Food in the books!

[Belly]

Who can still recall the supper time spread outlined in 'The Mountain of Adventure' full cream milk and raspberries ripe for Kiki to pinch?

Excersions in the Adventure series, packaged sandwiches, two different types of cake, more food than the children could possibly eat.

Where else is tinned food so appetising? The children using the remnants of a tin of pineapple chunks mixed with water from a spring as a refreshing drink? ( I don't know about anyone else but I as a child I hunted high and low for Springs and found them very scare in suburban Hertfordshire).

Damson eating and spitting of the stones followed by ices in one of the Five books? This inspired me to spit 'damson' stones (well they were plums from Sainsburys but all Mum had) all over the sitting room floor!

Oh how I searched for 'tea shops' & village shops that served buns, cakes, ices and Ginger beer (although very scare in surburban Hertfordshire again) with ever smiling friendly staff.

In the five books someone always had a slab of forgotten chocolate or a boiled sweet when in the thick of things - for 'emergencies' like Paddington Bear and his marmalade sandwiches. Anyone else love eating chocolate whilst snuggled down in bed with a book? I had a supply under the bed, with a torch for late night reading of course! Probably the reason I am now short sighted in my right eye!

The slap up breakfast at the end of Five on a Hike Together - I think - never has 'virtual' bacon and runny eggs & toast tasted so divine!

How I savoured my 'homemade' lemonade - a recepie copied painstakingly from a Secret Seven book.


Oh, how I searched for a 'wood filled with hazlenut trees' that Enid wrote about in one of her 'annuals'/collection of stories, again rather lacking in suburban Hertfordshire! It was a recepie for 'chocolate hazlenuts' or similar (anyone know where this is feature incidentally - thanks).

I have a love of picnicking which Enid has inspired which I think will never leave me.


I read somewhere that Enid's graphic portraiture of food was something to do with rationing and/or it coming to an end?

Anyone else any thoughts?

[Anita Bensoussane]

Hi Belly,

I enjoyed your post. Reading Enid Blyton books always makes me feel hungry.

I first made almond macaroons just over a year ago, after re-reading The Mystery of the Strange Bundle, and we ate them with hot chocolate, just like the Find-Outers. They proved popular with the whole family, and my daughter asked if we could try making gingerbread, which is another Blytonian delicacy. Delicious once again and we now make both of these regularly, along with shortbread and various cakes.

Now the children want to try blancmange. I don't know how to make it from scratch but I've just bought a packet-mix. I'm not too sure what it'll be like, never having had blancmange before, but it's usually served at children's parties in Blyton's books so I assume it's meant to be a treat. (A good party in Blyton is one at which there are seven different kinds of sandwich and eight different kinds of cake, and everyone gets to take home a balloon!)

Seems funny to me that so many of Blyton's characters go wild for tinned sardines and tinned pineapple. I like them okay, but to me they're nothing special.

Like you, I still love picnics - and tea-shops!

Anita

[Kirrin]

I love all the food mentioned in the famous five books in fact it makes me feel hungry and I have to nibble while I am reading them sometimes.
What about the food in the st clares books yum!

[Belly]

Oh yes, St Clares and Malory Towers - midnight feasts! Never has food tasted so good. My friend and I used to try to have these and get caught by her parents - we used to have to compromise and have an 8pm feast, not quite the same and our parents didn't understand. Enid did, perfectly, of course.

Anita - yes agree on the tins and sardines etc. Also Enid made tins of 'potted meat' sound appetising, I used to scan the shelves at Sainsburys. Ditto 'tongue' something that wasn't usually served at my childhood suppers. Grandma understood and bought me some once from the butchers, couldn't quite stomach that though, when I understood what it was! Despite Enid's descriptions.

I used to drink ginger beer too - Dad found some in Sainsburys - even though not of a 'ginger beer generation'. No wonder my school reports labelled me 'quaint' when I was little! Nothing wrong with a bit of quaintness in my opinion though!

[Moonraker]

Anita, you will love blancmange! How about having a typical spread laid out at the next EB day? Just imagine a huge table laid out with hams, tongue, jellies, blancmange, creamy milk (sounds so much better than 'full-fat') and so on!

Incidently, with all this eating and drinking, how come no-one ever visited the toilet?

They were all obsessed with washing, but none of the caravans, houseboats etc. had a toilet!

Perhaps in the 40s and 50s it was not polite to mention such distasteful things!

[Raci]

I've always thought Enids descriptions of food were amazing - You felt like you were there seeing the spread, smelling the wonderful smells - A shame that you didn't get to taste. LOL
And I always seemed to be reading about high tea on a farm or bacon frying in the open air when I was starving!

An adventure was one thing - but an adventure without anything to eat was quite another thing. That wouldn't do at all. Valley of Adventure

Favourites!

