Food in the books!

[Liam]

Has anyone noticed that the FF series begins with a meal and ends with a meal - the same kind - breakfast? The very first scene is at the breakfast table at Julian, Dick and Anne’s home:

'Mother, have you heard about our summer holidays yet?' said Julian, at the breakfast table. 'Can we go to Polseath as usual?'

And the very last scene is at the breakfast table in Tinker’s home:

He [Tinker] slid out of the cage and went back over the fence and into his own garden. Up the path he ran and burst into the dining-room, where the others were still finishing their breakfast.
…
'I'm not thinking anything of the sort!' said Jenny. 'And what about you taking a bit of notice of that monkey of yours -- bless us all if he hasn't helped himself to half that jar of jam -- just look at his sticky face! Oh, what a week this has been, what with chimps and monkeys and children and robberies, and George disappearing, and all!'

Okay, so it’s a split. The last described scene is George having left the breakfast table and headed into the kitchen:

'Dear old Jenny,' said George, laughing as she went off into the kitchen. 'What an exciting time we've had! I really did enjoy every minute of it!'

But the others presumably are still at the table - the very three cousins whom we had first met at a breakfast table so many years before - with Daddy and Mummy replaced by Tinker and Jenny!

[Daisy]

That's an interesting observation Liam. I can't say I'd noticed that, but I do see that meals play quite a prominent role in most of the books. The description of many of them helps to make the books so enjoyable. So many more modern books tend to plunge into the action with very little preliminary setting of a scene - as do the Claude Voilier follow ons. They don't have the same atmosphere, in my opinion.

[Liam]

Yes, I thought it was a fitting indication of the importance of food in the books.

[Katharine]

I'm currently reading the Chalet School books and food is mentioned in those quite a bit, but I feel it's in a very boring way compared to Enid's books. Mostly it's just a brief statement along the lines that they had coffee and cakes, or soup and bread. Occasionally it will be a little more descriptive and mention that the cakes had apples on top or honey or cream, but the food seems very 'samey' to me. Also, it sounds incredibly unhealthy, they've had apples once, and there was mention of soup which I think was vegetable, but the rest of the time it seems to be cakes and creamy milk. I thought Enid Blyton's characters had a rather rich diet with all their macaroons and ice creams, but at least they had protein in the form of eggs and ham, and eat plums, lettuce, tomatoes and radishes on occasions.

There is however a very heavy amount of religious content, so I'm left with the impression that the author was more interested in bread from heaven than physical food on earth.

[Lucky Star]

Blyton had a knack of making all foods sound absolutely mouthwatering. I have actually never come across anyone else who could do that to quite the same extent.

[Courtenay]

Blyton had a knack of making all foods sound absolutely mouthwatering.

Even tinned tongue?? (That's the "typical Enid Blyton food" which has been a running joke in my Blyton-loving family ever since I was little — I don't think she really does mention it that often, but it was what stood out as the food none of us would have liked to try!)

[Rob Houghton]

I always remember being at a school-friend's birthday party when I was about 7, tucking into tongue sandwiches, but not knowing what they were. I enjoyed them and ate two or three, then the friend's mother said 'oh - Robert's enjoying those tongue sandwiches, aren't you?' - and I immediately felt sick and didn't eat another one. I've never eaten tongue since!

[IceMaiden]

Blyton had a knack of making all foods sound absolutely mouthwatering. I have actually never come across anyone else who could do that to quite the same extent.

Yes she did, all her food descriptions have me wanting to rush out and get exactly what's being described in the book immediately! And anyone who can make even boring lettuce sound delightfully appetising deserves some kind of medal for achieving the impossible in my view

[Wolfgang]

I always remember being at a school-friend's birthday party when I was about 7, tucking into tongue sandwiches, but not knowing what they were. I enjoyed them and ate two or three, then the friend's mother said 'oh - Robert's enjoying those tongue sandwiches, aren't you?' - and I immediately felt sick and didn't eat another one. I've never eaten tongue since!

Which is a pity. It shows how emotional and picky we are without reason. Many shudder at the thought of eating insects although they never tried them, yet there are many people who enjoy eating them. It's one thing not eating something if you can't stomach it because of taste, but a completely different one if we don't eat thing for psychological or mental reasons. Putting up your example, what's so terrible about the thought of eating tongue? I suppose you don't have any problems with ham, but this is muscle tissue like tongue. Don't get me wrong, Rob, I'm not critisizing you, I suppose I'd also have problems to stomach things if I really knew where they came from, but I'm still wondering.

[Rob Houghton]

I must admit I think I have tried tongue once since then. I bought a tin of it, and made a sandwich, but I did actually dislike the taste and couldn't believe how I'd liked it so much as a kid, so I threw the rest away!

It's a different story with offal though - I've never eaten anything like my nan and great aunt used to enjoy - brains, pigs trotters, tripe, lung, etc. I also hate the taste of liver, and don't even like steak and kidney pie!

[Liam]

I’ve been an “emotional and picky” eater since I was a kid. The main thing that bothers me (upsets me really) is meat. I’m not a vegetarian, but big chunks of meat upset me. To eat sardines I crush them first into a paste so I don’t see the shape. My usual response to people who ask why I recoil from big pieces of meat is that “it makes me feel like I’m eating a corpse”. Okay, there might be a lot there to psychoanalyze! But I just chalk it up to having an overactive imagination like the character Anne.

[Owl's Dene]

Offal was a mainstay in my house growing up. My mother, who was the same generation as the Famous Five, used to cook a whole tongue if we were having family around. She used to peel all the skin off and then coil it around in a basin with a saucer and weights from the scales on top. I think most of the ones bought in butchers in the 1970s were from catering cans, my mother's home cooked one was less salty.
We had tripe and onions, Bath chap with all the piggies teeth and my parent's favourite, from the local pork butcher Dunderdales every Wednesday, chitterlings, which are cooked pig intestines. I loved all of the offal, still eat liver and kidneys, but I can't get anyone to share tripe with me and I haven't seen chitterlings for years. Can you still get them?

[Rob Houghton]

I think the main reason I don't eat any offal or ever had a liking for it, is because my mom never cooked it when we were kids, and she also never ate it as a child. My mom grew up in the 1940's and so she was also the same generation as the Five (born in 1936) but her mother never forced her to eat anything she didn't like (and also I think her mother wasn't really that keen on offal anyway). She would often cook my grandad liver and tripe etc but she and her daughters never ate it.

[Katharine]

I love liver and cook it for my family, although only in the winter months, it somehow doesn't seem to taste as nice during the summer.

[IceMaiden]

I don't know how anyone can eat offal, it puts me right off eating the rest of my dinner if I come across a piece of 'unedible blubber' in a sausage roll! I am an extremely picky eater anyway and when it comes to meat I really don't eat much of it and the bits I do eat I go over carefully, removing any fat or other unpleasant pieces so there's no chance of biting into them. I suppose it's what comes from deciding to go vegetarian for 11 years, psychological effects .