Food in Books

Anne here.  

When I was a child, one of the things I enjoyed about some of my favorite children's books were the food descriptions — I suppose kids are perpetually hungry. In Enid Blyton stories, for instance, the kids were always having picnics, and although the things they ate were ordinary enough — ham sandwiches, apples, lettuce, tomatoes, mustard and cress, home-made ginger beer and lashings of boiled eggs with a little paper screw of salt to sprinkle on them — they still sounded wonderful. And somehow that little detail of the paper screw containing salt really appealed. 

Enid Blyton knew the power of food over children. In her many boarding school stories, the kids always had a midnight feast, and oh, the longing in me to participate in something so exciting as a midnight feast. I'm sure it was the reason I wanted to go to boarding school - because you had midnight feasts and adventures.

 

On occasion, the midnight feast had consequences: 
Matron: You are suffering from Midnight Feast Illness! Aha! You needn’t pretend to me! If you will feast on pork-pies and sardines, chocolate and ginger-beer in the middle of the night, you can expect a dose of medicine from me the next day.

The style of food is very much a reflection of the era — those books were published before, during and after WW2, and in the UK food rationing went on for years after the war was over, so I'm sure these are the foods people had either available as home grown, or as an occasional treat. Certainly things like sardines would be unimaginable as a treat today, and not what one would crave in a midnight feast.

In Enid Blyton's Faraway Tree series, the children there were always going to magical lands and as well as ordinary-but-still-delicious food, there was also magical food, like pop toffee that expanded until you thought your mouth would explode and then . . . pop! There were also pop biscuits that ran with honey when you ate them, and google buns filled with currants and fizzy sherbet, and other exciting-sounding foods. 

I suspect Roald Dahl read these in his youth — he took it even further in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory — he certainly did wonderful food.

 Speaking of honey, here's a gorgeous little snippet from Winnie The Pooh:

Pooh always liked a little something at eleven o’clock in the morning, and he was very glad to see Rabbit getting out the plates and mugs; and when Rabbit said, ‘Honey or condensed milk with your bread?’ he was so excited that he said, ‘Both,’ and then, so as not to seem greedy, he added, ‘But don’t bother about the bread, please.'

I remember scenes of toffee making and pulling from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House in the Big Woods. And they drizzled the still-hot maple syrup toffee into snow to cool and ate it straight away — you can bet this little snow-deprived Australian child fantasized about that one. (Sadly it was the only one of her books I read as a child — I didn't know there was a whole series.)

The enjoyment of fictional feasts and food descriptions continued into adulthood. Who among us did not crave to try fried green tomatoes, once we read Fannie Flagg's novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café?

But the two food scenes strongest in my memory are from Mary Stewart. The first is from Madam Will You Talk, when after a long and exhausting chase the hero, Richard Byron feeds the heroine, and it is at this point we realize he is the hero, not the villain.

I heard him speaking in French. I supposed he was ordering food. And presently at my elbow I heard the chink of silver, and opened my eyes to see the big glittering trolley of hors d’oeuvre with its hovering attendant.

Richard Byron said something to him, and without waiting for me to speak, the man served me from the tray. I remember still those exquisite fluted silver dishes, each with its load of dainty colours . . . there were anchovies and tiny gleaming silver fish in red sauce, and savoury butter in curled strips of fresh lettuce; there were caviare and tomato and olives green and black, and small golden-pink mushrooms and cresses and beans. The waiter heaped my plate, and filled another glass with white wine. I drank half a glassful without a word, and began to eat. I was conscious of Richard Byron’s eyes on me, but he did not speak.

The waiters hovered beside us, the courses came, delicious and appetizing, and the empty plates vanished as if by magic. I remember red mullet, done somehow with lemons, and a succulent golden-brown fowl bursting with truffles and flanked by tiny peas, then a froth of ice and whipped cream dashed with kirsch, and the fine smooth caress of the wine through it all. Then, finally, apricots and big black grapes, and coffee. The waiter removed the little silver filtres, and vanished, leaving us alone in our alcove.

Hungry yet? Then let's try the feast in Nine Coaches Waiting, when the hero, the gorgeous Raoul brings the governess heroine and her charge, young Phillippe, a midnight feast purloined from the very elegant and sophisticated party going on downstairs. The feast consisted of: 

"thin curls of brown-bread with cool, butter-dripping asparagus; scallop-shells filled with some delicious concoction of creamed crab; crisp pastries bulging with mushroom and chicken and lobster; petits fours bland with almonds, small glasses misty with frost and full of some creamy stuff tangy with strawberries and wine; peaches furry and glowing in a nest of glossy leaves; grapes frosted with sugar that sparkled in the firelight like a crust of diamonds ... "

It seems to be de rigueur in Mary Stewart books that the hero feeds his heroine. I'm all in favor of that.

