Food

What food dishes are cited in fantasy books? Add the name of the dish, the source (book, page,), and the quote of its description.

### *The Lord of the Rings*, J.R.R. Tolkein.

*The Fellowship of the Ring (Book 1)*

Chapter 3: Three Is Company

Food supplied by Gildor and the elves: bread, fruit (apples are specified).

Chapter 4: A Short Cut to Mushrooms

Supper with Farmer and Mrs Maggot includes “a mighty dish of mushrooms and bacon”.

Chapter 5: A Conspiracy Unmasked

Mushrooms (and “many other things to follow”) again!

Chapter 7: In the House of Tom Bombadil

Evening meal with Tom Bombadil and Goldberry: “yellow cream and honeycomb, and white bread, and butter; milk, cheese, and green herbs and ripe berries gathered”.

Chapter 9: At the Sign of the Prancing Pony

Supper in the inn: “hot soup, cold meats, a blackberry tart, new loaves, slabs of butter, and half a ripe cheese” (described as “good plain food, as good as the Shire could show”).

Chapter 11: A Knife in the Dark

Sam is given “a pocket full” of apples as “a parting present” from Nob and Bob. The Fellowship of the Ring (Book 2)

Chapter 8: Farewell to Lorien

Lembas: “very thin cakes, made of a meal that was baked a light brown on the outside, and inside was the colour of cream”, kept in leaf wrappings. Gimli approvingly states that “it is better than the honey-cakes of the Beornings, and that is great praise, for the Beornings are the best bakers that I know of”. The Two Towers (Book 3)

Chapter 3: The Uruk-hai

Merry and Pippin are given “stale grey bread” and “the flesh of he dared not guess what creature” by the orcs.

Chapter 9: Flotsam and Jetsam

Merry and Pippin serve Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas toasted bread, salted pork, and rashers of bacon, with butter and honey on toast “to follow”.

*The Two Towers (Book 4)*

Chapter 4: Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit

Sam cooks a rabbit stew with bay leaves, thyme, and sage, while wishing he had “turnips and carrots […] and taters [potatoes]” as well as stock and onions. He offers to cook Smeagol “fried fish and chips” some day (though Smeagol prefers his fish raw).

Chapter 5: The Window on the West

Sam and Frodo eat “bread and butter, and salted meats, and dried fruits, and good red cheese” (modern-day equivalent might be Red Leicester) with Faramir and his men.

Chapter 7: Journey to the Cross-roads

Faramir has provided Sam and Frodo with “dried fruits and salted meats […] and bread” for their journey. The Return of the King (Book 5)

Chapter 1: Minas Tirith

Pippin eats “a white cake or two” while being questioned by Denethor, and then “bread, and butter, and cheese and apples” from the buttery.

*The Return of the King (Book 6)*

Chapter 9: The Grey Havens

In the summer of 1420, “the fruit was so plentiful that young hobbits very nearly bathed in strawberries and cream; and later they sat on the lawns under the plum-trees and ate”.

### The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White

"The Most Perfect Breakfast" - Chapter 3, page 39 (1989 Lions Edition) Peaches, Melons, Strawberries and Cream, Rusks, Brown Trout (piping hot), Grilled Perch (which was much nicer), Chicken Deviled (enough to burn one's mouth out), Kidneys and Mushrooms on Toast, Fricasse, Curry, and Coffee or Best (Hot) Chocolate (made with cream in large cups)\*

*Later in the same chapter*

Mustard (in a pot that walled around and had a funny face)

\*See Drinks.