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.

@Thecazelets

People also go on about Australian Tim Tams, which are just rather inferior Penguins in my view.

They are ten times better than penguins! And without the silly individual wrappers.

Nah.

Do they have jokes? This was one of the chief selling points of Penguin biscuits for me years ago. My son used to have one in his packed lunch every single day and we enjoyed looking at the jokes together.

I remember nagging my mum to let me try bread and dripping because all the children in the stories I read loved it as a treat. After endlessly being told I'd hate it, she got sick of me pestering and spread some congealed fat from the Sunday roast onto bread for me. I was horrified but she made me eat it!

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

Do they have jokes? This was one of the chief selling points of Penguin biscuits for me years ago. My son used to have one in his packed lunch every single day and we enjoyed looking at the jokes together.

No, it's a biscuit not a Christmas cracker. They also come in different flavours and are designed to be shared, unlike the odd British habit of a single wrapped biscuit in a lunchbox!

Toast and dripping is excellent thoughbut.

My disappointment was muffins, the ones you split and toasted on a fork by the fire. Bland, claggy and tasting of coal smoke.

Avocado toast needs sourdough bread, a sprinkle of sumac and a drizzle of nice olive oil and bacon

That's me told!

@Thecazelets

People also go on about Australian Tim Tams, which are just rather inferior Penguins in my view.

Wash your mouth out. The Black forest one that were a limited edition were heaven.

They also come in different flavours and are designed to be shared

Not in this house they're not....mine, all mine.

I understand penguins for school children (if chocolate is allowed at school), it's the adults bringing a single biscuit to work and none for anyone else! I call penguins antisocial British biscuits. Timtams are also more chocolatey .

The problem with the butter beer is that we tend to get the muggle variety. The stuff you get at The Three Broomsticks is entirely different, according to my reliable sources

I do wonder if the fizzy butter beer available in certain shops is anything like it's fictional version.

@MillicentMargaretAmanda

Tootsie rolls. Mentioned in various Judy Blume/Paula Danziger type books I read as a kid. Sounded so exotic. Turns out it's just a bit grim. Ditto Twinkies.

I went to America as a teen and discovered Tootsie rolls. They weren't available in the UK (this was back in the 80s) so I wrote a letter (!!) to the company saying would they be selling them here. A few weeks later I got an enormous box of them! But I agree about Twinkies (and Bane Ruth's)

@Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies

The problem with the butter beer is that we tend to get the muggle variety. The stuff you get at The Three Broomsticks is entirely different, according to my reliable sources

Hmm, I've had it at The Three Broomsticks and Leaky Cauldron, as well as out and about in Hogsmeade and at the studio tour. I quite like it anyway, Dd loves it. The ice cream from i Florean Fortescue is also fab.

I love bread - except for sourdough. It's just too sour! I was really looking forward to it in California with clam chowder but hated the sour bread.

@SorrelForbes

Slightly going in the opposite directions (sorry OP) but ]] book is fantastic. All the recipes are based on food and drink mentioned in children's literature.

@SorrelForbes

Thank you so much! I've just ordered this - and also 'Ripping Things to Do' by the same author as it looked fun.

I desperately wanted to be Sorrel as a child! Loved Noel Streatfeild.

ratatouille. like a lumpy tomato soup.
I grew up in the states so had no idea what baby spice was talking about in spice world when she says magnum. thought it was a milkshake. but I do like magnums
ditto re Turkish delight

I love bread and dripping! But the bread has to be toasted.

Toast, lashings of Lurpak, then spread dripping on top. Then add a bit of salt.

DH is slightly horrified by some of my eating habits.

Toast and dripping (must include the meat jelly) with a sprinkling of salt is heavenly. I haven't had it for years but used to eat it every morning for breakfast when staying at my nana's (who also ate it very day and lived to her mid 90s).

Mashed avocado is pointless. Perfectly ripe avocado is only delicious sliced with a bit of balsamic, because of texture - the bite - with the creaminess. Next to the squish of mozzarella and the crunch and tang of tomato.

Mash it up and it's basically lard whatever you spread it on.

Nachos are shite, salty triangles of mouth hurt - some gloop that is orange doesn't make them food.

Chocolate is just waxy.

Also rice is pointless bland filler. It tastes of NOTHING.

Chocolate is just waxy.

Only crap chocolate

Also unsalted butter outside shortcrust pastry.

@WiddlinDiddlin

I love turkish delight...

I did not love lemonade made per Enid Blyton stories... water, sugar, lemon juice (whoever posted it being made with just sugar and water, I think you need to re-read!)...

Result.. incredibly sweet yet strong cloying lemony syrup that is not remotely refreshing to drink and of course, not fizzy!

Ha ha - that was me! Lemon juice does make more sense but sounds like it doesn't work anyway.