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.

Grits... but that doesn’t ‘sound’ nice though does it (makes me think of cat litter). I’m sure it tastes nice...

Not a book but I wondered how many children had been disappointed with porridge, as a result of watching Abney and Teal.

Many of these things need other things though to make them good.

Quinoa, Grits, and this sort of thing are like rice and potatoes, tasteless on their own. Grits needs salt and cheese, Quinoa needs other flavours - herbs, a dressing.

Avocado toast definitely needs very good bread, and the Avocado needs seasoning.

@AintOverUntilTheCatLadySings

I expected this thread to be 30 people saying 'Turkish Delight' after the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe

Heathen

Agree about American snack foods, their chocolate is vile. Also peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I like 100% peanut butter and proper jam with fruit in it, on separate pieces of toast!

I actually really like avocado on its own so probably would like avocado on toast .

Agree on coconut water - with a straw from a fresh coconut - looks beautiful but oh my god it tastes warm and disgusting! Also agree on American confectionery and butter beer. Marmalade roll (also from The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe) must be like a dry, bitter version of jam roly-poly.

I also tried to make bread and milk as a child as it was mentioned in so many books and it is startlingly horrible.

Plum cake always sounded delicious but turns out to be the boring cake you get at weddings.

@partyatthepalace

Bread and milk, sprinkled with sugar, eaten by children in Mallory towers etc when ill.

My mother in law made it cos she remembered it as a child, I didn’t think it would be nice but it was DISGUSTING.

I love avocado toast, but needs lime and salt.

I made it for myself as a kid after reading it in a book - probably Enid blyton.

I'm not sure that Tesco's basics white sliced loaf with semi s Kim Ed milk and granulated sugar was how it should be done but I agree. Uninspiring at best

@Sobloodyexhausted

I think the Turkish Delight was a symbol for something more moreish!😂😂😂 What a bad boy CS Lewis must have been.

WHAT???

Want that whole series a Christian allegory? With Aslan being God? And it was just pages of good and evil really. With good winning, boringly.

What was Turkish delight then?

@toffeebutterpopcorn

Grits... but that doesn’t ‘sound’ nice though does it (makes me think of cat litter). I’m sure it tastes nice...

It's fucking disgusting 🤣🤣

Want= Wasn't

Porridge for me. I love the sound of piping hot porridge, but I absolutely hate the texture.

Not keen on avocado either. I can only eat it if it's almost as hard as a bullet.

And bread and milk is just about the most nausea-inducing thing I have ever been given to eat. I still feel bad about it now (my granny used to try and make me eat it in the 70s) but the very thought of it makes me shudder.

The normal butter beer is gross, but the slushy version! Yum!

@devildeepbluesea

Porridge for me. I love the sound of piping hot porridge, but I absolutely hate the texture.

Not keen on avocado either. I can only eat it if it's almost as hard as a bullet.

Agree re: porridge. Just tasteless pap. Avocados however are the food of the gods! Must be ripe and sprinkled with lime salt and a touch of chilli

My nan used to tell me about oxtail soup as a warming and restorative treat for when you feel under the weather. One day I finally tried it and 🤮

Please tell me what books have quinoa in them? I have bypassed all mentions of this in my literary quests!🙂

Root beer. Read about it in countless sweet valley high and sweet dreams books in my early teens. Went to the US as a 16 year old and was so excited to order it. It is rank.I proclaimed that ‘it tastes worse than mouthwash’ and the staff were doubled up repeating ‘she says it tastes like mouthflush’ over and over

@Sobloodyexhausted

I think the Turkish Delight was a symbol for something more moreish!😂😂😂 What a bad boy CS Lewis must have been.

But, but.... doesn't the Ice Queen (or whatever her name was) give it to Edmund when he goes off with her in her sleigh?

Polenta

Also bitterly disappointed by Hershey’s kisses, having read about them in the same books.

Toffee apple

I'm another one who made bread and milk for myself as a child and was like WTF?!? Was foul.

@icanboogieboogiewoogie

American chocolate is vile. It genuinely does taste of baby sick.

You TRIED eating baby sick?