Book and Food note: Wind in the Willows.

The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame, Scribner's, 1908

Kenneth Grahame's book is a wonderful fantasy (fitting well into the intellectual portion of my third childhood) but it has some delectable food reviews.

Example: the jailer's daughter visits a hungry Toad in his cell: "She carried a tray, with ... a plate piled up with very hot buttered toast, cut thick, very brown on both sides, with the butter running through the holes in it in great golden drops, like honey from the honeycomb."

Toast. Butter. Honey.

Are there any three better words in English for a kid? (At least for this kid!)

I don't think so.

Regards, Bob

What about this for a foodie's delight.... the picnic hamper Toad packed for an expedition to rescue Billy from the weasels ... some of the contents were smoked salmon, cold new potatoes, damson jam. Or the treacle toffee he provided for the celebrations after the Winter Carnival.
This kid still loves the whimsy, wisdom and wit of this classic.

If you like quotes about food in novels, I'd suggest dishing out some Zola. There's even been a cookbook—Zola à table by Robert Courtine—written based on all the food references. Possibly his novel with the most food references was Le Ventre de Paris (The Belly of Paris). Last year I pulled all the food references out and gathered them in one place.

Toast. Butter. Honey.

Are there any three better words in English for a kid? (At least for this kid!)

Reminds me of an exchange from the great British 1960s radio comedy, "I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again":

David Hatch: John, we're doing this for little children. What do you say to that?

John Cleese: May I have some on toast?


-Paul W.

Great essay, Peter. Thanks.

If you like quotes about food in novels, I'd suggest dishing out some Zola. There's even been a cookbook—Zola à table by Robert Courtine—written based on all the food references. Possibly his novel with the most food references was Le Ventre de Paris (The Belly of Paris). Last year I pulled all the food references out and gathered them in one place.

After reading that essay I certainly am primed to go make lunch...thanks, it was fun reading.

Another wonderful food passage appears in Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier Atlantic Monthly, 1997. I can taste Inman's onion as I post this note.

Inman, a Confederate soldier deserts at Petersburg, late in the Civil War, and is basically starving as he trudges back home to the Blue Ridge Mountains.

He finds a shack in the woods, and "a young woman, a girl really," feeds him back to life: "The woman served him up a plate heaped high with beans and bread and a big peeled onion. . . . Inman took the plate and a knife and spoon into his lap and fell to eating. A part of him wished to be polite, but it was overcome by some dog organ deep in his brain, and so he ate loudly and in gulps, pausing to chew only when absolutely necessary. He forewent slicing the onion and ate on it like an apple."

Ummm ...