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.

Dr Pepper. Disgusting. I heaved.

Pretty much every American snack is disappointing. I desperately wanted to try Twinkies after loving Ghostbusters as a child. Rank.

Turkish delight is amazing, only rose flavour though. I once was bought pistachio and that was grim.

Crumpets are amazing. But they need to be browned (not just pushed in toaster for a minute or two) with real butter. Possibly jam but not always.

Any sort of fruit pie or crumble

Wash your mouth out with soap and water.

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

I doubt it. It was awful. My town was an early adopter of McDonalds in 1976, and we all wanted to try the root beer. It was foul.

Another ginger beer hater here. I bought some on the recommendation of a relative when I was pregnant in case I felt sick. Fortunately, I didn’t, but I cannot understand why anyone thinks that ginger should be a flavouring for a beverage. Yet I love fresh ginger in Asian food.

@BlowDryRat

My brother and I used to make proper home made ginger beer back in the 70’s stealing my mum’s tights to strain it into a bucket.
It was very fiery and it tasted nothing like the rubbish labelled Ginger Beer that you can buy from the supermarket these days.

As someone born the year rationing ended I am reading this and it’s bringing back some fond memories of bread and milk for supper, brown sugar sandwiches, spotted dick or jam roly poly ( made with suet, wrapped in a pudding cloth and boiled in a pan of water) with custard, cream AND golden syrup, the man coming round with his barrow on Saturday and my Nan buying a pint of winkles for tea, served with a pin to extract the winkle and some bread and butter. I loved the idea of the food in Enid Blyton, it sounded such fun. The range of food was so much smaller then than that which is available now so we had nothing to compare and were happy enough with what we had. As I say I have find memories but I’m very happy with food today! And yes to whoever said root beer tastes like Germolene😂😂

A decent crumble is quite nice... the caramelised and biscuity almondy top over the fruit.. yum.

S’mores

Read about these in a few American books sounded lovely

They are not

Cracker sandwich of marshmallow and vile chocolate cooked over an open fire

@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.

Just coming on here to discuss Famous Five food. I did a famous five themed party for my dc and of course served ginger beer. Some of the kids (bless them) pretended they liked it.

Butterbeer - good god that was expensive disgusting.

Agree about grits - lived in the Southern USA for 3 years - never, ever, found a way that made grits even edible. Whereas Fried Green tomatoes - just fine!!

The vinegar water from 'What Katy Did'. There's a whole paragraph about what magnificent elixir each child thinks the diluted vinegar tastes like.
I was a kid reading the book and had to know what delicious treat this was, so i sloshed some brown malt vinegar in my glass and was shocked to find it tasted of diluted fucking vinegar.

Ice cream floats or root beer floats in American teen novels, a real life disappointment - so disgusting, why would you want your ice cream and fizzy drink curdling together into an inedible sludge??

@VintageStitchers

We used to make gingerbeer in a bucket. It got gradually more alcoholic the longer you left it. If you put it in a bottle with a tight lid it could blow the bottom out and did on a few occasions

It tasted nothing like what you buy in the shops.

I couldn't believe how disgusting they'd made butterbeer though. Surely they could have made something much nicer. We bought one between 4 of us and none of us wanted more than the first mouthful and then we got water to wash the taste away.

Butterbeer is revolting

Of course ds wanted a pint forced himself to drink a few mouthfuls my nephew finished it off (after already downing a pint it was very very hot day) how he wasn’t sick i do not know

Coke float (scoop of ice cream on top of a glass of coke) was a huge treat when I was a child. I don't think my DC have ever tried one.

@pippitysqueakity

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

same! who on earth mentions quinoa in a book?

I love almost all of the things mentioned here - ginger beer, Turkish delight, toast, old fashioned macaroons, home made lemonade etc, and agree about the awful taste of American snacks (none of their sweet things taste like food as far as I can tell.

Has anyone tried sardines pressed into ginger cake, a la Malory Towers midnight feasts? That's a bridge too far for me.

Pemmican from Swallows and Amazons sounded so exotic. I eventually looked up what it was and dont think I actually want to try it

@Tambourinetunes

I had a spell of eating pistachios after reading The Pistachio Prescription aged about 10. I loved the author and her teen angst books.

There's a blast from the past!

@icanboogieboogiewoogie

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

I agree with you. Hershey is one of the worst.

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.
Oh I agree, it is lovely but for dinner not breakfast.

Crumpets - best with butter and marmite.

And proper Turkish delight is much nicer than Fry's. I got some the other day from a Polish shop (although I think it was Russian) and it was delicious.

I may be the only person on MN ever to like fresh coconut juice, but in a hot humid place, nicely chilled, it is fabulously refreshing.

I like the idea of kippers, but am put off by all the small bones.

I agree that American commercial snacks can be rubbish.... BUT when I visited America as I suddenly realised what iced tea is all about. And pancakes with bacon and maple syrup. Delish!!

As ever was true, home cooked food in America can be bliss, but usually only in a private house. I remember the Steinacker's sweeetcorn from the garden, shucked and cooked in minutes, with a tremor of greedy delight.

@Gensola

I made myself sardines on toast after reading about it in Enid Blyton. It was rank.

I like sardines on toast. Needs pepper and a good squeeze of lemon. Very nutritious too. The bones give calcium and the sardines are oily fish.

Porridge also needs salt. I am a Scot. I was brought up on porridge made with rolled oats, salt and water, served with cold milk and no sugar. It's not my favourite thing but it's OK made that way. I can't stand it made with sugar or lots of milk.

Turkish Delight is lovely. Both the chocolate covered version (Fry's) and the real thing.

@EdithSitwell

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

NO WAY!!

@SeaToSki

Pemmican from Swallows and Amazons sounded so exotic. I eventually looked up what it was and dont think I actually want to try it

Real pemmican would probably be a bit grim to our tastes, but the Swallows and Amazons version was corned beef, which I love once in a way.

Ripe avocado on good sourdough, with salt and pepper, is delicious. Better with bacon.