Are there any food scenes or special foods in fiction that you remember particularly? I'd love you to share them.
Or if you had a hero bring you a fabulous midnight feast, what would you want it to include?

 

Comments

[Shannon]

I remember one food scene after another in My Lady Notorious by Jo Beverley. Some times it was just delicious but other times it added sensual tension between the hero and heroine.

Bad food was a theme of the heroine's captivity on an alien construct. Come to find out the captors had an evil intent with the food that has consequences that prevent the two protagonists from a HEA. (Avoidng spoiler.

Padji the heroine's bodyguard poisons the cook to get aboard his mistress's ship sailing for London, putting in just enough to create misery not to bring death in the Sandalwood Princess. He employs his "art" more than once to punish or to put key actors out of commission.

The treat that I came to long for was petite fours. During my childhood in Idaho I never saw one. I found a recipe for them, but the cake would crumple under the weight of the icing. And there were watercress sandwiches.

[Anne Gracie]

Sounds fabulous, Shannon — Ive read Lady Notorious, but dont remember the food scenes. Might have to reread it. Such a hardship *g*

[Sonya Heaney]

I'm a terrible, terrible cook! However, there was a Robyn Carr Virgin River (contemporary romance) book where the heroine was a fancy chef. It was called Harvest Moon. I remember she spent pretty much the whole book making incredible things!

As for *bad* food, I remember that scene in Lisa Kleypas' It Happened One Autumn where they brought out animal heads as the main course and the heroine turned green (and the hero had to make up an excuse to get her out of the dining room!).

[Anne Gracie]

Mmmm, Sonya, that Robyn Carr book with all the yummy things sounds dangerous to me. :) I can get cravings for things just by reading about them.
And again, I’ve read Lisa Kleypas’s “autumn” book and have no memory of that scene at all. Another reread to do, another not-hardship.

[Sonya Heaney]

I need to reread the whole series!
The hero makes up some story about rare butterflies or something, and says he has to show them to her right then (and takes her sister along, who thinks it's hilarious)!
I really should go and check the details, but I'm sure that's how it goes...

[Joanna Bourne]

Do I get to mention Keats' The Eve of St. Agnes.

While he from forth the closet brought a heap
Of candied apple, quince, and plum, and gourd;
With jellies soother than the creamy curd,
And lucent syrops, tinct with cinnamon;
Manna and dates, in argosy transferr’d
From Fez; and spiced dainties, every one,
From silken Samarcand to cedar’d Lebanon.

That's the poem that ends up:

And they are gone: ay, ages long ago
These lovers fled away into the storm.

Lovely lines. *sigh*

[Artemisia]

Any scene set in the Three Pines Bistro in any Louise Penny book. Oh. My. Gawd.

[Michele]

Not one specific scene, but Louise Penny's Three Pines mystery series, set in a small town in Quebec, are filled with food scenes, wonderful descriptions of sandwiches, soups, main courses, that send us wandering into our own kitchen. But it's not just the food, but the atmosphere that draws us in: friends sitting together near a comfortable fire, while outside the winter winds howl. It's no surprise that people will explore the area outside of Montreal, searching for that mythical town...

[Lil]

My favorite food scene doesn't actually involve eating. It's the scene in Jo Beverley's Winter Fire in which Ashart is trying to convince Genova that he really is proposing, and she is pelting him with food, including sugar plums, in front of the entire house party in what she thinks is the break-up she had agreed to.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Ooooh, I'm getting hungry, Anne! I also love the food scenes, and Mary Stewart was, as alway, a master describer. Also in MADAME, WILL YOU TALK? was the scene where she is running away from Richard (still the apparent villain)and takes refuge at a roadside auberge, where the proprietor, under the impression that she is running away from her husband for a tryst with her lover. let her hide her car while he makes her a perfect herb omelet and a glass of wine while she recover. Simple but sumptuous!

[Keira Soleore]

Ooh, Enid Blyton, ooh! How I used to envy those midnight feasts. I was one of those countless children who wrote to Enid Blyton asking where those schools were and how one could go to them. Every adventure featured food, and not every day kind of "boring" food, but always treats.

