Nostalgic Food - Good and Bad!

Mam of 4

Grandeeod wrote: »

Yep. You could buy it in a can. Heated many a can out camping or on the stove or in a youth hostel in the Wicklow mountains in the 80s.



I loved Angel Delight!



Hated liver and kidney and still do. Often went to bed hungry because of that.:eek: My mother could bake a decent apple tart though. It was often the only treat we got and it was divine. The Tesco/Gubays arrived in Dublin and she hasn't made an apple tart since!:D

I still love liver , and kidneys
I remember the Vesta curry , in a box though , and eggs cooked in a cup on the top of the cooker , with a knob of butter and a pinch of salt , best eggs ever

Oh , last one , picking mushrooms and cooking them on the top of the cooker with a pinch of salt , they were ready when the centre was filled with boiling hot juices that would scald the mouth off you !

Purple Mountain

Findus Crispy Pancakes were muck.

igCorcaigh

odyssey06 wrote: »

Is Spam a nostalgic food?
If you are somewhere without fridge and want a morning fry, it actually fries up well as an alternative to rashers. Never would've thought it til I saw James May try it on a BBC programme.

And dang, 80s Findus Crispy Pancakes were tasty.

I buy canned corned beef sometimes, but it's a bit gooey. Might be good fried, as in a hash?

Never had spam. More of a British think I guess.

igCorcaigh

Purple Mountain wrote: »

Findus Crispy Pancakes were muck.

Better than boiled tripe.

whiskeyman

Those non-pizza pizzas.
I think green isle used to do a pack of 5 or mini pack of 10.
Just cheese I think.
We'd cut up ham and think we were proper Italians grilling our pizzas!!
Topping side down first on tinfoil as it was frozen, then skillfully turn it once burnt.
These were the days before Goodfellas came to town.
Oh how our world changed then!

Rows Grower

Purple Mountain wrote: »

Findus Crispy Pancakes were muck.

The fcuking cheek of you.

What would you know about proper food?

The Findus Crispy Pancake was our Domino's and Chinese all rolled into one back in the 70's.

Grandeeod

Crispy pancakes were great when I was young, but yet again grilled with a hard outside. I deep fried them once as an adult and had a similar experience to deep frying a burger as a teen. Lift the basket, stick a knife in and release the lava spray.:eek:

Grandeeod

whiskeyman wrote: »

Those non-pizza pizzas.
I think green isle used to do a pack of 5 or mini pack of 10.
Just cheese I think.
We'd cut up ham and think we were proper Italians grilling our pizzas!!
Topping side down first on tinfoil as it was frozen, then skillfully turn it once burnt.
These were the days before Goodfellas came to town.
Oh how our world changed then!

Dunnes stores cheapy mini pizzas under the grill. Worst ever!

igCorcaigh

Grandeeod wrote: »

Dunnes stores cheapy mini pizzas under the grill. Worst ever!

They were the first pizza I ever had.

And the first time I tasted herbs.

Remember the little plastic sachet of dried herbs that came with them? Loved them.

Grandeeod

igCorcaigh wrote: »

They were the first pizza I ever had.

And the first time I tasted herbs.

Remember the little plastic sachet of dried herbs that came with them? Loved them.

I remember them alright. Was force fed them too. Not nice. Put me off pizza which is a shame as pizza is such a popular thing these days. Fook you Ben Dunne!

Gloomtastic!

As a kid, I remember my Granny’s roast chicken was so full of flavour. I asked her once why and she said it was because it was fresh. I can’t remember but were most chickens frozen in the 70’s?

Alun

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

I loved the idea of Vesta curries, but they never lived up to the picture on the box

Ah yes, Vesta curries! However hard you tried, there was always at least one crunchy bit that refused to hydrate. The Vesta Chinese meals were even worse.

Rows Grower

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

As a kid, I remember my Granny’s roast chicken was so full of flavour. I asked her once why and she said it was because it was fresh. I can’t remember but were most chickens frozen in the 70’s?

Anything we got was always fresh as far as I remember, mind you it was your mothers nose decided what was fresh. There was no best before date.

I remember being instructed to always squeeze a slice pan to check for freshness and I still do it to this day like the cave man I am.

igCorcaigh

Grandeeod wrote: »

I remember them alright. Was force fed them too. Not nice. Put me off pizza which is a shame as pizza is such a popular thing these days. Fook you Ben Dunne!

Ha! Can you believe that it wasn't until 1992 that I had my first pizza from a Pizzeria?

I was bowled over, never tasted anything so tasty. I was 19!

Purple Mountain

Did anyone else experience this or are my family unique?
Back in the 80s, anytime we had a salad lunch, mam always had tinned peas as part of the salad. Uncooked, cold peas.
And no, we weren't poor. Just a typical farming family.
Pretty rank thinking about it now.

odyssey06

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

As a kid, I remember my Granny’s roast chicken was so full of flavour. I asked her once why and she said it was because it was fresh. I can’t remember but were most chickens frozen in the 70’s?

