Favourite School Dinners From Childhood

[TheShellBeach]

I didn't have school dinners until I was eleven and went to secondary school. Prior to that I went home for lunch (lots of children did in those days).

School dinners were a revelation. I loved them. There was nothing I did not like.

My favourite dinner was mince, cabbage and mash. We didn't eat cabbage at home because my dad didn't like it. I also looked forward to school salad because there was coleslaw, which I had never tasted before.

Some of the puddings were wonderful, too. Jam tart and custard. Yummity Yum.

Gipsy Tart was everyone's favourite, though.

Steak pie and mash/chips

Mmmmm. DH and I still eat this frequently. Scottish butcher's own make. Yummity Yum.

I had school dinners throughout school, from about the age of 5 in the mid sixties till I finished secondary school. I really enjoyed them. They were made on site in the school kitchen and were the kind of meals we’d also have at home. I will admit though to not liking custard due to a hospital stay when young. And then there was the hard boiled egg with a cheese sauce on it. That gave me the willies sensory wise and I couldn’t eat it.

*LlynTegid8

The few I had at home on a couple of weeks when the school kitchen broke down.

Come on, you can own up now. YOU broke the oven, didn't you?!

😃

Northerner here. I remember Manchester tart fondly, but not Gypsy. What's in that?

Evaporated milk, muscovado sugar and pastry.

That all sounds about right. Then we’d go home and chances are my mum would have made something very similar for tea.

I really enjoyed my meals as a child.

My favourite was mince crumble (savoury) and sponge pudding with chocolate custard.

I really enjoyed my meals as a child

So did I. I still do.

Another one for SPAM fritters, chips and beans.

I also like the mince and dumplings, with cabbage and roast spuds. An the meat pies, not the chicken pie, but the rabbit pie was really nice.

At 8, I got an almighty bollocking from a dinner nanny and the cook, who brandished a ladle at me. I'd said, "Oh, this rabbit pie's really nice!" The dinner nanny insisted that it was chicken, so I couldn't help but put her right.

"Oh no, Miss! Rabbit doesn't taste like chicken and chickens don't have all these little foot bones." Quite a few kids were crying and the cook ran out, screaming, IT'S CHICKEN! WE DON'T USE RABBIT!!!

My dad told me that a lot of kids got upset because rabbits are cute, but was laughing, all the same. Yup, we had rabbit pie at home, quite often.

Chicken supreme
the next day was always chicken supreme pie and chips.

I only had school lunch infrequently, we mostly went ‘up town’ and had a hot and buttered from the local bakery which was a big roll slathered with butter that they nuked in the microwave for 10 seconds. Stuffed with salt n vinegar chipsticks it was divine. Or we had a cone of chips from the local chippy. Happy days.

I was vegetarian during the 80s. The cook had never heard of such a thing, so I had mashed potato and spaghetti hoops for a year. Loved it 🙂

Fish and chips with parsley sauce.
Chicken and mushroom pie
Chicken curry
Sausage and tomato pie
Christmas dinner

Swedish apple Charlotte probably my absolute favourite!
Cornflake tart
Chocolate crunch
Butterscotch tart

Non with custard though primary school has put me off the stuff for life!! And the heathens that mixed chocolate pudding and custard together... 🤮🤮

Fish and chips with parsley sauce.

Now you come to mention it, I liked that, too.

Christmas dinner

LOL The reminds me of when DD, who usually took packed lunches, was asked if she wanted a school Christmas dinner on the day they served it.

She said she did, so I sent in the £1 (or whatever it cost) and when DD got home that night, she said:

"I queued up for the Christmas dinner at school and when I'd eaten it, I joined the queue again and got another one. Man, I stuffed myself."

I never did pay the school for DD's second (free) dinner.

Excellent!

Scotch (mutton) pie, chips and beans. But I didn't like the meat in the pie so would take that out and fill it with the beans 😂

Followed by jam/coconut sponge with custard.

@TheShellBeach

That was me that asked if you were from Kent. I started off there then moved to Croydon (not willingly!!) but I am not sure which school I had it at but I do remember on another sight people saying it was from Kent.

Mind you, a friend told me that MOrrisons sells it in some branches (not the same as home made of course!) I have had it from the Ealing Broadway and Sidcup branches!!!

I am probably in the minority but I liked the mash potato that got served up with an ice cream scoop. Artic roll for dessert.

All the girls went wild for the salad bar when that got introduced.

Gipsy Tart.

I had to look Gypsy Tart up, I've never had it. Google says it's a Kent speciality.

Google says it's a Kent speciality That’s spot on, it was the one thing I liked in school dinners.

I enjoyed it that much that during the summer when I would have a packed lunch. I'd always have a school dinner on a Tuesday just for that.

🤣🤣

I hated primary school dinners, they were horrible, meagre portions. I liked the cake with the icing and sprinkles on known as "school cake", though. Favourite secondary school lunch was curry, rice and chips or tuna jacket potato.

MayISuggestSomeThickCutSteakChipsToGoWithThat

I enjoyed it that much that during the summer when I would have a packed lunch. I'd always have a school dinner on a Tuesday just for that.

My mam used to buy a Findus one, if I remember. Boil in the bag cod, or haddock, with parsley sauce. Chips not provided, but we had a chip pan.