When I passed on my love of all those books, starting with Noddy and ending with the farm books and boarding school books, on to Wee1, I felt I had successfully passed on the torch. May she do the same.

[Keira Soleore]

Then there's that famous cucumber scene in JoBev's St. Raven.

[Keira Soleore]

I wonder if Keats wrote this during Lent. :) It has an almost orgiastic feel to it.

[Jobev]

LOL, Shannon. That book is often described as "delicious."

I love watercress sandwiches. Cool, crunchy, spicy....

[Jobev]

Perhaps I'm food obsessed! But Ashart is generally so cool that making a thorough mess of him was irresistible.

[Abigail Mount Miller]

Very like those picnics is the food in Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons books, highlighting the indispensable responsibleness of Mate Susan.
And then there's Lois Bujold's Ma Kosti. Who has not drooled over the "killer chocolate thingies with the density of plutonium"?

[Karina Bliss]

Years ago I read a Mills & Boons Presents set in a farmhouse, all mud and winter and chill and the heroine fried chicken for the hero twice, the second time after the dark moment when she returned to stay. The author really evoked the kitchen warmth, the smell of the chicken and the hero literally coming in from the cold. Simple meal but heavy on emotional resonance.
And thanks, Anne, for reminding me of those popovers from the Magic Faraway Tree which entralled me as a kid. I even tried to make them, honey embedded in biscuit dough. It just wasn't the same!

[Joanna Bourne]

Sexy food. Sexy food.
Maybe because Keats wasn't rich. Musta been treats he wanted.

[Andrea Penrose]

Wonderful blog, Anne! The scene in Nine Coaches Waiting is one of my favorites! And I loved the "food fight" in Jo's Winter Fire. Now, must go find the Keats poem!

[Anne Gracie]

Sonya its a wonderful series, and will be no hardship to reread at all, I know.
I enjoy all of Lisa Kleypass books.

[Anne Gracie]

Lovely, luscious word smithery from Keats there, Joanna. Thank you. I can so picture that collection of deliciousness.

[Anne Gracie]

Artemisa, oh yes, the cafe foods and those muffins — I do recall them. I love Louise Pennys books, but I wasnt a fan of the thread (avoiding spoilers here) that involved the cafe owners rather too closely.

[Anne Gracie]

Michele, yes, I agree — I loved the way that bistro became the hub for the town community — and yes the food produced there and the atmosphere of the place was delicious and the descriptions very evocative. Its the kind of place Louise pennys readers would love to eat at.

[Anne Gracie]

Yes indeed, Mary Jo, the omelette was described so beautifully, wasnt it? You know I think that might have been the omelette description I was looking for recently, only I was searching through my Elizabeth David books for it. I was actually going to include Elizabeth David, though not a fiction writer, because her writing is so good, but the blog would have been too long. Another time, perhaps.

[Anne Gracie]

Its a wonderful scene, I agree, Lil. When I was a child, I once saw an old B&W movie on TV called The Captains Table, about a cargo ship captain who was transferred to a cruise line, and in it there was the most marvelous food fight. That was another thing, along with midnight feasts and adventures, I wanted to have.

[Anne Gracie]

Keira, yes. When I finally met girls whod been to boarding school, they laughed when I asked them about midnight feasts -- no such luck. And some of them were quite miserable at schools, so I guess Enid Blyton was painting a rosy pic that would certainly help the parents get those kids off.
I think Harry Potter has done the same for another generation of kids. When those books first came out and there was such a fuss, with people saying how amaaaazingly original they were, I was surprised, because to me, they were obviously a legacy of an Enid Blyton childhood, and combined boarding schools and magic. I loved them, though and eagerly devoured each one as it came out.I guess a lot of Americans hadnt grown up with boarding school stories.

[Anne Gracie]

I was wondering when that one would get a mention. ;) Thanks

[Anne Gracie]

Keira it struck me that it was a winter rhapsody -- perhaps around Christmas, because all those foods were preserved and/or imported from the east, except maybe the creamy curd. It certainly made me think of the trays of candied and preserved fruit my mother used to give as hasty gifts because they were traditional Christmas foods — despite the fact that in Australia, Christmas comes in summer and all the fruit if beautifully fresh.

[Anne Gracie]

LOL Abigail — I think theyve influenced a whole range of death by chocolate brownie recipes. Wouldnt it be fun to attend a bake-off competition to find the one that most fits?

