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"'Tain't the mincemeat filigree
And it ain't the turkeyneck stew
And it ain't them bruleed okra seeds
Though she made them a-special for you."
One character shows his knowledge of, and attentiveness to, another by providing his favorite food or drink without his needing to request it. The dish, obviously, will be somewhat unusual, but does not need to be very so — only enough that knowing it and having it on hand have to be in order to provide it for this person.
The person may not mention it, but if so, the Stock Phrase is " Your Favorite."
May overlap with Trademark Favorite Food, but can be something the person eats only occasionally, or usually is not significant. It is, in fact, often not something made a big deal of, because it does not show obvious attentiveness to pick up on it.
It can also be used in an attempt to bring a character out of a funk: "Come on, cheer up. Look, I made Your Favorite .... !" In cases like this, it overlaps with Comfort Food.
Can go wildly awry if the character gets it wrong.
When the Affably Evil villain says No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine, this may be part of it; it will add to the creepiness and can even be used as a subtle threat. ("I know what you eat, I know what you drink, I know about your beloved daughter who attends college upstate." You get the idea.)
Similar to "the usual" for a Drink Order, although that usually involves something the character reasonably expects to be available.
Subtrope of Through His Stomach. Note that just good cooking goes under that trope.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- In Fruits Basket, when they visit Tohru's mother's grave, they find it already cleaned up. Tohru realizes it must have been her grandfather, because he had brought her mother's favorite food.
- When Ayame visits he brings first crabs, then peaches. Shigure observes they were Yuki's favorite foods when he was a child, and that he does not know what Yuki likes now.
- In the Baccano! OVAs, Claire anonymously sends Chane a dress to indicate that he's serious about his marriage proposal. The gift of a dress in itself isn't very unusual, but the fact that he's sewn in knife holsters is.
- Even more twistedly heartwarming than it sounds: she wasn't sure whether or not to accept or kill him until she found them
- Yu-Gi-Oh!: "Mint chocolate chip ice cream? I know it's your favorite!" Filler Villain Noa Kaiba, a digital ghost in a digital world, was apparently told this every day by the digital ice cream vendor in the digital park. One day he wanted to try something else, but she wasn't programmed for that and just kept repeating that line.
- Chrono Crusade has a variation — Fiore is very pleased when Azmaria enjoys the food she's cooked for her, saying "This is my sister's favorite food. You remind me of her."
- In the infamous anime film Grave of the Fireflies, Seita tries to get fruit drops for his little sister as often as he can, because they're her favorite food. After she starves to death, he cremates her and puts her ashes in a fruit drop box.
- Mentioned in Ai Yori Aoshi. The first meal that Aoi cooks for Kaoru at his apartment consists of all of his favorite foods. When he expresses surprise at this, she mentions that she'd remembered them since their childhood meeting.
- In Ouran High School Host Club, the rest of the members know that Haruhi loves to eat fancy tuna and if they want to bribe her into doing something, they offer her it.
- A darker variation in Loveless. Ritsuka has had to memorize all of the "original" Ritsuka's favorite foods and react accordingly, because if he doesn't, his mother will punish him for it.
- In Sherlock Hound, a kidnapped Mrs. Hudson feels sorry for Professor Moriarty and his minions, who can't cook particularly well, so she fixes them a highly extravagant steak-and-kidney pie, which just happens to be Moriarty's favorite. She somehow figured this out in spite of never having met him before in her life. He was so touched by the gesture that after he was inevitably foiled, he swore that whatever other depths he may sink to in his efforts to best Hound, he would never, ever involve Mrs. Hudson again.
- In a relatively early episode (and chapter) of Soul Eater, Maka and Soul are at a party, and despite Maka's protest that Soul should get his own food instead of mooching off of her, she did get fish. Which she hates. And is his favourite food. He eats after she gets dragged off screen, realizing that she got it for him in the first place.
- This trope gets a much darker take later on in the manga. Medusa welcomes back Crona, whom she raised in such pleasant ways as starving him/her till he/she killed some of her (pet) rabbits, after they defeated Tsar Pushka and Fyodor— with a table full of pasta just they way they like it. And Crona can have as much as they want, the wonderful child. And then Medusa hugs him/her. So he/she freaks out and butchers her. Just like she taught him/her to.
- In Skip Beat! Sho and Kyouko (childhood friends with a dash of hate thrown in there for good measure,) are at a hotel's continental breakfast when Sho puts all the things Kyouko likes on her plate. Needless to say, she's not amused.
- In The Wallflower, Kyohei's favorite is strawberries, which gets significant when he's sick.
- In Detective Conan, one story ends with Ran being so impressed by her dad's solving of a case that she promises to make him his favorite food for dinner. She draws the line when he asks if she'll also get him a case of beer.
Comicbooks
- In the Power Pack comics, when the Power Pack meet Franklin Richards and go into space with him, the Fantastic Four search for Franklin. Some Avengers and Jarvis are staying at the Baxter Building; Jarvis, hoping they will find Franklin, buys some of Franklin's favorite foods to welcome him home.
