Secret Series Food

[Hannah]

I've been browsing through old threads and I've found the threads about food in the Famous Five books and in the Secret Seven series.
I thought it would be fun to do the same for other series and I've done the Secret series - mostly. I don't like the Secret Mountain and I've only read that book until the chapter "In a strange country".

Feel free to add what I might have missed or what was in the second part of Secret Mountain .

• fruit - blackberries, cherries, raspberries (fresh, stewed), wild strawberries, plums, peaches (tinned), oranges, apples, bananas, gooseberries, iced melon
• currants
• nuts
• (new) potatoes
• vegetables – peas, (young) carrots, broad beans, runner beans, radishes, turnips, tomatoes
• mushrooms
• lettuce
• mustard (shoots)
• cress
• sandwiches – chicken, tomato, ham
• bread – home-made bread, stale bread, brown bread, warm new bread, toast
• crisp rusks
• rolls of bread
• soup – tomato soup
• salad
• milk – fresh, tinned
• cream
• cheese
• hard, sweet little biscuits to eat with cheese made from goats’ milk
• butter
• margarine
• egg – poached, fried, hard boiled
• fish – trout
• home-made shrimp paste
• ham
• tongue
• chicken
• bacon
• joint of meat
• cold mutton
• potted meat
• rabbit, rabbit stew
• veal and ham pies
• rice – rice pudding
• custard
• trifle
• tarts – jam-tarts
• cake – home-made cakes, ginger cake, chocolate cake, „a queer, rich cake with a bitter-sweet taste“
• sponge sandwich – chocolate-sponge sandwich
• buns
• scones
• jam-scones
• éclairs
• honey
• sugar
• treacle (for making toffee)
• sweets
• chocolate
• ice-cream
• biscuits – chocolate biscuits
• gingerbread
• toffee
• Christmas pudding
• cocoa
• water
• tea
• lemonade
• barley water
• coffee
• ginger-beer
• salt

Also mentioned are turkeys (in the window of a shop) and beer (drunken by the searchers).

[pete9012S]

Love it! Thanks Hannah.

[Anita Bensoussane]

A comprehensive list, Hannah!

In The Secret Mountain Mafumu picks toadstools, leaves and fruits for everyone to eat, but the fruits etc. are not named. Inside the mountain, the children eat "flat cakes".

[Moonraker]

Inside the mountain, the children eat "flat cakes".

Could those be similar to Welsh cakes?

[Hannah]

Glad you like my list, Pete and Anita!

Anita, thanks for the information on food in the Secret Mountain .

[Wolfgang]

What do you dislike about Mountain, if I may ask, Hannah?

[Hannah]

I can't really tell exactly - I'm just completely uncomfortable with everything that happens when they start of in Africa. Maybe it's (partly at least) because they're in so much danger. I'm always easily scared and must force myself to read the most exciting parts of the adventure type books, even if I know that all will end well. Most books I can read completely by now but it still costs me some effort with the more exciting books.

[Moonraker]

I consider The Secret Mountain to be my favourite book in the series.

[Hannah]

I know that many people like it and it's certainly a good book. I'm probably just sometimes a bit strange.

[Anita Bensoussane]

The Secret Mountain is extremely tense but I love that feeling of heading into uncharted territory. The children are on a solemn, emotional quest but Ranni and Pilescu are with them and Mafumu's presence brings cheer and reassurance, so it's not all terror and trepidation.

[Lucky Star]

The Secret Mountain is a tremendously exciting book and it does contain a fair amount of danger when compared to much of Enid's other works. Nonetheless it's still an Enid Blyton and I never remember doubting that there would be a happy ending. There is, as Anita mentioned, a great sense of camaraderie and friendship in the book as well. But no book is loved by everyone so it's fine not to be too fond of it if it's just not your thing.