
There and Snack Again: How to Eat Everything in the Lord of the Rings - fanf2
https://www.nate-crowley.com/single-post/2019/02/05/There-and-Snack-Again-How-to-eat-everything-in-Lord-of-the-Rings
======
MisterOctober
My kid is really into knights and castles and stuff, so last year we had a
'knight party' where we served [as much as practical] medieval European
dishes. It was a blast!

Some of the most helpful books we used in planning were :

"A Medieval Feast" by Aliki [picture book]

"A Medieval Home Companion" by Tania Bayard

One thing that I really liked was the heavy use of herbs for flavoring. Also,
the use of flatbread 'trenchers' as plates is sensible; I guess it's kind of
like an ancestor to the sandwich.

~~~
Symbiote
There are a few mediaeval restaurants.

Kapitelhusgården in Visby, Gotland, Sweden is one example.

Linking to TripAdvisor for the photos:
[https://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g189807-...](https://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g189807-d3775351-i137642031-Kapitellhusgarden-
Gotland.html)

~~~
MisterOctober
Gotland! The land of Beowulf! Fantastic.

------
bguerra
Nice! Watching the Lord of the Rings Extended Edition in one sitting is an
annual event for my close group of friends. This will be our 8th year. It's an
exhausting 12 hour venture. We have a hard start time of 11:00am and have food
prepped prior to the start. Though we've never integrated food from the books
beyond wine, ale, and potatoes (boiled, mashed, or in a stew). Thank you for
posting this, Nate.

If anyone plans to take this on, I can provide some advice beyond the article.
First off, we've found that smaller groups work better. Too many people and it
becomes a louder forum. Also, most newcomers pass out a short way into Two
Towers. Make sure you're rested up. It may seem like you're simply sitting for
several hours, but it is long and unusually exhausting. Also, too much of that
previously mentioned wine and ale will only assist the dozing. Pace yourself
if you're including drinks. Have the food prepped early in the day (hour
before you start at least) and scheduled to bring out at certain times to help
minimize delays. The biggest delay is bathroom breaks. We have these scheduled
at the disc swaps, but emergency stops are understandable. If you're watching
with a group, decide whether commentary should be included or not. Some people
like to make jokes and quote lines the whole way through while others get
really into it and just want to watch. It's helpful to determine which group
you are early on. If you're in the quiet camp, know that there is almost no
one talking by the end. Even if you're the most heartless person, after
sitting through and watching the Fellowship's struggles, few people can
refrain from welling up after Aragorn says "My friends...".

~~~
brootstrap
POTATOES... Biggest complaint about the post is lack of boiled, mashed, and or
stewed potatoes.

~~~
bguerra
Though Sam and Frodo never actually got to eat the 'taters', the author did
include some form of potatoes from that reference. He mentions it in the
section about rabbit stew.

> Sam’s advice on potatoes - “boil ‘em, mash ‘em, stick ‘em in a stew” - also
> inspired us to serve a triple side dish of new potatoes, cooked in the ways
> prescribed.

------
SamWhited
Every time I go backpacking I make Logan Bread (err, Lembas Bread, that is)
using a recipe similar to this: [https://sectionhiker.com/logan-bread-
recipe/](https://sectionhiker.com/logan-bread-recipe/)

Fair warning: don't eat too much of it while you're sitting still. It tastes
good, but depending on how you make it it can have a _lot_ of calories.

~~~
sandermvanvliet
Thanks for this!

------
dr_orpheus
My first thought in seeing this post was wondering how they would handle the
"Looks Like Meat’s Back on the Menu!" scene in the Two Towers. The ribs and
sausages arrangement seemed great. Probably best to not be too true to the
movies and eat raw meat...or orcs.

~~~
milquetoastaf
How do the Uruk Hai - or orcs for that matter - know what a menu is?

~~~
tantalor
From the article:

 _For my money, this is one of the best moments in the trilogy, if only for
the haunting implication that orcs understand the concept of a menu. There
will come a blog post where I consider the idea that orcs have a cultural
memory of a more civilised existence. Where I wonder if maybe they are good
people who have been woefully misrepresented in a history told by its victors.
But it is not this blog post._

~~~
jeffbr13
Check out “The Last Ringbearer”[1] for an alternate take on the LotR mythology
where the orcs aren’t monsters but instead citizens of the renaissance state
of Mordor.

