Food that sounds great in books but is disappointing in real life

[BlowDryRat]

As a child I was very into reading the Famous Five and begged my mum to buy me ginger beer. It was a disappointing experience. It tasted horrible!

Ditto cakes made with chestnut flour (The Wolves of Willoughby Chase) and the butterbeer at the Harry Potter studio tour.

We had a contractor in the states who used to send us boxes of Oreos as if they were manna from heaven. We told him (nicely) that these were readily available in supermarkets here (this was a while back but you could get them easily enough). The taste like dog biscuits.

And American director would bring us Hershey bars - definite tang of vomit

I also worked somewhere where we were given a Krispy Kreme donut ‘special’ card where we could get a box of them every day... they are nasty!

A colleague used to go on about twinkies so I bought her a box when I saw them in the US food section of a supermarket. God they were vile.

Red vines and Swedish Fish - bleugh and bleugh.

It think foreign sweet treats are rarely a pleasure.

However I remember my American BILs first taste of Irn Bru ‘bleugh it tastes like liquid bubble gum... no, it tastes like iron filings!’. He liked the beer though - had never come across tenants super lager...

@gnatgnu

Also, ‘bread and dripping’ from the literary classic Milly Molly Mandy 🤮

I used to have that! Beef dripping kept soft in a fray bentos pie tin in the top of the oven ...

And we had tripe too, I loved liver and onions and steak and kidney pie...

Wouldn't touch it now...

@EdithSitwell

Avocado toast. Looks lovely in pictures but doesn’t actually taste of anything.

Chilli flakes and chopped fresh mint stirred into it with cherry tomatoes on top is meant to be nice

You do need lemon and salt at least! And some avocados are bland (never try the ‘low fat’ ones - it’s like eating candle wax)

Root beer is delicious. I wish it was more readily available here. My DC love it too. I agree about Turkish delight and Hershey bars though.

@JackieakaBritney

I'm drinking root beer right now! I love it. It's even better as a root beer float

I'll second that!! Bloody love the stuff

@toffeebutterpopcorn

You do need lemon and salt at least! And some avocados are bland (never try the ‘low fat’ ones - it’s like eating candle wax)

Low fat avocados?!?

The are nasty! We had some in the states a few years back (waxy, dry, tasteless, squeaky on your teeth - and expensive!) and I have seen magazine ads for them here recently (not seen them in the shops).

@toolatetofixate

What does the butterbeer taste like for those who've had it?

I was expecting it to taste like fermented honey. It tasted like a sour cream soda. The froth was nice though.

Sorry Joanne. I still ❤️ JKR.

[quote BlowDryRat]@OppsUpsSide if you're in the UK then Tesco sells Lucky Charms. They're £5 for a not-very-big box but cheaper than getting them online.[/quote]
Or Asda do mallow mateys which is a cheaper version but taste just as good as proper lucky charms.

@MrMucker

Whenever I stop to sup in a late nineteenth century festival marquee on the edge of Casterbridge I am always shocked at the mouth feel you get from furmenty even that laced with rum, and wonder how long it will take for somebody to invent a commercialised noodle snack which can be reconstituted in it's own pot with very hot water and a small pouch of spiced grease, for that will surely be an improvement.

It gets you pissed though

@toolatetofixate

What does the butterbeer taste like for those who've had it?

It's lovely. Fizzy, Buttery, sweet creaminess in a glass. Tried the normal one and the frozen one. Much prefer the normal one. The butterbeer ice cream is lovely too. I was nearly sick one year after having the stuff, but that was because I'd had a large glass of butterbeer, then had a huge butterbeer ice cream (not right after each other) and then rode the Harry Potter ride. Problem was we'd done single rider and because I was the first one onto the ride I sat on the end. The family who came on after got taken off so I went round on my own. My body weight obviously tilted the one I was sitting in and made me feel slightly sick. By the time we'd got to the quidich pitch I was pretty much clamping my hand over my mouth willing the ride to be over. As soon as the ride stopped I got off and promptly collapsed on the floor of the moving walkway

Agree about the Oreos biscuits or cookies, used to read about them in American novels so tried them when they came over here. Tasteless. I nearly bought Oreo icecream tonight as it was part of a special offer but thought it would be disappointing too. Does anyone know what Lifesavers are? I used to read about people eating them in American novels but no idea what they are unless a Polo type mint?

