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?

Oh, and the fried onions Milly Molly Mandy makes with Billy Blunt and Little Friend Susan.

The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe when Lucy is eating with Mr Tumnus. Lightly boiled brown eggs, sardines on toast, buttered toast, toast with honey, and the sugar-topped cake, all eaten by the fire and washed down with a pot of tea....

The description of baked potatoes was good too.

Every meal served at Hogwarts 🤤

The description of the new Mrs de Winter's first breakfast in Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca. She goes into the dining room and it's all laid out on the sideboard, everything from porridge ("in a silver porringer") to fruit and ham and fish. I have aspired to live like this ever since.

Mine was the famous five too, mostly picnic food and fruit cakes as already mentioned, Enid Blyton had a knack for food writing, even though the food was very simple. There is also one of Dorothy L Sayers' books I like that mentions a picnic of a ham sandwich (a posh type of black ham and no doubt with nice bread) wrapped in brown paper, some type of fruit cake I think, and beer in a brown glass bottle.

Anything buttered.

Which foods?
Hmm, all of them.

Yes! Redwall was my immediate thought - Brian Jacques' description of food made it all sound so delicious. As a kid I loved the thought of candied chestnuts but haven't been brave enough to try making some. Maybe I will now the nights are getting longer.

The chowder in Moby Dick.

And lashings of ginger beer!

Porridge in the Goldilocks.. even though I hated it when I was younger.. the bowl that was ‘just right’, made me hungry.. I’d visualise it in my heat with the heat coming off it and think I’d love to try it!!

I do actually like porridge now.

Books that describe 'sugarplums'. Dunno what it is but sounds like a faffy food of olde that fell out of fashion but entered an everlasting cycle of periodic revival.

I'm off to Google whether it's actually a real food.

Yes - I was coming on to say the White Witch’s Turkish delight.

More recent adult fiction for me- Butter by Asako Yuzuki and the description of plain boiled rice with melted butter. I think about it every time I make rice now.

Yes - the slabs of cheese and bread in heidi

turkish delight from lion witch and wardrobe

the hamper prepared for the girls in Sara Crewe’s attic in a little princess (muffins, golden butter, buns, hot tea, all in front of a fire)

The greasy breakfast washed down with hot tea in the third policeman by flann o’brien

Oh my god yes

Yes to the Christmas box in What Katy Did at School.
Yes to the food in Sara Crewe’s attic. Especially after the five buns that she gave away at the baker’s.

The ‘chocolatey’ loam that the trees ate for pudding in Prince Caspian. Loam is still one of my favourite words.

The apple sauce that Understood Betsy learned to make, her first attempt at cooking.

Winter Solstice by Rosamumd Pilcher. The picnic at the end had french onion soup laces with sherry in thermos flasks, and rolls with butter and real ham.

What a fantastic idea for a thread.

I know so many of these and can think of hundreds more but for me the very first thing that came to mind was the porridge the kids are given after being rescued in the wolves of Willoughby chase with cream and brown sugar.

@Almondflour my book group discussed Butter and had the Japanese rice with butter. It was delicious.

I was going to say the Land of Goodies! Don't think anyone has made anything to rival that, either in books or in real life buffets, which would have seemed heaven to poor 50s kids. And I don't know how old you are, but when I re-read the Faraway books when I became a parent, it made me cringe that "Google biscuits" hits differently now.

Another vote for the Magic Faraway Tree food!I always adored the sound of pop biscuits

Also Mister Dog: The Dog Who Belonged to Himself, and the stew he made with Crispin Crispian's greens.

Sugared almonds in the Nutcracker.

Fab thread, OP!

I grew up on Enid Blyton

I was a fat child

Make of that what you will.

‘Blackberry Wine’ by Joanne Harris made me feel I could smell and taste the recipes she wrote about. A very memorable book and I’m a total non- foodie.