[Anne Gracie]

Sounds gorgeous, Karina. I do think food and kitchen descriptions can carry a huge emotional weight if done well.
Do you know Mills and Boon writer Natasha Oakley (whos a superb writer) also writes a food blog. Lots of fabulous foods and recipes, all beautifully illustrated and explained. http://www.thecherryplumkitchen.com/

And Karina — thanks for popping by, I love your books.

[Anne Gracie]

Joanna, I think thats the source of a lot of this wonderful food description. Its evocative to the people reading it because its not common in their lives. Enid Blyton was writing for kids whod been raised on very tight rations, so something like a can of sardines would feature as exotic and desirable in a midnight feast. Mary Stewart, too was writing for an audience on rations.
Though taste buds being what they are (linked to the imagination, Im sure) any good food description will spark an appetite, I suspect.

[Keira Soleore]

Ah! Good detecting. Those indeed are Christmastime foods. So Jo's conjectures are probably more accurate that he lusted after these foods, because he was down on his luck.

[Keira Soleore]

YES! I thought exactly the same about Harry Potter, especially when I saw the movie. To me it was mashup between Enid Blyton and Tolkein (minus the erudition).

My love for Enid Blyton also stems from the fact that they were about children and for children with children behaving as children, not mimicking adults, like the middle grade American novels of today are.

[Anne Gracie]

This will probably horrify many, but I liked Harry Potter MUCH more than Tolkein.

[Anne Gracie]

Cara/Andrea, I would love to know whether Mary Stewart read or was influenced by Elizabeth David. Im going to do a blog about Elizabeth David later. Im sure people either adore her or have never heard of her. And shes fascinating.

[Anne Gracie]

I dont think Ive ever eaten watercress sandwiches, Jo — eaten it in salad, yes. I suppose sandwiches are much more complex these days and simple classics like watercress sandwiches and cucumber sandwiches seem too plain and simple for the modern palate.

[jana]

The second grade teachers at the school I teach in have the students make snow toffee every year. I think it's either their unit on settlement or their unit on the Inuit. My third graders always remember it as a favourite part of grade 2. One of the few benefits of leaving in the great white north!

On the topic of food in books, I always seemed taken by the descriptions of bread and cheese. I can't remember a specific book off hand, but it seemed like characters were always being given a chunk of cheese and a thick loaf of bread!

[Andrea Penrose]

Oh, yes—please do a blog on her because I'm one of the ones who don't know her. if you thinks she's fascinating, then must learn all about her!

[Pamela B]

Great post Anne, thank you. I loved the Enid Blyton books also but could never figure out where they managed to get all that food. I would have been in trouble if I'd taken that much from our kitchen! I also read and enjoyed Mary Stewart years ago but can't remember the food scenes? Perhaps it is time I revisited her books. I liked her 'Merlin' books best. You have a treat in store if you are going to reread My Lady Notorious, there are some very sexy food scenes there.
Thanks for those lovely lines from Keats, Joanna - 'These Lovers Fled Away' became the title of a book from long ago, I think by Howard Spring??
A favourite foodie book is Frances Mayes 'Under The Tuscan Sun', but not fiction I know.

[Anne Gracie]

I definitely will. Thanks for the encouragement.

[Anne Gracie]

I would love to see that in action, Jana. It seemed to me as a child magical and delicious — no better combination possible. :)

[Anne Gracie]

Oh, Pamela, youve sparked an old memory there. I have a few old Howard Spring books, from the days when I was a school girl and bought books for 20c from an antique store I passed on the way home from school. The owner there passed me a Howard Spring book — Fame is the Spur and I spent a weekend engrossed, and then came back for more. I have six of his books on my shelves, but no copy ofThese Lovers Fled Away. Another one to hunt out, perhaps. I havent read Howard Spring for decades. Thanks for the reminder.

[Karin]

Oh the food scenes are so memorable in My Lady Notorious! I loved what they did with the pie. I don't remember any one particular meal, but in Betty Neel's books, food features quite prominently. Most often the hero takes the heroine out to a fancy restaurant and the meal is described in loving detail. There is also a hero in another of Carr's Virgin River books who works as a cook and makes wonderful hearty "man" type food.
Now this may sound strange but the book that is most memorable to me for food is The Diary of Anne Frank. The way they stretched every last bit of cabbage or rotten potato has had a lifelong effect. I am unable to throw away the least little scrap of leftovers, it's a bit of a neurosis!
As far as my dream midnight feast, the one described in the Keats poem would do me just fine.

