AlisonH
Filed under: Food
A question: if you read the Narnia books as a kid, what did you think Turkish Delight would be like?
I thought of it as the obnoxiously tough toffee they sell to the tourists near Maryland’s shore, where sure it’s just sugar but you chew and chew and chew and chew and chew while it’s fighting back as if, should it win, it would wire your jaws shut out of sheer obnoxiousness, without enough flavor to make up for the assault on your mouth. If you still have all your teeth when it’s over you win.
My friend Michelle pointed out this Atlas Obscura article with the title, “CS Lewis’s Greatest Fiction Was Convincing American Kids That They Would Like Turkish Delight.” It made me laugh because it was so true.
Thus my curiosity.
I didn’t sample the real thing till well into adulthood, or at least not with that name attached, but you know what? In a way, I actually wasn’t all that far off.
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I did wonder about it, but I wasn’t really sure I would like it. Maybe because I didn’t like Edmund! If I had thought it was like toffee, that would have appealed more, since I like toffee. Though probably not the one you were thinking of.
Comment by ccr in MA 02.27.20 @ 9:03 amIt is an aquired taste! I liked it as a kid because I grew up eating Aplets and Cotlets in Washington State. Haven’t had it in years though – here’s an interesting NPR article about the company https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/03/23/520815111/how-two-armenian-immigrants-made-turkish-delights-an-american-hit
Comment by Cara 03.03.20 @ 12:48 pmOh, this is truly one of the great disillusionments! At least, so I thought until I had some Turkish delight that must have been made just perfectly, and had it after the perfect meal with the perfect companions and loved it.
And I’ll probably never love it again!
Comment by twinsetellen 03.03.20 @ 6:31 pmAs a kid, I didn’t know what Turkish Delight was for certain. It seemed like some sort of candy/sweet, so I mentally substituted “best candy/sweet you can dream of” and left it at that. Mr. Lewis apparently failed to convince me. 🙂
Comment by mary 03.03.20 @ 9:57 pmLeave a comment
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