Sofia: “Let’s get a bite to eat.”  
Oz: “Right now?”
Sofia: “Right now. I know a place.”

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

When you’re scrambling to the top, only the finest food will do … and hold the cilantro. Or coriander, as we tend to call it. Yes, despite the socioeconomic turmoil tearing Gotham apart, the deadly and the dangerous are downing cocktails and literally stuffing their faces. But Gotham is nothing if not diverse, and its cuisine a veritable melting pot (if you’ll forgive the cliché and the pun). Let’s tuck in.

Dirty martini 🍸
Call us crazy, but we love Sofia; and Sofia loves a dirty martini, as we learn during her meal with Oz in episode 1. At this point, we know little about Sofia, except that she’s recently been released from Arkham. But the frayed edges of this poor little rich girl and the upbringing she had soon start showing as she delights in gobbling down her food and putting her arms on the table in defiance of her dead daddy’s hypocritical call for decorum. Also: is it our imagination or are they eating cobb salads?

Make a dirty martini

50ml gin or vodka
2.5ml vermouth
2.5 ml olive brine
3 olives

• Pour the liquids into a cocktail shaker or mixing glass filled with ice.
• Stir, or shake if you’re James Bond, for 30 seconds.  
• Strain into a martini glass.
• Spear three olives onto a cocktail stick and add to the glass.

Slush Puppies 🥤 
“It’s better, right? When you mix the flavors?” Oz has a fondness for Slush Puppies, and apparently, they’re better mixed. Oz and Victor finally get to enjoy mixed Slushies at the end of their “work day” in episode 1,  having successfully pinned Alberto’s murder on the Maronis.

Latino dishes 🇲🇽 🇵🇷🇩🇴🇵🇦
Episode 3 is a Victor-centred episode, as we delve into his backstory and find out what happened to his family. Victor opens up to Oz about how much his father loved cooking. “In his heart, the man was a chef,” Victor says, mentioning how he made Latino dishes like carnitas and sancocho.

If you love pulled pork, you may want to try making carnitas. Literally meaning “small meats”, this Mexican dish is made using pork shoulder that is braised with lime and spices. It’s quite time-consuming, so best left for weekend feasting.

Making sancocho can also be time-consuming, but you can freeze it in batches (or freeze leftovers), making it the ideal weeknight meal since all you’ll need to do is heat and eat. Perfect for winter, this stew is popular in many Latin American countries including the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Panama. It consists of various kinds of meat and hearty vegetables and can be served with or without rice – just make sure you don’t add coriander, if you’re eating with Oz.

Earlier in the episode, we get a chance to meet Victor’s family. His father is busy whipping up arroz borracho, which means "drunken rice". This is a Puerto Rican dish and gets its name thanks to the beer used to steam the rice. Yum! What’s also noteworthy about this scene is that the Spanish is not sub-titled. Given that it’s the second most common language in the United States, it makes sense that it’s not. After all, if Batman and Jim Gordon (in The Batman) had bothered to brush up on their Spanish, they may have caught the Riddler sooner and without Oz’s help!

French classics 🇫🇷
Back in the present, Oz and Victor are enjoying a meal in a fancy shmancy restaurant – they have tablecloths and everything – serving the kind of food you’d expect from a place like that. Not that it’s bad food or even complicated. Oz and Victor order French classics coq au vin and steak frites, both of which are simple to prepare, but utterly delicious. Oz’s dish, coq au vin (literally translating to “cock with wine”), involves braising chicken in red wine. Vic orders the steak frites (“steak and fries”) and nothing could be quicker and simpler to whip together on a weeknight, especially if you cheat and use an air fryer.

Pasta and meatballs 🍝
It’s not the first time this Italian-American staple has found its way into film and television. In The Godfather, Clemenza teaches Michael how to make the perfect sauce for meatballs and sausage …

… and this looks very similar to what the Falcones are eating during their final dinner, in episode 4.

Khoresh bademjan 🇮🇷
Salvatore Maroni might have been more familiar with the pasta and meatballs found on the Falcones’ table, but his Persian wife Nadia introduced him to a whole other range of cuisine. In episode 6, mourning the loss of his wife and son, Sal cooks koresh bademjan. This is a Persian stew made with “eggplant, tomatoes, a little meat”, and according to Sal’s late son, Taj, really good served with yoghurt. It’s a poignant moment as we again see how the loss of his family has afflicted Sal. It’s also tender for the bond it continues to form between former foes Sal and Sofia, especially when Sofia refrains from eating while Sal utters a Farsi prayer before inviting her to eat with the Italian word “mangia”.

Red wine 🍷
Whether you're eating pasta and meatballs or khoresh bademjan, there's nothing like a good glass of red wine to accompany it … just make sure when you toast, that you mean it. When Sofia sits down to eat with her family in episode 4, she fills her glass right to the brim in further defiance of daddy dearest, who earlier in the episode filled it “the proper way”. Back in the present, Sofia loudly clinks her glass for attention before toasting her family, using the words “cent’anni". This is Italian for “100 years” and when used as a toast, it means “May you live 100 years”. Given what transpires afterwards, this toast was clearly facetious on Sofia’s part.

Will you be trying any of these drinks and dishes? Share pics of your Penguin-inspired cuisine on Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok using #ThePenguin and #MNet101. The Penguin airs Express from the US on Mondays at 03:00, and in prime time at 21:00, on M-Net channel 101. If you’ve missed any episodes, catch up on DStv Stream here.

The Penguin images: HBO
Food images: Getty