What ‘everyday’ food was considered exotic when you were young?

[Splodgerbodgerbadger]

I remember the first time we had lasagne, it was a ready made one from M&S. It was considered very new and different by us. It must have been late 80’s early 90’s. We all loved it and had it every Saturday. Mum used to buy it, but then started making her own. It’s still one of my favourite dinners.

We never had curries or pasta growing up, it was generally things like mince beef, my Mum used to make that every Tuesday in gravy and we had veg and mash potatoes in the winter and new potatoes in the summer. I loved that too. Although the downside was we had tapioca for pudding as my Mum cooked it at the same time as the mince. I hated ‘frogspawn’, my Dad wasn’t keen either, but my sisters and Mum loved it.

Pesto. My big sister had been for a meal in a nearby city and had pasta with pesto, so we had it frequently after that. Must have been about 1995.

Avocado, aubergine, courgette, so many! I didn’t eat melon until I was an adult on holiday.

My grandparents used to bring a big lasagna on Christmas Eve; Grandad would make it. This would be in the late 70s/early 80s. They travelled a lot and he loved to try out things that they’d eaten on the continent.

My favourite was when my Grandma hollowed out an orange and filled it with homemade orange sorbet!

Pak choi.
All the posh "lettuce" you can now get.
Anything Mexican. As a child of the 80s (Spam, meat paste and overbooked veggies) having a Mexican at 20 was a revelation.
Pesto.
I didn't have curry until I was 10.
Garlic.
I started to "taste the world" when I moved to London. Even a kebab was life-changing. I lived in a small village and had a bland diet.

Kiwi. I remember asking my grandad for one as we walked through a market one day. In the 80’s. I ate almost the whole thing. He hadnt tried one before either.

Courgettes thing is weird because it’s so easy to grow them here!

Broccoli. Didn’t see any until I was in my late teens. Ditto green peppers, spag bol, any Indian or Chinese food, garlic, pizza, yogurt, cottage cheese, olives, any tropical fruit (apart from tinned pineapple), coffee that wasn’t instant.
I was born in the 1950s, to a mother who was born in 1916 and was v unadventurous with her cooking.

And a salad was literally some round leaf lettuce, sliced tomato and cucumber; with no dressing!

Grew up in the 1970s in Ireland. There was very little exotic food to be had. Looking back, we had really good, locally grown/raised, seasonal vegetables and meat with bread from a local bakery. Everything was homemade including cakes and desserts - unless dessert was strawberries and icecream. I had potatoes every day for dinner until I left home. It was great food but nothing from another culture every graced our table for dinner. Nearly everyone I knew ate like this at the time. I went to Germany in my teens to learn the language and I learned so much about cooking from the woman who hosted me. She taught me to make a vinagrette, various casseroles etc.

I can remember eating pesto for the first time - what an explosion of taste.

In the late 70s/early 80s

Kiwi fruit. My mum bought some which were then known as "Chinese gooseberries".

Little pots of fromage frais, Petit Filou-type. Brought home by mum with great fanfare as they were new, and a bit like like yoghurt, but different. She used to put one in our school packed lunches.

Curry, mum made this herself but would serve it with a little dish of sliced banana and another dish of diced cucumber. Have never had curry served with banana anywhere else

Vienetta. So exotic when it first came out. Took over from Arctic Roll as a special pudding.

Ice Magic chocolate sauce for ice cream which set hard when you poured it on the ice cream. I was genuinely excited to see this

Pasta. We ate potatoes everyday. Sometimes twice a day. We could grow potatoes in the back garden. We couldn’t grow pasta- so pasta was a treat!

Pomegranates, my mums used to make me pick the bits out with a pin! Probably to keep me quiet for as long as possible lol.

Where has Ice Magic disappeared to? I used to love it.

Still struggling to understand why yogurt was considered exotic. It has been around for donkey's years.

I didn't like pesto the first time I tried it, now it is a store cupboard staple.

Where has Ice Magic disappeared to? yes I used to love this, DH thinks I mean chocolate sauce but it was so much better than that!

Grapes. They were a real luxury even though I grew up in a major wine producing country.

Pomegranate eaten with a pin. The height of sophistication!

The only takeaway food we ever had was fish and chips. I remember when I left home at 21 and moved to a big City seeing all these different types of food! Never heard of most of them.

I remember trying hummus for the first time at my sisters house, I love it.

@spellingtest

Pomegranate eaten with a pin. The height of sophistication!

I remember my friend at school doing this! I didn’t have a clue what it was.

Mangoes, I remember asking for one for my birthday as they were expensive.
Steak , it beat lambs heart stew everyday.
Dulce de leche involved boiling condensed milk in a tin for 4 hours!
Peeled prawns and shrimps.
French stick.

Avocado

Coffee other than instant

Chinese fooď (had my first Chinese meal at a Chinese restaurant for my 11th birthday)
Chocolate biscuits - we ceremonially opened a tin on Christmas day and Easter Sunday.

Mayonnaise (rather than salad cream).

Pretty much everything I eat now would be exotic to me as a child / teenager!! My mum was a very good cook but our food was very basic and Chinese takeaway was the only "exotic" food we ate. I remember working in a restaurant and smelling garlic for the first time and asking someone what that weird smell was!

@Coffeesnob11

Mangoes, I remember asking for one for my birthday as they were expensive. Steak , it beat lambs heart stew everyday. Dulce de leche involved boiling condensed milk in a tin for 4 hours! Peeled prawns and shrimps. French stick.

Yes steak was a big treat we usually had it on our birthdays for dinner.

I remember staying over at a friend’s house when I was about 5 or 6 and thinking she was really weird because they ate couscous and I’d never heard of it before. I didn’t try avocado until I was an adult, lots of foods like that tbh like mince pies and hummus. Our diet was mostly freezer foods and beans.

@dottyaboutstripes

Yogurt!

what was exotic about yogurt?

Avocado
Jackfruit
Pesto
Katsu curry
Saffron
Wagyu