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C.S. Lewis's Greatest Fiction: Telling Kids They’d Like Turkish Delight (2015)

180 pointsby tbirrellalmost 8 years ago

36 comments

grenoirealmost 8 years ago
Proper Turkish delight is never coated with icing sugar, but always starch. I don&#x27;t know where the author had it either, but it is nowhere near being &quot;very, very sweet.&quot; Hell, I can&#x27;t even imagine what an American may consider as being too sweet!<p><i>Source:</i> Born and raised in Turkey.
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makmanalpalmost 8 years ago
I think it has a lot to do with context - I imagine candy with unusual flavors were probably not an everyday purchase 100 years ago, let alone something soft. That, plus the exotica of &quot;Turkish&quot; delight (since there was a lot of curiosity re: the Middle East back then) seems like it might have been why Lewis chose that. Roald Dahl has a great bit on going to buy candy as a kid in &quot;Boy&quot; (<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;dhunter.weebly.com&#x2F;uploads&#x2F;2&#x2F;9&#x2F;5&#x2F;8&#x2F;2958381&#x2F;roald_dahl_-_the_bicycle_and_the_sweet-shop_and_the_great_mouse_plot.pdf" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;dhunter.weebly.com&#x2F;uploads&#x2F;2&#x2F;9&#x2F;5&#x2F;8&#x2F;2958381&#x2F;roald_dahl...</a>) - which makes it sound much more of a magical experience than the jaded way I get m&amp;ms at the corner store today.<p>An aside: not to be a snob, but the commonly found (especially in the UK) Fry&#x27;s Turkish delight is kind of a bastardization, and I think the vacuum sealed airport kind is OK but doesn&#x27;t really do it justice. If you happen to go to Istanbul at some point, drop by Haci Bekir, Divan, Cafer Erol, or one of the other myriad candy shops that have been at it for decades, sometimes centuries. &quot;The Best&quot; is very subjective, but I think all these will have good, fresh specimens. Or go to Pera Palace&#x27;s cafe and have a Turkish coffee, which always comes with lokum on the side.
jballancalmost 8 years ago
The Turkish Delight in &quot;The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe&quot; was, for me, one of the first and clearest examples of how literature can project, even if unintentionally, a skewed view of a culture that bears little to no resemblance to reality.<p>I remember a while back having a debate over dinner (and eventually dessert) with friends as to which European country has the best variety and overall quality of desserts. It struck me as funny, and a bit sad, that an American who relied only on popular culture and mainstream media would think the answer to that question was easy: French! Of course!<p>Having had the opportunity to travel, work, and even live outside the US, I realize now just how wrong that view is! The variety of dessert foods in France pales in comparison to, say, Italy or Austria. Biased as I am, I argued that Turkish dessert cuisine was <i>far</i> above the rest, but of course all most people think of when they think of Turkish desserts is...Turkish Delight! Thanks, C.S.!<p>...If you&#x27;re interested, some items to Google to understand what I mean: Fıstıklı Dolama, Cevizli Baklava, Maraş Dondurma, Güllaç, Su Muhallebi (for the rose water lovers), Tavuk Göğsü (don&#x27;t read the ingredients until you try it, it&#x27;s great!), Kazandibi, and my personal favorite Kaymaklı Künefe!
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barrkelalmost 8 years ago
I still like Fry&#x27;s Turkish Delight (made by Cadbury). The combination of thin chocolate covering to the weight and almost chewy mouthfeel of the rose-flavoured gel works well - it makes what chocolate there is more unctuous. The weight of it is part of what sells it for me, even though I expect it&#x27;s mostly water captured in the gel.<p>Actual sugar-dusted Turkish Delight cubes are less impressive. I don&#x27;t mind the rosewater flavour - that&#x27;s what I associated with the product - but it&#x27;s just thick jelly. There&#x27;s no contrast. And since I despise nuts, I&#x27;ll not be eating any with crunchy bits either.
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ocschwaralmost 8 years ago
Uh, dude, this was written in the context of rationing and austerity.<p>A kid whose had his sugar rationed is going to consider Turkish delight in a totally different way than a kid in 2017
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transitorykrisalmost 8 years ago
In Canada we had the Big Turk chocolate bar by Nestle. It was a reasonably hard&#x2F;chewy turkish delight covered in chocolate. Getting one of these as a child was akin to punishment. There were also the miniatures that old folk would put out, you&#x27;d expect to find caramel or nuts in the center, but nope, just horrors. Sometime in my late 20s I tried real turkish delight and enjoyed it. Sweet, but not unnecessarily so, with some interesting flavours, especially the floral ones. On one of my last visits to Canada I picked up a Big Turk again... and loved it.
slr555almost 8 years ago
Haters gonna hate.<p>I love Turkish Delight.<p>My wife had to travel to Turkey for work and frequently brought it back. I really like it. Actually in general, Turkish food is one of my favorite cuisines worldwide. I also like a lot of Indian sweets that many Americans find to sweet. No accounting for taste.
