How many times have we wished for a picnic spread filled with the tasty food described by Enid Blyton in her novels? Or for a tea party like Alice’s? Food in novels serve multiple purposes – they help in describing emotions, take the story forward, or even define class distinctions. And, they always make our tummies rumble and our mouths water.
From Sansa Stark’s favourite lemon cakes to the Turkish Delight used to trap Edmund in The Chronicles Of Narnia, here are some of the most memorable food items mentioned in famous novels (and where you can find a recipe to make them at home).
(Image via Reddit)
01
The Lord Of The Rings – Lembas Bread
Hobbits may be shorter than your average human, but what they lack in height is more than made up for by their bravery and, of course, their excitement over food. J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord Of The Rings series is one that has been particularly influenced by food. An extremely popular food item in the series appears to be Lembas Bread, also known as Elven bread. Traditionally made for travel by elves, it was wrapped in leaves, thus helping the bread remain fresh for months. Sweet and light, it was also seen in the movies, with the hobbits gobbling down large quantities of the bread at a time. Interestingly, when Gollum tries the bread, he spits it out in disgust, suggesting that it might be inedible for corrupted creatures.
Find the recipe here.
Buy the book here.
(Image via The Geeky Chef)
02
A Song Of Ice And Fire – Lemon Cake
The politics in Westeros might be filthy, but the people there do know their food. Sansa Stark’s favourite lemon cakes are mentioned many times in the books and appear to delight the girl even in the toughest of times. A lemon-flavoured cake, it was mostly served during the feasts, such as, the Hand’s tourney held in Eddard Stark’s honour. Given the scarcity of lemons in the north, these were typically served as small cakes and are believed to be expensive and a pure indulgence reserved solely for the wealthy.
Find the recipe here.
Buy the book here.
(Image via BT)
03
Harry Potter – Treacle Tart
Let’s face it. There are plenty of reasons to love the Harry Potter universe. There’s magic and adventure, biting books and whomping willows. And then, there’s the food. All of us love reading about the meals in the Great Hall at Hogwarts purely due to the lavish description of the food. Harry consumes a treacle tart during his first meal at Hogwarts, and it goes on to become one of his favourite foods in the world. Made with shortcrust pastry and golden syrup, it was served either hot or cold, with clotted cream, custard or yogurt. A traditional English dessert, it was also popular in the wizarding world. In fact, Harry loved treacle tarts so much that he smelled it in the presence of Amortentia, the most powerful love potion in the world.
Find the recipe here.
Buy the book here.
(Image via Turkey Travel Blog)
04
The Chronicles Of Narnia – Turkish Delight
All of us wanted to be Edmund Pevensie at some point in our lives (barring the part that has to deal with The White Witch, of course), just so we could also munch on some Turkish Delight. A sweet made with starch and sugar, it was usually flavoured with lemon or rosewater, and was very addictive due to the witch’s spells on it. Edmund gets lost in what he describes as ‘the best Turkish delight. Each piece was sweet and light to the very center’. In a bid to finish this treat and caught in the web of its spell, he ends up divulging the whereabouts of his siblings, thus betraying them.
Find the recipe here.
Buy the book here.
(Image via Food Network)
05
Like Water For Chocolate – Turkey Mole
The protagonist Tita’s life revolves around food in this sensuous novel. The food in the novel is of a magical nature where Tita’s emotions get infused in the dishes she prepares, thereby having an effect on the people who consume them. She prepares Turkey Mole with sesame seeds and almonds to celebrate the birth of her nephew Roberto. Infused with both chillies and chocolates, it makes for an enigmatic yet tasty dish for everyone to savour. Tita’s love for Roberto’s father (and her lover) Pedro is so strong that even when the family is in the middle of war and death, they can feel her emotions on tasting her food and, in turn, feel weirdly happy and cheerful.
Find the recipe here.
Buy the book here.
(Image via Hot and Chilli)
06
The Hundred Foot Journey – Hassan’s Dry Chicken
Growing up in a foodie family who owned a restaurant in Mumbai, Hassan learned the intricacies of food from every member of his family from a very young age. One of the weekly rituals in the family was to determine which dishes had been sold, and which ones needed to be improved. When Bappu, their cook, brought out their chicken dish, Hassan tasted the ‘crimson meat, with oily paste of fine red chili, but softened by pinches of cardamom and cinnamon’. Hassan, at the time a mere boy, made a suggestion to improve the dish – by making the dish drier, to dry fry the chicken and make it crispier. The dish became a bestseller with Hassan’s suggestion, so much so that his father renamed it ‘Hassan’s Dry Chicken’.
Find the recipe here.
Buy the book here.
(Image via Martha Stewart)
07
Heidi – Cheese
The story of a young girl who goes to live with her grandfather, what makes Heidi even more extraordinary is the girl’s love for cheese. Heidi claims that cheese ‘tastes better than all the things we get in Ragatz’. As her appetite grows under her grandfather’s care, cheese becomes one of her favourite foods to eat, and her descriptions of Raclette cheese melting over a fire is enough to get anyone’s stomach rumbling.
Find the recipe here.
Buy the book here.
(Image via Independent)
08
A Christmas Carol – Goose Dinner
Charles Dickens is known for using food as an analogy for the social conditions of his times, and his goose dinner in A Christmas Carol is no different. Despite the meagre salary from Scrooge, Bob Cratchit’s family is still able to manage a goose dinner for their Christmas. Dickens describes the family’s reaction to the goose by saying ‘There never was such a goose. Bob said he didn’t believe there ever was such a goose cooked. Its tenderness and flavour, size and cheapness, were the themes of universal admiration’. We see a family, poor but happy to be spending Christmas time together as a family.
Find the recipe here.
Buy the book here.
Prasanna is a human (probably) who makes stuff up for a living. When she’s not sleeping or eating, you’ll find her in the quietest corner of the library, devouring yet another hardbound book. She vastly prefers the imaginary world to the real one, but grudgingly emerges from her writing cave on occasion. If you do see her, it’s best not to approach her before she’s had her coffee.
She writes at The Curious Reader. You can read her articles here.
I’ll give that lemon cake recipe a go – it will take some time to “translate’ the ingredients into UK equivalents though
And how could you leave out MONSIEUR BON-BON’S SECRET FOOJ from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang https://popgoesthepage.princeton.edu/tag/monsieur-bon-bons-secret-fooj/ 🙂