FICTIONAL FOOD EATEN IN CHILDRENS BOOKS #2: Toffee Trees
In The Magician’s Nephew, Digory plants a toffee which in the enchanted soil of Narnia grows overnight into a toffee-tree. “The fruit was delicious; not exactly like toffee?softer for one thing, and juicy?but like fruit that reminded one of toffee.” The brief but pleasant feasts in Narnia page has further details of this tree (which I found mouthwatering when young) and also emphasises how good CS Lewis was at describing hearty nosh.
Also prominent in the Narnia books is Turkish Delight – the sweet which the White Witch uses to ensnare Edmund. I was unsympathetic as I associated Turkish Delight with the rose-perfumed stuff that gets brought out every Christmas and couldnt quite understand why Edmund had been such a gannet for it. However now I know – it was not turkish delight AT ALL, it was MARIJUANA! This remarkable page will set you straight. Indeed exploring the entire Lewis section of the site is recommended – my favourite bit is this: “The word “ass” appears in 4 of the books. Being British, it probably did not mean the same to him as it does to Americans (as a swear word), but he could have left it out, especially since he only used it four times and did use “donkey” in other places. However, considering the filthy state of his mind, it is possible that he thought this cute.”