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Sexy Valentine’s Day foods

Some foods are definitely sexier than others — you’ll have more luck turning your partner on with a strawberry than with spaghetti Bolognese. So before planning your Valentine’s Day menu, have a look where it ranks, sexiness-wise…

Top 5 aphrodisiacs

If you don’t much mind what you look like eating a particular food so long as it gets things stirring, you might want to try these famous aphrodisiacs:

  1. Oysters: Full of zinc and iron, these slippery suckers affect the production of testosterone and — possibly — sex drive.
  2. Chilies: If they’re hot enough, they’ll get your nerve endings singing, dancing and turning you on.
  3. Chocolate: Its combination of serotonin, phenylethylamine (a neurotransmitter associated with love) and caffeine might get you in the mood for love.
  4. Asparagus: With mighty testosterone-, estrogen- and progesterone-stimulating vitamin E in its arsenal, it might show you a good time.
  5. Bananas: Their combination of vitamin B and potassium is rumoured to raise your energy levels and strengthen orgasms.

Just look at that strawberry, so smug in its sexiness. It knows it dominates the universal scale of irresistibility. Conversely, delicious spare ribs hide in their shame at the bottom. Luckily on most days it doesn’t matter whether you’re seen in the presence of a turnip or a cherry. But if you’re planning a Valentine’s Day dinner with someone special, you had better know your stuff!

To help you navigate the murky waters of food sexiness and ensure you come out triumphant, we’ve divided foods into five categories in order of irresistibility: the “very sexy,” the “awkwardly alluring,” the “curiously unsexy,” the “not now, not ever” and the “will give you gas.” So read on, learn, and make your Valentine’s dinner a sexy success!

Very sexy

The category

The food that finds itself in this category has nothing to worry about. It is the food equivalent of a Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum love child, and it is irresistible.

The poster child

Strawberries. Have you ever seen an unattractive way to eat one? No. That’s because it’s not possible. Not only are strawberries perfectly mouth-shaped, but they’re delightful when dipped in chocolate.

At dinner

Entree

Carpaccio. Wafer-thin slices of anything — beef, salmon, persimmon — are enchanting by nature. And since they’re dainty, putting them in your mouth can lead to nothing but sexy results.

Main

Sashimi. Not only is the seaweed- and rice-less cousin of sushi precut into bite-sized pieces, but it can be eaten in a suggestive way with chopsticks.

Dessert

Crème brûlée. The elegant dessert has a hard shell you can crack with one sexy tap of a spoon and a creamy centre that looks seductive when delivered to your mouth.

Awkwardly alluring

The category

The food in this category has no business being sexy, and yet there’s something about its unkempt and unpredictable nature that has you looking in its direction — and licking your lips.

The poster child

Watermelon. It’s large, kind of oafish and requires some degree of slurping, and yet the tender flesh, juiciness and the animalistic non-utensil way it is devoured give it an irresistible bad-boy charm. Plus, in some cultures, it is considered an aphrodisiac.

At dinner

Entree

Mini spring rolls. They’re deep-fried, which is hardly elegant, and yet their shape makes them a fun food with which to tease your dining companion.

Main

Steak. What you’re basically eating is a dead hunk of animal. Yet when it’s cut into slices and slowly raised to the mouth with a fork, the sexiness is undeniable.

Dessert

Lemon meringue pie. From its name to its shape, the dessert seems clunky, and yet its fluffy meringue is a sexy beast once on a spoon, while its lemon base is light and won’t stain your teeth.

Curiously unsexy

The category

At first glance it seems like these foods should make for sexy eating, but upon closer inspection you realize you’d rather watch your grandmother make out with a tree.

The poster child

Lobster. While it seems like a reasonable — even impressive — thing to order at a special dinner, the harsh reality is that lobster involves a lot of excavating. And somewhere between digging around and amassing a collection of shell fragments on your plate, the sexual chemistry makes a polite exit stage left.

At dinner

Entree

Oysters. They are lauded as an aphrodisiac, and yet most people don’t get terribly turned on when they watch their dining companion shoot one back. Sorry, oysters.

Main

Caesar salad. It’s light and dainty, and yet it’s almost impossible to eat without running into a larger-than-life piece of lettuce or awkward dressing distribution, not to mention the eggs and anchovies.

Dessert

Chocolate fondue. It’s rich, made of chocolate and often has a molten centre. What could possibly go wrong with that? Well, aside from overshadowing your dining companion (because come on — chocolate fondue), it’s almost impossible to keep it away from your pearly whites.

Not today, not ever

The category

The foods in this category cannot be helped. If you order them at your Valentine’s Day dinner, you may as well move to another country and start buying cats by the carton.

The poster child

Spare ribs. While they are delicious and good and everything nice, there’s something about the sight of a person ripping flesh covered in barbecue sauce off bone that sucks the romance out of a room.

At dinner

Entree

Buffalo wings. Actually, any kind of wings isn’t great. Your date doesn’t want to see you nibbling on bones. Not even if you lick your lips suggestively in between. In fact, that might make the experience creepier.

Main

Spaghetti Bolognese. Aside from owing the world an apology for a thousand ruined shirts, spaghetti is also a terrible dinner companion. From a bright, messy sauce to long, awkward pasta, it’s a disaster waiting to happen.

Dessert

Cupcakes. Danger! Danger! Unless you’re Angelina Jolie, there is no sexy way to eat a cupcake. If you use a dessert fork, you’ll look like a fool; if you don’t, there will come a point when you’ll have to jam the thing into your mouth or risk getting crumbs and icing everywhere.

Will give you gas

The category

Frankly it doesn’t matter what the food in this category looks like while being eaten, because it will give you gas, and that’s just not sexy.

The poster child

Baked beans. They have a rhyme written about their magical properties. Enough said.

At dinner

Entree

Mozzarella sticks. You may have devised all kinds of ways to slowly eat these in front of your dinner date, but you’ll regret each and every one a couple of hours later.

Main

Creamy curry. Undeniably delicious? Yes. Will it wreak havoc on your system? Definitely yes.

Dessert

Cheese plate. Although romantically French in nature, the cheese plate — especially one laden with soft and unpasteurized cheeses — is rarely a good idea.

More Valentine’s Day food ideas

The cutest heart-shaped foods for Valentine’s Day
Seductive sippers: Valentine’s Day martinis
Valentine’s Day food and wine pairing ideas

Photo credits: Thomas Barwick / Photodisc / Getty Images, Multi-bits / Photodisc / Getty Images, Anthony Johnson / Stockbyte / Getty Images, Chris Ted / Stockbyte / Getty Images, James And James / Stockbyte / Getty Images, Michael Lamotte / Cole Group / Photodisc / Getty Images, Brian Macdonald / Photodisc / Getty Images, Chris Ted / Stockbyte / Getty Images, David Chasey / Photodisc / Getty Images, John E. Kelly / Photodisc / Getty Images, Brian Macdonald / Photodisc / Getty Images, Annabelle Breakey / Photodisc / Getty Images, Jupiterimages / Stockbyte / Getty Images, Multi-bits / Photodisc / Getty Images, Thomas Northcut / Photodisc / Getty Images, David Bishop Inc. / Photodisc / Getty Images, Siede Preis / Photodisc / Getty Images, Comstock / Stockbyte / Getty Images, Stockbyte / Stockbyte / Getty Images and Rayman / Photodisc / Getty Images

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