That’s Turkish Delight?!
December 11, 2005 Posted by Amy Hall
In honor of the opening of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, I have an interesting question to pose to you all. Those of us who read the Chronicles of Narnia while growing up in the U.S. encountered a strange, foreign food in the first book of the series. What the heck was Turkish Delight? All we knew was that it was the most wonderful and most tempting of all foods, and each of us imagined something a little different as we read the story. I recently realized that the way I envisioned this treat was rather like the exquisite delicacy known as Orange Chicken from Panda Express (though I knew not the wonders of Panda at the time)–steaming clumps of savory, delicious meat. One of my sisters saw a chicken pot pie, and the other, Bordeaux truffles. I’m certain this says something about us all, but I’m not sure what….
Luckily, I did not know Turkish Delight to be the rose-flavored gelatin that it actually turned out to be…a horrible fact I discovered on a trip to England in 1994:
SCENE: London. The Underground at Bayswater Station.
ME: Wow! This vending machine has Turkish Delight! I can’t believe it! I’ll finally know what it tastes like! It’s…um…oh…where’s the garbage can…?
Anyway, I thought it would be fun to ask you the question: what was your Turkish Delight like? And if you’d like to take a stab at what you think this says about you, that should make this all the more interesting!
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December 10th, 2005 at 7:29 pm
Mine was a candy. I can't remember what exactly. It was certainly NOTHING like the real turkish delight. I'm thinking maybe some amazing creamy nougat thing, if not also chocolate covered.
December 10th, 2005 at 7:46 pm
I actually have a recipe for Turkish Delight from Doug Gresham. My guess is it's the same as the movie. Mine would likely be Wild Berry Skittles. When I was working at Hume I'd always buy a bag for the road, whether I was going home or just to Fresno. I'm not sure if that says anything about me. Maybe that I haven't had any since last time I went (several years ago) does.
December 10th, 2005 at 9:40 pm
Hmmm… perhaps this needs some clarification. I took your question to mean what in our lives was like Turkish Delight. But it looks like it could also mean have we understood Turkish Delight to be. If it's the former, then when I was little I thought Turkish referred to turkey, so it was some kind of sweet turkey meal.
December 10th, 2005 at 9:54 pm
We actually ordered ten boxes of the real stuff this year. It is rose or lemon flavored gelatin-like. Not terrible, but not what I had imagine. As a kid I thought it was be more fudge and chocolately, and but not necessarily pure chocolate, maybe like a butterscotch something-or-other. The real thing was quite a surprise.
December 10th, 2005 at 10:14 pm
… it seems the comment I intended to post didn't come up. Roger, how long were you at Hume, and what did you do there? You've heard the camp connection between Amy, Tim, Micah, Tyler and me.
December 10th, 2005 at 10:24 pm
I worked at Hume for about 5 months in 2001 (July-November) and a few weeks of the summer of 2003. I worked Guest Services, which is a nice way to say I did janitorial stuff. I was on night crew, which IMHO, is the best job there. It doesn't get much better than cleaning toilets at night.
December 11th, 2005 at 12:09 pm
We called that team Accomodations at Calvin Crest, and I several of the folks I named were on that team at one point or another. I was a cook in the kitchen my first years when I might have been doing that. Better fit for me. Cooking comes to me intuitively. Cleaning… I don't notice things are dirty. Doesn't make me particularly well suited to cleaning well.
December 11th, 2005 at 2:04 pm
I'm the opposite. I was too detailed in my cleaning. I'd notice grime building inside the knob on the sink and then go get a srewdriver so I could take it apart and clean it. For a couple of weeks I got to “deep clean” showers. I'd get suited up in a gas mask and gloves and spray toxic liquid all over the place. It took about 45 minutes a shower. Good times. After that they had to give me a few days off since the fumes got to me a bit. I miss Hume
December 11th, 2005 at 4:59 pm
Well, Roger, I don't know about the turkey meal, but THIS certainly says something about you!
December 11th, 2005 at 8:33 pm
I miss Calvin Crest, too. Camping ministry has somehow worked itself into my being. I don't think I'll ever completely cut my ties with it.
Roger, that is an informative story. We appear to be polar opposites on the detail oriented personality scale.