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.

Chicken. It was a treat to have it for Sunday dinner, and we'd then have chicken stew on Monday night made from the scraps and carcass.

And we only had Viennetta at Christmas.

Peppers.
Garlic.
Never had a Chinese till I was a teenager and out with friends.
Did always have curry though, homemade not takeaway.

Sorbet inside an orange!

Oh and hummus - my friend had hummus sandwiches once and I was like WTAF IS THAT.

Love it now!

Oreos

Just about everything I eat regularly now.

Avocados
Prawns (I remember my dad complaining about buying me a prawn sandwich as it cost a whole £1)
Smoked salmon (any salmon that was not in a tin)
Fresh raw veg (everything was cooked to death apart from a limp salad on a Saturday)
Indian takeaway - we had Vesta curry
Chinese takeaway - we had Vesta Chow Mein
Garlic bread
Proper pizza
Chickpeas and other pulses apart from red lentils
Olive oil other than to buy it from the chemists to use in your ear
Pasta
Any bread other than Mighty White
Any cheese other than cheddar
Proper butter - we had Flora
Filter coffee - we had Nescafe instant or Mellow Birds
Black peppercorns - we only had ground white pepper
Sea salt crystals - there was only table salt
Fresh fruit (salad) - we had tinned fruit
Fresh cream - we had evaporated milk
Home made cake - we had Mr Kiplings

And this was only in the 80s/90s- due to my dad only liking plain food.

There was no hope for him, I once made him fresh cod in parsley sauce from scratch and he said he preferred the boil in the bag version.

Olive oil :)
I needed some to try out a recipe and couldn't find any in our local co-op. It turned out to be in the baby section - with talc and soap.

Didn't have garlic bread or proper pizza until I was 11, no takeaways other than fish and chips until I was a teenager, loads of other things I didn't try until I was an adult. I was always a foodie though, just trapped in convenience food hell. I only escaped by eating out, eating at friend's houses, learning to cook at school and experimenting at home, working in a restaurant part time and learning to cook and trying loads of food there. Obviously I relished every opportunity to taste something different. I remember things like having houmous and warm pitta for the first time when I was 14 and finding it absolute manna from heaven.

Mango. I remember in around 2002 working in a shop where we had to make fruit salads to put on the counter. I was working with a lady in her 60s and I was a teenager. Neither of us knew how to cut it up properly and it seemed very exotic!

My friend had Orangina ( shake the bottle wake the taste) in her packed lunch at sixth form which I thought was very exotic. Probably about 1988/89.

Garlic
Olive oil - you could only easily buy it in Boots! as it was only used for medicinal purposes
Curry - we used to buy Vesta
Spaghetti that wasn’t in a tin
Kiwis
Avocados

I am quite old🤣

In the early 1960s my Aunt showed me how to make real mayonnaise. She used half olive oil and half arachide oil with a dash of white wine vinegar. I was amazed by the way the egg and oil formed a liaison.
We ate salad cream at home.

I can't remember when I first had lasagne

I can remember my mum cooking spaghetti bolognese once - Using left over meat from the Sunday joint which she put through the mincer then heated with tinned tomatoes and dried mixed herbs . It wasn't nice! This would have been late 1970s.

Things I considered exotic were pot noodles and pancake rolls from the Chinese when introduced to them by friends in 6th form . Also vesta meals.

I considered chicken Kiev and chicken cordon bleu to be very exotic when I first had them in a Berni inn sometime in the early 1980s

Yoghurt. We were allowed to choose ONE yoghurt every week when we did the supermarket shop. It was the high point of the week. Mine was always a Mr Men yoghurt - Black Cherry. I remember impulsively choosing “chocolate” flavour one week despite my Mum warning me I wouldn’t like it. She was right and I was absolutely gutted because it would be a whole week before we could get another

Thinking of pizza - I can remember mum making something she called pizza toasts - she would top toast with heated tinned tomato, tinned sardines, a sprinkle of dried herbs and some cheese then pop under the grill - we often had this for Saturday tea. (Late 70s)

Parmesan

yes parmesan!

Pizza toast sounds nice

Nutella and orangina

Massive high point if any trip to France. We drive miles actual Europe with far more children in the car than anyone would now, stayed in very cheap/basis accommodation rented from a family friend who married a Swiss man. It was miles from anywhere, no tv, nearest pool about 10 miles away. I’m not sure there was even electric lighting. But a trip to the hypermarket and a bootful of Nutella and Orangina to come home with kept us happy. 1970s/80s.

We lived in the Netherlands for a while too, and used to have sugar strands on bread and butter for breakfast. “Hagel” I’d still exciting to me now! I had to behave myself at breakfast time when I went to a conference in Holland a few years ago.

I think yogurt was quite unusual in the 1970s as it probably seemed expensive buying individual pots whereas instant whip was just one packet and some milk and you had desert for 4 people .

I'll be showing my age but simple things like olive oil could only be bought in tiny bottles from Boots.

That's because it was only used warmed up for earache! Never cooked with it!

I remember Ski Yoghurt (1970s) and it was so sharp compared to the sweet stuff today. My mind can actually remember the sharp taste. My mum went to evening classes and cooked some very exotic things, I have her recipe book from 1972 and there was avocado in it, frangipan flan (like bakewell tart) and prawn cocktail.

I don't remember yoghurt being unusual in the 70s. We used to make our own because it was cheaper. No fancy kit - you cooled the milk until you could keep you little finger in for ten seconds. 😂

@RampantIvy

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

@Rampantivy I'm 64.

I had a friend at school who had moved to my -backwater- home town from Texas when we were about 9. I thought they were all so sophisticated… I was in awe!! I first tasted both lasagne and kiwi fruit at their home. They made TexMex food like - gasp - tacos and guacamole!!! Her family also gave me couscous for the first time. I looked at it and thought couscous must be caviar - I’d seen caviar on Dynasty and knew that it was fish eggs and, to me, couscous looked like tiny fish eggs. They laughed so hard at me and I was so ashamed.

My mum always went to evening classes too, so we had things like goulash, and all sorts of "exotic" things!

'Spicy' food (not allowed at home, first eaten in restaurants in my late teens, thrilling). First ate sushi around the same time, didn't really understand or appreciate it but was excited to try it.

Natural yoghurt.

Real maple syrup.

My mother says the first time she was served pizza (around 1950) at her friend's birthday party it was described as tomato pie. She'd only ever eaten sweet fruit pies and couldn't see a tomato in that context so she didn't have any.