This article is primarily a discussion of how literati during the Northern Sung made use of their responses to prestations of food and drink to open up a special literary creative space. Examples include poets such as Ouyang Hsiu and Mei Yaochen and their poetic discourse on pufferfish, Mei Yaochen's 'Banquet of Two Mandarin Fish' and 'Minced River Carp Banquet,' and the prestations of the poetic friends of Su Shih and travelling officialdom. At the same time, the article enlists the aid of a number of insights drawn from the theory of the gift as articulated in the classic work of the great French sociologist Marcel Mauss, Essay on the Gift: the Form and Function of Exchange in Archaic Societies (1923-24), in order to discuss how literati in the Northern Sung, through food and drink, were able to form an aesthetic devoted to the prestation, reception, and explication of shared comestibles, leading to a dialogue between tastebuds and literature that involved thoughtful reflection, remembrance, and friendship. This created an unusual dialogue and form of commensality that led to the formation of a common literary consciousness and common group sentiments.