Also used to eat sardines on toast on Sunday nights, very nutritious and cheap. Some people must have eaten tripe as it was sold in Butchers' shops, curls of white greasy looking stuff, laid out on trays in the window. I believe it was simmered in milk with pepper? We also had fried bread butties for breakfast fried in the saved dripping. For some reason one of our teachers told us in great detail how to make oxtail soup when we were 10 or 11. He may have started, 'first catch your ox...'

On the literary theme , has anyone ever had cow heel soup? Always made for invalids in 19 th Century books, it may have been made in Little Women? I always sympathised with the girls losing their Christmas breakfast to the poor family and felt guilty because I would've whined and cried and sulked all day. Not celebrated Christmas like a good Christian.

I've never had it but always imagined butterbeer would be like a creamy drink version of a Werther's original, and taste absolutely divine. I never imagined it would have fizz and I'm a bit disappointed to hear it does as I'm not keen on fizzy drinks.

I tried making Enid blytons lemonade too when I was young! Sugar, water and lemon juice I think I did. It definitely didn't result in anything resembling lemonade.

I can't remember the book, but the children made a fire and buried potatoes underneath it to cook. And they cooked some kind of meat either on the fire or buried under with the potatoes. The meat came out hard I think, and one the characters said it was good to have something to chew on sometimes. It could it have been Pippi Longstocking... though sounds more like an Enid Blyton... whatever book it was, I used to dream of eating potatoes cooked under a fire with some hard chewy meat on the side.

Actually , my mistake, it would have been cow heel jelly as it was glutinous. And served cold I believe. Another thing Americans seemed to write about a lot is or was salads set in jello, did anyone eat that?

And twinkies...

A few months ago I saw them in the US section of a shop. Excitedly bought one thinking it was going to be a real treat. I took one bite and very nearly vomited. I couldn't eat for hours after that because I felt so sick. Never again.

I can't remember the book, but the children made a fire and buried potatoes underneath it to cook. And they cooked some kind of meat either on the fire or buried under with the potatoes. The meat came out hard I think, and one the characters said it was good to have something to chew on sometimes. It could it have been Pippi Longstocking... though sounds more like an Enid Blyton... whatever book it was, I used to dream of eating potatoes cooked under a fire with some hard chewy meat on the side.

BaggMcCoys, sorry to go on some more and not from a book but as children we did this on Bonfire Night, always had a fire in the back garden and would bury the potatoes in the base so they would cook during the fireworks when we also had homemade toffee apples and treacle toffee which I remember as delicious probably because that was the only time we had them so a real treat. To eat outside , at night in the cold and dark to the flash and bang of the fireworks was so exciting.

[quote kowari]**@trappedsincesundaymorn Fairy bread is sugary rubbish for children's parties, I don't know any Australian adults who like the stuff! You outgrow it fairly early like you do coco pops.[/quote]
Wash your mouth out with soap! I was the child of immigrants so never had this sort of food, and absolutely loved getting it at birthday parties!!!!! (As did all the other children of immigrants - the 'Aussie' kids could take it or leave it because of the other options, but still liked it.

Chicken wings - just never enough there!

@cateycloggs, it was a Milly Molly Mandy story. Some of their food was undercooked and Billy Blunt said that it was good for teeth to bite well and too much soft food was bad! The meat was bacon and sausage. They were given treacle tart to finish up with.

I agree with Katy Carr that English muffins are not nice, like an old ironing blanket, cut into rounds and buttered.

Molasses (in Australia at least) is not the same as treacle. It's not the least bit sweet and tastes like vitamin b. It's sold in the health food shops. Treacle is part way between golden syrup and molasses.

Ginger beer, properly brewed, is delicious. If you mix it with rum it's a dark & stormy, and tastes even better.

@ClaryFairchild We moved there when I was 11 so I was too old, never liked the stuff!

I love the butterbeer they do in Florida. Not sure if it's the same as the studio tour? It's sickly sweet but so creamy. I can see why a lot of people wouldn't like it. I've got a very sweet tooth.

@Yiayoula

Well, how very dare you! Mojitos are lovely! But then so is ginger beer!