The symbolic meaning of food is a major concern in popular culture and literary studies at present and there are numerous novels, movies, TV-shows etc. that focus on food and its various functions – literary, cultural, and social. This paper responds to the ongoing discussions in food studies, literary criticism, postcolonialism and gender studies, at the same time as it aims to expand the field of food studies further by connecting it with translation studies. Food, which is a highly politicised subject, is one way in which cultural translation takes place as it is used to create an understanding of cultural transfer and the effects thereof. This paper aims to explore food as literary figure and its cultural function as it analyses continuous processes of cultural transfer and the ensuing effect of cultural hybridity in close-reading analyses of Love and Vertigo by Hsu-Ming Teo, and Nina’s Heavenly Delights by Pratibha Parmar.