Food from the 70s

10p pushed into your hand on the way out with a strict instruction not to tell your parents.

The giving of “spends” – was always accompanied by the dreaded nana kiss. Full vacuum that displaced blood volume and a hibiscus red mark on the cheek. Loved my nana though. When we stayed over at a weekend, she used to make me a shandy – worthington E and a splash of lemonade.

Soup and pudding was the worst dinner ever, I hated soup and pudding days.

Don’t know if this was common or not but we had 1970s soup-meals designed around a volcano built from mashed potatoes! They were amazing. Oxtail soup poured into a mash volcano.

Then a Heinz pud for pudding. Horses for courses.

Then, at the end of the decade and with the advent of Smash (instant mash) our ‘soup volcano‘ treat literally dissolved before our eyes. Why, mom? Why? Smash wasn’t cheaper than potatoes. It was just crappier and easier.

Proper mash holds up, even covered in soup. Even better if lumpy. It combines the awesome tastes of good solid potato mash with the taste of the (still mostly liquid) soup. Like a meal!

Instant mash does not hold up. It dissolves quickly, making the soup thicker yet somehow more tasteless.

It was with this disappointment that I first began to suspect much of ‘progress’.

As the 80s were gearing up to deliver such robotic blandness, luck saw a curry-craze on the horizon. Mr Daves? Yo Min Li? Some of you will know 😉

I remember one day a week soup and pudding, the pudding was fine but the soup heavy on the carrot,neep,tauties put me off soup for a while
I was one of 7 in the household , anyone who stole a chip off another’s plate would risk getting stabbed on the back of the hand with the 4 pronged fork
No need for food banks back then

Tinned ravioli was one I always liked – but I made the mistake of buying a can a few years back when my kids were small, let them try one of my childhood favourites… god it was awful! Some things are best left in the past.

As the 80s were gearing up to deliver such robotic blandness, luck saw a curry-craze on the horizon. Mr Daves? Yo Min Li? Some of you will know

Let’s not forget Ken Hom, Floyd and the rest that were soon to drag British cooking out of the post-war doldrums. The sad thing of course is that the rest of Europe (and quite possibly the world) still has that over-boiled veg and dry meat view of British cooking 🙁

I liked the lolly stick jokes – helped to soothe the disappointment of reaching the end of the lolly!

But then you could hunt around the street (littering wasn’t an issue in the 70s, obviously!) and make a home-made frisbee/boomerang thing out of lolly sticks.

Most of this stuff you can still get, however ‘Chinese leaf’ has just taken me back 35 years! Can you still get them? Are they known as something else? I loved them

Don’t know if this was common or not but we had 1970s soup-meals designed around a volcano built from mashed potatoes! They were amazing. Oxtail soup poured into a mash volcano.

Chips in soup was a thing when I was a kid. I still do it occasionally today, I’ve no idea if it was common anywhere else or just something my family had concocted.

soup-meals designed around a volcano built from mashed potatoes

WHAT?!? … runs off to peel some potatoes 😃

Has someone locked binners away? Thread about dodgy food and he’s nowhere to be seen..?

Makes you think…

It’s possible that one may have overstepped the mark a tad when lefty-baiting on one of the politics threads, resulting in a week-long visit from the banhammer 😀

Anyway… 70’s food. I remember these things – Goblin steamed puddings – at my grans house, with chips and gravy. I’ve never seen them since but it would appear that they are still a thing. Do I try them again this evening and risk divorce? Or leave consigned to the past?

My memories of the Late 70’s / Early 80’s
Birds Trifle
Greens Creme Caramel
Spam Fritters
Cheap Co-op Jelly – even better if you nicked a concentrated packet from the cupboard and ate it, especially black cherry!
Vesta Chow Mien with Crispy Noodles
Fletchers Sliced White Bread from a Van that came to my Grandma’s house in Sheffield.
Ben Shaws Golden Lemonade (At Grandmas)
Ben Shaws Dandelion and Burdock (Ditto)
Jones Cherryade (Nottingham my home town)
Piccalilli
Silverskin Pickled Onions – and the spring loaded fork to try and spear them.
Cheese and Pineapple Hedgehogs at Kids Parties
Batenburg Cake
Celery in a Jug with salt
Yorkshire Platter plate – Sliced Egg / Beetroot / Longley Farm Cottage Cheese (Thankfully I can still get this!)
Super Sour and Fireball Gobstoppers (Always a school favourite, and you got done if you were caught with the chewing gum afterwards)
Sherbet Dib-Dab
Fizz Bombs
Whimpy (Pork Bender) Burgers (Posh Fast Food with cutlery!)
Ordering a McDonalds Banana Milkshake in 1981 on a day trip to London and my mum sending it back as it was full of ice cream and it will be bad for his stomach!

Anyone else remember the spring loaded lamp that pulled down from the ceiling, to illuminate your food from 30cm height? And Serving Hatches to pass the food from the kitchen!

@Malvern Rider – minor hijack of thread here, sorry

Mr Daves? Yo Min Li? Some of you will know 😉

I know the Mr Dave’s in Dawley closed (although it’s still a curry house); did the one in Lye go too? I’ve not had reason to go down that way since our office in Halesowen was closed.

Whimpy (Pork Bender)

i loved that wimpy served their burgers in brown rolls. A lot of branches served their fast food with proper plates and cutlery too.

EDIT: I thought Wimpy had disappeared from the UK (their HQ is now in South Africa) but I’ve just found out theres a branch inside a bowling alley near me in Kilmarnock. Weird

There’s also a Wimpy in the bowling alley at M&D’s in Stratchclyde Park.

Wimpy branch in Ruislip too. They were closed when I was there so I had to go to the Nepalese curry house instead.

Chips in soup was a thing when I was a kid. I still do it occasionally today,

I love chips in soup.

Anyone else remember the spring loaded lamp that pulled down from the ceiling, to illuminate your food from 30cm height? And Serving Hatches to pass the food from the kitchen!

Mrs Funks Gran still has both of these.