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blincolnalmost 8 years ago
When I was young, my parents described Turkish Delight as being basically Applets &amp; Cotlets, and that sounds like an accurate description based on this article. Substitute rosewater for apple&#x2F;apricot&#x2F;whatever juice and you&#x27;ve got Turkish Delight. Am I missing something? At least in the northwestern US, Applets &amp; Cotlets have been a thing for decades.
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janwillembalmost 8 years ago
&gt; <i>Edmund’s willingness to put himself in the thrall of an evil witch in exchange for Turkish Delight makes him not only morally but gastronomically suspect.</i><p>I disagree: it was <i>enchanted</i> Turkish Delight, which made the one eating it always craving for more, eventually eating himself to death if he&#x27;d get the chance.
cowpewteralmost 8 years ago
When I was a kid, there was a small flavored-popcorn-and-candy shop called Karmelkorn in our town. They made fresh Turkish Delight (along with popcorn, marzipan, and other candies) in the store, and it was always my favorite treat. They had the traditional rosewater along with some citrus flavors, and it was dusted in cornstarch, not sugar. It was just sweet enough, with a firm, but pleasingly squishy bite.<p>I&#x27;ve tried the Cadbury chocolate-covered version, and a few packaged versions as an adult, and none of them are as good as we used to get from the Karmelkorn shop.
sp332almost 8 years ago
This may be my sugar-drenched American palette, but I don&#x27;t remember turkish delight being <i>that</i> sweet. The rosewater ones are really good though.
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DoofusOfDeathalmost 8 years ago
When my kids were younger, I took to reading the the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to my kids at the dinner table. Just for fun, on some of those evenings we&#x27;d have Turkish Delight at the table. The whole experience was really nice overall.<p>But I have to say, many of the Turkish Delight flavor variations weren&#x27;t very appealing: rosewater, mint, etc.<p>We tended to like the fruitier ones such as lemon and orange. (And there was also pistachio, which I recall liking.)
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tcopelandalmost 8 years ago
When my wife&#x27;s parents come visit us from Moldova they usually bring over a box of Turkish Delight; it&#x27;s always unveiled with cries of &quot;Turkish Delight for the young prince! Ha ha ha!&quot;
quotemstralmost 8 years ago
How can you _not_ like Turkish delight? I have some every time I see it --- which is rarely, granted.
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chasilalmost 8 years ago
In the U.S., the TJ Maxx and Marshall&#x27;s liquidation department stores often carry it in the winter.<p>The most poignant comment from anyone to whom I have introduced it was &quot;a flower shop just exploded in my mouth.&quot;<p>I am partial to the rose flavor, but I am reaching the age where I must watch my sugar intake, so it is a rare indulgence.<p>I&#x27;m surprised that (german grocer) Aldi doesn&#x27;t carry it. They always have Turkish dried apricots, and a number of odd confections in the winter.
jandresealmost 8 years ago
I liked the Robot Chicken sketch on this where the nerd thinks Turkish Delight is some kind of sex act.<p>Caution: NSFW<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=yrplL8orvac" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=yrplL8orvac</a>
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mandigyalmost 8 years ago
Food from other countries that we haven&#x27;t tried before generally tastes weird. As an Englishman I found U.S chocolate (e.g. Hershey) and Indian desserts (e.g. jalebi) unpalatable. No doubt there exist similar assessments of British sweets and puddings! I&#x27;m sheepish to admit that Fry&#x27;s Turkish Delight is not a favourite, but I do enjoy Baklava (a <i>true</i> delight from Turkey, imo).<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=SFd0SP_ZiV8" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=SFd0SP_ZiV8</a>
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presidentenderalmost 8 years ago
As children, we very much enjoyed the 88 miniseries, and so my brother asked my mother once for &#x27;Turkish Delight.&#x27; She supplied instead a product called &#x27;Aplets and Cotlets,&#x27; which I understand <i>is</i> Turkish Delight, as manufactured and consumed in North America. So we had a clear picture of what exactly Edmund was eating fairly early on.
jonahalmost 8 years ago
If you like Turkish Delight, you might want to try Gaz - a type of Persian Nougat - as well.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Gaz_(candy)" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Gaz_(candy)</a><p>(Along with reading C.S. Lewis, we got to try and enjoy Turkish Delight and Gaz as kids - thanks to world-traveling grandparents.)
