Food is what you put in children's books instead of sex.

It's hardly a new observation, but I was reminded of it again while rereading The Twenty-One Balloons, a book I loved as a kid. It's about a utopian island community built on the principle of "restaurant government." Everyone on the island owns a restaurant, and the main social activity is going around to all the restaurant/homes for meals. (The book was written in 1947, and the narrator goes on about how weird and foreign and icky the food at the Chinese restaurant is. How did the Greatest Generation survive without delicious Chinese food? I ask you.) Large chunks of the book are devoted to describing the elaborate dining system and the food everyone eats, right up to the climax where the island blows up and they're forced to survive for weeks on sauerbraten and hot chocolate. Again, I loved this book.

Other great moments in children's food porn:

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