NarniaWeb Community Forums

From my extensive reading of British children's fiction, it is safe to say that this habit of Lewis's, that of mentioning piles of mouth-watering meals, is pretty typical of the genre. Enid Blyton, E. Nesbit, and a whole host of others tortured us poor readers in like fashion.

Now, on another note: our hosts returned today from their travels to--guess where? Turkey! And look what they brought back for us:
https://ailethelgin.wordpress.com/2019/04/12/yum/

Yes you are right, aileth. Even Alice in Wonderland has the Mad Hatter's tea party & the Eat me or Drink me samples, doesn't it? Not to mention the Queen of Hearts' tarts, & the Mock turtle soup song. But food is a given in children's literature.

Nor is it solely a British children's literature preoccupation. In Australia, a raunchy artistic type, called Norman Lindsay, who lived around here, once commented that children's main preoccupation in life was food, and where to get the nicest varieties. He therefore wrote & illustrated a very imaginative children's book called The Magic Puddling, with characters like Sam Sawnoff and Barnacle Bill, the sailor, who, with respectable types like Bunyip Bluegum, are solely preoccupied in defending the wonderful Magic Pudding, called Albert, against pudding thieves, such as a possum & a wombat.

Shasta, who was so often hungry, would have loved hearing about the Magic Pudding, which was somewhat more portable & renewable than were the pasties & cheese he found in Bree's saddlebags. Not only did he find the breakfast he got in Narnia absolutely delightful, but he also enjoyed, just a little too much, that lovely lunch he had in the Tashbaan palace, where he was taken by King Edmund.

Some of the dishes leave me wondering, though. What exactly is a gooseberry or mulberry "fool"? For that matter, what are gooseberries like? Mulberries we do know, as even the trees have been imported here. We get kiwi fruit that used to be called Chinese gooseberries, but even though you can get Kiwi berries, I don't really think they are gooseberries.

"Fools" are merely a mixture of warm custard and fruit puree.

Gooseberries are a genus of flowering shrubs about 5 feet in height, and producing berries that are typically hairy, grape sized, and very high in Vitamin C

@aileth, how were they? Adorable hippo by the way!

I had always wondered what "fools" were too, they sound delicious!

mm1991 wrote:@aileth, how were they? Adorable hippo by the way!

Haven't opened them yet--we are waiting for--oh, what are we waiting for?

(The mini hippo, Thud, travels with me in my pocket, and gets to see the sights, too. Alas, I am falling behind on posting his adventures)

Thanks to Pattertwigs Pal, I can now say that I've had Marmalade Roll. Quite tasty. Context: a gathering of "NarniaWebbers" at our house including a meal, viewing of "The Court Jester", and talk about Narnia, naturally. I can't say that the rest of the meal was Narnia inspired, but we did have grapes, which Glumpuddle pointed out show up 9 times in the books.

Okay guys....I think I might just order some Turkish Delight because I am dying to finally know what it tastes like! All these years....I will probably be disappointed. Anyways, does anyone have any recommendations for a good quality brand for Turkish Delight?

DiGoRyKiRkE wrote:"Fools" are merely a mixture of warm custard and fruit puree.

Nice. Made here in UK they are cream and fruit a bit like a mousse

DiGoRyKiRkE wrote:"Fools" are merely a mixture of warm custard and fruit puree.

Gooseberries are a genus of flowering shrubs about 5 feet in height, and producing berries that are typically hairy, grape sized, and very high in Vitamin C

Thank you for the definition of "fools". I am more familiar with jam roley poley and some sort of pudding, studded with raisins or currants, often served up in the military & similar establishments where there are lots of irreverent types of the male kind. Both desserts are normally served with custard, like fools, but I think it was the jam roley poley which was served up by Mrs Beaver in LWW, as dessert after their lovely fish dinner.

Also, thank you for describing gooseberries which sound like they could be related to what we call here kiwi berries. Kiwi fruit tends to be larger.

We have gooseberries in New Zealand too, but they're not like kiwifruit.
Decades ago kiwifruit were known as Chinese gooseberries. But theyre not actually gooseberries.

Have you looked for a photo?

Apparently there are a lot of different varieties of gooseberries. Here are some images I found:





They look like little grapes, but have stripes on them like watermelon

Aaaaand, an image of the desert in question: Gooseberry fool

DiGs wrote:Apparently there are a lot of different varieties of gooseberries.

I've only ever seen the green ones; in my mind, they are always associated with red and black currants, probably because ours are planted in the same spot, and ripen at approximately the same time.

Quite nice, if they're really, REALLY ripe, translucent and almost golden, otherwise they are mouth-puckeringly tart. And in a dessert with a bit of sugar and cream and custard--mmmm!

I don't think I've ever seen either that fruit or that dessert!

One supermarket here sells a gooseberry fool dessert that combines yoghurt and whipping cream, plus the fruit.
Another seems to have a very creamy one.
Between them there are a number of interesting flavours, including apricot, and some of the berries.

Digory, the photos you posted all look tasty to me!

Gooseberries are very common in forested areas of northern Minnesota (and there is even a Gooseberry Falls State Park on Lake Superior). At first the berries are green (as pictured above) and rather tart, but the ripe ones are almost purple, and more sweet than tart (perhaps a different species than those in your area, aileth, given the difference in color when ripe). They also tend to be quite a bit smaller than grapes here (half an inch, or 12mm, would be big one), perhaps due to being a different variety, or due to the harsher climate.