Childhood Foods

Based on this article , what foods are your old favourites or give you serious nostalgia?

Mine are probably:

1. Sosmix (because we were mostly veggie at home when I was a kid). Mum used to roll it into veggie sausages and make toad in the hole;

2. School lunches served these things called TomToms which were breadcrumbed sausage balls with a ketchup centre. Bearing in mind no.1 above these things blew my mind as there was no way my mum would buy anything like this to have at home!

Trying to think of more but we didn’t have cool food at home. My mum used to rehydrate/cook dried fruit salad packs from the health food shop and we’d have that with custard…hmm

Roast lamb, mash, gravy. All turned into a brown sludge. With ketchup dotted on top. Don't @ me.

Luxury

Feast Ice Cream.

Angel Delight

Cracottes and butter for packed lunch. Needed a lunchbox the size of Norway to pack sufficient in to convince my mother i was getting sufficient nutrition.

Cob and crisps. Half a crusty cob loaf and a packet of crisps (usually walkers roast beef). Hollow out the soft bread, stuff with crisps and eat. You could get that and a can of coke for the same price as a school lunch. It was far, far nicer. Inspired my love of double carbs that is my downfall to this day.

Sausage dinners. Roast dinner with beef or chicken gravy (frozen after the Sunday roast) with a couple of big butchers banger sausages as the meat. Frigging awesome.

Findus crispy pancakes (on the days my mum's mate who acted as child minder was in charge of tea). So disgusting, so good.

Frozen lasagne with chips and peas (see above re double carbs).

Sausage in batter and chips from the chippy. At some point in secondary school we started to be allowed to leave the grounds to go to the chippy. On a cold day this was absolute heaven. Still go get this in London sometimes if I am feeling sorry for myself and eat it in the park.

rasberry pavlova

Instant whip

choc ices

soda-stream

rollmops

pancake day

mini mars bars

Jesus, Findus Crispy Pancakes! I'd forgotten about those.

Two for me: Sunny Spread, which I didn't realise for years is imitation honey.

Then breakfast in our house: (hang on to your stomachs!)

Two or three Shredded Wheats in a bowl. Pour boiling water on them. Let them soak for a minute, strain the water out. Add a blob of butter and some sugar. Mash them all together. Eat.

I've never heard of anyone else who - um - cooked Shredded Wheats like this. I asked my mum where it came from and she told me my dad had taught her how to do it and he said his mum used to do it, but he had no idea where it came from.

Oh, and my mum used to do a killer pineapple upside-down cake.

School pizza which was inch thick dough covered in tinned tomatoes, slices of spam and cheddar. Not remotely Italian but lush on a cold winter day.

1) Spaghetti bolognese; still one of my favourites.

2) M&S Yum Yums - my mother used to buy them as a post school treat.

3) Toffee Crisps - for the same reason as the Yum yums. I had a toffee crisp recently and it was in no way the same.

Benj should be in sheltered accommodation or witness protection. one of them.

Crumpets covered in melted cheddar.

Have been absolutely smashing Ambrosia Devon custard recently that I've bought for the kids. God it's good

Mother's approximation of lasagna that was 80% cheesy bechamel and had no structural integrity, served with tesco garlic bread. Oddly compelling.

Also...the tesco lasagna sandwich.

Corned beef & ketchup in fresh white barms.

Mr Freeze.

Chips, cheese & gravy.

Talking about this the other day at work as I said I was going to make "mince" that evening. Its a v 70's thing. Mince, onions, carrots, cauli and potatoes stewed together and I like to add gravy granules to thicken it a bit and add taste. Its my comfort food.

Others were super noodles,

ice magic

Texan bars

My school also did chocolate shortbread with chocolate custard which was lush.

Those potato smiley faces.

crumpets with melted butter and sugar.

white chocolate mouse that cost a penny.

Primary school used to do this butterscotch/fudge tart thing that remains to this day the best thing I ever tasted.

Jesus, Findus Crispy Pancakes! I'd forgotten about those.

Best left as a rose-tinted memory. I tried the modern version of these on the kids recently and was met with horror. They 'aint what they used to be. Same for Birds Eye Potato Waffles: no longer waffly versatile.

And as for Jamaican Ginger Cake, which used to be my pudding of choice, it's now a sorry version of a classic.

My retro dinner attempt was, on balance, an utter failure.

Used to love Jamaican Ginger cake, and the golden syrup one as well.

'Corned beef & ketchup in fresh white barms.

Chips, cheese & gravy.'

I would have that on my birthday and consider it a massive treat. My kids would look on in horror.

A whole lot of boikmax on this thread.

puts me in mind of being served liver and onions as a child (my old man loved it). fooking gopping

My mother grew up in WW2, then rationing, so childhood memories involved liver, tripe (which my brother and I refused to eat) and Angel Delight (barf). She couldn't see anything wrong with it.

We got my Dad to send her on a cookery course, though it didn't get much better. Gawd bless her.

Watermelon with bread

Black caviar (eaten out of a glass jar with a table spoon or on bread with butter)

Pancakes with sour cream

Had Viennetta recently for the first time in years. It was just as good as ever.

Viennetta is a good shout. They're cheap as chips too. The After Eight one is, err, mint.

- Vesta Curry

- Vienetta ice cream

- sandwich spread (yuk)

- Heinz london grill (tin of baked beans with a sausage, bit of bacon and a bit of kidney

- vol au vents filled with chicken in white sauce from a tin

- Pink custard at School

Corned beef stew with brown sauce for me, Clive

Mint Cornetto always reminds me of my granny.

is Madonna your nan?

On particularly cold and wintry days, my mum would make us pancakes, these would be consumed with melted butter, lemon juice and sugar.

She made excellent pancakes.

"Two or three Shredded Wheats in a bowl. Pour boiling water on them. Let them soak for a minute, strain the water out. Add a blob of butter and some sugar. Mash them all together. Eat."

I can't... What is... How did this... You have rendered me speechless. I have re-read that 5 or 6 times now, and still, it make no sense. How are you all even still alive?!

“We got my Dad to send her on a cookery course,”

Heh. The most sexist line ever written?

I would put mince in the same category as plain boiled potato- almost wilfully bland dull food from my childhood- how much effort to mash the potato put it on top of mince chuck in oven to crisp and make the same ingredients edible?