- In the Marjane Satrapi graphic novel Chicken With Plums, Nasser Ali's wife tries to drag him out of his depression by offering his favorite food, the eponymous chicken with plums.
- Swamp Thing Alec Holland getting some canned peaches for Abby, which doubled as Chekhov's Gun.
Film
Literature
- In Dan Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts novel Traitor General, Sturm's lifeward offers him a drink: "weak black cup of tea, with cinnamon". He comments that the lifeward is very attentive; he's had personal adjuntants who took less care of him. Later, as his memories return, he remembers his favorite dish, and the lifeward makes a mental note to have it served at the dinner.
- In Sandy Mitchell's Ciaphas Cain novels, several people keep tanna tea on hand because Cain is rather fond of the drink. These include Amberley Vail, who was once persuaded to have some by Cain and pronounces the drink "distinctive."
- To the point that in Death or Glory, when Trapped Behind Enemy Lines Cain assembles surviving units into a ragtag army, fights his way across most of a mid-sized continent and through the bulk of an Ork WAAAGH!, and kills the Warboss in charge in order to reach friendly lines, with the express goal of finding some tanna.
- Similarly, at the end of The Caves of Ice, Cain takes the liberty of ordering dinner; Vail notices, with a smile, that he had remembered how much she liked a certain sorbet.
- In L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Windy Poplars, Anne, arriving to work as a school's principal, is invited to dinner by every student's family. At the first dinner, she highly praises some pumpkin preserves. Thereafter, every single dinner features pumpkin preserves until she loathes it; a family that hates it had gotten some specially for her, and sent the leftovers home with her.
- In The Will of the Empress by Tamora Pierce, upon the arrival of her foster brother who she hasn't seen in years, one character fixes enough of his favorites to cause one character to ask if she plans for him to roll away from the table.
- In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Kreacher offers to bake Harry the treacle tart "to which Master is so partial".
- In the first book of the Fire Thief trilogy this is done unintentionally when The Avenger, AKA the eagle that ate Prometheus's liver each day, enters a bar looking for the the escaped Prometheus. The Avenger was offered a bowl of soup, but declined it and would have found Prometheus just outside if the bar owner's daughter hadn't said just before he opened the door, "It's liver." The Avenger quickly changes his mind.
- In the novel Chocolat, the protagonist Vianne Rocher has the gift of being able to tell a person's favourite chocolate just by looking at them, or even thinking of them. Also present in the film, with a lesser degree of Magic Realism.
- In Sarah Addison Allen's Garden Spells, Evanelle brings Sydney strawberry Pop-tarts because she knows she ought to give them to her. Then Sydney's sister Claire shows up with her daughter Bay in tow, and Bay's favorite is strawberry Pop-tarts.
- In The Hunger Games, Katniss comments in an interview that the thing that impressed her most about the Capitol was the lamb stew with prunes. In the arena, she receives a tin of it from sponsors.
- In Michael Flynn's Up Jim River, Billy serves the favorite drinks from the bar, having, as a good servant, learned them on the way.
- In Sarah A. Hoyt's Draw One In The Dark, Edward makes Tom's coffee with three sugars, surprising him with it before he can refuse it.
- In Harriet the Spy, Harriet suspects something is amiss when her nanny, Ollie Golly, needs to confirm that Harriet likes asparagus, seeing as Ollie Golly has taken care of her for all her life. It turns out that Ollie Golly's boyfriend is coming to visit, hence her nervousness.
- In Seanan McGuire's Velveteen Vs The Junior Super Patriots, Aaron remembers to get blueberry coffee cake for Velma.
Live-Action TV
- Weyoun of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, saying to Bashir, "Do you remember the first time I brought you scones?" in that magnificent voice of his, after delivering said scones on a tray (with jam and tea, just the way Bashir likes it!) to a flustered and freaked out Bashir.
- The A-Team episode "Timber!"
Samantha Lawrence: [to Face] It's a long way to L.A., so I brought you some sandwiches. Your favorite kind.
- Alias episode "Succession"
Ushek San'ko: [brings Sark wine] Chateau Patreuse, 1982... your favorite, no?
- Parodied twice in Dinosaurs.
- Episode "Career Opportunities"
Fran Sinclair: You just need to overcome your senses, and I made you your favorite dish: food.
- Episode "Charlene's Flat World"
Fran Sinclair: I'm so glad you're back, I made your favorite for dinner.
Charlene Sinclair: You knew we were coming back tonight?
Fran Sinclair: I made it every night.
Earl: Yep, 80 consecutive nights of meatloaf, and nobody prayed for your safe return home more than me.
- Chuck where Morgan completely screws up a night between Ellie and Captain Awesome by giving Awesome all the wrong things when Awesome knew what Ellie liked all along but was tricked into paranoia and subsequently wrong-guess territory by Morgan's longstanding stalkerness about his fiance.
- Burn Notice, Michael Westen: tuna tahini. And yogurt.
