Imaginary Eats: Our Favorite Fictional Foods from Screens Big and Small
Originally published on Delish.com
Some of the best "characters" on TV and in film are edible. Check out our favorite fictional foods, and find out which you can now buy in real life.
Fictional Foods
Eating and moviegoing go together naturally. It's few who can resist the lure of popcorn while watching a film. Often the same is true for sitting in front of the small screen. But some of our favorite foods don't go with the screen; they appear on it. Celebrate with us as we explore some of our top fictional foods from movies and TV, and learn about the few that have made it into real life.
Tomacco
First Taste: The Simpsons Homer inadvertently creates tomacco — a tomato-tobacco hybrid — when he fertilizes his fields with plutonium. The resulting fruit, which tastes terrible, proves to be powerfully addictive. Laramie Cigarettes try to buy tomacco rights from Homer with the intent to market it to children. Luckily, Homer holds out for more money, which allows time for the tomacco-crazed farm animals to eat the entire crop, save one plant, which is destroyed in a helicopter crash. Doh!
Recipes: You don't need nicotine to become addicted to the taste of fresh tomatoes. Eat them out of hand, on a sandwich, or on one of these 14 tomato salads.
Cheesy Blaster
First Taste: 30 Rock Liz Lemon loves her comfort foods, and what's better than three of her faves rolled into one. Behold, the Cheesy Blaster, a Jack cheese–stuffed hot dog folded in a pizza. Thanks, Meat Cat!
Recipes: Hungry now? Try one of our hot dogs and toppings recipes or whip up one of these easy homemade pizza recipes. We'll leave the creative combinations thereof up to you.
Krabby Patties
First Taste: Sponge Bob SquarePants Krabby Patties, lovingly cooked by the show's star, are in large part responsible for The Krusty Krab's popularity in Bikini Bottom. Their popularity certainly inspires the ire of Sheldon J. Plankton — owner of the competing but inferior Chum Bucket — who continually tries to steal the top-secret recipe.
Recipes: Are Krabby Patties more crab cake or burger? We're not sure, but we'll take them either way.
Butterbeer
First Taste: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone You can drink it hot or you can drink it cold. But one thing's for certain: no trip to The Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade or the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley is complete without a glass of butterbeer.
Recipes: It may be a Muggle's approximation, but we still think this Warm Spiced Cider tastes magical.
Cheesy Poofs
First Taste: South Park If you're in South Park and want a snack, it's bound to be Cheesy Poofs. These Cheetos-like nosh are beloved by Cartman and the gang. Who can blame them? If you didn't eat Cheesy Poofs, you'd be lame! In honor of South Park's 15th season, Comedy Central and Frito-Lay created real Cheesy Poofs to sell at Wal-Mart stores.
Recipe: They're no Poofs, but these chips and snacks recipes are anything but lame.
Dehydrated Pizza Hut Pizza
First Taste: Back to the Future II In the second installment of the time-travelling comedy, it's 2015, and the McFly family enjoys a dehydrated pizza from the Hill Valley Pizza Hut. In its dehydrated form, the pie is about the size of a cookie, and its mylar package instructs diners to, "Remove from wrapper and rehydrate for 2 seconds." Marty asks why you can't just eat the pizza as is. Let's just say that a dehydrated pizza will eventually return to its natural state — in the stomach or outside of it.
Recipe: These pies take a bit longer than a couple seconds to cook, but we're betting they're leagues better than the rehydrated kind. Check out our ultimate guide to making pizza.
Pawtucket Patriot Ale
First Taste: Family Guy Peter Griffin likes to drink local, and his preferred brew is Quahog-produced Pawtucket Patriot Ale. Verily, and give heed.
Recipes: We're not sure if Peter would approve, but we love these mixed drinks made with beer.
Stay-Puft Marshmallows
First Taste: Ghostbusters Stay Puft Marshmallows are the seemingly harmless treat featured in the background in several of the movie's scenes. The confection takes on a more prominent — and decidedly more sinister — role when Dr. Ray Stanz inadvertently chooses its mascot, the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, as the physical manifestation of the Sumerian god Gozer. Fans of the movie can now buy licensed Stay Puft caffeinated gourmet marshmallows.
Recipe: Prefer your marshmallows with less of a jolt? Make your own Homemade Vanilla Marshmallows.
First Taste: Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?
The goofy Great Dane Scooby-Doo would do just about anything for one of his eponymous snacks. Those meddling kids often used these treats as the ultimate bribe, sending Scooby and his perennial partner, Shaggy, out as bait for the villain. Rut-roh!
Recipe: Approximate your own Scooby Snacks with these easy treats. No-Bake Cookies
Slurm
First Taste: Futurama Slurm is the soft drink of choice in the Futuramauniverse. In one episode of the show, Fry learns that Slurm is, in fact, made from the secretions of a giant worm, The Slurm Queen. Cheers!
Recipes: Prefer to sip on something decidedly less biological in origin? Mix up one of these delectable party drinks.
Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans
First Taste: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone In the first movie of the Harry Potter series, the young hero is introduced to the wonderful candies of the wizarding world, including Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. As Ron warns Harry, "You want to be careful with these. When they say every flavour, they mean every flavour" — from chocolate to lemon drop all the way to liver, tripe, and, alas, earwax.
Recipes: Prefer to play it safe with your jellied candies? Make your own Lime Fruit Jellies and Blackberry Fruit Jellies.
Tru Blood
First Taste: True Blood In a world where vampires and run-of-the-mill humans coexist, Tru Blood is the Japanese-manufactured, synthetic-blood beverage that "out-of-the-coffin" vampires consume to sate their blood thirst without any actual killing. It seems regular folks wanted a taste, too: Tru:Blood, a blood orange–flavored carbonated drink inspired by the series, is now being sold.
Recipe: Mix up your own homage to the undead with this Blood Orange-Pomegranate Mimosa.
Everlasting Gobstopper
First Taste: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory Sure, Willy Wonka's Everlasting Gobstoppers — a jawbreaker candy with layers of colors and flavors — have been a reality in stores for years now. But our favorite version of the sweet is featured in the 1971 movie, which brought Roald Dahl's book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to the big screen. In that film version, the gobstopper featured many multicolored bumps of sugar that came from a candy core. And, true to its name, it was a candy that was literally eternal.
Recipes: Try your hand at your own longlasting treat with one of these homemade candy recipes.
Chocolate Salty Balls
First Taste: South Park In a 1998 episode, Chef comes up with the confection that inspires an innuendo-laden song: chocolate salty balls. And perhaps that's enough said.
Recipes: Love chocolate? Check out our 100+ recipes for chocolate.