In the 80s I only remember fresh. But our xmas turkeys in the 80s werent... had to be delivered two days before to defrost!

igCorcaigh

Rows Grower wrote: »

Anything we got was always fresh as far as I remember, mind you it was your mothers nose decided what was fresh. There was no best before date.

I remember being instructed to always squeeze a slice pan to check for freshness and I still do it to this day like the cave man I am.

I do too!

Back in those days common sense was common.

How things change.

Grandeeod

Rows Grower wrote: »

Anything we got was always fresh as far as I remember, mind you it was your mothers nose decided what was fresh. There was no best before date.

I remember being instructed to always squeeze a slice pan to check for freshness and I still do it to this day like the cave man I am.

I still squeeze the pan too.:D

As for chickens, my memories are fresh and big, bought from a butcher. If you stood in a butchers in Dublin's Moore street, you were in a Q and got a piece of cold white pudding to chew on, if you fancied it.:D

igCorcaigh

Grandeeod wrote: »

I still squeeze the pan too.:D

As for chickens, my memories are fresh and big, bought from a butcher. If you stood in a butchers in Dublin's Moore street, you were in a Q and got a piece of cold white pudding to chew on, if you fancied it.:D

Oh lol

When my sister was a toddler she used to eat frozen (raw) sausages from the freezer like lollipops.

phormium

Gosh I loved the Vesta curries but it's true there was always one dry powdery bit that didn't soften!

My mother did not really cook, we had a nanny and she did most of it but on her day off curried mince stew was my mother's special plus butterscotch instant whip which I hated!

The nanny used to give us 'goody' if we were sick, it sounds disgusting stuff but if you are sick it's amazing how nice it tastes.

Rows Grower

igCorcaigh wrote: »

Ha! Can you believe that it wasn't until 1992 that I had my first pizza from a Pizzeria?

I was bowled over, never tasted anything so tasty. I was 19!

I was about the same age when I had my first proper Pizza in Ayia Napa, unreal stuff altogether.

igCorcaigh

phormium wrote: »

The nanny used to give us 'goody' if we were sick, it sounds disgusting stuff but if you are sick it's amazing how nice it tastes.

Tell us more...

bubbles o hara

Ah the memories this thread is bringing back. I remember my mother preparing the veggies for Sunday's dinner while the Late Late was on Saturday nights (yep, Saturday back then). We always had the same thing, mashed turnip, boiled spuds, roast chicken & gravy, followed by strawberry jelly and cream..with sugar added.

The first time I tasted real pizza was in 1977 while visiting Cork, I hated it, it offended my culchie tongue. :pac:

Grandeeod

My first Chinese takeaway. China Inn Clondalkin (not very original) Chicken Curry, rice and chips. My first posh Chinese meal, The Orchid Szechuan on Pembroke Road, Dublin. All in the early 80's/90's. It's gone downhill since in a lot pf places.

L1011

igCorcaigh wrote: »

^ Danish Orchards jam was nice.
I remember that from the early '90s

But we did not have microwave ovens in the 70s!

Consumer microwaves are from the 50s, pretty sure my parents got one in the 70s to enable my mother to actually make dinners... The one we had when I was a kid was a veritable antique, fully analogue controlled with dials.

Grandeeod

L1011 wrote: »

Consumer microwaves are from the 50s, pretty sure my parents got one in the 70s to enable my mother to actually make dinners... The one we had when I was a kid was a veritable antique, fully analogue controlled with dials.

Ours was the late 80s and still had dials. My mother still couldn't cook with it. My memories are reheating cups of tea and defrosting meat. Really terrible times.:eek:

0lddog

The bad : Vesta Curries Instant whip :mad:

The good : Self caught salmon from the Boyne




( Its was the naughties before a microwave found it way into chez dog )

0lddog

phormium wrote: »

Gosh I loved the Vesta curries but it's true there was always one dry powdery bit that didn't soften!

My mother did not really cook, we had a nanny and she did most of it but on her day off curried mince stew was my mother's special plus butterscotch instant whip which I hated!

The nanny used to give us 'goody' if we were sick, it sounds disgusting stuff but if you are sick it's amazing how nice it tastes.

Ha !

Didnt see your post 'till after mine above

Probably still have some packets of Vesta and instant whip in the top shelf of a press here.

Rows Grower

igCorcaigh wrote: »

Tell us more...

The goody my nan made was a big pot of broth/stew that was never served until it was after a couple of days of slow simmering.

It could be the same nan, she had a lot of children.

0lddog

What was it about Ground Ginger to be used on a slice of honeydew melon as an appetizer ?