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.

Re: kippers. I always have them with butter, brown bread and a big mug of tea!

@FreeFallingFree

Seafood chowder in Moby Dick: Oh! sweet friends, hearken to me. It was made of small juicy clams, scarcely bigger than hazel nuts, mixed with pounded ship biscuits, and salted pork cut up into little flakes! the whole enriched with butter, and plentifully seasoned with pepper and salt.

Seafood chowder in real life: hot milk, occasional prawn.

Well that sounds grim. Not what seafood chowder should be like.

@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.

I love ginger beer! Esp. in a shandy...

Oreos are the work of Satan.

Avocado & eggs on sourdough. It looks good, sounds like a good thing to order so I order it and always regret it instantly. It just makes me miserable GIVE ME THE HASH BROWNS and bacon!!

@ImperfectTents

Sorry folks, your crumpets are shite.

Everyone loves crumpets, surely?

When you call them “your crumpets” are you speaking from a non-UK perspective? Can we find another British baked food for you to try? I feel like a bad hostess now.

@FinallyHere

Chocolate Oliver biscuits.

People raved about them in magazines and books. As a student they were way out of my budget.

Finally (sic) I had saved enough and goodness, what a disappointment. Basically a water biscuit covered quite thinly in dark chocolate.

What? I remember chocolate Oliver biscuits from my childhood, the chocolate was thick and chunky. Have they changed it?

Fried Green Tomatoes

Looked great frying in the pan but not sure they'd taste good.

I am so excited that other posters have mentioned What Katy Did.

Yes to everything they said: the waffles, the sasparilla. Tastes must have been less well-developed in the 1870s.

I was stupid enough to try the vinegar and water recipe that Katy and Clover drank with Cecy in the attic. Raspberry shrub, they called it. Horrendous! I was soon back on the Alpine pineappleade!

Any sort of fruit pie or crumble.

Also, a flaming Christmas pudding served with a large dollop of brandy butter always sounds so delicious but cannot stand it in real life.

As a child in the sixties we would often have kippers for weekend supper with bread and butter (lots of bones in the kippers!) Or alternatively bread and dripping....saved in an enamel bowl from the Sunday roast. Not keen on either now....

AintOverUntilTheCatLadySings

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

This was me. I begged my mother to buy it and I threw up afterwards. Haven’t looked Turkish delight in the face since. The chocolate coated stuff in the shiny purplish packet.

Alcoholic ginger beer makes a lovely Christmas drink.

@RickiTarr scones are great

Tastes like Euthymol toothpaste mixed with sparkling water.

Sounds great. I've never had root beer but I love Euthymol, might try it now!

I also concur whole-heartedly with EVERY WORD of criticism of root beer. Christ. It is awful. I first tried it in McDonalds in the 1980s, fooled by my beloved American teen movies into thinking it was nice.

There is a reason McDonalds stopped selling it. I wonder whether anyone ever ordered it twice?

Not from a book but Oreos were deeply disappointing. Basically Bourbon Creams with notions.

Another one who was suckered into ginger beer here! I was in the back of my mum and dad's car at the time on a long trip, so couldn't even dump it out.

The chocolate coated stuff in the shiny purplish packet.

Oh, that's not a good example of Turkish delight. Proper Turkish delight should come with nothing but powdered sugar. Rose flavour is my favourite. A little goes a long way, though, just as Edmund found out.

But yeah, I love the alcoholic version. And Moscow Mules.

I absolutely love Turkish Delight, and think ginger beer is pretty good too (not together).

Avocado on toast is delicious but the bread must be sourdough.
Kedgeree is also delicious. I think I just like food, really.

[quote ImperfectTents]@RickiTarr scones are great[/quote]
Oh yes, better than crumpets actually. With you there.

I have not, I'm ashamed to say, read the book where this figures, but I rather like rooibos tea. It does taste rather medicinal, but not unpleasantly so, IMHO. As someone who does not like milk or sugar in tea or fruit flavoured teas of any kind, rooibos is sometimes a 'plain' and pleasant alternative.

Ginger beer is surprisingly good with blended whisky and - if I remember correctly a particlurly traumatic moving day, when all were utterly exhausted - with takeaway vegetarian curry.

Also kedgeree - the breakfast staple for toffs in many a book. Never fancy it for breakfast myself though.

Kedgeree is lovely, we had it for dinner last week. Smoked fish, rice, onions and madras curry paste, served with wedges of hard boiled egg, delish.

Things I like mentioned here: crumpets, porridge, English muffins, kedgeree, kippers, avocado on toast (with lemon juice, chilli flakes, salt and pepper of course). Tried grits once, never again. Bread and milk sounds vile.