“There was something green between slices of soft bread. Otoha took a bite and sure enough the blend of cucumbers and butter leaped out into her mouth, with a simple, yet deep taste. "Mr. Kinoshita, this is really delicious! It's hard to believe the ingredients are that simple." "Thanks. I just sliced the cucumbers very thin and rubbed them with salt." Otoha tried the roast chicken sandwich next. "This is wonderful too. The chicken is so moist." "I simply added salt and pepper to the chicken breasts as I roasted them, and then a little French dressing before I put it in the sandwich." "They're all very simple flavors. You can really savor all the ingredients." "I think that's how things were back in those times. Plus, I don't think Montgomery, a pastor's wife, would like writing long descriptions of how food tasted." "That makes sense." On top of the flat plate of sandwiches was a small dish with green peas. Otoha tried them and found them softly boiled, with a taste of butter. "Those are green peas sautéed in butter. I finished them by adding a spoonful of sugar. Do you remember how, when they invited Mrs. Morgan to Green Gables, Anne added too much sugar and spoiled the peas?” SimplePeasBread And ButterCucumbersAnne Of Green GablesRecreating Book:Dinner at the Night Library Source: Dinner at the Night Library
“The owner comes back, makes tea for them and says, 'I'm sorry I only have bread, butter, and cucumbers,' but Anne and Diana are so starving that the bread, butter, and cucumbers taste delicious. And it really does sound delicious. I don't know that much about Anne of Green Gables, or about novels in general, but that scene really stands out for me, the way it describes how wonderful the food tasted... Especially the way it describes the joy of eating." "You may well be right." "I thought about this a lot and I believe that the cucumbers mentioned may have been pickled. Though other translations of the book only say it's bread, butter, and cucumbers. But I can't picture them crunching on fresh cucumbers... So anyway, that's how I came up with my own version, which is this. Bread, butter, and cucumber sandwiches. That seemed a bit inadequate, though, so I also made roast chicken sandwiches. I think they must have eaten those as well.” SandwichesRecreationBread And ButterCucumbersAnne Of Avonlea Book:Dinner at the Night Library Source: Dinner at the Night Library