Like gummiberry juice, Duff beer and other weird and fantastic foods imagined by cartoon animators, the foods dreamed up by children's authors have an ability to stick with you.
Here are our top five fake foods from childhood:
1. The magical, never-ending pasta from Strega Nona. At the center of this story of sweetness and goodwill is a magic pasta pot that only stops making noodles at the blow of three kisses. 2. Green eggs and ham from Green Eggs and Ham. Your mom's attempts just never lived up to how other-worldly you imagined this dish would be after reading about it in this Dr. Seuss classic. 3. "Eat Me" cake and "Drink Me" drink from Alice in Wonderland. The Cheshire Cat and the Mad Hatter are memorable, but let's not mince words: The most noteworthy part of this Lewis Carroll classic is when Alice takes a bite of cake that blows up her body to giant size, and she then drinks from a dainty bottle that makes her shrink to miniature proportions. 4. Chocolate river from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Even though things didn't turn out so great for Augustus Gloop -- what with getting sucked up a pipe full of chocolate and all -- if given the chance, who wouldn't do the same and drink wholeheartedly from Willy Wonka's river of chocolate? 5. Turkish delight from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. This isn't your grandma's Turkish delight. In C.S. Lewis's world, it's a never-ending enticement for Edmund, who will seemingly do anything it takes to get as much as he can, making its mysterious and foreign-sounding appeal that much more tempting.
