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.

I remember a family member bringing back pistachios from their holiday in the 80s too. We'd never had them.

Avo & pomegranates were pretty regular though. With a pin for the pom and "French dressing" from a bottle for the avo

And packet of Beanfeast that sat in a cupboard fir as many years as I can remember, untouched.

Mango

Pesto
Hummous/Pitta bread
Croissants
Mushrooms/peppers
Pasta/bolognese/lasagne
Cheese from abroad - so anything other than double gloucester/cheddar
Tortilla chips
Take out food (it was almost unheard of to have anything other than fish & chips)

my late Mum used to watch a cookery programme in the 60s with Philip Harben who would make international meals with store cupboard staples so we often ate spag bol as a cheap midweek meal from his recipe. Exotic food to me was the expensive/unnecessary stuff you didn't usually have, so a ski yogurt as a treat for helping with shopping or sugar puffs which were more expensive than cornflakes.

Ice Magic

Spam. My DM would cook with tomato sauce, potatoes and peas.

Oh @MeredithGreyishblue I remember our Mongolian BBQ.I always made terrible concoctions but the hope was that next it would be edible.

I've just thought of another, in my 20s ( so around 1995) a coffee bar opened opposite our office. They had written out how to pronounce their exotic drinks so Cap-puh-cinno and Lat-tay so people wouldn't embarrass themselves. Nowadays I only drink americano (basic coffee) but then we were frightfully excited about the foam and milky beverage.

Oh @MeredithGreyishblue I remember our Mongolian BBQ.I always made terrible concoctions but the hope was that next it would be edible.

I've just thought of another, in my 20s ( so around 1995) a coffee bar opened opposite our office. They had written out how to pronounce their exotic drinks so Cap-puh-cinno and Lat-tay so people wouldn't embarrass themselves. Nowadays I only drink americano (basic coffee) but then we were frightfully excited about the foam and milky beverage.

Vienetta.
Wimpy/Mcdonalds.Only had them rarely at birthday parties.I still remember how special it felt to get a cheeseburger wrapped in greaseproof paper.

I remember being about 6 in the 90s and my dad made a lasagna as my grandad was round for Sunday lunch. He said 'that were right nice, not like that foreign muck pasta people have started eating'

I remember my gran, who was born in 1910, being very unsure of this new food pizza. She took a lot of persuading to try it, and loved it.

Salmon, avocado, vienetta

I was used to eating curry my Asian nanny made but my English nanny made her own curry with sultanas in that I loved

Chinese food was the most exotic and Findas french bread pizza was very sophisticated

I’m trying to remember when I first ate hummus I know by 2003 I was buying it regularly and often ate it for breakfast and dinner

My parents were vegetarians and hippies. We lived in a subtropical climate (hinterlands behind Byron Bay). They grew food and swapped it with neighbours. Passionfruit, choko, chilli, pineapple, eggplant (aubergine) and avocado were common staples and lived in boxes lined up in the hall. Greens were Bok Choy or chard (silver beet we called it) as they tolerated the heat. Yoghurt was homemade. We also had macadamia nuts, which we cracked with a hammer, as they are native to the area.

I remember going with my brother to visit an aunt who gave us something made with mince and iceberg lettuce (possibly a taco). It was the most amazing thing we'd ever seen. My brother exclaimed that he never realised food could actually taste good. Poor mum. After all that effort.

I remember when yoghurt was sold as this most amazing new health food.
When kiwis were the big food craze and every Sunday supplement with a recipe had kiwi fruit sliced over the top.
When the ice cream was vanilla or Neapolitan unless you went to a specialist Italian ice cream shop.
When Kale was only used to feed farm animals and was not considered to be human food.
When tuna only came in tins.
When beansprouts were the height of out there hippy food.
When quiche was considered to be only for health fanatics.
When flapjacks were considered a healthy treat.
When all eggs were white.

Avocado

I used to think that Campbell's meatballs were fancy, because my Mother refused to buy them but a friend had them regularly. I was very impressed when I had dinner at her house.

I remember trying olives in primary school when we were studying Ancient Greece. I hated them and still do but I loved the Taramasalata.

Watermelons always seemed like a luxury to me. I was very disappointed when I first tasted one though. I thought that it'd taste really exotic and fruity, not like salad.

I forgot to add that I was born in 1984.

I think we had a fairly typical Scottish diet and we ate out regularly(lots of Indian and Chinese food) but we lived in an area that had a big Italian community and my family were friends with the owners of an Italian deli and Greengrocers that was just round the corner. We regularly shopped there and they'd give us authentic Italian recipes so we got to eat a lot of foods that would have been considered "exotic" back then.

Gosh some of you are so young. The foods that you considered exotic simply weren't around when I was young - Thai food, sushi, Jackfruit, Pesto, Katsu curry, Wagyu.

Salmon and smoked salmon were very expensive, so was Parma ham, Parmesan was that horrible dried stuff that smelled like vomit. I love fresh Parmesan.

I first tried avocado at 19, so this would have been in 1977.

I remember as an adult when Thai restaurants first came to London. I went to one. They wére expensive at the time as they were the next big thing. I had glass noodles, the first time I had ever seen them.

My father had a tin of roasted and salted cashew nuts at Christmas. The bits were huge.

I now eat them throughout the week and they are lovely but not the same in terms of size and taste.

Kiwis, broccoli, lychees, sundried tomatoes.
Italian style coffee.
Posh hot chocolate.

Potato waffles!

Pasta, garlic, homemade lasagne, orzo, kiwi, stove top coffee etc. were all normal boring foods for us as we moved to the UK from Italy.

I was always mega impressed by the potato waffles I had for tea at my friends house though (I was 5).

sweetcorn
was strictly animal feed 'back in my day'
only pickled baby corn was deemed fig for human consumption.

@Camomila I wonder when you moved here? Because in my youth you could not buy kiwis and orzo even in London.

oh and salted pistachio nuts! I remember eating them for the first time as a 9-10 yo, couldn't get enough of them they were so delicious.

Now I can take them or leave them.