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.

Angel food cake is made with egg whites isn’t it? I’ve never had devils food cake but assume it’s a chocolatey cake with extra chocolate.

@sueelleker you are totally right, it wasn't Anne, it was Phillipa. Clearly its time for me to do a re-read!

@Neap thank you very much for that link, I'm going to have a good read of it later.

Also - chocolate eclairs. Always looked nice. I lettered dad for one when I was little on a particularly rough ferry crossing (everyone else was hurling). Poor dad was green when he went to get it for me! I took one bite and said ‘nah don’t like if’ and dad ran off to vomit over the side of the ferry (again).

I like Ratty's picnic from Wind In The Willows; ‘There’s cold chicken inside it,’ replied the Rat briefly;
‘coldtonguecoldhamcoldbeefpickledgherkinssaladfrenchrollscresssandwiches
pottedmeatgingerbeerlemonadesodawater—-‘
The pound cake in Anne Of Windy Willows/Poplars had 36 eggs in it!

One meal that didn't make it into the Little House books was squirrel.

In her first draft, Laura wrote about how Pa had found and brought home 'a mess of squirrels' for the family to eat. Her daughter Rose, who edited the books, removed the reference as it revealed the true extent of poverty of the family and was seen as working class, not very respectable, food.

In Don Quixote there's a dish called Duelos y Quebrantos which could be translated as Bereavements and Losses which according to Cervantes was usually eaten on Saturdays.
It was a peasant dish of scrambled eggs containing pancetta, chorizo and ham or instead of those lamb brains, served with fried bread. The first version fine the second one I couldn't possibly eat as I balk at offal.

@toffeebutterpopcorn I love a hobnob. You do need to eat them with a cup of tea though.
Do you mean dunk them in the tea? I can't do that, because any crumbs that fell into my tea would make my stomach churn. I can't even bear unexpected lumps in my mashed potatoes.

A local "delicacy" is a Tim Tam slam. I have never ever been able to try it:

I do like the odd Tim Tam on occasion however.

No dunking! That’s gross!

I don't understand people who dunk biscuits. They are meant to be crisp, that is the whole point of a biscuit. If someone can't eat a crisp biscuit they should get to the dentist or eat cake instead.

And I don't like crumby tea.

Oreos are perfect for crushing and using for Rocky Road, or, pre-Nigella, Chockybiccycake.

What are these crumpets of which so many speak?Are you referring to pikelets?

DH brings me a pikelet with butter and marmite every morning to eat in bed with a cup of tea. No need to LTB.

Crumpets are thicker, and cooked in a ring. The batter is the same.uk.toluna.com/opinions/3045832/What-is-the-difference-between-crumpets-and-pikelets

Good grief @thenumberseven, that's extraordinary! I'll never rate a ham sandwich and a packet of crisps again!

@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)

You can get "low fat" avocados?

Yech!

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

What the hell would you float in a pint of beer?

A pork pie? A cow heel? A slab of tripe?

@icanboogieboogiewoogie

My mum used to leave lent food to our own conscience.

I always think that Lent is a time to concentrate on God (that was why Jesus went int the wilderness - to get away from everyday cares).

If all you can think of is "I could kill a chocolate digestive, you aren't spending much time with the Almighty.

In a Barbara Pym novel, the heroine is making her tea (i.e. main meal). It was a lamb chop, some peas, and a grilled tomato. That's it. It brought home to me the sheer quantity of what we eat. Even when I was young, cauliflower cheese was a meal, maybe with some peas

I, too, am always struck by how modest the meals in Barbara Pym's books are. In one she gives a hungry male guest a poached egg (one) for his tea.

I think, as someone said earlier, it was a "waste not, want not" culture, and people didn't;t eat form greed. There was still a lot of rationing for many years after the war - you could generally get plenty of turnips and potatoes, but that was that.

Anything with a strong flavour (eg sardines) must have seemed like manna from heaven in an ocean of blandness.

In contrast, I often find that there is loads of food in 1930s novels. They seem to have fish courses AND meat courses which both sound pretty substantial. Rationing must have come as a shock.

Avocado ON toast. Unless it's guacamole.

Those lovely huge multi-course meals you read about in pre-war novels or see in Downton Abbey and so on - I've always assumed the helpings must have been tiny, especially as they also seem to have huge cooked breakfasts, a proper cooked lunch with at least two courses, and afternoon tea! I'd have been the side of a house if I'd had staff cooking me meals on that scale.

Yes, the average person in the 30s during the depression was having a meat course and a fish course for dinner

@choli

Yes, the average person in the 30s during the depression was having a meat course and a fish course for dinner

It’s pretty obvious from gasp’s post that they are not talking about ordinary households. Having staff to cook meals and the reference to Downton Abbey is the clue.

@Gerla

In contrast, I often find that there is loads of food in 1930s novels. They seem to have fish courses AND meat courses which both sound pretty substantial. Rationing must have come as a shock.

I have thought the same. There are loads off examples of 1930s menus on the internet. Seems like some people continued to have it all whilst others had very little.

I think a lot of books from the 20s and 30s, or at least the ones which remain popular, are about rich people!

Yes, the average person in the 30s during the depression was having a meat course and a fish course for dinner

Well, I thought it was pretty obvious from both our posts that we were talking about a well-off sector of society. And neither of us said anything about the "average" person. That was you. But yes, you carry on with your scowly face not adding anything to the conversation.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

Those lovely huge multi-course meals you read about in pre-war novels or see in Downton Abbey and so on - I've always assumed the helpings must have been tiny, especially as they also seem to have huge cooked breakfasts, a proper cooked lunch with at least two courses, and afternoon tea! I'd have been the side of a house if I'd had staff cooking me meals on that scale.

I don't think they ate everything; the idea was you could have a portion of what you fancied; a bit like a Chinese banquet.

@110APiccadilly

I think a lot of books from the 20s and 30s, or at least the ones which remain popular, are about rich people!

Indeed they are, including the ones about the famous amateur sleuth who lived at your address!

Orwell wrote about the food of the poor in The Road to Wigan Pier. He's bang on here.

“Would it not be better if they spent more money on wholesome things like oranges and wholemeal bread or if they even, like the writer of the letter to the New Statesman, saved on fuel and ate their carrots raw? Yes, it would, but the point is that no ordinary human being is ever going to do such a thing. The ordinary human being would sooner starve than live on brown bread and raw carrots. And the peculiar evil is this, that the less money you have, the less inclined you feel to spend it on wholesome food. A millionaire may enjoy breakfasting off orange juice and Ryvita biscuits; an unemployed man doesn't. Here the tendency of which I spoke at the end of the last chapter comes into play. When you are unemployed, which is to say when you are underfed, harassed, bored, and miserable, you don't want to eat dull wholesome food. You want something a little bit 'tasty'. There is always some cheaply pleasant thing to tempt you.”