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This man recreated all the meals in Lord of the Rings for a movie marathon to honour his late father

Looks like meat’s back on the menu, boys!

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Their snack list included an orc (@FrogCroakley/PA)

The Lord of the Rings trilogy isn’t known for its culinary highlights, but when Nate Crowley sat down to watch the extended cuts of his favourite franchise, he decided to give it a fine dining twist.

To honour the film that his father had loved, exactly a year after he died, science fiction author Nate from Walsall, and his girlfriend Ashleigh, created a 14-course meal reflecting the food eaten in the three films to accompany their movie marathon.

His mother had died before Christmas, and the couple were going to be clearing out her house in Norfolk on the anniversary of his father’s death.

“So we thought we would do a Lord of the Rings marathon as a sort of memorial,” Nate, 33, told the Press Association, “because both my parents really loved those films, and I used to watch them with them.”

But you can’t go into an 11-and-a-half-hour movie marathon without a little preparation, so Nate pre-planned a menu.

They started with some tea and cake, as the always-hungry hobbits scoffed it in the first film.

And then of course, there’s second breakfast.

Not all the meal choices could be so literal.

Then came one of the most famous (and food-related) lines of the Two Towers film.

This was the couple’s “most elaborate” meal – an orc, complete with pine needle tusks.

“I made a replica of an orc rib cage out of dry-rub ribs and chipolatas,” Nate said.

“But those ribs were incredible, so it was worth it.”

But it wasn’t all meat and crackers. Eowyn’s disgusting fish stew was a necessary part of the snack marathon.

“It came after a fair few food scenes so we weren’t too hungry, and actually required a recipe that was really horrible,” Nate said.

“And so I made a horrible sardine broth and we tried a bit and pretended to enjoy it, before taking Aragorn’s advice and tipping it in the garden.”

Sometimes the movie meals weren’t feasible, so they improvised.

And the best movie snack?

“Probably the Isengard storeroom meal, which was salty gammon and loads of different pickles,” Nate said.

“After a solid ten hours plus on the go, a plate of cold pickled vegetables was really cleansing.”

Their marathon ended much as it had begun, with tea and cake in the shire with the hobbits.

Having a Lord of the Rings food marathon in his parents’ old house certainly felt like a fitting tribute.

“It would have really made dad laugh, certainly,” Nate said.

“The fact we were up at 6am in their old house, watching his and my favourite movies together with a kitchen full of treats, would have really made them both smile.”

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