Dashed Expectations
I love the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. I have reread the books in the series several times.
So when I was 23 years old and I spotted Turkish Delight in the window of an ethnic grocery store in New York I acted like the freak that I am. "Turkish Delight!" I yelled, pointing at the display. "Turkish Delight!"
For those of you who have not read The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, Turkish Delight is the sweet for which Edmund betrays his siblings. I figured any sweet that good was my kind of sweet. I went into the store and bought a bag of the red, powdered sugar coated squares. And I ate one. And gagged.
Turkish Delight is terrible. Gobsmacking awful. It takes sort of like it looks, like tough jello. And the powdered sugar doesn't help disguise the tragically flawed flavor.
For this, I thought, we are expected to believe Edmund would turn over his sisters and brother to a witch?
For crappy candy?
When I read the story now I have to pretend that Turkish Delight is not what I know it to be but instead what I had expected as a child: a sweet to best all other sweets. In my imagination Turkish Delight has chocolate, and maybe orange peel.
I hope I haven't shocked and disappointed too many of you, but if I have performed the public service of dissuading you from trying it, then my work is done.