When I was about 8, my mom read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe out loud to me. I can still picture a stand alone wardrobe positioned to the right of the entrance of a stark whitewashed room across from a single window, through which the children travelled into a magical world.
Beyond that, the only other thing I remember is the emphasis put on Turkish delight. It was a really big deal in that book.
I was drooling listening to it being described and by the end of it, I couldn't stop thinking about it. It seemed like a delectable treasure drenched in sugar that would be well beyond my expectations.
One day, my mom went to the city and came back with some Turkish delight. It did not meet my expectations. The disappointment was staggering. What? Sure it is drenched in sugar, but as far as I was concerned, there was a reason for that, it wouldn't be particularly edible without it.
"Edmund was already feeling uncomfortable from having eaten too many sweets, and when he heard that the Lady he had made friends with was a dangerous witch he felt even more uncomfortable. But he still wanted to taste that Turkish Delight more than he wanted anything else." The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis
Good thing I didn't go through that wardrobe. I'd have been sunk.
How about you? What food have you been compelled to try after reading about it in a book?
*just* this christmas, i tried turkish delight for the first time. i tried to get my kids in on the magical nature of the things... but to no avail... i have to say i was very very excited to take that first bite. i think i expected to be whisked away just as it touched my tongue...oh how i loved those stories...
ReplyDeleteyes, i was expecting the whisking away too...however, those tea cakes, man. They are really like high class viva puffs (I don't know what the American equivalent is), but yes, reading someone else's impressions of anything in a book can carry me away.
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