Famous Five Food

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Gingerbeerlover
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Re: Famous Five Food

Post by Gingerbeerlover »

After thinking about all that delicious Famous Five food and drink I'v just been to Morrisons and bought
cans of Ginger Beer. It was on special offer too !!
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Bectun67
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Re: Famous Five Food

Post by Bectun67 »

Fiona1986 wrote:Ah yes, the Hike breakfast.

Porridge, eggs, bacon, button mushrooms, toast, jam, honey, butter, coffee... have I missed anything?
Thick cream to go with the porridge (or maybe the coffee) :D

Quite right about it being before fast food, although in Secret Trail George mentions "eggs and chipped potatoes", now I think of it, they didn't have fish and chips as such either, as well as fast food.
"I'll have a pickled onion with my sandwich, please," said Dick. "I'll chop it up and put it in with the ham. What wonderful ideas I do have, to be sure!"
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Re: Famous Five Food

Post by Fiona1986 »

Ooh, yes. Thick cream!
"It's the ash! It's falling!" yelled Julian, almost startling Dick out of his wits...
"Listen to its terrible groans and creaks!" yelled Julian, almost beside himself with impatience.


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MJE
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Re: Famous Five Food

Post by MJE »

Bectun67 wrote:Quite right about it being before fast food, although in Secret Trail George mentions "eggs and chipped potatoes", now I think of it, they didn't have fish and chips as such either, as well as fast food.
     Well, fish and chips well and truly existed by that time. See here:

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_and_chips

Regards, Michael.
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Bectun67
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Re: Famous Five Food

Post by Bectun67 »

I meant that the Five didn't have them, although I guess it does look a bit ambiguous now I am reading it back! x
"I'll have a pickled onion with my sandwich, please," said Dick. "I'll chop it up and put it in with the ham. What wonderful ideas I do have, to be sure!"
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Re: Famous Five Food

Post by Poppy »

We always get the Jamaican ginger beer. It's delicious! :D
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Re: Famous Five Food

Post by pete9012S »

Enid Blyton: Bah, Humbugs!
British food has always held a sort of magical fascination in my life. From an early age, I read the works of Enid Blyton, who never failed to tantalize my poor tastebuds with detailed descriptions of food I could never have. The children of her narratives never go hungry and are constantly eating such exotic things (to my mind) as hot scones with raspberry jam, gingerbread, boiled sweets, humbugs, lemon drops, ice lollies, treacle, toffee, macaroons, blancmange, puddings of all kinds, Pop Biscuits, Google buns, Hot-Cold goodies, and Well-I-Never rolls. (The last four examples, I admit, were of Blyton’s own invention, but nonetheless never failed to inspire my childish imagination.) In her book Five on a Hike Together, she describes a meal at the Three Shepherds.

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.

Blyton’s attraction to food most likely stemmed from having lived through the rationing days of the Second World War. On 8 January 1940, butter, bacon, and sugar were the first commodities to be rationed. They were shortly followed by meat, tea, jam, biscuits, breakfast cereals, cheese, eggs, milk, and canned fruit (which would explain Blyton’s fascination with tinned pineapple). After the war, rationing became even stricter. Bread was rationed from 1946 to 1948. Potato rationing began in 1947.

The loss of food is a blow to any culture, and it is understandable that England lamented its loss during the war years. Over the centuries, English food has been shaped by the country’s temperate climate, geography, history, and even its religion. It has a wide and varied background, beginning with the Celts, whose agriculture and animal breeding resulted in a variety of foodstuffs for the indigenous population. The Angles and Saxons developed different stews made from meat and herbs, and during the Norman Conquest, exotic spices were introduced into England in the Middle Ages. The British Empire, stretching far into the Orient and across the oceans to tropical islands, brought back new recipes, among them the Indian tradition of food and its strong herbs and spices.

The traditional food of England, however, remains simple and relies on high quality, natural produce. England’s Puritan heritage made it almost impossible to incorporate strong flavors, such as garlic, or use complex sauces, as these had political affiliations with the Catholics. The majority of the population consisted of farmers, which is why England is famous for its simple, but small variety of breads and cheeses, meat and game pies, roasted and stewed meats, boiled vegetables and broths, and fresh and saltwater fish. Still, it is possible to find these traditional foods in most eating establishments.

As I first walked down the cobblestoned streets of York, I was glad to discover that restaurants and pubs still serve Shepherd’s pie, bangers and mash, fish and chips (one of the few foods unaffected by WWII rationing), and Sunday roasts (a roasted joint of meat, served with roasted or mashed potatoes, and a Yorkshire pudding). Thomas the Baker serves bread and butter pudding, rhubarb crumble, apple pie, treacle tart, spotted dick, trifle custard, and summer pudding, along with the traditional Cornish pasty (pronounced pass-ti, a light puff pastry wrapped around a mix of beef, potato, onion, and Swedish turnips), mince pie, and fruit tarts. The local teahouses dish out a daily, dainty delicacies, such as hot teacakes, currant scones with clotted cream and jam, and pots of Earl Grey. As a result of India being the “crown jewel” in the British Empire, Indian restaurants sprang up all over England, and the tikka masala is even jokingly hailed as “England’s true national food.”