oftenwrongalmost 8 years ago
I am not a fan of packaged Turkish delight. It seems to always be terrible.<p>When I was a child, my family would occasionally buy made-in-house Turkish delight from a small, family Turkish food store, which has long since closed, near where I lived, and it was different and better. It had a softer, gooey-er texture and more delicate, less sweet flavour. Rose is the most memorable flavour for me. I believe our original inspiration for buying it was, in fact, <i>The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe</i>.<p>My mother and I tried making some myself a few years ago to reproduce that memory, but the result was fairly sub-par, although still better than the packaged versions.
pbhjpbhjalmost 8 years ago
I first encountered Turkish Delight through the Fry&#x27;s product advertising - a sultry lady scantily dressed, as if from a harem, the product on a silver platter, a Bedouin looking fellow in flowing robes, he cuts the confection with a shining scimitar, &quot;full of Eastern promise&quot;. Bleurgh, hated the stuff; enchanted by the advert though.<p>I can&#x27;t recall but I don&#x27;t think I made a connection between that and the book, as a child I just read it as him being offered sweets by a stranger (something we&#x27;d been warned of specifically).
nashashmialmost 8 years ago
Back when I read the Narnia books at the age of 11 and 12, I remember reading of lands and people other than Narnia as being portrayed negatively. Back then I did not know, who the lands were being referred to, but the more I started reading into other cultures, the more I found a strong resonance with the cultures of Iran and Turkey.<p>Turkish delight was served by the evil witch and it turned Edmund unto a spell. In other books, I cannot remember which one, but there is the story of being lost and traveling through other lands and falling into the control of shahs and pashas.<p>The Narnia books were C.S. Lewis&#x27;s attempt at turning thinking, particularly child thinking, against the cultures found in the Middle East.<p>I found a great article that connects a lot of the references and provides background behind C.S. Lewis. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;prunusdulcis.wordpress.com&#x2F;2010&#x2F;03&#x2F;05&#x2F;baklava-in-beaversdam-the-turkishness-of-narnia&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;prunusdulcis.wordpress.com&#x2F;2010&#x2F;03&#x2F;05&#x2F;baklava-in-bea...</a><p>I am now perplexed with recommending or not recommending this book. It was a terrific joy for me, very much like Harry Potter is a joy for children these days.<p>Edit: corrected link.
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boogiepoppualmost 8 years ago
Well Lewis was a genius after all.
CurtMonashalmost 8 years ago
Pistachio flavored lokum -- i.e. Turkish Delight -- made with chestnut honey is good stuff.<p>That said, after I had fun bargaining for some in the Spice Bazaar in Istanbul, I ate little of what I brought home. I still like chocolate better. :)
Erwinalmost 8 years ago
Strangely, &quot;lokum&quot; is a Danish synonym for toilet, deriving from the Latin &quot;locus&quot; (place). No other language have this meaning for the word that I know of -- it makes this discussion rather amusing.
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Arananthialmost 8 years ago
Has no one ever heard of Aplets and Cotlets? Shit sells like hotcakes, and it&#x27;s literally just Turkish Delight with an Americanized name. This author has no idea what he&#x27;s on about.
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walshemjalmost 8 years ago
That is because 1 when cs lewis wrote those stories sweets where on ration and 2 Turkish delight at the time was a common charismas treat in the UK.
mgv11almost 8 years ago
Another obscure and interesting Atlasobscura article. Turkish Delight are great indeed and no, had not heard about them before Narnia either.
vostokalmost 8 years ago
As a child, I really liked the nut flavored Turkish delight. I never liked the regular rosewater flavor though.
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Tokkemonalmost 8 years ago
Turkish Delight is amazing, what are you talking about? Rose water?! It&#x27;s amazing!!!
jackaroe78almost 8 years ago
Even after growing up and finding out what it really is, it still sounds pretty tasty.
Eeriealmost 8 years ago
Israeli Turkish Delight is great. I always wash off the starch, though.
daxfohlalmost 8 years ago
I always thought it was made out of turkey.
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jclalmost 8 years ago
Heh... I knew this looked familiar. Per the note at the end of the article, it should probably be tagged &quot;(2015)&quot;. Previous discussion under a slightly different title:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=10686217" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=10686217</a>
abritinthebayalmost 8 years ago
Fry&#x27;s Turkish Delight is nasty sugary gloop, and is nothing like the real stuff (what Lewis was referring to)<p>The real stuff is much more delicate, subtly sweet, and has a much nicer mouth feel - not to mention flavor.<p>Rose water is one of those flavors you either like or dislike a lot. However it comes in other flavours! Various nuts, citrus, etc. very tasty.
samirillianalmost 8 years ago
There is certainly a xenophobic strain in the Chronicles of Narnia, most evident in what is otherwise my favorite book in the series, &quot;The horse and his boy.&quot; I can only think that to Lewis&#x27;s ear, the word &quot;Turkish&quot; had a certain brutality to it that contrasted well with &quot;delight&quot; and paired well with Edmund&#x27;s perdition.
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