Upper Fourth at Malory Towers
The wonderful spread provided by Clarissas old nurse for a midnight feast down by the pool and a bathe!

Five go Down to the Sea
The truly magnificent high tea awaiting their arrival at Tremannon Farm with lashings of hard-boiled eggs. Mr Penruthlan eating a whole tureen of peas. The larder crammed with food for supper after the barnies show.

The Secret Island
Peas in their pods, cupful after cupful of creamy milk, sweet juicy raspberries with thick yellow cream, radishes so hot even Jack's eyes watered as he ate them, deep red strawberries and fine mushrooms.

Mountain of Adventure
The high tea, raspberres, the loaded breakfast table with cream cheese for breakfast, how super.

The fresh eggs, milk etc from farms on all open air holidays.

The list could go on and on! Theres something wonderful in each book!

But another favourite would have to be the descriptions in the Faraway Tree books:
Pop biscuits, Google buns, Hot-Cold Goodies, Well-I-Never Rolls.
And of course in the Land of Goodies - biscuit and jelly trees, boiled sweets growing like bunches of grapes, houses made of things to eat with barley-sugar knockers and all the wonderful things in the shops.
But my favourite would have to be strawberries growing by the hundred on strawberry plants each with its own big dob of cream, powdered with white sugar.

Mmmmmmmmmmm

[Carlotta]

The Mountain of Adventure had the most superb Blyton food! But I always liked Fatty's invalid meals at the beginning of Strange Bundle (at least I hope it was Strange Bundle, I don't have my books to hand) when Bets took the trays back and forth for him! He had such comforting food. And the meal at Sheepsale Market is another favourite.

[Sooty]

Five go Down to the Sea
The truly magnificent high tea awaiting their arrival at Tremannon Farm with lashings of hard-boiled eggs. Mr Penruthlan eating a whole tureen of peas. The larder crammed with food for supper after the barnies show.

The Secret Island
Peas in their pods, cupful after cupful of creamy milk, sweet juicy raspberries with thick yellow cream, radishes so hot even Jack's eyes watered as he ate them, deep red strawberries and fine mushrooms.

Classics! But my favourite has to be the meal at the Three Shepherds in Five On A Hike Together...

A wonderful smell came creeping into the little dining-room, followed by the inn-woman carrying a large tray. On it was a steaming tureen of porridge, a bowl of golden syrup, a jug of very thick cream, and a dish of bacon and eggs, all piled high on crisp brown toast. Little mushrooms were on the same dish.

I could go on. My mouth is watering and I'm a vegetarian!

[Belly]

That's what I'd remembered too, Sooty!

A place that served breakfasts like that today would be Michelin starred!

[Bill Smugs]

Just started to re-read The Mystery of the Missing Necklace today. Boy can those children eat!

Quote: They had a very nice tea, and ate twenty-four cakes between them. They finished up with ices, washed down by a rather sweet lemonade, and then felt able to go out into the sun once more.

That's six cakes each! It's a wonder these kids could move ....

[Kirrin]

Yes they could certainly eat! But I could do the same and never put on any weight! I suppose you can when your young and its not as if they were doing this all the time!!

I loved the location of this book and the island and old houde plus the village near by lovely and when they foiled the crooks at the end!

I got mine from a charity shop I wonder if its still in print?

[Viv of Ginger Pop]

I've just read through this topic, and think the suggestion that we have a slap up feast on Blyton Day would be excellent. I've always found lunchtime to be a bit strange. Plenty of time to see the trade stands (including mine... ) but a real feast would be an event and essential part of the day. How about it Tony?!!!

Viv

[Belly]

Viv.

Just a comment aside - did you ever find relatives of Bill Smugs? Think you were looking? Thanks.

[Miranda]

I was re-reading 'Five go to Mystery Moor', and found one jarring note with regard to the food. Mrs Johnson has supplied a magnificent packed lunch, with :"egg and sardine sandwiches, tomato and lettuce, ham - there seemed no end to them!"

Egg & sardine sandwiches? I'd never heard of that combination, but was prepared to give it a go. So I hard-boiled an egg, and mashed it up with some tinned sardines, and guess what? It was really horrid - far too sticky and oily. Even the addition of a little pepper and lemon juice couldn't make it palatable - fortunately my Holly Dog seemed to like it!

This is the only instance I have noticed of EB's food descriptions being anything less than scrumptious.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Ah well, at least you tried it! What about the Land of Tea-Parties in The Folk of the Faraway Tree - there are sardine and strawberry sandwiches there, and orange and lemon sandwiches! In the Land of Treats Connie even asks for (as a challenge) - and gets, much to her dismay - a sardine flavoured ice-cream.

Anita