[Karin]

I forgot to mention all the great chocolate recipes and cooking scenes in Andrea Penrose's Lady Arianna books. Believe me, I studied each recipe. By the way, are there going to be any more in that series?
And in "Banquet of Lies" by Michelle Diener the heroine is working as a French cook and the food and cooking scenes are wonderful.

[Andrea Penrose]

So glad you enjoyed the chocolate recipes. Now THAT was fun research!

I loved writing the Lady Arianna series, and am hoping that I might cajole NAL into continuing it, but for the moment it's on hold. I've had other readers suggest I continue as self-published, and I'm thinking about it . . . but probably not for a while. Thanks so much for asking.

[Lil]

I love to read ELizabeth Davis cookbooks. Her talk about food is even more fun than her recipes. And they're pretty good too.

[Vicki W.]

Interestingly enough, I just started reading Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart yesterday but haven't gotten to the food scene mentioned earlier in the comments. I'll be watching for it. I do remember the foods mentioned in Madam Will You Talk which I read last year.

Two of the food scenes I always remember are in The Little Princess (Sara Crewes in her attic thinking she is dreaming) and in The Secret Garden (the baked potatoes and milk in the garden that Mary and Colin eat so heartily.)

Oh yes..I'd love to eat anything that Preacher makes and serves at Jack's Place. (Preacher is in all the Robyn Carr Virgin River books.) There are always yummy descriptions about the dishes he makes.

[Liz Everly]

I LOVE that series!

[Liz Everly]

Food is a great tool in fiction. It shows readers so much about the character's history and culture. I love food in fiction for just that reason. But no discussion of food in literature would be complete without mentioning the work of MFK Fisher. Not a fiction writer, but still!

[Anne Gracie]

Oh, yes I remember that feast when the Indian man climbs across and leaves it for Sara and her little maid friend. I loved Frances Hodgeson Burnett books when I was growing up — still have my copies of The Little Princess and The Secret Garden. Thanks for the reminder Vicki. And on various wench readers recommendation, I have bought a couple of Robyn Carrs Virgin River books, but I havent read her yet

[Anne Gracie]

Liz, I dont knowMFK Fisher -- just looked her up, and maybe you can come back and tell us more when I blog about Elizabeth David, my own favorite food writer.

[Anne Gracie]

Lil, her writing is credited by many as starting the English food revolution - a grand dame of cooking. She also influenced many of todays celebrity chefs. I also love the way she brings the context of the food to life.

[Anne Gracie]

Karin, yes, youre right, a Betty Neels book usually did contain some kind of a fancy meal, courtesy of her large Dutch Doctor hero, and often some sort of genteel afternoon tea, with a tea tray. I think she was another of the generation who appreciated food because of the years of food rationing, when even an egg was a luxury. And no doubt she thought her readers would never get a chance to dine in a luxurious restaurant, so that was part of the world she took her readers into.
And I remember reading the Diary of Anne Frank as a schoolgirl, and the stretching of their meagre food — and the way Anne always looked on the positive side. I have trouble wasting food, too.

[Shannon McEwan]

So much food!

When I read (many years ago) Catherine Nicolson's 'Chase the Moon', I was struck by how gloriously OTT it was - wildly improbable and chockers with sensory detail.

There's a point in the story where the heroine negotiates her terms for acting as the hero's mistress - including a daily allowance of bitter chocolate :)

[Anne Gracie]

Theres a point in the story where the heroine negotiates her terms for acting as the heros mistress - including a daily allowance of bitter chocolate :)
LOLPerfectly reasonable, Shannon. I dont know that story.
I guess tonight you have a small person who might be dressing up as a witch or a ghost. :)

[Shannon McEwan]

She's outside on the front verandah, in wings, with a wand, looking out for witches and ghouls. I'm not sure why the fairy gear (this is the child that instigated the building of a 'tunnel of terror' at kinda a few weeks ago...)

[Anne Gracie]

Shes clearly got an independent streak as well as an imagination. :)

[Binnie Syril Braunstein]

Anne -

What a great thread! I remember the feast that the March Girls had to give up to the poor family in Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. Of course, the scene you quoted from Madam, Will You Talk? is fabulous. And Nora Roberts' Dark Witch (Cousin O'Dwyers, Book 1) is filled with tempting Irish Stews and Guiness. And speaking of Nora - and her alter ego, J.D. Robb - why can't someone invent an Auto Chef? Lastly, I'll cite Sarah Morgan's Suddenly Last Summer (O'Neil Brothers, book 2). The heroine, Elise, is French, and her cooking is irresistible. She makes me want to bake Madelines...

Binnie Syril Brausntein