Which foods in books made you hungry when you read about them?

[ABowlOfPorridge]

Heidi always made goat’s cheese and goat’s milk sound so good but I hated them when I finally got to try them as an adult.

The feast at the Beavers’ house sounded so good especially the marmalade roll.

Which literary culinary delights appealed to you?

Turkish delight in the lion the witch and the wardrobe (even though I didn’t like it - do now!) Peaches in James and the giant peach, Baked beans in Of Mice and Men, All the picnics (and ginger beer) in all Enid Blyton books…

coldcchickencoldtonguecoldhamcoldbeefpickledgherkinssaladfrenchrollscresssandwichespottedmeatgingerbeerlemonadesodawater eaten on a sunny Edwardian riverbank

Anything cooked or prepared by Ma Kosti

The mayor of Casterbridge - when he eats the furmity. I’ve always longed to try that! Also - seed cake - I imagined it being like budgie food- not sponge with nasty little seeds in

Mrs Hall’s cooking in the James Herriot books.
Everything Mole pulls out of Ratty’s picnic basket in Wind in the Willows “coldtonguecoldhamcoldbeef…”

snap

You’re all making me want to read Enid Blyton’s books again and also the books mentioned on here that I haven’t yet enjoyed.

Did anyone else read the Redwall books? They were full of descriptions of the most amazing food. I’m tempted to get a copy of the Redwall cook book but fear that I’d be disappointed by the real version.

Yes to Enid Blyton, Arthur Ransom and Harry Potter! Yum!

Also, oddly, in my Mum's 1980s comics (maybe bash street kids) there were meat pies that looked great 😂

The hot chocolate from Chocolat sounded like the most sensual, life-changing experience ever. I was desperate to try some.

@DeanElderberry You beat me to it with the Water Rat’s picnic!

I also loved the Christmas box from What Katy Did At School but I’m still in the dark as to what a jumble is. A sort of doughnut?

Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder has some amazing descriptions of the food her husband ate as a boy. His parents were fairly prosperous farmers and he worked very hard even as quite a young child so the food they needed to fuel them was pretty substantial.

Tolkien also has some pretty nice sounding food descriptions, especially when the hobbits are still in the Shire. Not so much when they get to Mordor….

And the orphanage fruitcake Mr JLB Matekoni can’t resist.

Louise Penny’s 3 pines books about inspector gamache. She has an exquisite way of describing food in them that makes me want to crawl into the books and roll around in the food. My partner reads these books too and says the same thing.

Chocolat springs to mind. In fact, Joanne Harris books in general. Her descriptions of food and smells are so rich and evocative.

Elizabeth Goudge wrote good food. There was a picnic prepared by Marmaduke Scarlett with meat pies, and a somewhat punitive meagre salad lunch for the rector uncle in Linnets and Valerians when the children and the cook are busy making jam.

Came on to say this. Was it Debbie’s jumbles or something like that? I‘ve still never had a jumble but they sounded wonderful. I was aghast that they couldn’t go home for Christmas but that made up for it.

James Herriot - the Yorkshire puddings as a starter, and the fruitcake with cheese!

the tomato pasta with olive oil in the godfather … I think about it every time I make tomato pasta!

I seem to remember a scene in James Herriot’s books where he’s exhausted and hungry and a farmer gives him fresh bread with honey and butter which sounded so simple yet incredibly delicious and now I’m craving a honey sandwich.

Everything that Nick cooks on his campfire in the Hemingway short story “Big Two-Hearted River”.

Debbie Johnson’s comfort food cafe books and Ellen Berry’s book about a cook book book shop all did the job!!

The Hot, Buttered Toast (and tea 😂)in 101 Damnations. That scene always stuck with me 💖

Cinnamon rolls - can’t remember the book but it was by Taylor Jenkins Reid I think

The opposite of this is where he had to eat the bacon that was all fat and had to smother it with piccalilli to disguise it.
Christmas cake and wensleydale is one of the good things about Christmas

Mr Grimshaw's picnic on the train in The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
What Katy Did At School- the breakfast of waffles, butter and syrup
And I don't remember which, but one of the William books- he goes into a teacher's house and eats his dinner, and it's roast pheasant and then pineapple cream.

And everything in the Darling Buds Of May and the rest of the series. I read those books every year.

Saying that I’ve just seen Katherine Ryan hosted this weeks so may attempt it. I USED to find it hilarious but it’s been progressively getting worse for years. I also did’t appreciate them not covering the Supreme Court ruling.

Wrong thread 😅