Fiction inspired food

Nov 6, 2014

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From lashings of ginger beer (which apparently never actually existed) to midnight feasts including sardines, to enchanted hot chocolate, the books we read give us connections with food that we wouldn’t otherwise have had.

The Queen took from somewhere among her wrappings a very small bottle which looked at if it were made of copper. Then, holding out her arm, she let one drop fall from it on to the snow beside the sledge. Edmund saw the drop for a second in mid-air, shining like a diamond. But the moment it touched the snow there was a hissing sound, and there stood a jewelled cup full of something that steamed. The Dward immediately took this and handed it to Edmund with a bow and a smile; not a very nice smile. Edmund felt much better as he began to sip the hot drink. It was something he had never tasted before, very sweet and foamy and creamy, and it warmed him right down to his toes.

(From The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (The Chronicles of Narnia, Book 2) Chapter 4, Turkish delight.)

I thought of that section when I tried Lindt hot chocolate. In fact, it’s what inspired this whole post. This is a whole different class of hot chocolate, a real luxury. It’s thick and creamy, made with milk in a pan, and actually like drinking melted chocolate, instead of vaguely chocolately milk. Far too rich for the children 😉 (Shame!)

For your delight and delectation:

And a closeup:

I’m sorry, I did drink it all. While musing on what other food associations I make.

I can remember Heidi drinking goats’ milk. And the girls on the chalet with their sweet breads (google tells me Buchteln and you can bet I’ve just bookmarked that site for a baking spree!). Oh and of course the food of the Faraway tree – I need to start reading this to Smallest so that she can have a Faraway tree birthday party next year.

I shouldn’t forget the excellent party thrown by Faber Children’s earlier this year, with all the party food as described in Hog in the Fog (which is a favourite bedtime story as well).

They’re all children’s books though. Do our adult books not focus on food in quite the same way? Or have I just not formed the same relationship because of failure to read and reread (no stories read over and over last thing at night to sink into my dreams)?

Come on, share with me your fictional food fantasies 🙂

Disclosure: The Lindt hot chocolate was supplied for the purposes of review. I will be buying more.

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Comments

9 responses to “Fiction inspired food”

Midlife Singlemum
7 November 2014
When I was 7 out teacher read us Peter Pan which had a green cake in it. She made a green cake and we all got a slice at afternoon break. As an adult I read Nora Ephron’s book about her divorce and it’s full of three-line recipes including comfort mashed potatoes and a cheese cake. I don’t need a recipe for mash but I always meant to try the cheese cake as it’s only three lines long! Toffee apples used to feature in my childhood stories but I disappointed when I found out they were just apples dipped in toffee and the whole inside is just an apple. I can’t think of anything else.
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Evonne Wareham
7 November 2014
I love books with descriptions of food in them – hate it when characters begin a meal and I’m either not told what they are eating, or even worse – I am, and then they have some sort of emotional crisis and the food s not eaten. I hate waste, even on the page!
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Sally Gurteen
7 November 2014
I love this stuff – so thick and perfect for dunking things in 🙂 xxx
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Susan Mann
7 November 2014
I think they do in a way. Like Fault in our stars talked about food a lot and I think I’d associate that with champagne, which ok isn’t a food. Maybe red velvet cupcakes for fifty shades of grey 😉 x
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mamacrow
7 November 2014
When I was a kid was ill a lot until they finally diagnose all the food intolerances I had. I spent a lot of time in bed and loved to be read to – Milly Molly Mandy was a particular fave. I remember really clearly a time when I was put on a fast, with the idea that they would then introduce foods slowly, one at a time to see what was causing me to react.
I was only 6 or 7 if that, and remember being terrifically, endlessly hungry, and requesting the Milly Molly Mandy stories where they cook stew and potatoes on the bonfire and the one where they make toffee, over and over!
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1. Jax Blunt
  7 November 2014
  Gosh, that sounds like a very rough time! I don’t think we’ve read a toffee one – I know she has lots of little parties, and I was highly amused by the picnic where they all go off with an egg 🙂
  Reply
Mylittledreamworld1
8 November 2014
Gosh there are a lot aren’t there 🙂 mine are midnight feasts from Malory towers – I issued to drag myself and my sister from bed to have midnight feasts as a child – half the time we wouldn’t wake up or it just wasn’t as much fun as I hoped!
And like you, ginger beer, ham and berries from famous five – Enid Blyton wrote some good food descriptions 🙂
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Mylittledreamworld1
8 November 2014
Oh, and in Milly Molly Mandy (like the above commenter) there is a description of jacket potatoes being scooped out – I still think of that now when I make potatoes 🙂 xx
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jan
10 November 2014
I seemed to read my kids lots of books in which they have bread and milk sprinkled with brown sugar for supper, and that was what they sometimes had at Nana’s.
My December reading indulgence is Christmassy chick-lit, and I’ve read a few books by Trisha Ashley which are full of chocolate and cake and recipes alongside the amusing, predictable but comforting plot 🙂
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