“Additionally, several cultures regard foods like bananas, asparagus and carrots as erotic stimulants because of their phallic resemblance. The ancient Aztec name for avocado was ahuacatl, or...”

You can finish that sentence here. We are all aware of the more common aphrodisiacs in our diet. Mussels for instance, are said to contain mineral compounds that help release the testosterone and estrogen in our bodies. As intriguing as that is, trust us when we tell you the topic of food as aphrodisiac will become much more fascinating when food historian and expert Francine Segan expounds a wealth of knowledge on the topic this Wednesday at the 92nd Street Y, some of which she briefly reviewed in the video above.

When Francine spoke with Salon last December for an article about pie, she said:

“I always kind of think of pie back then as a container—the crust was the container for the yummy stuff inside,” Segan said. “It was also a way to do really dazzling things on the table. In the Middle Ages, the pie was the surprise—pie could be four feet high, the crust could even be gilded.” In addition to birds, live garter snakes and frogs were also enclosed in pies. Diners seldom ate the crust—without butter, crusts were often as hard as cement…

One popular pie in Shakespearean England was called “courage pie” because it contained all the ingredients commonly thought to have aphrodisiac properties at the time, including sweet potatoes, wine and, of course, sparrow brains.

[Francine Segan’s World of Tasting: Aphrodisiacs Tasting: History, Myth and Fact]

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