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Ringbearer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Ringbearer)

~~~
pbhjpbhj
So this is the LoTR analogue to "the Empire were teh good guys" ["teh" was a
typo, but it fits, so heh].

------
mikekchar
The thing that seems to be missing here (and maybe it's also missing from the
movie... I can't remember) is the bread, butter and honey at Beorning's house.
Possibly people will find this strange, but before reading the LotR, I'd never
eaten this. It's amazing! So simple, yet so complex in flavour. If you are
thinking, like I was, bread + butter... yawn... bread + honey... been there,
done that, mixing them isn't going to make a difference..... I really
recommend trying it :-)

Edit: Ha ha! That was the Hobbit! That's why it's not in there :-P

~~~
jasonjei
Mead also seems to be very uncommon these days and is featured in _The
Hobbit_. I’ve only tried one homebrew attempt of mead, but it tastes a bit
like Western-style konbucha mixed with honey.

~~~
dragonwriter
> I’ve only tried one homebrew attempt of mead, but it tastes a bit like
> Western-style konbucha mixed with honey.

That sounds like pretty bad mead; most I've had has been more like brandy than
kombucha.

------
scrumper
The feasting might go a little bit easier if you also join in every time the
hobbits or Gandalf smoke "pipe weed."

~~~
amyjess
As much as the terminology used makes it sound like weed, I'm fairly sure
Tolkien intended it to be tobacco.

~~~
eponeponepon
He definitely did. He was a keen pipesmoker, and very definitely _not_ a
stoner. (edit: I think he even pins it to "a plant of the genus Nicotiana" or
words to that effect in the LotR appendices)

Peter Jackson's presentation of it in the movies though... yeah. No ambiguity
there. His hobbits were blazed 24/7.

------
nindalf
I feel like the most important one is pipe weed which many characters,
especially Gandalf smoke a lot of. Saruman was a huge fan too, he had barrels
of the best Longbottom Leaf imported from the Shire.

Judicious quantities of pipe weed would also keep your appetite sharp for all
the other food you're going to eat :)

~~~
tonyarkles
That has caused some delightful confusion. We used to live in my wife's
grandma's old house, and there was a ton of grandma's old stuff scattered
around the basement. My sister-in-law were visiting for a few days; her kids
loved digging through the old stuff.

Nephew (approx 10 year old): Uncle Tony! Uncle Tony! We found a weed pipe
downstairs!!!

Me: O_o

Nephew: Come look!

I went downstairs, ready to be horrified at a conversation I didn't want to
have with the kid. Sure enough, he had found some giant ornate tobacco pipe.

Nephew: Gandalf would love this! He could smoke pipe weed all day!

------
MattSteelblade
My father is J.R.R. Tolkien nut and my family would have parties to celebrate
Bilbo's birthday (September 22). The meals would slightly vary each year, but
kept with the hobbit theme. We usually had bean soup, "a mighty dish of
mushrooms and bacon," a roast, Yorkshire pudding, and a desert like a tart.
The evening would conclude with a reading from his Lord of the Rings
collection [1], which he would call The Red Book. He hasn't done one in a few
years, but this was a tradition of his for almost 20 years.

[1][https://www.amazon.com/LORD-RINGS-Fellowship-Towers-
Collecto...](https://www.amazon.com/LORD-RINGS-Fellowship-Towers-
Collectors/dp/B00M0NFYTC/)

~~~
auntienomen
In case you didn't know (and this is deep geekery, so I don't know why you
would): It's a conceit of Tolkien's presentation that the story we're reading
in the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings was recovered from historical
manuscripts written by Bilbo and the other hobbits, which were collected by
later hobbits in a tome called the Red Book of Westmarch [1]. That big red
leatherbound edition of the Lord of the Rings references this conceit.

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Book_of_Westmarch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Book_of_Westmarch)

~~~
joshvm
This is strongly hinted at in the movies. Bilbo's first appearance in
Fellowship shows him finishing off The Hobbit (in a big red manuscript), and
the ending of RoTK shows Frodo finishing off The Lord of The Rings before
handing it to Sam.