- Babylon 5 has Garibaldi's late father, who had the usual trouble (fictional) men have with expressing feelings, but cooked bagna cauda
 on his son's birthday. Now Garibaldi makes it himself as a tribute to him. The quest for ingredients is a minor B (well, C) plot in one second season episode, A Distant Star. A third season episode, A Late Delivery From Avalon, had Garibaldi once again trying to secure the ingredients for bagna cauda, this time despite a trade embargo and an obstructive mailman who refuses to hand the ingredients over until Garibaldi pays the extra fees for the more difficult delivery.
- On Star Trek: Enterprise, the crew go out of their way to find out Reed's favorite food, so they can make him a cake for his birthday. This is the A-plot, since the difficulty of it highlights how reclusive Reed is. Also, eh, some aliens attack at one point.
- Happens quite often in The Prisoner, since the overlords at The Village know nearly everything about the Prisoner and can accomodate him almost immediately. They know how he takes his tea, what foods he likes, and so on, and regularly give him exactly that.
- In one episode, they change his favourite food to mess with his mind.
- In "The Chimes of Big Ben," he refuses to tell the new Number Two whether he takes sugar with his tea, so Number Two looks it up in his file ("Does not take sugar"). He then puts three lumps of sugar into the tea himself just to give Number Two the finger.
- The original Number Two, when welcoming Number Six, tries to give him his favourite (bacon, eggs, and tea), but isn't entirely sure of the details. The trope is ultimately subverted when it turns out that Number Six doesn't especially care how the eggs are prepared or what kind of tea it is as long as it has lemon.
- On The Office US, it is established in the pilot episode that Jim is head over heels for Pam, and that's one of the only reasons he works at Dunder Mifflin. "If I left," he explains, "what would I do with all this useless information in my head? You know? Tonnage price of manila folders? Um, Pam's favorite flavor of yogurt, which is mixed berry."
- Supernatural: Zachariah offers Dean his favorite burgers and preferred brand of beer when he is at the mercy of the angels and supposedly about to die to destroy Lucifer.
- Later, when Adam is in the exact same position, Zachariah has the same plate of burgers and beer, and remarks that the Winchesters are really quite predictable.
- Gossip Girl. When Chuck decides to stop running from his feelings and to tell Blair that he loves her, he goes around Europe buying her favorite stockings, macaroons and whatnot from her favorite places. He's also been seen to bring her her favorite champagne and her favorite flowers on occasion.
- In one episode of The Odd Couple, Felix tries to butter up Oscar by making his favorite meal — lasagna and french fries.
- When Frankie visits her Mother on the Mother's Day episode of The Middle she asks her Mom to make a grilled cheese sandwich like she used to — with potato chips in the middle.
- A minor Running Gag in early episodes of Stargate Atlantis was Major Sheppard being bribed with turkey sandwiches.
- Starsky & Hutch: In the episode "Lady Blue," which revolves around the murder of Starsky's ex-girlfriend, Hutch makes him his favorite meal as comfort food, having called Starsky's mother up to get the recipe.
- Subverted on Heroes. Volume Five Big Bad Samuel tries this on his longtime crush Vanessa, but his information is about 30 years out of date.
- Most of the main characters in EUReKA favor "Vincepressos", and Vince sometimes displays a preternatural sense of when they need one.
- CSI: New York subverted this when a reporter offered Mac a blueberry bagel and coffee the way he liked it. This was based on what Flack told her, so naturally Mac was allergic to blueberries and had given up caffeine.
- Friends: When Joey's sister plans to tell him that she's pregnant, Rachel makes sure that she gets him his favourite sandwich to calm him down.
- Subverted when Rachel is pregnant and Ross brings her her favourite tuna cucumber sandwich. However, she gets sick because of it and it's her favourite no longer.
Newspaper Comics
- In Baldo, Tia Carmen tell Baldo she made his favorite form of potatoes — and then second favorite — and then that she made potatoes.
- US Acres "What if it's strawberry ice cream? That's your faaaaavorite, isn't it, Lanolin?"
Videogames
- Ace Attorney: Max Gallactica likes milk, so everybody gives him a lot of milk for the final day in court.
- Earthbound: Ness's special attack is named after his favorite thing (the player inputs the name.) When calling his mother to prevent homesickness, Ness's mom often mentions his favorite meal (also input by the player.)
- Hilarity can easily ensue, especially in Mother 3, where it gets used more frequently.
- In an optional scene in Chrono Trigger, Marle tries to reconcile with her father by bringing him his favorite food. (It doesn't work.) She was lied to as to what it was!
- Inverted in one optional ending in Chrono Cross: the player can ask Harle for "your specialty" when she asks what he wants for dinner.
- * Every character in Star Ocean and Star Ocean The Second Story has a favorite food which you can cook, which restores all their HP and MP. They generally make sense and/or poke fun at the character. Brooding Joshua likes the high-class escargot, perky Millie and Precis are partial to sugar-filled fruit parfait and chocolate crepes, and cat-people Perisie and Noel like tuna. Manly Cius and Iria, and boozer Opera, like various alcoholic drinks. Main character Claude likes good old steak.
Webcomics
Western Animation
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