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About Me
- Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
- I'm an entertainment editor at MSNBC.com, and have maintained Pop Culture Junk Mail since August, 1999. The New York Times called the site "one of the best places to explore pop culture online," and Entertainment Weekly included it on their Top 100 Web Sites list. If you like weird food, strange products, and 1970s and 1980s nostalgia, PCJM is your home away from home.
I have a brand new BOOK, written with Brian Bellmont. "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s." Buy it online, and follow our retro reminiscing on our GenXtinct blog, Facebook, and Twitter.
13 comments:
Oh - it's so gross! I've been living in England for the past 4 years, and it's a huge Christmas treat here. But ew! It tastes like roses! What's that about???
It's great! I love Turkish. As long as it's covered in chocolate. :D
I've had turkish delight several times, and I like it but a little goes a long way. It definitely has a very intense flavor and is extremely rich, so a little goes a long way. I can't imagine chowing down in several pounds of it under any circumstances.
I grew up with-- and actually liked-- Turkish Delight. But I have had some of the royally awful kind sold here in the states. You do have to get the imported kind from Turkey. Then it's not so sticky sweet, it's more delicately perfumed. Every once in a while I get a craving for the stuff.
My dad likes Big Turk which is a chocolate bar with Turkish delight in the middle. Bleh
It must have been the magic...
I, too, grew up in Indiana, reading the Narnia books and assuming Turkish Delight must be wonderful! I think I'll take her word for it.
I love the boxes of rose and lemon Turkish delight.
The Fry's bars on the other hand are just blech. They're too heavy and chewy. It's like somebody took an uncooked pack of jello and coated it in chocolate.
Some of the other chocolate coated Turkish delight brands are okay, but quality varies. As a general rule, the fewer ingredients listed, the higher quality the product is likely to be.
I, too, first became really aware of this repulsive offering, through my Narnia experience. My dad, who is English also talked about this wonderful "sweet" - one of his favourites as a child.
As with many, many British "delicacies", willingly consuming this jellied dish soap, defies logic.
Sort of like spam for the sweet tooth.
When I first read the Narnia books I thought Turkish Delight sounded like spiced meat or something and I just didn't get why Edmund was so impressed.
I also recently had a similar experience with Plum Pudding which I had been dying to try since I read a Christmas Carol and that Tiny Tim kid couldn't stop raving about it. It was absolutely revolting.
It depends on what you stuff in your mouth as a child. If you grew up with it, you love it. Ask any Canadian about Thrills gum -- they'll say 3 words: "Tastes like soap!" But this purple chiclet-type gum sells well, year after year for decades. Click on my name for image.
I, like the above anonymous, thought when I read "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe" as kid, that Turkish Delight was some kind of meat. I didn't think it was odd that the kid liked it, though -- everyone has their favorite food. But, years later, when in Middle School we were doing a performance version of the same story, I learned that it was a candy. I then assumed it was like a hard candy.
But, because of that, when I went to England years later and saw Turkish Delight candy bars and realized it was the same stuff from that damned book I'd hated so many years back (yes, I hated the book) but had that mysterious candy in it, I decided to try it. Eww. I imagine the real stuff is flavored with rosewater, but the British people manufacturing it thought that artificial rose fragrance was just as good, and that they should use a ton of it.
I first tried Turkish Delight when I lived in England, and I liked it a lot. I guess I am in the extreme minority!
Just remember, we are talking about the culinary tastes of the English here. English cuisine is at best bland....at worst horrific and revolting.
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