish team competing in the Adventure Racing World Championship for the remainder of their four hundred and thirty-mile journey, including swimming after them in an ocean kayaking leg of the race, after one of the team gave him a canned meatball. Arthur was brought back to Sweden and lived there happily until he died of natural causes in 2020.
  • In parts of Asia jewel merchants close a business deal with a toast. In some places, they use tea which of course has a great tradition. In other places, for some inscrutably prosaic reason, they use Pepsi.
  • In Lapland it's tradition to leave the three basic necessities in the cabins that are used by hikers and hunters alike: Firewood, matches, and salt. Not leaving enough for people who might drop by later (for example, taking shelter from a storm) is considered rude to the point of taboo (since you endanger someone's life if you don't).
  • To "break bread" with someone is a commonly used phrase to signify a friendship. Or at least tolerance.
  • Want to win a horse's loyalty for good? Feed it.
  • Tea and Tea Culture points at several ways in which the serving and sharing of tea serves this role around the world.
  • In the Philippines most social interaction involves sharing food (or the offering of such) with others.
  • According to double-blind tests, this reaction has a scent component. "Spiking" a piece of food with your scent causes the recipient's instincts to register you as a food provider. One medieval version uses this method to tame unmanageable dogs with a piece of bread that's been held under the arm for a time. (This was before commercial deodorants.)
  • In some communities, certain animals (Like migratory birds or deer) keep hanging around civilization because people keep feeding them.
  • Wanna know why the cat keeps leaving dead animals on your stoop? Kitty thinks you're a bad hunter and doesn't want you to starve. Or they've pack-bonded with you and want to add the bird they killed to the family stockpile.
  • The "Drinking Culture" page on The Other Wiki gives several instances on how buying drinks for others serves this purpose.
  • There's a reason why so many first dates revolve around a meal.
  • Tea parties and dinner parties.
  • Many workplace social dealings are centered around lunch. Also, ever hear of a "coffee break"?
  • Many grade-schoolers bond over sharing or trading choice tidbits from their lunches. While many schools have rules against this (which isn't completely misguided when you consider food allergies, intolerances, and other restrictions that impulsive kids would be less inclined to follow), such rules are difficult to enforce unless you have several staff hovering over every kid at lunchtime.
  • Attempted but Averted when the Viking settlers in North America traded milk with the natives. According to the sagas the Native Americans went on the warpath shortly afterwards, and it's been suggested they were made sick by the milk (due to lactose intolerance) and assumed the Vikings had tried to poison them.
  • Bonobos will share food with other members of their troop to reinforce social bonds. Though if it's something that they really like and none of the other bonobos have noticed, they might sneak off to eat it by themselves.
  • Common chimpanzees will also share food this way, especially meat, as hunting is frequently a group activity so the dominant male will divvy out the spoils based on which other males are his friends or he's trying to make friends with.
  • In Switzerland, the Catholics and the Protestants made peace by sharing a soup that would become known as the Kappeler Milchsuppe (Kappel Milk Soup).


 
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Hangry Darmanitan

Tim and Pikachu feed a wild Darmanitan a Slowpoke tail (which are said to be quite tasty) causing it to calm down.

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