Just because it's my birthday week, and I think we could all use some levity today...
What are your favorite depictions of food in children's books or media? (could be written, could be illustrated/animated, could be "real")
I’m sure this has been discussed before, but based on The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe I was convinced that Turkish Delight was some sort of indescribably delicious delicacy. It is…nothing of the sort.
SAME HERE!! And especially after seeing it (for the first time ever) in the live-action BBC version (still the greatest adaptation, I won't hear any arguments otherwise), it made me want to try it even more...Needless to say, I was underwhelmed
It's an interesting cultural artifact: much more exciting if you're a kid whose access to sugary treats has been limited by wartime, and pre-war austerity.
Less so now when we have way more fun snacks on every shop counter.
I'll conted, though, that rose Turkish delight, while admittedly not for everyone, is a borderline magical thing. I love it, but even if you don't, you could see it being a treat that would lure a unicorn to eat from your hand.
I’m not a big Narnia fan, but I liked the Great Brain books by John D. Fitzgerald (in part because the Great Brain’s name was Tom Dennis Fitzgerald), and there are some great descriptions of candy bars in the one where GB sells them to his classmates.
Honestly, when I lived in New York in the mid-2000s I'd have HAPPILY sold out Lucy and Tumnus for a large British Cadburys Dairy Milk bar.
Scarcity of access makes you seriously crave things that remind you of home (or in their case better times)
Commercial Turkish Delight is blech, but I got to taste some real Turkish Delight that a friend of a friend brought from Turkey and it was, indeed, delightful. There were multiple flavours and I got to try the pistachio.
I grew up eating the American version - Applets & Cotlets. I don’t love them, but as something put out occasionally at the holidays, I don’t mind them.
I know I'm late to the party here but i loved the description of the food they had for dinner in Mr. and Mrs. Beaver's little house. It sounded soooo good.
I kept hearing about how it's not actually good, so we bought some and it turns out we're obsessed with rose flavor Turkish delight. It's so good!
But I also unironically enjoy Necco wafers.
Spirited Away, of course, but my first favorite was all the scenes of food storage and cooking in the illustrations in the Brambly Hedge books. I think they're the root of my idea of the ideal kitchen
I know every kid that read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was absolutely disappointed that Turkish Delight wasn't something to sell out your siblings for. It's not great!
SAME HERE!! And especially after seeing it (for the first time ever) in the live-action BBC version (still the greatest adaptation, I won't hear any arguments otherwise), it made me want to try it even more...Needless to say, I was underwhelmed
OK!!! so, this is one of my stupid online things.
1) The stuff that most people will run into is commercially produced and has been sitting on the shelf for ages. It's stale and often tastes of rosewater (Which is an acquired taste on top of that). There's loukum out there that IS that good+
2) We're looking at kids during English war rationing. It was awful and they were given no real food (there's a show called Back in Time For Dinner that shows some of this. The rations were BAD). Boiled sugar rolled in more sugar must have sounded like heaven.
3) And lastly, what he ate was magic.
I remember reading Charlotte’s Web as a kid and when Wilbur the pig was given a buttermilk bath, I thought that buttermilk sounded like the most delicious word I’ve ever read. And then I got older and started cooking and yeah no, buttermilk is great as an ingredient, but do not drink it straight
As a little kid, my sister loved buttermilk. When we got a treat at the grocery store, I'd get chocolate milk, and she'd get buttermilk. Then one day she was like "nope."
