Redwall-The Feast

I remember reading a western where the characters in the book were eating burro jerky that had been roasted on the coals of their fire, or where they feasted on freshly prepared corn tortillas and beans, or in another novel the character mentions what we had for breakfast each morning while he was in town conducting business. The mention of food in a novel has an away to draw the reader in. Who hasn’t eaten a meal?

In the third chapter of Redwall the author mentions a feast that the occupants are about to partake. The menu is as follows:

Tender fresh water shrimp garnished with cream and rose leaves. Devilled barley pearls in acorn puree
Apple and carrot chews
Marinated cabbage stalks steeped in white turnip with nutmeg
“Greyling a la Redwall”

This is not to mention the nuts, cheeses, and other delicacies that were consumed. There was so much food that even after everyone ate their fill there was still so much left over.

Before they all sat down to eat Abbot Mortimer rose, spread his paws over the festive board and said grace over the meal.

“Fur and whisker, tooth and claw,
All who enter by our door.
Nuts and herbs, leaves and fruits,
Berries, tubers, plants, and roots,
Silver fish whose life we take
Only for a meal to make.”

Redwall, page 22.