As for myself, I find English food to be part of a larger body of work. Farmers’ dishes generally fall into similar categories—simple, heavy dishes made of meat, vegetables, and potatoes, originally made to serve hungry farmers after a hard day’s work. Pasties, steak and kidney piece, and bangers and mash have continental equivalents; pasties compare to the Swedish palt and kroppkakor (meat dumplings eaten with pork slices, butter, and lingonberry jam), and the Lithuanian cepelinai (zeppelin-shaped dumplings made from potato dough filled with ground beef, milk curd or mushrooms with salt and spices, and eaten with bacon and butter sauce); Scottish haggis is comparable to Swedish pölsa—even bloodpudding has its exact replica in Swedish cuisine. Though food is an indicator of national identity, it also works to include the country into an international community—England has, for centuries, been linked to the rest of Europe by its food. Its food has evolved and adapted with its historical circumstance, and now, once again, it is evolving to incorporate itself into a more international identity. Curries and pasties are sold side-by-side without a second thought, perhaps as harbingers of things to come.

I WANT AN A. I hate A minuses.
http://swedishimmigrant.blogspot.co.uk/ ... mbugs.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Are there any mentions of food being rationed in any way at all in any of Enid's work?

If not it amazing really when you consider the actual state of affairs in the country back then...
When did food rationing stop?

Fourteen years of food rationing in Britain ended at midnight on 4 July 1954, when restrictions on the sale and purchase of meat and bacon were lifted. This happened nine years after the end of the war.

When the war ended in August 1945, rationing was only gradually phased out as Australia continued to support Britain with food parcels and exports for a number of years.

Sugar rationing, for instance, was finally abandoned in July 1947. A major increase in the world production of sugar meant that Britain no longer depended on Australian supplies.

The meat situation was quite different. In Britain the meat ration had been further reduced and in an effort to support the British public, the Australian Government maintained meat rationing and price controls until 1948.

The American influence on Australia's eating habits persisted after the war as well. Coca Cola, tinned spaghetti, Spam and hamburgers became part of the Australian way of life as did supermarket shopping. Dr Jim Graham recalls Freecorns setting up its first supermarket in Napoleon Street. He describes it as a revolutionary new fad that gave Cottesloe its first taste of self-serve shopping.
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Re: Famous Five Food

Post by Colette »

pete9012S wrote: Are there any mentions of food being rationed in any way at all in any of Enid's work?

If not it amazing really when you consider the actual state of affairs in the country back then...
I don't remember any mentions of rationing and I suppose that is part of the escapism of the books and why the food is described the way it is -- they maybe couldn't eat the foods so they would maybe enjoy reading those descriptions? And I don't recall anyone eating a banana, which, according to my grandmother were not available at the time - she said she never saw one till she was about 12 and believed for a long time they were black as that was how they looked when they arrived in the UK :shock:

I read yesterday the food the FF ate described as being essentially the junk food at the time -- I think they eat pretty well.. When I was 12, if I had free choice of what to eat I wouldn't have been having sandwiches, salad, eggs, sausages, fruit (even if it was tinned!).. and certainly couldn't have cooked the way Anne could!
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Anita Bensoussane
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Re: Famous Five Food

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

The children in the Adventure series eat bananas in several of the books - I can't remember which ones so perhaps those particular titles were written after rationing had ended.

Rationing is mentioned (though not by name) in the Mr. Twiddle books, as he has to queue up for ages to buy a meat pie. The blackout also features in at least one Twiddle story.
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Re: Famous Five Food

Post by pete9012S »

When was this book actually written by Enid?
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Re: Famous Five Food

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

I just had a look in the Cave and the story 'The Banana Robber' was first published in Sunny Stories for Little Folks in August 1936, so it was written before the Second World War.
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honesty
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Re: Famous Five Food

Post by honesty »

Mouth-watering!!! YUM!

Gingeroo, what about Chocolate Biscuits? But the food theFamous Five eat is soooo yummy!!!
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Re: Famous Five Food

Post by Colette »

Just found a cookbook on cooking for your dog.. wasn't sure WHO would ever use it, but I think if George had come across it..
:D
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Re: Famous Five Food

Post by Daisy »

I guess she might have been interested Colette. I seem to remember her making sandwiches especially for him, in one of the books. :)
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Re: Famous Five Food

Post by Lucky Star »

Daisy wrote: I seem to remember her making sandwiches especially for him, in one of the books. :)
Yes, potted meat I think it was.
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