Actually, it is not stupid -- you can use overload to make that kind of thing work (even without using bless(), I think, though I should have to tinker with it some).

However, if you don't need to optimize for speed, and don't feel like tinkering with overload, there is always good old TIMTOWTDI:

$food = \@array;
print +{@$food}->{Corn}; # yay!
print @{{@$food}}{Corn,Bannana}; # slice!
[download]

Have the appropriate amount of fun with it :-)

Update: Found a better CPAN search link.

The Sidhekin
print "Just another Perl ${\(trickster and hacker)},"