Top Foods in Children’s Literature

I adore reading menus at restaurants and am very guilty of judging a dish by its description. Honestly, I think that all restaurants should hire writers to come up with item blurbs to make the dish sound as enticing as possible. I’m always disappointed by menu choices that say: Ernestine’s Chicken—cooked chicken breast with broccoli. Come on—show a little effort :)

In regard to books, my eyes always perk up at a food scene—love them, love them love them. My stepson actually attempted to make butterbeer (from Harry Potter) last night, based on an internet recipe. He used simmered cream soda, butter, and butterscotch syrup (it…didn’t taste like I imagined it would…he was a little heavy-handed with the syrup).

I recently read an interesting article by Rebecca Cohen regarding top foods in children’s literature, and I thought I’d share the list of five edibles/beverages and books that scored top marks for her:

1. Everything, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
2. Butterbeer, Harry Potter series
3. Cookie, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
4. Green eggs and ham, Green Eggs and Ham
5. Turkish delight, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

To that list, I have to add:

Toad-In-A-Hole/Yorkshire Pudding- Danny the Champion of the World (Roald Dahl)
Hot Chickpeas from a New York street vendor- All-of-a-Kind Family series (Sydney Taylor)
Wild stews/Campfire potatoes- The Boxcar Children series (Gertrude Chandler Warner)
Fresh Norwegian shrimp- Boy (Roald Dahl)
Lembas (Elf Bread)- Lord of the Rings Trilogy (J.R.R. Tolkien)
Cheese Buns- Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)

Please chime in and let me know if you can think of any other delicious meals/snacks that made you salivate on the pages of a novel—or ones that captured your imagination in any manner. It doesn’t have to be something exotic, just something you’d like to try.

Have a great weekend!