Little Chef - what was Ice Diamond?

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

dh and I don't remember and google is not helping! What on earth was Ice Diamond?

I think it’s probably mandarins in jelly set in a diamond shape mold

We used to stop at the Little Chef when going with friends (who had a car) to Brighton the playground was brilliant

Weirdly today my parents have my daughter a drink in a plastic cup from a happy eater!

As an aside this has sent me down a happy nostalgia hole. So thanks BadKittens even if I didn't answer the question!

@Newnormal99

Weirdly today my parents have my daughter a drink in a plastic cup from a happy eater!

Ooh I had one of those! This thread is a happy place.

Miss cheap happy eater places.

One for the 'portions are enormous nowadays' crew - you wouldn't see fruit juice presented as a starter nowadays.

I love things from around 'Decimilisation Day' that have dual pricing. That menu is probably from just before as the 'old money' is first - after Decimal Day (15.2.71) the order was changed to show the decimal prices first.

We were talking about decimalisation, I'm a bit young for it. How did they do the actual swap over? Did everyone swap on D Day?

I'm struggling to work out how mandarins would be served with jelly sweets But maybe it was set in jelly.

I do remember soup or juice, or if very posh a melon boat for a starter.

Don’t have nightmares

Love the please drive carefully, we value your custom (please don't die in a crash, we want you to come again).
Aww, miss Little Chef.
Don't they even exist at motorway services now? Roadchef, I think they were called.

The little chef would gladly swap your empty plate for a lollipop..
Very fond of little chef, all my dad’s driving instructions used to involve turn left after the little chef!
Quite fancy a jubilee pancake again.

There is a more modern menu, plus some Little Chef photos, in this article:

www.edp24.co.uk/lifestyle/heritage/little-chef-norfolk-old-photos-olympic-breakfast-8897344

Not sure how well it shows up but if you scroll down past the adverts, there’s a gallery of 13 photos.

i loved the gooseberry pancakes we made....we made up the batter in big buckets!

Ooh Little Chef always a stop for an early starter breakfast.

Then a stop on the way home for pancakes with red cherry pie filling and ice cream

Could Ice Diamond have been sorbet?

Apparently it was a brand of lemon ice cream according to this Twitter post asking the same question.

Well found Cookie! That would fit in with the rest of the desserts, if a little odd!

Nice that they didn't want you to die Papergirl.

I loved the photos Misteee.

Elena, that second video was horrifying!

The lollipops had a horrid paper stick. But it was a good incentive to eat up.

Did everyone swap on D Day?

Also before my time, I'm just fascinated by it. My DH is old enough to remember it. Apparently, banks had to close part way through the preceding week to convert everything. Some of the coins were already in circulation, serving as their pre-decimal equivalents - e.g. 50p as a 10-shilling coin. Everything then switched on 15.02.71 - shops etc. gathered in the old coinage and only issued the new coins. Extensive publicity beforehand helped people convert the values - 'double it and put a line through it' gave a rough new-to-old value. The changeover went quite smoothly by all accounts.

'and put a line through it'

What does this mean?

Loved the maple syrup pancakes. And I was also so chuffed to get a lolly at the end of the meal. I remember they had sherbert in them.

The early travelodges were always linked to either a little chef or happy eater too.

A little social history anecdote:

We were never allowed to go to Little Chef because my DM was in CND and often went to Greenham Common: some women on the way to Greenham (circa 1982) were banned from the Newbury Little Chef. We never ever went after that ! 😯

Now then.
Iced Diamond was a lemonade sorbet which was essentially a really disappointing ice cream that turned to sticky water and ran up your arm if you didn't eat it quickly enough. You could buy it at 'the frozen food shop' as most people didn't have a freezer and supermarkets didn't cater for frozen foods. It was a family trip out to the freezer shop.
Ice diamond was a preformed swirl of diamond (a fake cream similar to dream topping which came later) which was frozen in the swirl shape and available in chain cafes which served desserts with custard or (fake) cream, like Little Chef and Wimpy.
At least that is my childhood recollection. I have no evidence and can find nothing on google.

@LetHimHaveIt

'and put a line through it'

What does this mean?

Shillings and old pence values were written with a line through them (as in the first column on the menu pictured - soup of the day 1/6 = 1 shilling and sixpence)

So for example - 'new' value is 5p.

Double it - 5 x 2 is 10

Put a line through it - 1/0

Gives you 1 shilling (1/0) which was the old money equivalent of 5p.

Ah! I thought it was something along those lines, although you'll understand 'double it and put a line though it' does rather suggest a method for convert the old money to the new, rather than a way of working out what it would have been before.