------
Jach
Nice job. As a kid I read all the Redwall books concurrently with LoTR, the
delicious food and feasting descriptions throughout them can get kind of
obscene... I've tried cooking a few over the years from various fan writeups
(e.g.
[http://friarhugoskitchen.blogspot.com/](http://friarhugoskitchen.blogspot.com/))
but there was an official cookbook too
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Redwall_Cookbook](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Redwall_Cookbook)).

------
ultrasounder
This is awesome!. LOTR is the key to my sons glimpse into fantasy and
imagination. Guy was diagnosed with ASD when he was 5. Always shirked at
anything that was "un-real", until he was mesmerized by the magic of LOTR. He
even uses this app"Walk to Mordor" which is a pedometer app to track his
journey from Shire to Mordor. Done with 21 miles. 3,500 more miles to go
before he reaches Mordor!

------
walrus01
This doesn't address the most pressing question I have. Remember the "Looks
like meat's back on the menu" scene?

How do Orcs know what a menu is?

------
Symbiote
"The Geeky Chef Drinks" has a recipe for a warm elven cocktail, involving gin,
white tea and elderflower liqueur. It was delicious!

[https://books.google.com/books?id=2bp1DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA56&lpg=P...](https://books.google.com/books?id=2bp1DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA56&lpg=PA56#v=onepage&q&f=false)

------
jonah
Slightly relatedly, the YouTube channel Binging with Babish[0] "recreate[s]
the iconic and obscure foods from you[r] favorite movies and TV shows".

[0]
[https://www.youtube.com/user/bgfilms](https://www.youtube.com/user/bgfilms)

------
starpilot
The closest analog to lembas bread in spirit and function is Icelandic
rugbraud:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rúgbrauð](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rúgbrauð).
It was vital when I was cycling, one slice seemed to give me a ton of energy,
probably because the stuff was sticky with syrup. For pure function as a
homemade energy loaf, there's also logan bread:
[https://sectionhiker.com/logan-bread-recipe/](https://sectionhiker.com/logan-
bread-recipe/). I've made that very recipe and it's really good and it keeps
well for several days.

~~~
kemayo
Bara Brith is another candidate:
[https://www.bbc.com/food/recipes/bara_brith_33441](https://www.bbc.com/food/recipes/bara_brith_33441)

------
rblion
I've wanted this my entire life since I was 13. Bookmarked and going shopping
this week!

I haven't rewatched the trilogy in a few years and my grandma just passed
away. I've also been working on some ideas to challenge the rise of Mordor.

~~~
benj111
"I've also been working on some ideas to challenge the rise of Mordor"

Hypothetically or metaphorically or ........?

~~~
rblion
"What does your heart tell you?"

------
benj111
"Our marathon inspired endless debates about what Lembas Bread should be
represented by - some said shortbread, others said drop scones, while some
even argued for Kendal Mint Cake. "

I knew this is where they would have trouble. Its the most mentioned food in
the book, but doesn't really have a good description of what it actually is.

~~~
kps
For some reason, I think of it as stroopwafels.

~~~
eponeponepon
Always been Army ration pack Biscuits Brown to me.

...to be clear, I kinda liked those things. Kinda.

~~~
swasheck
wouldn't it make sense that this would be one of the metaphors upon which
tolkien drew from his time in the british army? i seem to recall some bit of
information that these subtle images were inspired by objects and events
during that time of his life.

so biscuits brown is probably a good image.

------
nvr219
Looks like meat is back on the menu.

~~~
tabtab
Indeed! My Smeagol-sandwich was delicccious!

------
pedantsamaritan
I imagined Lembas Bread to be like ration bars (e.g. datrex, sos, etc)

------
tremon
displays a blank page with 3rd-party javascript disabled.

~~~
asd
I thought the same but gave it a few seconds more and the content finally
loaded.

[https://www.nate-
crowley.com/apps/lists/1/Batch?consistentRe...](https://www.nate-
crowley.com/apps/lists/1/Batch?consistentRead=false) Time: 5.1 sec

The site is just under a bit of load right now.

~~~
ljcn
No it uses scripts from parastorage.com (part of wix).

