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.

Food was still on ration when I was a child, absolutely nothing was exotic.

The mid 90s - we could definitely buy kiwis then, though I'm not sure if the orzo was bought in England or one the things DM asked visiting relatives to bring over.

@Camomila you are a lot younger than me! Yes the 90s is when kiwis became the in food. Very easy to buy.
When I was a child pizza was an exotic new food.

@Splodgerbodgerbadger I remember the m and s lasagne late 80's!! Just after my dad died in 1989 mum and I would go to m and s and buy a lasagne as a Saturday night treat to watch in front of blind date I remember it like it was yesterday. We used to also get a bag of make your own coleslaw too, you had to add the separate sachet of mayonnaise to it.

Beanfeast bolognese
Pasta / spaghetti
Pizza
Garlic
Exotic fruit - by that I mean kiwi
Prawn cocktail
Drinkable yogurt (boyfriend bought one when I was about 15, had never seen before)
Mayonnaise
Ice Magic (someone else mentioned)
Toby Inn carvery
Irish Coffee in said carvery as a child…
MvDonalds when it arrived, before that Wimpy and Little Chef
Chopped tinned tomatoes, had only seen plum
Cooking with wine

We definitely were not poor. But the list reads like it! We were definitely brought up as a meat and 2 veg family.

When we first had courgettes, in the late 1950s, bought by Dad in Soho, they were so exotic that we ate them as a separate course.

They were briefly par boiled, cooled, cut in half lengthways, then dipped in beaten egg and breadcrumbs, and shallow fried.

We ate them as a starter with mayonnaise. They were very seasonal at the time, a taste of early summer Italian sunshine.

[quote RoyalFamilyFan]@Camomila you are a lot younger than me! Yes the 90s is when kiwis became the in food. Very easy to buy.
When I was a child pizza was an exotic new food.[/quote]
I remember wrestling with one and an older friend showing me how to eat like a boiled egg with a spoon! I'd forgotten all about that!

@lollipoprainbow we used to watch Blind Date too. We loved Gladiators too, though usually missed the end as the lasagne was ready!

This thread has reminded me of the first time I tried Ski hazelnut yoghurt, if I ever get my hands on a time machine I'm going to go back and buy some.

I remember a friend moving to Wales and when I phoned to arrange a visit they begged me to bring garlic as they couldn't buy it anywhere.

Pizza.
Pasta that's not from a tin.
Mayonnaise.
Salmon that's not from a tin.
Olive oil.
Prawn cocktail.

This thread has reminded me of the first time I tried Ski hazelnut yoghurt, if I ever get my hands on a time machine I'm going to go back and buy some.

Oh me too!

@halloweenie13

Avocado Jackfruit Pesto Katsu curry Saffron Wagyu

None of those were available during my childhood! I think I first ate avocado in my late teens (late 1970s). I first heard of Jackfruit about 5 years ago and ate it for the first time in 2021. I think I first ate pesto in my 40s (or it might have been 50s). I don't think I've ever had katsu curry. Not sure what differentiates it from other curries. I've known that saffron exists for about the past 50 years, but I've only very rarely used it. I've no idea what Wagyu is! I'll have to Google it.

Pineapples. They just look other worldly to me. Still do

Lychees tried in a Chinese restaurant loved them

Oh, I had forgotten lychees. Never tasted anything like them, or eaten anything with that texture.

Real butter was a cause for great excitement, as I'm our house we just had Flora which I hate now. I couldn't believe how lovely actual butter was. It was considered pricey in the 80's, though we were always hearing about the EC 'butter mountain'?!
My brother was crazy about vienetta, but it was crap really wasn't it.
At my nans I used to get that chocolate sauce which went hard when you put it on ice-cream, that was fancy!!

Vesta curry. It was in a box and dried. You had to add water to it. Was absolute lovely and you thought you were so posh eating it. Had one a couple of years ago and it was disgusting lol.

I would be interested what years people are talking about when these foods were considered exotic.

I think we must be of a similar age @80sMum

And olive oil. You could only get it in small bottles from the chemist and it was used for earache!

@emmylousingsVienetta was considered posh for a bit because before that you could only get vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream and 99's. Being able to buy a dessert that included ice cream and chocolate combined was a real novelty.

@emmylousings the butter mountain reminds me that we got free butter and mild cheddar handed out in the mid 80s. Was pretty deprived rural area. The cheese was amazing. Great melter.

Even in the late 1960s early 1970s you couldn't buy olive oil in the supermarket, only tiny bottles from the chemist for medicinal purposes!
It must have been joining the Common Market that suddenly made olive oil available. I had a collection of Elizabeth David cookery books, and she used gallons of olive oil, so her recipes really only came into their full potential of flavour once olive oil was available.

One of my childhood pals was from a well off family. Everytime I’d stop over on a Saturday (about once a month) we would all ‘go out to dinner’ to a posh Chinese restaurant in town.

The food was incredible. I was a 10/11 year old, who was used to eating (also lovely but not as exciting) meat, potato and vegetable dishes, so finding myself sat in a fancy place eating lobster, crispy shredded beef wrapped in lettuce, duck in pancakes, bbq ribs, sesame prawn toast dipped in sweet and sour sauce etc my mouth would be watering as soon as we walked in. I’d never eaten those types of food or flavourings, it was like a taste explosion. I can still remember what the dishes tasted and smelled like even now.

I also remember my dad started making curries with sweet chutney and it was the best ever. I used to love curry night!
I remember when my mum used to get red grapes and they were a real treat. I used to pinch them from the fridge!

My mum was quite an adventurous cook so we had spag bol, lasagne etc through the 70s, as well as Chinese (if we ate out it was either Berni Inns or Chinese).
Orange juice was for special occasions - mainly Christmas & often came in a glass bottle, or frozen & concentrated.
Ski yoghurts (mandarin was my fvourite) were exciting n the late 60s.
I remember my first pizza - my mum ordered some from a local bakery for my birthday party when I was about 12 (it was a big square thing). After that I ate a lot of frozen french bread pizza.
Tzatsiki I dicoevered in about 1982/3 in Greece. Initially I couldn't understand why you would have yoghurt with garlic & cucumber in it as I thought of yoghurt as a dessert, but soon doscovered it was delicious. I'm guessing I must have had houmous for the first time then too.